And the crusade continues.
The Blacklist Season 10 Episode 11 appeared like it would make some headway in resolving the show’s biggest conflict but didn’t make substantial strides towards that.
After appearing to champion the campaign against Raymond and the Task Force, Panabaker ultimately decided to let sleeping dogs lie.
We might never know whether that was because she felt like she owed Raymond something or because she was afraid of him, but that’s irrelevant now.
Spoilers for The Blacklist Season 10 Episode 12 tease a Dembe-centric episode as someone from his past calls him, and he reflects on his past.
Dembe was never really the show’s focus, and that much was clear.
But after the death or departure of multiple main characters, he became the next interesting thing, and the writers found a way to keep him around even when he wasn’t associated with Red.
Not much is known about his history apart from why he is so devoted to Raymond.
Raymond had saved him somewhere in the shanties of an inner-city settlement in an African country. He had saved Dembe from poverty and sexual slavery, and for that, he had earned Dembe’s loyalty and trust.
The only other thing is that he has a daughter and a granddaughter.
Throughout his years with Raymond in their never-ending adventures, he must have made friends and acquittances.
This episode will seek to explore some of his past actions. It is triggered by a call from someone from his past, but it is unclear who that acquittance is.
In the episode’s promo images, he can be seen conversing severally with a woman whose name is the only thing known — Aissa Joachim.
The Blacklist tends to use filler episodes by introducing irrelevant stories. While it will be interesting to see what about Dembe’s past is worth visiting, we can only hope it’s not pointless and actually has something to do with the general direction of the season’s story.
We saw Raymond outsmart Dembe and Ressler, and Dembe confirmed that he had no idea what Raymond was up to these days, so maybe this will offer some insight into what their past together was like and how that might bleed into the present.
It was disappointing when Panabaker decided not to go to the attorney general with her concerns about the Taskforce and their workings with Red.
I actually had expected her to be the one to take Raymond down where Wujing and many others had failed.
Raymond loves helping people fix their problems, but he loves keeping evidence of that help because it works great as blackmail material.
Unfortunately, Panabaker sought this help, and Raymond was gracious enough to remind her. How nice of him, uh?
If someone is going to go after the task force and be a compelling adversary, they need to have other motivation apart from vengeance or bitterness. They need to be squeaky clean as far as their relationship with Raymond is concerned.
One way to win votes is by appealing to voters by making promises you intend to keep or not. The other way is to expose your opponents as corrupt or ineffective, so voters see you as the better option.
The other way is by being a genuinely decent person, but those are hard to come across.
While not many people know about the Raymond Reddington Task Force, word goes around in corridors of power, and as it would stand, another politician knows something about the Task Force.
Whether out of an ambition to replace Panabaker as a senator or genuine pursuit of truth, an ambitious Congressman sets his sights on the Task Force.
We look forward to finding out how he knew about them and what prompted his renewed interest in them, but he appears to be the perfect person to see this through.
With the power of the United States government behind him and no existing relationship with Raymond, he can escape the trap many before him have fallen into.
He will be powerful because he comes out of nowhere again, and Reddington is not prepared for him. The best weapon Raymond usually is that no one catches him by surprise.
While all this is happening, Raymond continues to live unbothered and even has the time to visit Agnes.
In our review of The Blacklist Season 10 Episode 11, we deduced that he might be planning to disappear, but promo images show him and Agnes in Harold’s living room, so he might be sticking around for a while.
Siya’s discovery about her mother was unforeseen for her and us too.
We expect the episode to shed some light on what that means for her and her persistent intuition about Raymond.
Based on these spoilers, what are you most excited about? I know I want to see who the Congressman is and whether he will be a great adversary.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section, and don’t forget to watch The Blacklist online via TV Fanatic.
Catch the episode live this Sunday, May 12, on NBC at 10 pm ET, and a review right here on TV Fanatic after the episode airs.
Denis Kimathi is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. He has watched more dramas and comedies than he cares to remember. Catch him on social media obsessing over [excellent] past, current, and upcoming shows or going off about the politics of representation on TV. Follow him on Twitter.