NBC has released the photos for the season 5 premier of The Blacklist, “Smokey Putnam.” It’s not completely clear what’s going down this season, but there were quite a few plot points that were left dangling in the season 4 finale that will have to be answered at some point.
When we last saw Red, his empire was in ruins, courtesy of Kate, who tragically decided to take her own life to end the fight between them. Red wanted to end the conflict without her getting hurt, but circumstances moved too far beyond his control (besides the fact that he was the one who shot her in the first place). Now, as it stands, Red is having to rebuild his empire, and the photos for the season 5 premier seem to show him laying low and taking things slowly.
Of course one of the biggest plot points resolved last season was the revelation (finally, we all saw it coming) that Red is in fact Liz’s biological father. In season 5 they will be exploring that new relationship. Learning what it is to live as father and daughter, instead of acquaintances who met under extremely mysterious circumstances.
I’m sure this will lead to many moments where Liz questions her identity and who she really is. Will she embrace her identity as Red’s daughter and stop fighting the part of her that is drawn to the type of life he leads, or will she continue to try and pull away? We’ll just have to wait and find out. I do hope, however that not too much time is spent on this, as we have had plenty of Red and Liz relationship drama from the past four seasons of the show.
One final plot point that was left dangling was the death of Laurel Hitchen, accidentally caused by Ressler when she started an argument with him. He had no intention of hurting her, but he reacted in self-defense when she went to grab his arm to stop him from leaving, and she fell backwards and smashed her head on a table, dying instantly.
Ressler had no choice but to call Henry Prescott, aka “The Fixer” to clean up the mess for him. There is no doubt that the repercussions of this unfortunate accident will be felt by Ressler, as he has to hide what really happened from those around him. I’m hoping that he trusts the task force enough to tell them what happened so they can help him if things go wrong, but that would put them in a difficult position as well. If he can’t tell the whole team, I’m hoping he will at least confide in Samar and Liz.
It’s too early to say what the over-arching plot will be for this season of The Blacklist now that the paternity mystery is finally solved (thank God), but with The Blacklist it’s pretty much a given that it will be action packed and crazy!
It’s so good to finally have The Blacklist back on our screens, so check out the gallery and I’ll see all of you Blacklisters back here on Wednesday night after the new episode: “Smokey Putnam”!
The Blacklist airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on NBC.