The Blacklist’s tenth episode of their second season, “Luther Braxton: Conclusion,†will hopefully give us some answers about Lizzie and Red’s connection as well as close the door on the villainous Luther Braxton. The episode starts off with the aftermath of the missile strikes. The Factory is still standing but is on fire. Thankfully, our favorite FBI agents and Raymond Reddington all make it out okay. There was a close call with Samar, but Agent Ressler got to her in time. Somehow, Braxton escaped with the Medevac helicopter and Agent Keen as his hostage. Braxton wants answers about The Fulcrum that he believes he can only get from Keen. Braxton says to her, “How does it feel to have something people are willing to die for locked up in that pretty little head of yours?â€
Braxton has a couple of his goons torture Liz until she talks about the night of the fire; although, she has no memory of that night. Braxton realizes that she has repressed the memory so deep that she can’t recall a single moment from that night. Having some experience with lost memories, Braxton goes to a doctor he knows, Dr. Selma Orchard. Dr. Orchard used a process referred to as memory extinction to replace bad memories with good memories. This time, Braxton has taken her hostage to try to extract a bad memory from Lizzie, while using the doctor’s young son as leverage.
While in her memory/dream state, Lizzie sees a young version of herself. The little girl is hiding in a closet while people are fighting outside of the door. Someone is shouting, “Where is she?†Before she can get more information, young Lizzie starts running away. She runs into a more pleasant memory of shopping for Christmas trees. The doctor explains that her brain is replacing that bad memory with a better one. She tries to take Liz back to the bad memory, but it only works for a few more moments. Liz’s blood pressure skyrockets, and Dr. Orchard pulls her back to reality. All Lizzie says is, “My father was there.â€
Braxton threatens Dr. Orchard to have the information he needs by 9pm or she will never see her son again. Lizzie assures her that it’s okay to continue with the memory treatments. Lizzie assures Dr. Orchard that she is doing this for herself; she needs to know what happened. Meanwhile, Reddington has been searching for Braxton and Lizzie in the only way he knows, usually by making some threats. He gathers a group of known associates of Braxton and tells them to let him know once Braxton reaches out. When someone questions what is in it for them, he replies, “life.†The man to whom Braxton reached out, told Reddington that he could have the information with a price. Red gave in to the monetary demand but exacted his own revenge but messing up the guy’s face a little. But, Red got the location of the meet with Braxton. Red confronts him after he leaves a meeting with “The Director†assuring him that he will get him The Fulcrum by 9pm.
Reddington manages to get to Lizzie and sends someone to make sure Dr. Orchard’s son is all right. When Red gets to Lizzie, she is heavily sedated. Red asks Dr. Orchard if she can continue the treatments to recover the memory. They continue to try and extract the memory. The scenes where Lizzie is in the memory are very difficult to see. It truly feels like a crazy dream that you can’t figure out. Ressler and Samar get to her location, and Ressler is yelling at Red to wake her up. This small sentiment showed how much Ressler cares for her. When Lizzie comes out of the memory, she sees Red and says, “you were there.â€
Lizzie gets extremely upset with Red because she believes that the fire and the death of her father are all due to Red wanting to find the Fulcrum. Dr. Orchard asks Lizzie to meet with her because she noticed something strange during the treatments. She tells Lizzie that someone may have tried suppressing this memory in the past. She also thinks Lizzie should know that even though the people may have been there, they may actually have had different roles. This could mean that Reddington wasn’t there to do her father harm as she believes. Dr. Orchard also says that the only way to truly know what happened that night is to find the people who are trying to make her forget. Is Raymond one of those people?
Reddington, of course, got his revenge against Braxton. He leaves Braxton’s dead body in The Director’s house. The Director is appalled that Red would do such a thing to him, even asking Red if he knows who he is. Reddington seems to know exactly who The Director is; although, we’re still unsure of his role in all of this. At the end of the episode, we see Liz reminiscing about her childhood by looking through an old box of stuff. She pulls out the stuffed bunny that we saw in her memory. Noticing something new on the bunny, Lizzie rips him open and pulls out a tiny box. Did she really just find The Fulcrum?!
