The Blacklist delivered another chilling episode in “Sir Crispin Crandall.†Raymond Reddington is still working on his master plan to take down the Director of the Cabal and clear Liz’s name. Sadly, this is not the episode that wraps everything up. However, there is only one episode left before the fall finale. I’m going to make a bold assumption and say that the fall finale will hopefully give us the traction that we’ve wanted from all of this nonsense with the Cabal.
This week, the Blacklister is a wealthy man named Sir Crispin Crandall. Crandall owns a Cryotics company. Reddington actually gives Sir Crispin Crandall to the FBI, so that they will help track him down. While Sir Crispin Crandall was very creepy, he was not all that interesting. While his company Crandall Cryotics was completely legit, he was also abducting some of the greatest minds in the world and experimenting on them in his plane.
That’s right; Sir Crispin Crandall lives on a plane. He touches down rarely, which makes him difficult to question or arrest. As luck would have it, he’s trying to abduct a female mathematician, and he will need to touch down to get her on board. Reddington’s plan is to get on the plane because Crandall abducted a highly regarded confidant of the Cabal, Andras Halmi. Reddington wants to get Halmi, regardless of whether or not Halmi is even alive.
For once, their plan seems to go off without a hitch. Reddington gets to Halmi before Mr. Solomon. Even though Halmi is already dead, Red only needs his thumbs. Halmi’s thumbs will open up a safety deposit box. The Director, realizing that Red can get to the box, rushes to the bank in Canada to save the box. Red beats him to the punch and ends up with the Director’s escape plan. Inside the safety deposit box was everything the Director would need to run away and disappear.
Red lets the Director know that he has his backup reserves. Red asks the Director to clear Liz’s name. Of course, the Director declines, but Red doesn’t seem to think this is a problem. He believes that when the Cabal gets wind of all of this, they will take out the Director just to stop the bleeding. Red will continue to come for members of the Cabal until Liz is cleared of all wrongdoings. For Liz’s sake, I hope Red’s right. It does seem that at least Mr. Solomon is beginning to question the Director’s instructions.
Even with all of my faith in him, Tom is getting back to his old ways. The Russians have officially caught up with Asher Sutton and his fiancee, Gwen. When Tom shows up at their home, Gwen yells at him and tells him to leave. But, it’s too late. The Russians are here. Tom tells Gwen to run and hide and not to come out no matter what she hears. Somehow, she hides from the Russians, but they still take Tom and Asher.
Tom wakes up in an alley chained at the neck to Asher. They are both beaten and bloody. A man comes and informs Tom that he and Asher will be fighting one another in a winner take all match. The winner is the one left breathing. Tom tries for a little while to not hurt Asher, but Asher can’t figure out a way out of this other than to fight. To force their hands, someone hands Asher a knife. Tom is more determined than ever to get to Karakurt, so he kills Asher whispering, “I’m sorry.â€
At least Tom’s efforts weren’t wasted. He ends up meeting with the Russian and his crew. Tom eyes up the situation and recognizes that Karakurt is sitting down behind a few other men. Tom explains that if Karakurt doesn’t come with him and confess to exonerate Liz, he will kill the guards and take Karakurt forcefully. They all laugh, but that’s just because they don’t know Tom Keen. Tom has nothing else to lose and actually manages to kill all of the guards. He knocks out Karakurt, and the last we see of the two is Tom dragging Karakurt through the street. Let’s hope this actually helps Liz, and we don’t have to jump through a bunch more loopholes.
I’m definitely ready for the fall finale at this point. I think they are going to be pulling out all of the big guns for that episode, and I have high expectations. One of the downfalls for this episode for me was that they didn’t really explain what exactly Crandall was doing on his plane. It was clear that he was experimenting on people, but did anyone survive the experiments? What was his goal? Crandall should have been a more interesting blacklister than he was.
