TV Review: THE BLACKLIST: Season 4, Episode 20: The Debt Collector [NBC]

The Blacklist The Debt Collector Review

The Blacklist: Season 4, Episode 20: The Debt Collector raises the stakes between Red (James Spader) and Mr. Kaplan (Susan Blommaert) but proves most interesting when following Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff).

In fact, this season in general and last night’s episode in particular might be the most interesting Ressler has ever been in the show’s history. Earlier story arcs about him leading the manhunt for Liz (Megan Boone) and getting a little too involved with Agent Navabi (Mozhan Marno) can’t hold a feather to the complexity of the tightly-wound FBI agent’s interactions with Special Agent Gale (Enrique Murciano). A stickler for the rules if there ever was one, Ressler is clearly frustrated by the lies he has to tell his old partner in order to avoid incriminating the bureau in shielding Red from his enemies as well as prosecution. This is aptly demonstrated when he pins Gale against a wall and admits he killed a Secret Service agent after being brainwashed, a move that is as much a front as it is quintessentially Ressler.

The main focus of the episode however, is the need for the Concierge of Crime and his vengeful cleaner to momentarily put aside their differences to stop a bounty hunter, the Debt Collector of the title, gunning for Liz. Of course, it is revealed that it was Red who paid the bounty hunter and the whole thing was an elaborate ruse to lure Mr. Kaplan out into the open for Red to kill her. Luckily, Liz has a change of heart and warns Kate at the last minute, but she flatly refuses when Liz begs her to call off her crusade against her former employer. I wouldn’t place bets on who’s going to exit this struggle alive, but I will certainly keep tuning in to The Blacklist to find out.

Leave your thoughts on this The Blacklist review and this episode of The Blacklist in the comments section. Readers seeking more TV show reviews can visit our TV Show Review Page, our TV Show Review Twitter Page, our TV Show Review Facebook Page, and our TV Show Review Google+ Page. Want up-to-the-minute notification? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, and Facebook.