The Blacklist Apothecary Review
The Blacklist: Season 4, Episode 15: Apothecary has interesting premises but fails to build on them and generate the undoubtedly expected “wow” effect they were supposed to have among viewers.
You would think that for the winter finale the show’s producers would be able to come up with a cogent, compelling story on par with the best the season has had to offer (examples being but hardly limited to The Thrushes and The Harem), but once again it seems they were unable to strike that much-vaunted balance between the program’s dueling subplots that its episodes so seriously need. A token attempt is made to tie Reddington’s (James Spader) story and that of the task force’s by explaining that Liz (Megan Boone) and the FBI are tracking down the man who made a toxin that was used to poison and potentially kill Red while he searches for the party who ordered this attempt on his life, but this explanation feels more tacked on than anything and the two stories never feel like they mesh together even as the dialogue tells us they do.
In addition, one could even argue (quite credibly, in this writer’s opinion) that the scenes involving the titular Apothecary (Jamie Harrold) form a third, separate plot as they are almost so out-of-left-field that they feel like an entirely different program altogether. In fact, the whole thing, with its hapless victim tied to a bed and catchy but no less kitschy Mamas and Papas songs, feels more at home in Misery, and believe me, I love that movie as much as the next guy, but it’s not what I expect to see when I tune into The Blacklist.
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