TV Review: THE BLACKLIST: Season 4, Episode 17: Requiem [NBC]
The Blacklist Requiem Review
The Blacklist: Season 4, Episode 17: Requiem takes a step back from the straightforward narrative of the preceding episode to explain how things got to where they are.
As the second half of last night’s late-season premiere, the show serves as the exposition to the first half’s action, with exposition perhaps not being the right word as it implies contrivance and woodenness. And while there are a lot of words to describe what goes down in the episode, “contrived” and “wooden” aren’t any of them: revisiting the matter of Mr. Kaplan (Susan Blommaert), who, for those of you who don’t remember was shot and left for dead by a vengeful Red (James Spader), the program spends much of its time revisiting her past history with him as well as Elizabeth (Megan Boone).
Of course, Liz wasn’t Liz back then, she was Masha, and Mr. Kaplan wasn’t Mr. Kaplan, she was Kathryn Nemec (Joanna Adler), a reserved young woman who formed a special attachment to her when she was charged with overseeing her protection. Things go south, however, when her mother Katarina Rostova is compromised and forced to go into hiding shortly after becoming intimate with an American we later learn is Red. Although Mr. Kaplan is able to get Masha to safety, her attempts to find her own happiness are shattered when the woman she loves is killed by a disgruntled relative of a client at the bail bonds firm they work at. Soon afterwards, Red approaches her and offers a job, an offer she reluctantly accepts (and, as we know now, regrets).
On top of standing on its own merits, the show really sets the tone for what is to follow and gives us insight into a character that is an integral part of the series as a whole.
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