As a James Spader Fan, I No Longer Wanted The Blacklist to Continue After the Show’s Worst Season 9 Episode
Despite James Spader’s performance, The Blacklist overstayed its welcome and one season 9 episode has me convinced.
The Blacklist is argubly one of James Spader’s best works, with the actor starring as Raymond “Red” Reddington in all ten seasons. The series made a strong start to life with the crime drama intriguing fans with its fast-paced storylines and Red’s mysterious past.
Despite its success, the series lost momentum as it entered its final stages, especially as several key cast members left by the ninth season. One episode was outright terrible and had me convinced that continuing the series beyond this point would only be a disaster. Here is arguably the worst episode of The Blacklist that should’ve killed the show.
The Blacklist season 9 episode 19 is arguably the show’s worst hour
When The Blacklist premiered in 2013, it was centered on the rather novel idea of a former fugitive, Raymond “Red” Reddington, who turns himself in to the FBI and becomes an informant. However, by its ninth season, the novelty had faded, and only James Spader‘s enigmatic performance held things together.
The show was on life support following the exits of creator Jon Bokenkamp and Megan Boone, who played Elizabeth “Liz” Keen. However, things crossed a point of no return for me with the nineteenth episode of season 9, titled The Bear Mask.
The episode only briefly featured Spader’s Red and primarily focuses on Aram, who is stuck in a Groundhog Day-like situation, only for the entire episode to be revealed as a hallucination. As a result, the episode lacked any stakes and was poorly executed filler.
It is also one of four episodes to have an IMDB rating of less than 6. While season 8’s Misère and Elizabeth Keen are both rated under 6, they are essentially retrospective episodes, using a lot of recycled footage.
The other episode rated less than 6 is the season 7 finale, which had to use animation to complete its story because of the COVID-19 pandemic. With a rating of 5.4/10, The Bear Mask is arguably the show’s worst hour as it offers nothing to progress the overall plotline.
The Blacklist season 9 episode 19 proves the series overstayed its welcome
Initially, the relationship between Red and Liz served as the show’s heart, with Spader’s charismatic character playing off of Boone’s straightman. However, by the ninth season, Liz was dead, and the series no longer had an anchoring relationship.
Furthermore, season 9 made it evident that the central mystery of Red’s true identity was never truly going to be resolved. However, the nineteenth episode being outright filler proved that the story had been stretched far too thin.
Despite the writers trying something new with the episode, it came too late in a lackluster season. With just three more episodes left, a filler episode with essentially no stakes and consequences was utterly disappointing. As a result, I felt the series should not have continued beyond this point.
After Liz’s death, the ninth season should’ve heavily focused on wrapping up unresolved plot points and the overarching narrative. Instead, the series diluted itself with filler episodes that didn’t even feature Spader, the only good thing going for it by then. Hence, despite loving Spader in the role of Red, being glad we got more of it, taking The Blacklist beyond season 9 was truly a terrible idea.
