The Blacklist “Anslo Garrick, Part 2” 

Well, The Blacklist did not give me the Christmas present I so desperately wanted: That someone in the main cast die (this is why I get coal in my stocking every year. Not enough asking for dolls, too much asking for mayhem), I did get the gift of Alan Alda, playing a right-number-one bastard, and Dembe (Hisham Tawfiq: Kings; 30 Rock; Nurse Jackie) wasn’t shot in the head like his co-worker, Luli (Red must offer his employees on hell of a health plan and benefits. This job is tough) soooooo, good trade?

It’s not like I wanted just anyone on the show die. I was hoping for Tom, Elizabeth’s husband, (Ryan Eggold: Daybreak; 90210) to shuffle off this mortal coil, because that guy brings nothing, nothing to The Blacklist party except confusion, worry for Elizabeth, frustration and an ill-thought out plot that I’m pretty sure the writers are making up as they go along.

“He’s a threat! Look at his gun, his money, his 87 passports, all hidden in a box!” “No, wait! He got set-up! All good.” It’s exhausting. This does not good husband-material make in normal circumstances, let alone good husbanding to a baby FBI agent who can barely hold her own at the best of times (Except for this two-episode arc where all of a sudden she’s Rambo, killing everyone in her path and commandeering vehicles in the street to chase down Red’s tracker; good for her and it’s about time).

Alda (and if I have to list his professional accomplishments to jog your memory, you don’t deserve to own a television set, I don’t even…) is actually the person Anslo Garrick (Ritchie Coster: Luck) answers to, a fact we learn when he shows up, all cool as an evil cucumber, to the church where Garrick is trying to torture… something out of Red. Good luck with that. If nothing else, at this point you’re dealing with Reddington’s pride and nothing is going to force him to let go of that. The mind is an incredible thing, and if anyone can withstand the horrors of torture by sheer force of will, it’s Red.

What exactly Alda is after and why Red has it and what it all means is anyone’s guess, so this episode of The Blacklist is pretty much like every other episode. Stuff gets blown up and shot near Keen; a Blacklister dies (Thanks, Red! Nice work with the cuticle scissors) and Red Reddington remains at large, and an enigma wrapped in a mystery all tied up in a bow of ‘WTF’?

And he says he’s not Lizzie’s dad. (I don’t even think I care anymore) But if it means Alan Alda comes back, I’m ok with it. Who needs answers when you have Evil Hawkeye? And is he the one who was watching Keen’s apartment from across the street?

If Tom really is innocent in everything, he needs to be taken out just for trying to convince Elizabeth to move to Nebraska or whatever podunk place he wants to her to go to get away from all this danger and surveillance. He did know she went to Quantico, right? And that’s she’s a trained FBI agent? Did it never occur to him and his adoption fantasy that there might be danger? (I’ll give him this: Nobody could have figured it would be this much.)

But nope. And he’s still alive. And the only information we have now regarding Tom is Red’s cryptic, “Don’t trust your husband,” statement to Lizzie right before he disappears to go off to lick his substantial wounds and heal up. Or until Christmas break is over. Happy Holidays!

New episodes of The Blacklist return Monday, January 13th on NBC.