Ruth: Friday, more attacks were aimed at Tara Reade. I ended up writing "Ken Olin is disgusting trash" very early in the day. It was only later that I remembered a new episode of THE BLACKLIST was airing on NBC. At that point, I e-mailed everyone asking if anybody needed someone to guest blog? Ava and C.I. asked me if I just wanted to cover the episode, an important one as I had explained in the e-mail, at THIRD? My answer? Absolutely.
Friday's show was entitled "Brothers" and it was written by Sean Hennen. The basic plotline? From WIKIPEDIA:
In flashbacks to 1995, Ressler's police officer father is set up by his corrupt partner Tommy Markin and murdered. Ressler, a troubled teen, learns the truth and confronts Markin, shooting and apparently killing him. His brother Robby cleans the crime scene and while burying Markin finds him still alive. This sets Ressler on a law enforcement path and the man he would become. In the present, the Ressler brothers dig up Markin because the field is to be developed, but their car with the body is stolen by the Albanian mob who Robby owes money too. In exchange for the body, the Albanians want Ressler to get them information on an undercover agent, but Ressler decides to come clean instead, Robby reveals that Markin survived the gunshot and Robby killed him to protect his brother. Ressler and Robby come clean to Liz who is reluctant to help her friend ruin his life; nonetheless, Liz helps Ressler and Robby take down the mobsters in a sting operation, but Markin's body disappears. Liz reveals that she got rid of the body to protect Ressler who is the one person in her chaotic life that Liz can count on.
Ressler is Donald Ressler. I wrote about him on April 11th:
Let me jump to Agent Donald. Diego Klattenhoff plays the character. On this week's episode, he was again ignoring calls from his brother. (If that was his brother. There are times when Donald is not fully honest.) But that is a detail that they give Donald and others but never give to Harold. Donald always strikes me as too straight-laced. I am referring to the character here, not the actor. There are moments when he actually appears to enjoy pain. I often wonder if he needs to be the sub in some S&M relationship. You sort of get the feeling that the only time he can lose control is when he is pain. My granddaughter Tracey says Mr. Klattenhoff needs to recreate his briefs scene from MEAN GIRLS but as Agent Donald Ressler.
He loves pain. And he feels like he needs to be punished.
Friday, we found out why. He has been carrying guilt for shooting a police officer, a friend of his father's, because the man killed his father. He learned in this episode that he did not kill the man. He shot him. But the man was still alive when his older brother Robby was trying to clean up the scene of the crime. Robby ended up killing him.
Does this mean that now he will no longer have the need to be punished?
I do not think so. I think, first of all, it is too ingrained in him after all these years and, short of therapy, he is not going to change. Secondly, he still shot the man. He may also feel that he forced Robby to kill the man because Robby only killed the man to protect Donald.
The episode was important for Elizabeth as well. She came to Ressler's rescue. Why? He wanted to know why and she responded that he is the only thing calm and the only thing she could count on in her life. It gave a further deepening to their already strong friendship.
There were twists and turns and it did not do much of anything to advance the overall yearly storyline (Elizabeth's mother and Raymond battling one another). It did, however, do a great deal to deepen the characterizations of Ressler and Elizabeth.
