The Blacklist: There Was No Need For A Game of Thrones Ending
It didn’t have to go down like this. Jon Snow should have taken his rightful spot as King with his family and Queen by his side. But the writers decided to screw up a great series with their lackluster ending. And just when we thought no show could top that awfulness, here comes The Blacklist with their Season 8 Finale.
To be fair, fans should have figured part of the ending with Elizabeth Keen now a fugitive and no longer an agent. She could no longer be a central character even if the actress herself was staying with the show. We’ve seen a complete 180. The devoted wife, the good agent, the protective mother, and a criminal. What was left for her to do?
Raymond Reddington wanted her to take over but the truth is, she already became Reddington and in some ways beat him at his own game. But still, after “Nachalo” fans figured we would finally learn the truth regarding who Reddington really is. Especially with Megan Boone leaving the show it was time to tie up that long storyline and find another heading into the final season.
But no, Jon Bokenkamp and his crew of writers pulled another fast one on us but this time, there were no real cliffhanger moments, just pissed off viewers.
How could they do this to us? How could they give us another Jon Snow moment after such a great episode before? Fans were cheering for an entire week after Arya Stark killed the Night King much like when the story of the Katarina Rostova and the plan was told. We expected the big finale, the big jaw-dropping moment and all we got was a dead Liz on a corner and Raymond and Dembe heading to the Ice Wall like Jon Snow to lick their wounds.
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Who the hell is Reddington and why didn’t Liz get that respect to know the truth?
The entire episode was somber at best. We knew that James Spader was returning so Red dying was not in the cards. But now what? Agnes is left without a mother and father. Aram never forgave Liz. Ressler got a goodbye kiss and of all the people to kill Liz, it was the incompetent henchman of Neville Townsend that came out of nowhere to take her out. This finale should’ve been about redemption and the truth. We were robbed of that for an entire hour.
It doesn’t matter if there is a Season 9 or not. We wanted Liz to hear the truth more than we wanted to know ourselves. She deserved that. She could have read the letter then died. That would have made more sense than what we had to endure in the final moments.
Now, who will Red be mad at? Townsend is gone and so is the man who killed Liz. There is no one for Red to take that anger out on. If that was the direction they wanted to go in, then let fans see Red in full Daenerys Targaryen mode and let him go ape shit the way she did on Cersei Lannister. Give fans something to look forward to. Now we have nothing but a letter in an envelope written by who the hell knows at this point.
I’ll always be a fan of The Blacklist much the same way that I loved Game of Thrones. But in the end, the finales went with the strings of the heart instead of the storyline. The good thing for The Blacklist is that they get one more season to right the ship, something Game of Thrones did not get.
Mark has been covering Sports and Entertainment for the past six years. His work has been featured on Bleacher Report, ESPN, Fox Sports, Teen Vogue, and many other websites.
