[MAJOR MAJOR SEASON 8 FINALE SPOILERS AHEAD.]
Hi all. Just want to check in for a second. If you're not ready to read this yet, I completely understand. Frankly, I don't even know if I'm prepared to write this, but I'm so sleep-deprived, my head hurts, I feel so sick to my stomach, and I just feel this need to get everything out.
If I could describe my journey during this entire season in one word, it would be this:
Gullible.
I had an embarrassing amount of hope coming into this season. To put that hope in perspective, I was one of the few people who was actually excited about the Liz vs Red storyline. In some ways, I've always felt like it was inevitable. Liz was "fascinated by the criminal mind" and Red was all too willing to teach her. I had visions of complex relationships between Task Force members, a more involved role for Park, and a satisfying way for this story to come to a head.
Then I thought Keenler would actually get a happy ending. I maintained this thought even when it was leaked that Megan Boone was leaving the show. And even when we heard the Megan Departure announcement, and even when she changed her captions to suggest the worst, I held on to hope that they'd give her character peace. Peace in knowing once and for all who Raymond Reddington was and peace in being with her family.
But at every single turn, I was proven the fool.
This is Jon Bokenkamp's creation! He created these characters and this story, and even though I want to, I can't pretend to know more than him. But I just can't understand how you could mess up a season, a character, so badly.
Nothing, not even a real Keenler kiss, could salvage the end of 8x22.
(But, I mean, I can't deny this isn't everything I've ever wanted for them, so let's just bask in the fact that they're totally in love by the end of season 8 for a moment.)
(Actually though. Look at the way she's looking at him. Ressler has wanted this since season 3. This man deserves every happiness and, in this one moment, he got it. Not to mention Liz's final thoughts were about Ressler, and she was completely in love with him too?)
I wish I were kidding when I say they had the potential to be one of the greatest love stories of all time. With one singular decision, the writers have slammed the door shut on any potential Liz Keen return for the series finale or something in the future.
Alright I'm getting upset, and I'm just circling around the unavoidable, so that's enough basking. Now we face the facts.
Elizabeth Keen is dead.
I have issues with every part of this decision: how it happened, why it happened, the time at which it happened, who killed her. Everything.
To understand the complete injustice and boneheadery of this move, we have to look back.
Picture this: you're the showrunner of an extremely successful show. Your lead actress comes to you and tells you she won't be returning for a season 9, even before season 9 is announced. You then have the majority of season 8 to give her a proper sendoff, one that is satisfying and represents all of the work that she's put into this character you've created.
You think about it. Talk to your writer's room. Talk to the network. Talk to your executive producers. Talk to yourself in the mirror (it's a big decision). Finally, you can confidently say you've decided.
You kill her.
Then, you leave your own show.
Ladies and gentlemen and non-binary folks, meet Jon Bokenkamp.
Listen, I can't claim to have even half of the creative mind that Jon has. But that doesn't mean I can't be upset at him! And for good reasons! Which I will now gladly outline below.
After last week's episode, I think a lot of us thought Redarina was confirmed. The finale's montage that played as Liz died seemed to also confirm Redarina. My issue is that I'm using words like "thought" and "seemed." I wish it was made more clear that Liz understood who Red was before her death. The thought that she might have died without knowing the truth absolutely breaks me. You cannot end her arc without her knowing 100%, without a doubt, who Raymond Reddington is. That was her primary question of the entire series. I will not stop screaming about this. I cannot BELIEVE there was uncertainty about this when it absolutely did not have to be left uncertain! I get that they were trying to make it a visually meaningful moment? Or make it ambiguous? I don't care if it's ambiguous for us. I care that it was ambiguous for our main character who deserved to know the truth before she died. And we deserved to know that Liz knew.
Now, let's pretend I understand her death for a second (I don't, but let's pretend). Let's talk about how she died.
She died by the hands of Vandyke, one of Townsend's henchmen.
It is absolutely appalling to me that the main character of our show died not even by the hands of our big bad (Townsend), but by one of his croonies. Liz has been avoiding death like a master. Reddington has been avoiding capture for decades. How did Vandyke find them? (And I refuse to believe Liz didn't get rid of the tracker because she's so much smarter than that.)
And tell me how her season 3 death was somehow more satisfying than this one. Vandyke barely spoke this season, but he gets the honor of killing the person we've been following for 8 years? With one shot? Make it make sense!
Now, the worst part. I've spoken about how bad the circumstances around her death were and the lack of knowledge she had when she died. But now, let's face the fact that they actively made the decision to kill her.
So here's the thing. Death isn't a satisfying ending for any character unless it is relevant to their purpose. For example, I would understand Red dying at the end of it all if it were for the sake of keeping Liz safe, which was his purpose throughout the entirety of the series. Liz's death does absolutely nothing for her purpose. All she has wanted since the very beginning was to know the truth about Raymond Reddington, and she's maintained that. The fact that she ultimately lost her life in her search for the truth because this random man entered hers against her will makes me so so angry.
This was never what our main character wanted. In fact, Liz's death is so ridiculously upsetting to me because killing her has completely undermined her journey over the past eight years. How do I go back and rewatch earlier episodes of The Blacklist knowing that she never knows the truth, never knows happiness, never knows peace.
So, if Liz's death wasn't to complete her arc and wasn't to service us, what did it do?
I see Liz's death as a mere tool to further Red's arc in season 9 since he now has to cope with the fact that he has ultimately failed his purpose. We've seen Red fall, but never to this extent. She's dead. We know that. This isn't a season 3 repeat. This is real.
Will it be interesting to see how he spirals? Maybe. We've seen it once before through 'Cape May', but there's a definite tone of finality here. Five years have passed since season 3. Things have changed and relationships have changed. Ressler watched Red run away from his girlfriend's dead body. Cooper and Aram were even more tightly woven into Liz's life than they were before. But more on them in a second.
Yeah, Red has to deal with her death next season. And he wouldn't have to do that if she were, well, alive. I can't believe this even needs to be said, but a main character's death should not be used as a tool to further another character's arc. To be perfectly honest, this is just a huge middle finger to everything Megan has done on the show, everything Liz has gone through. Because at the end of the day, she was killed to service another male character on the show, and that is so heartbreaking. She deserves so much more than that.
I can't understand how you decide to kill your main character after you're given over half a season to write her out. I really just can't.
Death aside, there were so many other things wrong with this episode!
The Writing of Liz Keen
Outside of her death, this is the thing I'm most upset about.
Elizabeth Keen has spent the entire season hellbent on killing Red. In the finale, Red literally says to her face, "Please kill me." And suddenly she's like "No no, that's okay." In this episode, Liz was even given additional incentive to kill him because he says that Dembe will give her a letter explaining everything, but only after he dies. As we know, all Liz has needed was the truth. For once it seemed like her want (killing Red) and her need (knowledge) finally aligned.
And then she just... stopped.
It may seem like Reddington is giving her everything she wants, but he is so so far from the good guy here. He preaches about keeping Liz safe and doing everything for her when everything that happened in this episode was in service of himself. He doesn't want to give her the letter before he dies because if she knew the truth then she wouldn't be able to kill him. He's giving up on his fight against cancer? For what?
Assuming Redarina is confirmed, does Red not think Liz would completely spiral if she realized after she pulled the trigger that she had just killed her own mother? After killing her father when she was 4 years old? There would be no memory suppression: just pure pain and definitely 'Ruin' part two.
The inconsistencies of what Liz wants and how far she's willing to go to get it are maddening. She's spent this entire season grappling with the morality of how far she's willing to go. After all that development, you'd assume that she is fully capable now of taking it all the way. So why have we ended up where we started? Why is the only difference between Liz in the season 8 finale and Liz in 801 that she is now dead.
So let's talk relationships.
This episode showed Liz having small moments with each Task Force member (except Park which was a slap in the face), each interaction serving as her 'goodbye' with them.
Let's start with Agnes, who got the best goodbye. Sure she got the best goodbye, but she's also losing the most because both of her biological parents are now dead. Please guys... make it make sense.
Next to Liz, Cooper is the person who's done the most flip-flopping this season. Is he on Liz's side? Or does he want to bring her in? Does he understand why she's doing what she's doing or not? He went from being on her side, to claiming that she went too far, to telling her to become a professional criminal. It just seems like the core of his character got lost somewhere this season.
Liz and Aram have the best friendship out of anyone else in the show. He has the softest spot for her, and she obviously never wants to hurt him. How is it that Liz goes to see Cooper and Ressler off in person, but only gives Aram a phone call? And she doesn't even say anything of substance in the call- just a plea to forgive her. The phone call undermined the purity of their friendship. He got one call, one 10 second interaction, before seeing her dead on the sidewalk.
Before I go off about Ressler, let me just drop a quick note about Park. Liz and Park had such potential to be great friends. They had moments in season 7 that pointed in that direction, but the writers this season somehow forgot all about those? I get that she hasn't known Liz for that long, but Park was so cold toward Liz all season long for no reason? And it was because she was so cold that she didn't really have as much of a footprint on the season as a whole. They had a friendship in season 7; it may not have been as deep as the relationships Liz had with the other members of the Task Force, but it was still there. It was a disservice to just pretend it never existed.
And now to the person who lost it all. Donald Ressler had to hold the two loves of his life as they died in his arms. After giving him absolutely nothing for years, tell me how the writers are still finding things to take from him. Ressler spent the entire season, the entire season, fighting for Liz, reminding her that she has a home. He's spent the last five seasons fighting to keep her safe. I maintain that he's been in love with her since at least season 3. With that in mind, how could they take Liz away right after she'd finally returned his feelings?
Ressler's entire arc this season has revolved around Liz. Cooper's entire arc this season has revolved around Liz. Aram's entire arc this season has revolved around Liz. Park never got a freaking arc at all.
So. Riddle me this. If you know your main actress is leaving at the end of the season, how do you decide to neglect the characters that are going to be carrying the next season on their backs?
What now?
In my head, the logical season 9 would be Red dealing with the repercussions of his actions. Meanwhile, the Task Force is reeling from her death, again. But this time the mourning would be different since the writers know it's real. Will the Task Force go up against Red? Is Red even strong enough to fight back? Will Ressler finally have an arc next season?
The blacklist is eternal, but the show can't just go back to a procedural now. Too much has happened. If they wanted to go back to a procedural, they would have sent Liz into hiding.
They obviously killed her for a reason. They obviously see a way forward. Good for them.
Killing your main character is a cowardly move, I'll say it! I know I've typed out "Elizabeth Keen is dead" but it feels so insanely unreal. I don't know how to deal with the disappointment I'm feeling. I want to be grateful for the seasons we had with Liz, I really do, but her journey just feels so pointless now that I know she dies for a truth we're not even positive she gets.
I hate that the 8 years we spent with Liz Keen feel useless. I hate it. But these feelings are a direct result of the unnecessary tragedy that was served to us yesterday.
Anyway, still processing. If I even stop to think about Keenler I may lose it (Liz never called Ressler by his first name... I'll riot), so let's not even go there right now. That's that on my finale thoughts for now. It's been less than a day, and I still feel like I'm in limbo... I think a lot of you also feel it.
For now, though, just a quick shoutout to my Keenler Twitter friends for hyping me up and accepting me into the Keenler community so late in the game! Y'all are the most patient, loyal, and dedicated people I've ever met. If you're around next season, I'll probably be watching (I have an annoying thing where when I start a show I have to finish), so... talk soon?
(in the meantime, write fix-it fics please and thanks <3)
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