Violet recaps Season 1 Episode 18 of The Blacklist, titled Milton Bobbit, where Liz and Tom renew their vows, and Liz investigates the Undertaker! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts on the episode.
Don’t need the Blacklist episode recap for Milton Bobbit? Click here to jump directly to Violet’s thoughts on the episode!
To see Josh’s thoughts on this week’s The Blacklist episode, Milton Bobbit, click here to get directly there!
Episode Recap of The Blacklist, Season 1 Episode 18: Milton Bobbit
- A woman gets into a taxi, and the driver purposely crashes, killing them both. A man then makes a wire transfer as a result. The man has scars all over his body, and a removable prosthetic nose.
- Tom proposes to Liz to renew their wedding vows, and she says yes. Liz starts a conspiracy board in a storage compartment and asks Reddington what he knows about Tom. All Reddington knows is that he bought passports from an associate. Reddington gives her a disc with the Apple Man’s surveillance footage. Reddington gives Liz the case of the Undertaker, who somehow convinces people to kill on his behalf. Murder-suicide is his specialty.
- A woman who has just met with the Undertaker drives to a gas station, pours a puddle of gas at a man’s feet, then lights it on fire, burning him and herself to death. Liz brings the case to the FBI team. Keen and Ressler visit the wife of the taxi driver and discover that his “uncle” left him money shortly before the accident. They discover that both suicide killers had terminal illnesses and mental instabilities that allowed the police to explain away the events, plus both of their families received financial compensation.
- The Undertaker recruits a new killer. Liz surprises Tom with a vow renewal ceremony with all their friends when Tom returns home from work. Tom’s “brother” Craig, who flew in for the ceremony, tells Tom he thinks Liz is onto him, but Tom doesn’t think so. Craig officiates the ceremony.
- Liz watches the Apple Man’s footage in her new lair and expands her conspiracy board. In the footage, she sees Tom hide a key, so she goes home and retrieves it. She has Dembe run Craig’s prints on a champagne glass from the ceremony. Amir finds a common Cayman Islands bank account between the suicide killers, and they figure out that the next suicide killer is Danny Moss, a man dying of congestive heart failure.
- Ressler and Keen track Moss to a city council rally, where Moss is just about to shoot the candidate, and they are able to stop him. Meanwhile, Reddington visits an associate in El Salvador, who can run “touch DNA” where he lifts DNA from a fingerprint. Reddington advises Liz to figure out how the Undertaker finds out how his victims are ill.
- Liz goes to Craig’s hotel room, handcuffs him to the sink, and questions him, now knowing that his real name is Christopher Maly. Reddington and Dembe take over while Liz heads back to work. Amir figures out that all the suicide killers had life insurance policies canceled by the same insurance company. Liz asks Ressler to cover for her while she takes care of personal business.
- Reddington and Dembe show Maly that they have his mother in an effort to get him to talk. Ressler and Malik visit the insurance company, and are directed to Milton Bobbit, who is where “all policies go to die.” However, he has already run off. Ressler and Malik visit his house and discover the file of the next victim. Bobbit confronts his next victim himself.
- Liz returns to the hotel room to question Christopher. However, he and Tom were supposed to meet, so he starts calling to try to get ahold of Maly, and Keen realizes they need to leave before Tom comes looking for him there. Ressler reports that Bobbit’s last 3 victims are personal, connected to a clinical trial for diabetes in which Bobbit participated.
- Maly tries to stall Tom, but he says he’s on his way, and mentions being accountable to Berlin. Maly jumps out the window, killing himself. Meanwhile, Bobbit has brought his victim to a cemetery, and reveals a bomb strapped to his chest. The FBI realizes that Bobbit is terminally ill, and this is his final murder, that he wants to do himself.
- The police and FBI show up at the cemetery, including Keen. To recover the hostage, Ressler intervenes by arresting Bobbit’s victim. Milton sets off the bomb, killing himself. It turns out this was about Reddington getting to look at Bobbit’s client list, which Cooper allows him to do for a limited amount of time.
- Liz and Reddington add a piece of paper with “Berlin” on it to their evidence board and contemplate what it could mean. Liz returns the key to its hiding place at home, and Tom almost catches her. Liz asks Tom about meeting up with his brother for dinner, but he makes up an excuse about Craig having to suddenly leave. Tom reminds Liz that they’re newlyweds, and Liz finds herself having to do what newlyweds do.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 18 of The Blacklist: Milton Bobbit
Once again, I was really enjoying the part of the episode where Liz is trying to investigate Tom, and she was actually starting to get somewhere when she caught his “brother.” Of course, Reddington had to give her another case to “make things look normal,” or so he claimed. But as usual, his intentions aren’t innocent, they are to benefit him, because the whole point of giving Liz the Undertaker case was so that he could gain access to Milton Bobbit’s client list. When are we going to find out what all of these little things that Reddington does leads to? Is this something that’s coming up in the immediate season, or something for the long story arc for seasons to come?
It was really random how Tom wanted to renew their wedding vows. Somehow he thought that would make Liz fall madly in love with him all over again. Not sure why that is. He thinks he knows her so well, but obviously he doesn’t. Even if she didn’t know that he isn’t who he says he is, I don’t think she would have reacted how he thought she would. But, Liz did a good job of fooling him into thinking that nothing is amiss. The actor who plays Tom does such a good job at being creepy, I feel bad for Liz that she has to pretend like everything is normal and that they’re “newlyweds.” Ew.
However, looks like there’s no more playing around in the next episode! Maybe we’ll finally get some answers on this Tom situation!
Josh’s Thoughts: The Blacklist, Season 1 Episode 18: Milton Bobbit
Again, The Blacklist is half disappointing, and half really enthralling. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) the dichotomy for this episode was much greater than other episodes. The procedural part of the episode was horrid (I will get into why in a second), while the overall story was really entertaining.
I was really looking forward to the awkward, frightening moments for Elizabeth, in her day to day interactions with Tom. It was fun seeing her try to act normal, while hoping to not throw any suspicions out there, as it could potentially mean her death. Meanwhile, she tries to stealthily try to figure out some information about Tom, because not even Reddington is able to provide much in the ways of help.
Ironically, Megan Boone probably did some of her best acting this episode because she was really terrible at acting like everything was normal with Tom. Tom seems to be blind to this terrible acting though, as his “brother” sees right through Liz’s ruse. I have a feeling as time goes on, Liz will become further and further transparent. Based on the scenes from next week, she might be clearer than glass, and Tom and Liz will be going head to head.
I enjoyed the action scene this episode, where Liz takes down her “Brother in-law” at the hotel, though. Liz did a good job of seeming tough, unlike some other actresses who have a hard time pulling off “toughness” in TV or films. Reddington of course is masterful in breaking the brother in-law, without using any violence at all. Until that is, the brother in-law jumps out the window.
Unfortunately, we still don’t know really anything about Tom’s motives. We know nothing of Berlin, what he is trying to accomplish, or who he works for. He seems separate from Reddington’s “friends” from earlier in the season, but perhaps they are all working for the same person. Tom is likely after Reddington more than his own wife I would bet though.
As for the procedural part of the show, I am going to keep it brief, because it was terrible. Milton Bobbit seemed like a scary villain to start, when we see his “lair”, which is all creepy looking. We then see his nose come off, and he seems like a truly scary individual. Then we get into it, and he’s a boring life insurance salesman, who is on a little revenge kick to complete his mission and go out with a bang. I was not entertained at all during this whole bit.
I really feel The Blacklist would work much better as a twelve or thirteen episode season, much like Breaking Bad, and focus only on the main storyline. I practically want to fast forward through all of the “fluff” of the rest of the procedural parts. We have enough Law & Orders, CSIs, and various other cop shows to deal with all the procedural stuff. Let’s get some good stories going without diluting it with all this boring stuff!
Scenes from The Blacklist, Season 1 Episode 19: The Pavlovich Brothers
Here are scenes from the next The Blacklist episode, titled The Pavlovich Brothers:
