Finally, a slightly more lighthearted episode has come along.
The particulars of Liz’s murder receded into the background on The Blacklist Season 9 Episode 13.
Instead of such a shadowy target, it was killer robots and a deceptive widow. In other words, it was a narrative not centered upon loss.
Sure, a couple of prominent men with deviant sexual proclivities were the victims, but it was hard to treat that as a tragedy.
This was that rare case that Red gave to the Task Force from which he didn’t benefit. He was too busy with a personal matter to give it much thought.
Cynical Ressler figured that Raymond was doing a favor for another of his criminal associates, but Harold went along with it since a prominent diplomat had gotten murdered.
The weird part early on is that Reddington’s madam friend that never heard of Genuine Models nor had that agency attempted to poach any of her escorts.
Imagine how much time could have been saved if Aram had just Googled Genuine Models. But they weren’t expecting to find a legitimate company with such a name.
It was hilarious that the second victim of Genuine Models was a congressman with a name suspiciously close to a self-righteous politician who has been linked to unlawful behavior. Or was that a sheer coincidence?
What wasn’t adding up was how these escorts were strong enough to strangle their victims. That was something unexpected about these killings.
Also bizarre was how the hair that a nurse had sold ended up at the second crime scene.
It took catching a Chrissie in the act to understand how weird this case would become.
Aram’s flying tackle to save the chef Billy Burton revealed that the murderer was one of a line of sex robots named Chrissie.
Since the Task Force hadn’t been looking for killer robots, it’s little wonder that they were surprised that robots catering to sexual proclivities existed.
Coding and hacking are in Aram’s wheelhouse, so it took no time for him to uncover that the hacker was an early buyer of a Chrissie who had fallen in love with her.
It was a short trip from there to catch up with the deranged man who had targeted those men abusing other Chrissies, unlike him.
Besides, the case of the week was secondary to the other storylines in this episode.
Red’s reunion with his former lover Cassandra, last seen on The Blacklist Season 7 Episode 12, was most enjoyable.
They both showed up for the funeral of their mutual fence Barney, about whom they both shared fond memories.
During one of those reminiscences, they both mentioned a lost ruby necklace, and Weecha pointed out that it was being worn by Barney’s widow, Matilda.
This set them back as they couldn’t believe that they had misread Barney for all those years, especially Raymond, who had banished Barney’s partner, Peter, figuring that he was behind the missing necklace. Raymond essentially said let bygones be bygones.
But of course, that wasn’t the end of it. Reddington stopped by the next day to pay his condolences to Matilda, complete with a chicken pot pie.
It wasn’t at all surprising that Cassandra was already there visiting since she was a thief at heart.
Naturally, they worked at cross purposes, Cassandra stealing the piece while Red was asking Matilda for another look at it.
Then Matilda walked in on them, overhearing as they blamed each other for their efforts to retrieve the necklace from her.
As they explained what Barney really was, Matilda just seemed too innocent. And when she dropped the name of Barney’s partner Peter, which Raymond had never offered, it was evident that she was more involved than she had let on.
In the end, Peter reinforced that Reddington was correct in his assessment of Barney and that Matilda was the one making the devious moves. Red correctly guessed that she had poisoned Barney when he attempted to divorce her.
Most telling was how Raymond keeps himself for Mierce, even if she has backed away from him because he was obsessed with finding the person behind Liz’s death.
Even though Cassandra threw herself at Reddington, he just told her he was taken and gave her the necklace as a parting gift.
Harold kept getting himself in a deeper hole while trying to discover who was framing him. Why doesn’t he step back and let Lew do the investigating?
A better question is who would have the opportunity to track his movements since his blackmailer appears to be one step ahead of him at all times.
He and Lew did learn one thing from questioning the bartender’s friend Everly: A New York City cop is behind the effort to frame him.
And how did Detective Heber happen to show up in Atlanta at the same time Harold was there? That’s pretty suspicious. It’s like Heber is working with the faceless detective who is after Cooper, who had to have pissed off numerous local cops through the years.
To follow Harold’s travails, watch The Blacklist online.
Did you enjoy this change of pace?
Did you guess a robot as the villain?
How did you enjoy seeing Cassandra again?
Comment below.
Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.