The Blacklist S3Ep13 Alistair Pitt Review

The Blacklist S3Ep13 Alistair Pitt Review

After the death of The Director, and the peace deal between Reddington (James Spader) and the Cabal, The Blacklist has to re-invent itself. So far, it seems to be more of the same. Reddington is up against an international power struggle in which the Cabal is only one faction. As a viewer I started feeling skeptical about the direction the show took. I mean, how realistic is it to assume there are secret organizations vying for power. That said, I have been enjoying these last few weeks. With Liz now being a convicted criminal her life has become that much more difficult. Now that she is pregnant she has to carefully consider her future, which isn’t easy with Tom being the father of her child and Raymond Reddington the godfather. At times it does feel as if the Liz’s (Megan Boone) story I nothing but melodrama. I remain unconvinced about her pregnancy. Luckily The Blacklist is a lot more than that.

As Liz deals with her choices the task force has to deal with an escalating war between two criminal families. Suddenly, the fighting seems over. Reddington warns the task force that a man representing the Promnestria organization is behind this cease fire. His name is Alistair Pitt (played by Tony Shalhoub) and he convinces the two crime families to agree to an arranged marriage. Pitt is certainly one of the oddest blacklister to have been on the show. His love for his dogs and the fact he talks to them makes me wonder how he ever came to control an organization.

Despite the apprehension of both families arrangements for the wedding are proceeding. This includes murdering the fiancé of the groom-to-be. It is not clear to anyone why Reddington is interested in the wedding, through flashbacks we see how four years before he had an affaire with a French woman. Reddington gets himself invited to the ceremony by one of the families. Once there it becomes clear that one oft he families has no intention of keeping the peace and is only interested in wiping out the other.

Reddington makes in impassionate speech about how somebody arranged for the two families to be at war and then arranged for the peace. He also sidetracks talking about his favorite telenovela. As it becomes clear to the groom-to-be and the two families what Alistair Pitt has done he reveals himself. Just then the shooting starts, with the FBI attempting to arrest everybody, Reddington manages to whisk away Alistair Pitt. In Paris Reddington reveals to Pitt why he took him. Pitt had arranged the marriage between the women Red was having an affaire with and a man belonging to a rivalling family. The man severely beat the woman. Red shot the man but the woman remains in near catatonic state. Red then shoots dead Pitt.

The episode had its usual fare of side-stories. The one involving Tom running a diamond heist with his ex-lover so he can provide for Liz seemed way to much like filler. I won’t discuss it here. One odd story concept had to do with the DEA agent assigned to the task force to help it catch Alistair Pitt. His incessant attempts to antagonize Liz by calling her comrade felt as if it had a deeper meaning. His sudden death at the hands of Reddington felt out of place. Liz may well end up in trouble with Cooper. And so, the episode ended with the death of the husband of the woman Reddington had an affaire with, the death of the DEA agent, loads of dead mobsters and of course the death of Alistair Pitt. A body count that will surely have consequences.

For all the excitement during this episode there were a few noticeable duds. One of those was the FBI team. Harold Cooper had few lines and neither did Ressler or Aram. Navabi would have been the same if it weren’t for the odd lines she got. Numerous times she told Liz she would throw her a baby shower. After Liz finally told her she was giving the baby away for adoption did Navabi tell her what was on her mind. Her former Mossad partner and ex-lover Levi is engaged to someone else. Just like the diamond heist this development felt shoehorned into the episode, just like Mozhan Marnò was shoehorned into a cocktail dress just for the sake of being at the shootout between the two crime families at the end. Fans of Marno have to accept her character has her moments, but the writers too often leave her underused.

As such, Alistair Pitt, was a flawed episode. Its flaws could have easily been avoided by focusing solely on the main storyline. Yet its flaws do not seriously detract from the episode. Alistair Pitt was great fun, but it was also very dark. This The Blacklist S3Ep13 Alistair Pitt Review. I hope you enjoyed the review.