The fall finale of The Blacklist wasn't at any point a disappointment as it delivered a finale that will have everyone talking about through the hiatus.
With Tom Keen no where to be found, Liz is worried after trying to call him a lot. They soon pick up clues to where Tom has been around from the motel to the gas station. Liz thinks that Tom is trying to kind Nick's killer.
While Liz is searching for Tom, Tom, who happened to open the flood gates of trouble, is being held by Ina Garvery in the woods. Ian tries to make Tom talk about the suitcase but won't speak of it, not even when both Pete and his girlfriend's dead bodies in the wood clipper. Ian makes Tom call Red and telling where to meet, unaware that he and Dembe are a couple of minutes away but plays to their plan.
With Ian gone to meet with Red, Tom escapes along with the suitcase and runs into the woods, guns a blazing. As it looked like things were coming to an end, Tom runs into a car that has Red and Dembe and gets in even after getting shot in the back. The three rushed off.
Now with Tom being with Red, you know there's going to be some father-in-law/son-in-law bonding time happening here. As they find shelter for the moment, Tom and Red talk about not only the suitcase but the whole reason why Tom got the job to look after Liz and we see flashbacks of Tom getting the information about Liz and only interact but never to fall in love. Well, love is a powerful thing.
Soon Ian and his men get to the house that Red, Tom and Dembe are at, the three hide til when Tom's blood drips down from the vent. Red and tom get out but not without leaving a bit of a warm getaway package for Ian, burning their vehicles. As they stopped at the gas station, Tom asked again about what's in the suitcase, Red talks about how he heard about him and Liz getting married (the first time) and talked about how mad he was but know how Tom makes her happy.
After their talk, Tom makes a getaway with the bones and DNA results. He gets to the Union Station and looks at the results with an expression that quickly makes him call Liz to tell her to meet him at home alone (having the babysitter take Agnus somewhere safe). Red gets word about Liz gone MIA and gets word that the last call came from the train station. He makes a call to Tom at the station and tells him that he doesn't have to do this, but Tom won't stop.
As Liz gets home, she's with worried and excitement but that goes away when she sees him tied up and beaten. That's where Ian and his group surround them. Liz of course, punches Ian in the face. Ian makes Tom pay for what he had done, by stabbing him in the stomach. And again when he asked Tom to call Red but wouldn't. Liz gets punched and falls to the floor where she suffers a severe head injury. There Ian lets his guys clean the place up and to kill both Tom and Liz while playing "Southern Cross" playing in the background. But Tom grabs the knife that was left from Ian and free himself and goes after the guys and then Red and Demeb get there with their guns going off blazing. And when Red gets to Tom, he doesn't kill him, but kills the other guy behind him on the floor.
With Tom and Liz severely injured, Red and Dembe rush them to the hospital with the help of Cooper and the FBI escorting them there. Just before they get to the hospital, Tom and Liz try to tell one another to stay alive and make sure that Agnus remembers her. As the rush in the ER, both in the same room, Liz is put on a tube and gets her head drilled of fear of a brain bleed while they try to get Tom's heart going and fixing up his wounds, but in the end....Tom dies.
We jump to with Red reading off a lovely verse from the bible and gets shocked when Liz wakes up. She asked how long she's been under and Red informs her that it's been 10 months and the next question was about Tom and he tells her that he'd died. And we see Tom's body in the morgue with Cooper as witness being put in the cooler in spite that he is really gone.
This episode was a freight train of emotions and such memorable moments that it still as I'm writing this had me choking up. I had a feeling Tom was going die, he did open the flood gates to trouble, but did it for the all the right reasons, love and the truth for Liz. I thought that performance between Spader and Eggold was solid and special watching these two in their character moments of the past and present. Even Jonny Coyne's performance of Ian Garvey was thrilling as well. Boone's Liz carries a lot of the emotional scenes through part of the episode til it was between Liz and Tom at the end. The writing was so strong, the directing captured so many great moments from the character's prospective. Even the song choices were should I say memorable and yet very emotional as well.
As for what will happen in the second half of the season, I think Liz is going to probably have a tough time getting back to business. Hell, I can't wait to see how Ian is going to use the bones and DNA results against Red. I do think and I'm saying that I think that maybe those bones are those of Liz's mother.
Overall, I give this episode a 9.5/10.
You can catch The Blacklist when it returns Wednesday, January 3rd at 8/7c on NBC.