‘The Blacklist’: How The James Spader Drama Signed Off After 10 Seasons
SPOILER ALERT: This story contains plot points from the final two episodes of The Blacklist.
The Blacklist ended its 10-season run on NBC Thursday with James Spader’s Raymond Reddington successfully eluding the authorities for good.
Before the decision was made to end the Sony drama earlier this year, The Blacklist was a reliable utility player and performer for the network, despite having occupied 10 different time slots over its 10 seasons. It also underwent a major transition after Season 8 when both its female lead Megan Boone and creator Jon Bokenkamp departed. But the fans stuck around; Season 9 reached 29.1M viewers, more than doubling its rating in the 18-49 demographic and its total audience in Live+35 vs. same-day data.
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Season 10 kicked off in March with Reddington confronting “unparalleled danger” because former Blacklisters were uniting against him in a lethal desire for revenge. The two-hour series finale began with Reddington on the lam, with the Strike Force team and the vengeful Congressman Arthur Hudson (Toby Leonard Moore) trying to locate the elusive criminal turned FBI informant.
By the end of the first episode, Reddington comes face-to-face with Hudson and shoots him dead after the congressman put a bullet in Reddington’s bodyguard-turned-agent Dembe Zuma (Hisham Tawfiq). Reddington managed to get Dembe to a nursing home for treatment before continuing his quest to flee the country.
At the start of the second hour dubbed “Good Night,” the Task Force is back trying to locate Reddington while Special Agent Jordan Nixon (Derrick Williams) vows to avenge the congressman’s death by killing Reddington himself. That leads to a shoving match between Nixon and Assistant Director Harold Cooper (Henry Lennix) because, well, tough dudes gotta be tough dudes in moments of crisis.
Reddington, meanwhile, lands in Spain, where he shops for fruits and vegetables at a local market and makes one final call to his granddaughter Agnes (Sami Bray). He also takes the time to check in on Dembe, who later learns from Harold that he would be losing his job. Dembe doesn’t seem to care but he waxes poetic about his old pal.
The Strike Team continues to remain one step behind Reddington, whose last moments are spent on a scenic walkabout in the countryside. He comes face-to-face with a drooling bull, who studies Reddington with interest before charging toward him in slow motion.
The camera cuts to a helicopter landing on the field with the Strike Force’s Donald Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff) on board. He sees Reddington curled up in a bloody ball, his body lifeless.
Reddington is finally dead.
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