'The Blacklist' Season 7 Episode 13 Review: Red tackles killer sound waves amid Liz's secret investigation
Spoilers for 'The Blacklist' Season 7 Episode 13 'Newton Purcell'
It is one of those episodes where one can't help but marvel at the writers of the NBC procedural for coming up with plots that would keep you distracted even in times as harrowing and dire as these.
While James Spaders' Raymond 'Red' Reddington is forever a delight to behold as he goes about his former-crook turned off-market art connoisseur ways, helping Elizabeth Keene in the FBI to solve one mysterious case after the other, this time, however, their enemy is unusual. The titular Newton Purcell suffers from an unusual condition, but what's crazier is the new pollutant he introduces us to in this episode — all of which starts with a blast that Red has to investigate. Add to that Liz's constant efforts in trying to prove her mother is still alive, and Red's got quite the case in his hands.
Kicking off with a blast that we initially think was caused by a terrible electrician, but eventually turns out to be a fake and insidious one, the episode introduces us to the antagonist Newton Purcell way later, after Red has established that the blast at the Optimus centers was mostly from domestic units to extract intel.
However, as Newton's plan progresses, we see him kidnap a man by slamming the hood of his car on his head repeatedly. When the abducted man wakes up, he is surrounded by speakers as he rests in a tub full of water. Mysterious and spooky at the same time, things only get better with Newton revealing that he and his hostage go way back, thus sparking off our intrigue once again.
Turns out, back in the day, Newton had tried convincing this man that sound could drive a man insane but he didn't believe him. So, adjusting the amplitude and frequency of sound waves, Newton claims sound can cause anything from a mild-tingling to disruption of blood circulation and nerve functions, and his way of proving his theory is by demonstrating it on this man first hand and the inevitable happens as Newton asks: "Can a person be killed by sound?"
Of course he can, or our task force at the FBI wouldn't really have much of a job. But seven seasons and 13 episodes later, the fact that they managed to come up with something this rare, a road this less traveled to cause murder and mayhem by an antagonist in a regular prime time procedural is what makes 'The Blacklist' stand apart in its sea of competitors.
Things don't exactly end there as another woman has to almost fall prey to Newton before the team can finally contain his malicious agenda. Turns out, Newton was an employee at the Optimus server firm, where the facility's cooling systems emitted low-frequency sounds that cause stress hormones to elevate, resulting in high blood pressure, stroke and even heart failure. Newton used to be a former employee at the firm and blames them for having ruined his functionality. So who better to pin this on than the experts who authorized the usage of these systems.
During his confession to the FBI, Newton makes loud proclamations like "sound pollution has drowned out God's music, and no one cares" and that really does hit one with doubts about exactly how harmful this pollution can be. Just the kind of thing one would like to worry about, now that we are all locked down within the inescapable confines of our own homes.
But when not focussing on a raging maniac out for revenge from his former employers, the episode also sees Elizabeth aka Liz get dragged into a mysterious subplot where an unknown number kept messaging her things like, "DEAD END… SO SORRY!!!!" and "Still nothing on Mr. X. LOOKING EVERYWHERE." At first we think it could be people looking for intel on her believed-to-be-dead mother, but the usage of pronouns strikes off that conclusion.
Turns out, it's an FBI friend of hers looking for someone called Islya Koslov. "To find him, you're going to need a ghost hunter," Liz's friend tells her, along with leads on the right person for the job who is also "Psychotic and worth every penny".
The episode wraps with Liz opening that box with the carved symbol that resembles her burn scar and she pulls out hard cash and there's also a faint focus on a Colombian passport with Agnes' face on it. It's a loose end and we know the money is going to the 'ghost hunter' who Liz so desperately wants to dig up Koslov, but something tells us that this won't happen without Red's interference so perfect — another thing to look forward to.
'The Blacklist' Season 7 airs on Fridays at 8pm only on NBC.