'The Blacklist' Season 7 Episode 17: Fans say show could do without Red with Liz and Ressler now as 'endgame'
Spoilers for 'The Blacklist' Season 7 Episode 17 'Brothers'
The latest episode of 'The Blacklist' Season 7 had fans anticipating the worst: with Raymond 'Red' Reddington (James Spader) significantly missing from the plot, it would be a total flop. A lot of viewers complained about an entire episode dedicated to Donald 'Donny' Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff), but that was before the episode aired. Once through with 'Brothers', aka Episode 17, fans are convinced the writers of the show can make absolutely anything work and the show could easily go on without its pivotal character. The reason? The budding romance between Donny and Elizabeth 'Liz' Keen (Megan Boone).
The episode took a trip to Donny's past as it returned to haunt him. We learned what had set him off in the path to becoming an FBI agent and dug out buried bones of the man who had killed his father and was in turn shot by him. All of this happened when Donny's older brother Robby Ressler (Anthony Michael Hall) comes to pay him a visit, saying the site where he had buried the body to clear Donny's mess as a teenager, was being turned into a construction site and thus sparked off a story of money and debts wth the Albanian mob hounding Robby for his unpaid loans. In all of this, only Liz is able to save the two Ressler brothers by ambushing the mob and even making the skeleton disappear before the FBI can find anything and the reason she gives Donny is that amid all the storms in her life, he is the only source of calm.
Everything about this backstory and the eventual aftermath of it managed to get fans emotional and convinced that maybe a Red-less show might not be all that bad. Taking it to Twitter they said how "Tonight’s episode changed my mind about one thing... The show could survive without Red....and I never thought I would say that and I don’t want it to, but it could. Incredible performances by Megan and Diego." Similarly, a second one chimed in: "Missed Red but loved every bit of it through and through!" Another fan wrote to the writers saying: "Thank you so much for this amazing episode," while a third fan resonated with similar gratitude, noting: "It was high gear, full speed filled with just everything.....and now we know our Donny. You writers have THE gift!"
Even Donny's character development garnered applause from fans, as one wrote: "Great #TheBlacklist episode tonight! The past what formed Ressler who he is today and proof that during the years and crazy blacklisters Liz & Ressler relying on each other, more than they even admitted themselves. Great background story, exciting, emotional. Well done!" But for most others, it was the setting up of the romance between him and Liz that stole the show. "I think this is the beginning of a great love story. Ressler and Keen! I ship that!" tweeted a fan, while another wrote: "They are so cute! Anyone else feel they are setting us up for Elizabeth and Ressler to be endgame?"
Given Liz and Donny's very emotional scene right at the end of the episode, some fans are also convinced that her daughter Agnes is actually her and Donny's child. "Agnes is Ressler's daughter. #TheBlacklist Time for a DNA test," claimed one fan, while another just harped profoundly for answers, tweeting: "What about agnes? is she the daughter of ressler? are there chapters between liz and ressler that we don't know yet?"
'The Blacklist' Season 7 airs on Fridays at 8 pm only on NBC.