'The Blacklist' Season 7 Episode 17 Review: Will Donald Ressler and Liz Keene's relationship survive his past?
Spoilers for 'The Blacklist' Season 7 Episode 17 'Brothers'
After an entire week of being teased and waiting in anticipation about what bones are buried in Donald Ressler's (Diego Klattenhoff) past, it is finally time for answers. Even with Raymond 'Red' Reddington significantly absent from all the action, Ressler's backstory and the aftermath of it — the prices he has to pay and the consequences he has to deal with in life right now are enough to keep one hooked, thanks to the incredible writing. But even with all the secrets out and nothing more to hide, the one thing we are worried about is Ressler and Elizabeth Keene's (Megan Boone) relationship. Will it survive the storm it just braved?
The most recent Episode 17 of Deason 7, titled 'Brothers', opens with two men chasing a third one. One of them shoots the guy they were chasing, before turning to his own partner and shooting him. He says: "I told you to take the money Bob. The rest of us didn’t, I will look after Lisa and the boys."
The scene then cuts to the titular Ressler duo, with Donny asking his older brother Robby Ressler (Anthony Michael Hall) if he ever thinks about their father. It's time for another flashback and this time we see that man who shot his partner, arrive at the Ressler residence to inform their mother something bad has happened to her husband. Soon, there is a wake for their father, and the guy who shot him, Tom, is present. He offers his kindness to the teenage boys and even gives Robby his father's St Michael's charm. But Donny, who is outside drinking alone in a car, gets the real handout. He overhears Tom telling someone: “We gave the guy a chance, nobody wanted this, it’s cleaned up.”
When Donny tells this to Robby, he is met with disbelief. Robby is convinced Donny misunderstood what he heard so Donny takes matters in his own hands and arrives at Tom's house with a gun. After a minor confrontation and Tom provoking Donny saying he is making things work when he doesn't even have the balls to go ahead with his plans, Donny finally shoots him. And that is the body that's buried in the construction site soon to be dug up. After shooting Tom, Donny is spotted by Robby, who clears up the mess. But this is an incident that changed Donny pivotally. It made Donny the man he is today, as his brother claims in the previous episode, and as Donny claims, it was the same incident that made him realize the path he wanted to take as a grown-up.
But even with Donny and Robby digging up the body, and Donny thanking Robby, things aren't alright and this is where Liz has to step in. As the two brothers dig out the skeleton of Tom, some guys hijack Robby's car and run away with it. Turns out Robby has been loaning money from the Albanian mob and is now heavily in debt. The mob-leader wants the two brothers — with Donny's connections to the FBI — to get information about an undercover agent in exchange for Robby's safety and life.
It is at this point that Robby comes clean about how Tom was still alive when he was burying him, something that required Robby to hit him with a fatal blow and finish what Donny had started. So the two of them rig a plan with Liz where they ambush the mob by giving them a false pen drive, and carrying out a full-fledged shootout under Liz's orders. The only problem here is that the skeleton is still in Robby's trunk, so there's a high chance the police might find it. Knowing this full well, both Donny and Robby pursue the ambush and are ready to own up to what they had done years ago. But miraculously, when the FBI looks into Robby's trunk, it's been wiped squeaky clean.
At this point, it's obvious that Liz helped them out, but did she do it to save the one normal aspect if her life or was it to clear any dirt off the FBI's records? More than anything, there's fear surrounding Liz and Donny's relationship at this point as the two have evidently been through the utmost and deserve some peace after having found each other.
Later, after everything is over and Donny reaches out to Liz, he asks her why she would do it, and she says it's because amid all the storm and disaster in her life, he is the only teeny tiny source of calm, and she can't afford to lose that. But murdering someone has to be grave, and no matter the intent or the cause, Liz's integrity might never really allow her to overlook that part of Donny's past. So will this relationship survive? Or will it fall prey to swirling doubts and suspicion over what Donny is really capable of? Only time will tell.
'The Blacklist' Season 7 airs on Fridays at 8 pm only on NBC.