'The Blacklist' Season 8 Episode 2 Review: Who is N13? Here's why Liz may never find out answers she's seeking
Spoilers for Season 8 Episode 2
It was not a good day to be Elizabeth Keene. Manipulated by a woman who endangered her life first, and now is controlling the narrative of what's best for her, Liz's turn over to the dark side has been quite the journey. But you know what they say - careful what you wish for, or in this case, careful about the answers you look for. Liz is yet to find out the answers she has been seeking but ends up losing two people closest to her, or so she thought. In all of this, the only revelation we get are answers for the real identity of N-13.
The episode sees Liz kidnap Dom, even though he is in a fragile, barely-there state. As the old man clings on to his life, Liz interrogates him about things he can't quite place together. He keeps calling her Masha, which irks her, and when she confronts him about both keeping Red's secrets, and trying to kill Katarina all those years ago, Dom's legitimate shock as 'that woman' and Liz abducting him for her only make things murkier.
When Liz decides there's nothing left in Dom to wring him dry further, Katarina takes over the interrogation and confrontation. It's interesting how Dom has only referred to her as 'that woman' so far, thus raising the ambiguity surrounding her identity, but never quite not saying this woman is not who she claims to be. The next shocker comes when Katarina tells Dom Townsend, Initiative thinks she stole Sikorsky Archive and is therefore hunting her, and Dom clarifies saying it's because she did. The next shocker is of course Katarina pressing a deteriorating Dom, asking for the real identity of N13, and Dom mumbling "Reddington" in his fragile state. He further makes matters way unclearer insisting Katarina is the one who stole the archives, and both she and Red have it somehow.
Speaking of Red, he finds out where Liz is by putting a tracker on Ressler's vehicle after Liz calls her beau for help. At this point, Red seems cutthroat about his sentiments towards Liz; he either is beyond the betrayal or knows there is no other way out than taking down the woman using his mentee. Even though Liz warns Red "If you hurt her, we're done here… Whatever relationship we hard or have will be over," the man manages to hunt down the warehouse right in time for Dom to die in his arms with his final words being that of Katarina's name. Red tells the dying man that she always loved him, and while that does assert a deep relationship between Dom and Katarina, it doesn't quite nail the coffin.
Neither does Katarina's search for N13. She thinks it's Red, and meets up a henchman for her own safety now that this identification rests with her, but of course, Red is one step ahead of the game. He is already with the henchman where Katarina is fixing up a chat in the park, and when the discussion finally takes place, Katarina is shocked to find the actual henchman dead and Red in his place. The inevitable happens, but the final few moments are a glaring reminder of how long it will be before we finally get some foolproof answers.
Katarina mocks Red for losing whatever bit of Liz he had had in his life by killing her, in her final attempts to stay alive. But Red pulls the ultimate shocker and kills her anyway, right in time for an escaped Liz to arrive and watch him kill the woman she thinks is her mother. We know Red is N13, as he admits in Katarina's final moments how after Belgrave he still led people to believe it was her. And we know Liz is not letting vengeance drift by, watching Red kill the very woman who had manipulated her. It's sad that Liz would be so vapid and vain about this, but sadder that Red is actually beyond the point of caring.
'The Blacklist' Season 8 airs on Fridays at 8 pm only on NBC.