The Blacklist Fall Finale recap: 5×08 Ian Garvey
The Blacklist Fall Finale recap: Season 5, Episode 8, Ian Garvey, Aired Nov. 15, 2017
Until you stop lying, there will be no peace.
Number 13: Ian Garvey
Missing
Liz keeps calling Toms phone. His mailbox is full and the team has a BOLO out on him. Red calls Liz. He has a lead on Niks death. He tells her that it looks like Tom took a job that he didnt tell her about. Ressler comes in and says they have a hit on Toms car. He and Liz make their way to the Red Birch Motel.
After getting some attitude from the desk clerk, they kick the door in to room eleven. Liz sees the damage to the room and starts to come unglued. She calls Toms cell again because hearing his voice is all that calms her down. Toms phone is under the comforter.
Liz and Ressler head out to the gas station from last week and find the footage that Tom was after. Aram uncovers Pete McGees real name. The police currently have Pete listed as a suspect in Niks death. The team figures out that Tom is trying to track down Niks killer. Aram sends them to a crime scene where the police have found Petes body. Lenas all pulp and Liz, horrified, breaks down.
Thoughts:This piece of the story was really well done. When Liz is in the room at the Red Birch, as she begins to panic, the director shot her reflection in a shattered mirror. It said more than any words possibly could and its one of the moments in this episode thats worth a rewatch.
Captive
Tom closes Lenas eyes and starts to take a pendant from around her neck. Ian Garvey and his men start setting up a wood chipper to dispose of Pete and Lena. He tells Tom to setup a meeting with Red and, in case Tom has a change of heart, we see Garveys men feed Lenas body into the wood chipper.The tail Red has on Tom is watching from the woods. He tells Red that whatevers happening isnt good.
The sound of that wood chipper is ominous. Red and Dembe are twenty minutes out. He gets a call from Tom. They setup a meet at a motel, but Garvey goes instead, leaving Tom behind. He says that if anything goes wrong, Tom joins his pals. Into the chipper, skipper!
Tom escapes from his captors. He used the pendant from Lenas necklace to saw through his restraints. As two of Garveys men chase him through the woods, Tom, briefcase in hand, gets to a road as Red and Dembe pull up. He hesitates and is shot, but he manages to get in the car. Red says that he warned him about the suitcase.
Thoughts:The Blacklist has gone to some dark places before, but this might have been the darkest. Overall, the episode was bloody, but the wood chipper was on a whole other level. [Thats not a bad thing.] In fact, considering how important this episode is in the shows cannon, they saved this kind of content for the right time.
Running Men
Red, Dembe, and Tom are stranded as Garveys men hit the radiator and oil pan when shooting at the car. They start a trek west through the forest and come upon a house. Dembe goes ahead to see if its safe while Red and Tom stay in the brush. Red tells Tom that the suitcase is a secret, not a lie. We get a flashback of Tom getting his assignment to protect Liz. No one is home at the house. Garvey and his men find the car and he knows they have headed west.
Red, Dembe, and Tom are in the house getting some supplies and getting cleaned up. Red tells Tom not to assume that whats in the suitcase will bring Liz happiness or closure. Tom, though, is sure it will. Another flashback to Tom being chided for getting too close to Liz. Dembe is working on a car in the garage, trying to get it started, when he hears footsteps outside.
Inside the house, Red tells Tom theyve stayed too long as they continue to argue about Toms getting too close to Liz. Red spots one of Garveys men outside and says they will be surrounded soon.
Thoughts:This was a nice breather sequence and it still managed to move things forward. Reds certainty that the suitcases contents will not help Liz is interesting and makes me wonder, if true, how they avoid letting viewers down.
Pinned Down
Garvey and his men are inside. Dembe hides in the floorboard of the car while Tom and Red hide in the attic space. Everythings good until blood from Toms wound drips through a vent and onto one of Garveys men. That starts a shootout.
Dembe runs over one guy. Red and Tom shoot their way out of the house. The idiot that Dembe ran over gets up and shoots out the back window of the car. He calmly backs over him, killing him. Tom makes molotov cocktails and sets Garveys cars on fire. They get away as Garvey and his henchman are stranded.
As Dembe gasses up the car, Tom asks Red to tell him whos in the suitcase. Red reveals he was at Liz and Toms first wedding. Tom goes to the bathroom to change. Red realizes Tom swapped the guns and the bones, leaving through the bathroom window.
Thoughts:There was some nice action here and it sets up the finale well.
Final Steps
Tom makes his way to the train station and takes a moment to read the DNA results. He appears surprised and a little shaken. He calls Liz, who is relieved, and tells her she cant tell anyone that hes okay and she has to meet him at the house. Hes figured the entire thing out. Red calls Aram and tells him that hes worried that whatever Tom is wrapped up in, hes involving Liz.
Aram tells him that Liz has vanished and isnt answering her phone. Tom changes clothes and gets paged as he exits the restroom. Its Red, telling him that hes making a mistake. Tom tells him that he knows everything and hes going to tell Liz.
The End
Liz makes it home. She rushes in and finds Tom tied up. Garvey and his goons are waiting. Liz knocks the hell out of Garvey. Garvey stabs Tom twice in the gut and Liz is knocked unconscious with a savage blow to the back of the head.
Garvey insists on Tom calling Red, but he refuses. He stabs him again and tells his men to finish them off. One of them puts on a record of Crosby, Stills, and Nashs Southern Cross to do their dirty work to. One of the men starts to shoot Liz, but another one stops him. The men continue to lay plastic down and put on gloves.
Tom grabs the knife hes been stabbed with while theyre distracted. He attacks and takes out nearly all of the men. As one has him in a chokehold, Red and Dembe bust in with guns blazing. Dembe tells Red that Tom has lost an awful lot of blood. Red tells him to call Cooper and say that theyre going to the hospital, but Dembe isnt sure theyll make it.
Red and Dembe load Liz and Tom into the car and Samar arranges a police escort to the hospital. A great montage of the doctors trying to save Liz and Tom, with Disturbeds cover of The Sound of Silence playing over it.
Thoughts:What a sequence! Tom goes out in the role of hero, defending his wife. The music selections for this sequence could not have been better, especially The Sound of Silence. Is this the greatest sequence in the history of this show so far? It just might be.
Aftermath
Red is reading William Ernest Henleys Invictus at Lizs bedside. She awakens and asks for something to write with. She wants to know how long its been and Red tells her its been nearly a yearten months. Then she asks about Tom. Red tells her that Tom is dead and we get the shots of Tom in the morgue.
Wrap-up
What an episode!! Possibly the best sequence in the history of the show. Tom is certainly dead, but maybe Ryan Eggold will get to return to film the occasional flashback or dream sequence. He did an amazing job over the seasons bringing that character to life and now we get to see the fallout of Toms death in the second half of the season, premiering January 3rd.