‘The Blacklist’ REVIEW/RECAP Ep. 9 ‘Anslo Garrick’: Agent Ressler, Red Bond; Violent Turn of Events
Red is an enigma. The Episode 9 of "The Blacklist," "Anslo Garrick," opened a couple of pages of this enigma. The episode opens with a scene of Red trying to fix the badly wounded leg of Agent Ressler. The time jumps back to 13 hours earlier. In Munich, Germany, Red is having some drinks time with fellow criminals when Agent Ressler walks in to inform him that Agent Liz has been detained and she needs him.
Liz, however, is with her husband Tom at her home, missing and talking about the father who adopted her. She remembers a fire that burned her dolls. It is not Liz who needed help but it is Red's life that is in danger. CIA received the intelligence that someone deadly is all set to assassinate him. As a result, the FBI tracked him down and has taken him into protective custody. The nemesis of Red is no ordinary man. Anslo Garrick is the most dangerous name on the Blacklist. Red tells the FBI team that they have fallen into the trap set by Garrick by bringing him to the FBI office. Garrick is known for extracting people from such places and there is no one beyond his reach.
While Red is eulogising Garrick's reach, how he functions and that he is immune to bullets, Garrick enters the maximum security FBI's dome, with his heavily armed men called Wild Bunch. Unaware of what is happening, Liz enters the elevator that soon stops as the whole place plunges into darkness because the Wild Bunch has cut the power supply.
Agent Ressler is taking a handcuffed Red to the impenetrable glass box. He tells Red that he is his responsibility and he is going to fight for his life, regardless of how badly he wants to take it. However, it is Red who ends up taking Agent Ressler to the glass box. Agent Ressler's leg is badly injured as a result of the encounter with Wild Bunch.
Locked inside the glass box, Red tries to keep Agent Ressler conscious and uses his makeshift surgery skills to stop the bleeding. Garrick tells Red that for five years he waited for the day to seek his revenge on Red. Red had shot him, disfiguring his face. Garrick says to Red that there is no "distance you could cover or a hole where you could hide. There is nowhere in the world I cannot reach you." He wants to inflict pain on Red's will, body and mind.
Garrick tells Red that Agent Ressler, the one who he is saving now, was part of a hit squad that was sent to kill him. Garrick had provided the information on Red to him. Red does not fall for that. Red talks about Garrick's horrific scar on the face and that he was always beaten by him.
Liz manages to get out of the elevator. Cooper and Agent Mallik are captured by the Wild Bunch. Liz is able to put down a couple of men of the Wild Bunch. She and the FBI's tech man team to get the lights back. Red and Agent Ressler share the same blood group. Red does the blood transfusion. The two men talk and it is one-to-one personal talk. Agent Ressler tells him that he and his ex broke-up because of his obsession to capture Red.
Agent Ressler wants to know why Red defected and Red tells him that people become who they are and that one cannot judge a book from its cover. Red is not seeking revenge as it gets over soon. He is seeking something beyond that. He talks about what he wishes from his life, which makes Agent Ressler shed some silent tears.
Unable to make Cooper or Red (Agent Ressler is not telling him the code) open the glass box, Garrick kills the female assistant of Red. He later puts the gun on the head of Red's bodyguard and a shot is heard. Liz is also captured.
The action-packed episode was one of the best episodes of "The Blacklist." Ritchie Coster as Garrick was terrific. The episode brought to the fore the leadership qualities of Liz and she killed, without her hands shaking. The bonding of Agent Ressler and Red was worth watching. Red revealed his human-side to Agent Ressler. The shedding of tears showed that Agent Ressler hasn't had a good, peaceful sleep since a long time. Once Red and Agent Ressler come out of Garrick's shadow, they are going to connect without needing Liz. The two men share the same blood type, B Negative, and it looks like, they share a lot more than that.