*Frederick Barnes in the Blacklist Season 1 episode, "Frederick Barnes".

Synopsis: The episode begins with a man getting on a train. Sitting his suitcase down, he's drawn into a short conversation with a friendly young woman who compliments his hat - she's able to name where he got it from, because she walks by that store every morning on the way to work and she's been saving up to buy the same hat for her dad. The man smiles and makes small-talk, but at the very next stop he gets up and walks off the train.

The woman notices that he forgot his suitcase, so she picks it up and scrambles to get it back to him before the doors close. She doesn't make it to the door in time, and she makes eye contact with him as the train carries her off with his suitcase in her hands.

The man pulls out a small remote control, and he presses a button.

The suitcase, still in the woman's hands, emits a fine gas.

Seconds later, she begins coughing. The blood vessels on her face bulge and turn purple, and the people around her begin to panic and scream - only to begin coughing themselves, the same vessels bulging and hardening around their face and neck.

In the span of a couple of minutes, everyone on that train carriage is dead.

Elizabeth Keen arrives on the scene where Ressler and Aram have been going over the attack. Aram has managed not only to pinpoint who the attacker was, but he's figured out that the briefcase he was carrying was the method of distribution - the weapon distributed a pathogen for an illness called Kurz disease that hardens the blood vessels of its victims and kills them over the course of a decade or so.

The main snafu in all of this is that the people on that train carriage were killed in a matter of minutes.

Reddington is able to identify the culprit - a man named Frederick Barnes who went dark years ago to manufacture chemical weapons and weaponised diseases for the highest bidder. His weapons exhibit trace amounts of a highly controlled substance, which is where Red's expertise kicks in - sending him off to meet his supplier while Liz and the taskforce hold down the fort and hunt for Barnes at home.

Thoughts: I'm trying to keep spoilers to a minimum through the pictures I attach to my posts. Sometimes I'll post who the Blacklister of the week is, like with the Stewmaker, and sometimes I'll go for a more innocent or visually interesting shot from the episode. If an episode is particularly explosive, I'll risk an impactful image - but even then, it won't be anywhere near the realm of the biggest twist of the episode.

For this post in particular, I decided to post a picture of Aram instead of posting a picture of this episode's villain.

There are two reasons for this.

The first reason is because despite having minimal interaction with the main cast yet, Aram has appeared in a couple episodes now and he's becoming a bigger presence over time. The main dynamic has been Ressler, Liz and Reddington, with Meera Malik being more of a kinetic action-oriented character and with Cooper overseeing the operation from the Post Office (the taskforce's base of operations - a decommissioned post office building that houses an FBI black site). Aram has started being their tech guy at the Post Office, but this episode has him out in the field with Ressler, AND it has him identifying the attacker right out of the gate.

To me, it seems like the FBI taskforce is getting into the swing of things. The first few episodes had Reddington dangling a nasty crook in front of them to get the FBI to go chase them - in this episode, the Blacklister of the week strikes and the FBI characters are able to narrow it down themselves. Red still offers some invaluable details that the team aren't able to glean, but they're getting better about it, and that's partially due to Aram's presence in the field.

Secondly - my post about the Courier mentioned that he was the first Blacklister who I recognised from another show. The Courier was played by a guy who was a major character on Prison Break - I don't particularly like that show, but I've seen enough of it to recognise Robert Knepper in this show. This episode's Blacklister, Frederick Barnes, is the second guy I recognise from another TV show: he's played by the guy who plays Wilson in House M.D.

I talked a lot about how the FBI taskforce feels a lot more capable now, and that's reflected in how split this episode's plot is. Reddington helps the taskforce with their case, but a lot of the detective work and boots-on-ground action happens between Liz, Ressler and Malik in DC while Red schmoozes around in Cuba and inquires about a house that's recently gone on the market.

And a part of that is because a major wedge has been driven between Liz and Reddington, but another part is because the FBI taskforce is becoming more of a team. They've got a long way to go, but as more and more puzzle pieces begin to fit together - in the form of new characters who offer their own unique characteristics and skillsets to the team - the taskforce becomes a tighter, more cohesive unit.

And in establishing this growing competency on the FBI's end, this episode is able to give Reddington a lot of screentime with Luli and Dembe. I really like Luli - she's a very fun, cheeky character. This episode gives her a fun little moment where she's disparaging this dingy little house that Red paid out the nose for, only to be met with a comment that's about as sentimental as it is blunt. To which she replies "...It's nice." Not in a pouty or snobby way either; her voice and demeanor noticeably softens. And the MUSIC that plays in this scene, my GOD.

She's been shown as a friendly, familiar and supportive person in Reddington's life, and it's always nice to see her get a little bit of a spotlight. And of course, it's always a pleasure to see Dembe make an appearance - he drives Reddington around in Havana, and he's the guy who Reddington entrusts the house to. It's a good episode to spotlight a particularly eventful day in Raymond Reddington's life - there's some crossover with the FBI storyline of course, but a lot of this episode is dedicated to Red, Dembe and Luli taking care of things on their end. I really appreciate that.

By this episode, the show is growing into itself nicely. Characters are reappearing and getting a little more refined, and everyone seems to be working a bit more like clockwork now that they've had a few weeks together in the field. And I almost forgot, there's a recurring character in the show who first appears in this episode - she's a doctor in Washington DC, and she has an Irish accent.

Every new episode feels like there's some brand new building block that forms the foundation of this show, and later seasons benefit a lot from that foundation; this doctor lady with the accent is a relatively small aspect of the entire show, but she's a familiar piece of the show's ensemble and it's just so nice to see her y'know. It's the little things. And of course, you have the deepening story of Reddington's past, which is a huge part of this show's overarching plot - but God knows you're not getting a serious taste of that for a long time yet.

Frederick Barnes/No. 47 (played by. Robert Sean Leonard)

wallpaper/lockscreen in 9:20 ratio.

The Blacklist S1 E7

RSL in this episode is extra EXTRA HOT hot.

[ pictures I used to edit, below ]

Frederick Barnes (No. 47)

Played By: Robert Sean Leonard

"Barnes has always operated with a certain level of... detachment—always the designer, the seller. Never the delivery agent of his own weapons. But if Barnes is now willing to use his work to kill indiscriminately, then he is, quite literally, the most dangerous man in the world."

— Raymond "Red" Reddington

A former military scientist and known genius who worked in creating and developing WMDs for the U.S. military under DARPA, now a chemical weapons killer for hire.

Anti-Villain: Barnes is motivated by love for his son and takes no pleasure in his acts, acts which are nevertheless monstrous.

All for Nothing: It's all but stated that by the time the FDA finishes testing the cure he developed for his son's rare condition, the boy will be dead.

Character Death: Liz shoots him to prevent him from injecting his son with an untested cure. This, notably, is an action Liz comes to regret or at least question.

Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His son.

Faux Affably Evil: He acts like most of Robert Sean Leonard's characters—calm, very polite, somewhat awkward. Then he lets a trainload of people die horrifying deaths.

I Did What I Had to Do: He will go to any lengths to save the life of his son.

Mad Scientist: A genius at designing biological weapons, he's gone off the deep end and started publicly using them to commit mass murder.

A Million Is a Statistic: He'll sacrifice the whole damn country in pursuit of a cure for his son's rare condition.

Papa Wolf: Willing to kill thousands, even millions, to save his son, Ethan.

Put Your Gun Down And Step Away: He pulls this on Liz. It works the first time. It doesn't the second time.

Well-Intentioned Extremist: He is just trying to cure his son from a rare disease.

To see him go from being an ordinary man to a mass-murderer who used a gas to kill many people, first on a train and then in a court room, all because he wants to find a cure for his dying son while blending in with his surroundings was chilling.

We got confirmation in Nachalo that the Tacoma house belonged to the real Raymond Reddington and his wife Carla. We also heard that Katarina and RRR carried on an affair and KR went to this house one weekend to watch Jennifer. How is Redarina explained here? A third man is never shown in the entire course of the series let alone a third man, not redarina and not the real RR involved with THAT HOUSE. Canon has shown us that the only people involved with that house were The Reddington’s and Katarina Rostova.

Personally again, i feel that Red’s backstory had not been mapped out in this 7th? episode of the series way back when. All the writers probably knew (just my guess/speculation is that Red had a tragic past... love and loss and all that jazz. So this was actually another one that was initially suppose to be true before they settled on Red being a Russian Spy as I stated on my Bubble Girl and Tacoma Park House post. 

Red could’ve just be lying and acting as RRR here when he said that. Or, the writers made this line fit with Nachalo and Redarina. It can still work but! RETCON! 

The only thing we saw that happened here as explained in Nachalo where Red said this IS THE TRUTH about HIS STORY is that in this home is where KR targeted Liz’s father as a spy. Stole intel from him whilst seducing him. RRR finds out, creates the Fulcrum, abducts his Daughter, the fire happens, and he dies as his Daughters hands. Basically if Red is Katarina, it could be explained that he is responsible for the cascade of events that happened after he decided to spy on the real RRR.