#keen2week

In one word: team. I could go on about their love story, but we’ve done that over and over. He had never loved before, she showed him how. He makes her feel safe and secure because she knows his love is true beyond all the lies and deceptions. But what has been beautiful in season 4 and kept me shipping was how this season’s writing has solidified them as a team. Domestically and in the field. They have had their fights and disagreements but each time the writing shows them coming back together and stronger. This appreciation week will highlight how they support each other, how they are a partnership through marriage and experience, and those things have kept me shipping them more than ever.

Then she knows when to let go. I love how he can pull a laugh out of her and that smile she gives him with just a hint of an eye roll. She knows him so well. What he’s saying, what he’s not saying, and the meaning behind it all. It was a beautiful moment, and while S3 and 4A showed a great deal of Tom supporting Liz in any way that he could, I love that this part of the season showed that it goes both ways.

This was so hard because they have so many moments where they are just #somarried. But I chose this one. It stands out because Tom does not agree with her. He is worried, he is scared for her and he doesn’t want her to risk her life. He wants their family to be enough. But he knows her, he knows his wife. He knows that she will do what she wants to do. So even though he gives his opinion, which she brilliantly tells him she didn’t agree with (so married), even though he tells her this is a choice, not something she has to do, he is right by her side the whole time. He brings her coffee, keeps her company, and tells her of his admiration. Because even though his fear was winning out for concern for her, he also admires her. And that is what marriage and partnership is. You may not agree with the person, you may get upset or sad, but you stand by each other. And when the danger hits and they’re separated, they are right back at it fighting for each other and coming to each other’s defense. Again, #somarried. 

♫ When we are together you make me feel like my mind is free and my dreams are reachable. You know I never ever believed in love or believed one day you would come along and free me ♪

This scene was perfect, domestic, adorable Keen3. Tom and Liz are in such a routine with their little girl now, toys on the floor, coffee, running late to work, but getting it all done. It was such a great parallel to the premiere of The Blacklist, which is fitting, but only with a baby. I love them discussing their schedule to get Agnes to the doctor, and Liz is so determined he take the interview and they can make it work. Then right after, so supportive in him going to figure out the business with his father. They’re all smiles with their baby girl and working like a family with obstacles and roadblocks, both mundane and otherwise. 

You didn’t really think I’d choose just one, did you? The thing with this season is that it as seriously been littered with support moments, and I couldn’t just pick one. They have been supportive, even if they don’t know the details, of their decisions to know their parents. They have steadied each other through moments of turmoil. Just a simple touch and a few words have made all the difference. Being there. Accepting each other. Knowing that they weren’t going through anything alone. These two have been each others’ rocks, and it has been beautiful. No. I couldn’t just pick one moment.

My favorite parallel is their whole story of identity, self-discovery, and the desire of their own family. “I think that’s what made Liz and I work. You know, it was the first time either of us felt like family.” These two have so little information about their pasts and have gone down very interesting roads because of it. Flawed, and broken many times they have had to evaluate who they want to be. Both born under different names but have chosen to be someone else. Christopher Hargrave, then Jacob Phelps, Tom has decided to be Tom because that is where he found he true identity and who he wants to be. Elizabeth, born under Masha, and hurt and devastated by Tom initially, chose to remain Keen because that is who she chose to be. Both want to fill in the blanks to their pasts, but both have expressed that what matters above all is each other and their daughter. Their family. Learning about your past is terrifying, and for both, necessary, but what is also important is both of them discovering who they are and who they choose to be, and most importantly, protecting the family they’ve built. The family they found in each other. 

As a fan of all the many, many parallels that the Blacklist draws for us, this is certainly one of my top favourites.