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"Luther Braxton" is the ninth episode of the second season of American
crime drama Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...
''
The Blacklist ''The Blacklist'' is an American crime thriller television series created by Jon Bokenkamp and developed by John Eisendrath. It stars James Spader as Raymond Reddington, an international criminal and one of the FBI's Most Wanted fugitives ...
'', which aired on February 1, 2015
after After may refer to: Literature * ''After'' (Elgar), an 1895 poem by Philip Bourke Marston set to music by Edward Elgar * ''After'' (Prose novel), a 2003 novel by Francine Prose * ''After'' (Chalifour book), a 2005 book by Canadian writer Francis ...
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
concluded coverage of
Super Bowl XLIX Super Bowl XLIX was an American football game played to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2014 NFL season, 2014 season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion 2014 New England Patriots season, New Eng ...
. It is the first part of a two-part episode which concluded on February 5, 2015. The Blacklist number for the episode is No. 21.


Plot

News broadcasts highlight the military's capture in Asia of Reddington (
James Spader James Todd Spader (born February 7, 1960; ) is an American actor. He is known for often portraying eccentric and morally ambiguous characters. He began his career in critically acclaimed independent films before transitioning into television, f ...
), whose current whereabouts are undisclosed to the public. Reddington has been placed in "The Factory", an oil rig-type high-security prison in the middle of the
Bering Sea The Bering Sea ( , ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre, p=ˈbʲerʲɪnɡəvə ˈmorʲe) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasse ...
. Reddington twice offers bribes of $50,000 to a prison guard (Scott A. Martin), the first to see the warden and the next to escape, since Red knows that Factory inmate Luther Todd Braxton (
Ron Perlman Ronald N. Perlman (born April 13, 1950) is an American actor. His credits include the roles of Amoukar in ''Quest for Fire (film), Quest for Fire'' (1981), Salvatore in ''The Name of the Rose (film), The Name of the Rose'' (1986), Vincent in th ...
) is going to escape and wreak havoc and drastically threaten Red's interests and life. Assistant Director Cooper (
Harry Lennix Harold Joseph Lennix III (born November 16, 1964) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Terrence "Dresser" Williams in the Robert Townsend film '' The Five Heartbeats'' (1991) and as Boyd Langton in the science-fiction series '' Do ...
) meets with high-level NCS members Kat Goodson (
Janel Moloney Janel Moloney (born October 3, 1969) is an American actress, best known for her role as Donna Moss on the television series ''The West Wing'', a role for which she received nominations for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress ...
) and her unnamed superior (
David Strathairn David Russell Strathairn (; born January 26, 1949) is an American actor. Known for his leading roles on stage and screen, he has often portrayed historical figures such as Edward R. Murrow, J. Robert Oppenheimer, William H. Seward, and John D ...
), who has replaced Alan Fitch as the NCS's board director. They inform Cooper of the situation, prompting him to dispatch agents Keen (
Megan Boone Megan Boone (born April 29, 1983) is an American actress and producer. She is best known for her role as FBI agent and profiler Elizabeth Keen on the first eight seasons (2013–2021) of the drama series ''The Blacklist''. Early in her career s ...
), Ressler (
Diego Klattenhoff Diego Klattenhoff (born November 30, 1979) is a Canadian actor known for his portrayals of Mike Faber in the Showtime series ''Homeland'' and as FBI Special Agent Donald Ressler in ''The Blacklist''. He has also appeared as Derek in '' Whistler ...
) and Navabi (
Mozhan Marnò Mozhan Navabi (born May 3, 1980) is an American film and television actress. She is known for her roles in ''The Blacklist'' and ''House of Cards'' and played Soraya Manutchehri in '' The Stoning of Soraya M.''. She was previously known as Mozha ...
) to the Factory to extract Reddington. Meanwhile, Braxton cleverly breaks out of his cell and assembles a team of criminals. The three FBI agents are ambushed by Braxton's men upon arrival, with Ressler and Samar being captured while Liz is able to escape. Liz reunites with Reddington, who tells her he didn't want her here. Reddington explains that he planned his arrest to stop Braxton from obtaining "The Fulcrum", a data file containing highly confidential and compromising information on many very powerful and important people. The Fulcrum is not physically in the prison, but access to all real-time USA intelligence information is available there. Red and Liz meet with a group of factory inmates to plan their efforts to foil Braxton's scheme. One man advises that they go to the boiler room and cause an explosion that will destroy the Factory's server. Braxton calls Reddington over the phone and the two have a brief confrontational talk. Braxton intends to get the code needed to access the Factory's servers, which Goodson is determined to prevent. The FBI attempts to negotiate with Braxton, who responds by executing the warden (
John Ventimiglia John Ventimiglia (, ; born ) is an American actor. He portrayed Artie Bucco in the HBO television series ''The Sopranos'' and had a recurring role as Dino Arbogast, an Organized Crime Control Bureau Chief for the NYPD, on the American police pr ...
) and threatening to have Samar hanged. Cooper reluctantly gives the code to Braxton, whose men then go to the servers and gain access to the secret intelligence system. Liz crawls through narrow ventilation tunnels to get to the boiler room and then lets Red in. There they work together to increase the pressure in the boilers until an explosion occurs, incapacitating Red and causing Braxton to lose the server connection. Liz unsuccessfully attempts to resuscitate Red, thinks him dead, and ends up getting captured and taken to Braxton. Elsewhere, the NCS director is urged by his coworkers to have Braxton and Red eliminated, and orders Goodson to order an air strike on the facility. Reddington's helpers 'wake him up', he obtains and brandishes a shotgun, making his way through the wild prison inmates until he arrives at Braxton's location, shoots his men down and subdues him. Braxton begins to see and explain that he knows about Red and Liz's history in the house fire, how Red "came for Liz" and that Liz is "the one". Red urges Liz to shoot Braxton, but the missile strike hits the prison first.


Production

Series creator
Jon Bokenkamp Jon Bokenkamp (born September 9, 1974 in Kearney, Nebraska) is an American writer and producer best known for his role in writing the screenplays for '' Taking Lives'' and '' The Call'', and creating the NBC series ''The Blacklist'' along with ' ...
—in an interview for ''
The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
''—said that the two-part story arc resembles a "big heightened event movie in a very contained way." When asked whether or not the episode will be fit for new viewers post-Super Bowl, Bokenkamp said:
It's certainly an episode designed for a new viewer to just dive right into. In watching it, I think they will very easily get a sense of what the show is, who Reddington is, what the show tastes and feels and smells like. It's an easy show to sort of dive right into at this point, but also I think we've designed some really fun revelations and some urprising payoffsfor people who are ardent fans.
In regard to preparation for new viewers, executive producer
John Eisendrath John Eisendrath is an American television series producer and writer. He created and served as the executive producer and showrunner for the series ''Outlaw'', '' Playmakers'', and currently serves as executive producer on NBC's '' The Blacklist ...
said in an interview for ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
'':
Yes, we knew that it was going to be the Super Bowl. We felt as if, first of all, we were going to get a lot of viewers who had never seen the show before. We wanted to make sure that we had an episode that was a good introductory episode to Red and the situation that he is in with the FBI and a standalone case. We didn't want to confuse any new viewers with anything that may linger in other episodes that are serialized. And we wanted to have a big, impactful event for those new viewers.
In casting
Ron Perlman Ronald N. Perlman (born April 13, 1950) is an American actor. His credits include the roles of Amoukar in ''Quest for Fire (film), Quest for Fire'' (1981), Salvatore in ''The Name of the Rose (film), The Name of the Rose'' (1986), Vincent in th ...
as Luther Braxton—the episode's title character—Bokenkamp said "I've been a fan of Ron Perlman for a long time. He just brings this great presence to the show. I think he's going to be a memorable Blacklister." Prior to the episode's release,
James Spader James Todd Spader (born February 7, 1960; ) is an American actor. He is known for often portraying eccentric and morally ambiguous characters. He began his career in critically acclaimed independent films before transitioning into television, f ...
expressed his hopes to ''
Zap2it Zap2it was a website and digital media company that provided television program listings information for areas of the United States and Canada. Founded in 2000 by Tribune Media Services, the site has been owned by Nexstar Media Group since 201 ...
'' that the series would gain more viewers from the Super Bowl.


Reception

Upon airing, the episode ranked as NBC's biggest overall audience for a scripted series in more than 10 years, with 26.5 million viewers. The Canadian broadcast received 1.37 million viewers, making it the fourth-highest-rated broadcast of the night and the twenty-second of the week. Jodi Walker of ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
'' gave the episode a positive review, saying:


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Luther Braxton 2015 American television episodes The Blacklist season 2 episodes