Liz Keen has had a wild and devastating ride in Season 5 of The Blacklist. The first half of the season ended on the tragic death of her husband, and the second half has seen Liz on a dark quest to avenge him. She pulled back from the majority of the people who knew and cared about her to focus on her quest, but fans will soon see her back on the Task Force again. That said, not everything will be as it was. Executive producer Jon Bokenkamp explained what will be different, saying this:
Being back on the Task Force certainly doesn't make Elizabeth Keen the squeaky clean agent she once was. Will she continue to hide things from her team? Yes. As for crossing lines, I think it's a safe bet to say: she's just getting started.
Viewers will not see Liz transformed back into her old self just because she's back in her old surroundings and surrounded by her coworkers again. For once, Liz is going to be the devious secret-keeper of sorts. Judging by Jon Bokenkamp's comments to EW, Liz may simply start crossing more lines now that she's officially back with law enforcement. She'll likely be under more of a watchful eye; it may require some drastic actions to keep moving forward on her mission for revenge against the people who killed Tom.
All things considered, as jarring as it will likely be to see Liz keeping secrets and hiding her own agenda from the Task Force, it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense if she was suddenly reformed back into the agent she was before Tom was killed and she was left comatose. Red has warned that she may not be able to live with her actions once she "crossed the abyss," but that hasn't stopped her from doing everything from killing to disposing of a body. Liz is still smack dab in the middle of her abyss, and it will take a lot more than a change of scenery and more involvement with the Task Force for her to see the light again.
The good news is that a devious Liz on the Task Force is proof that The Blacklist is still quite capable of trying new things even after more than 100 episodes on the air, and that could bode well for the chances of a Season 6. Jon Bokenkamp has already revealed that Season 5 will end on a great cliffhanger that isn't what the end of the series ought to be; we can only hope that NBC is happy with how the series performs moving forward. The show hasn't seemed to suffer from the loss of its spinoff.
Only time will tell. The next new episode of The Blacklist will air on Wednesday, February 28 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC. For more viewing options now and in the not-too-distant future, be sure to take a gander at our midseason TV premiere schedule and our 2018 Netflix premiere guide.
