The Blacklist: Dr. James Covington (No. 89)

October 7, 2014 10:31 AM - Season 2, Episode 3

The discovery of a disgraced banker with a "repossessed" transplanted heart leads Red to tell the FBI about a surgeon running an illegal organ transplant ring catering to criminals and the impatient rich. Meanwhile, an arms dealer named Mr. Vargas (guest star Paul Reubens) causes strife between Red and some of his associates.
posted by Small Dollar (8 comments total)

Paul Reubens was spectacular.
posted by miss-lapin at 12:26 PM on October 7, 2014 [3 favorites]

This brought to mind the old film Seconds. And also an episode of Nip/Tuck, where Liz meets a hot woman in a bar, goes home with her, and wakes up with one less kidney.

Paul Reubens was really good. It was a solid, entertaining episode. I look forward to next week's, where we may or may not find out more about Red's wife and their connection to Keen.
posted by the webmistress at 1:15 PM on October 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

I basically wrote off The Blacklist last year somewhere around the mid-season hiatus point for the reasons a lot of people I know did: A lifeless main character (Agent Wosshername), purely coincidence-driven plot mechanics, and an over-reliance on James Spader's ability to chew scenery.

But Paul Reubens in a possibly recurring role? He might get me to watch this thing again.
posted by Strange Interlude at 1:55 PM on October 7, 2014

Someone claiming to be from your boss's archenemy shows up, you don't even check him out? I'd kill the guy for sheer incompetence.

Also, glad they didn't go back to the creepy-medical-farm well.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:30 PM on October 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

I like that they referenced Red's ulterior motive here for getting Dr. Covington — a line at the end about the minister who had opposed the Syndicate's takeover of a port not getting a needed heart transplant — but IIRC they found the first corpse before Red started dribbling out information to Liz, which makes it not so much "Red masterminded the whole thing" as "fortuitous coincidence that Red took advantage of."
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 4:51 AM on October 8, 2014

Who's to say Red didn't help them find it? But I do think even if he took advantage of it, just shows that Red's working on a whole other level, to be able to use that coincidence to his own benefit.

That being said, letting Covington perform the surgery seemed way off to me. And shouldn't the parents have been arrested too?
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 8:56 AM on October 8, 2014

I think this is the worst episode I've ever seen, but then again, body organ farming episodes generally suck. It's just that this one threw in OMG HEART REPOSESSION! on top of it.

On the other hand, it did feature Red drugging a guy with Viagra, saying, "I hope you don't mind," and finishing up with saying that he'd die with a marvelous erection. So there was that.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:45 PM on October 8, 2014

I thought they missed an opportunity with the motorcycle baddie's death to have someone say "At least he's got an organ donor card...."
posted by viggorlijah at 2:17 AM on October 9, 2014 [1 favorite]