"Tom Connolly" is the twenty-second episode and season finale of the second season of the American

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

The Blacklist ''The Blacklist'' is an American crime thriller television series that premiered on NBC on September 23, 2013. The show follows Raymond "Red" Reddington (James Spader), a former U.S. Navy officer turned high-profile criminal who voluntarily sur ...

''. The episode premiered in the United States on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

on May 14, 2015.

Plot

Elizabeth is framed for the assassination of a

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

and is now on the run with Red's help. The Attorney General, Tom Connolly, forces Cooper on administrative leave for keeping Keen from being questioned. Liz is captured for questioning, but later escapes with the help of Reddington and Cooper. Angered at Reddington for refusing to tell the truth about her mother, Elizabeth seeks Tom's assistance, and the two eventually give in to their romantic feelings for each other. Meanwhile, Red brings together the world's leading investigative

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

s and reveals the Fulcrum's contents to publicly expose the Cabal. Through Elizabeth, Cooper discovers that he never had cancer; his diagnosis was a hoax orchestrated by the Cabal through Connolly. Cooper angrily confronts Connolly together with Elizabeth. Connolly defensively threatens to brand the Task Force as a rogue unit and have it disbanded, then prosecute its members on politically motivated charges. Elizabeth snaps and fatally shoots him. The shooting triggers her memory of the night of the fire: she shot and killed her abusive father in order to protect her mother. Elizabeth escapes police capture with Reddington's help, and confesses to having regained her memory, as well as her full understanding of Reddington's desire to protect her. They both escape, while Tom leaves in his boat. Reven Wright appoints Ressler as the new director of the task force, while Cooper hands in his badge and is questioned for Connolly's murder. Elizabeth's name is put next to Reddington's on the

FBI Ten Most Wanted The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives is a most wanted list maintained by the United States's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The list arose from a conversation held in late 1949 between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, and William Ki ...

list.

Reception

Ratings

The season finale premiered as "Masha Rostova" on NBC on May 14, 2015 in the 9–10 p.m. time slot, before being renamed "Tom Connolly". The episode garnered a 1.6/5

Nielsen rating Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rati ...

with 7.49 million viewers, making it the third-highest-rated show in its time slot behind

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

's ''

Scandal A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way. Th ...

'' and

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

's ''

The Big Bang Theory ''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom served as executive producers on the series, along with Steven Molaro, all of whom also served as head writers. It premiered on CBS ...

''. It was also the twentieth-highest-rated television show of the week.

Reviews

Ross Bonaime of '' Paste'' gave the episode a 7.7/10: "'Masha Rostova' is largely more of the same for ''The Blacklist'' in the mystery department, which is to say, not much is revealed. However, 'Masha Rostova' does gives us a look at what could be a largely improved third season. This second season has ended with some of ''The Blacklist'' strongest episodes and takes some steps in fixing problems that this show has had since its beginning". Jason Evans of ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' gave a positive review of the episode: "Whew! It is hard to see how ''The Blacklist'' can ever be the same after this. It was one thing to prove that Liz was framed for the murder of the Senator, but she just gunned down the Attorney General in cold blood".

References

External links

* {{The Blacklist 2015 American television episodes The Blacklist (season 2) episodes