The Blacklist
Mr. Solomon: Conclusion
Season 3, Episode 18 ~ Lyrics in the Aftermath of Devastation

4/23/2016

When there's no way out
I'll let you build your home with me
'Til the clocks run down
...
When there's no way out
Call me and I will come and bury you
All safe and sound.

Beware of SPOILERS ahead.

Music and The Blacklist: They go hand-in-hand. Never in the the way or inappropriate, the music enhances the emotional payoff and sometimes reveals a little more than it seems at first. Look at the lyrics above, hinting at what was to come in the following episode. Just the words "no way out" should have instilled a sense of dread about the direction this two-parter was going to take. Every series uses music to help tell the story, but The Blacklist does it better than most. It wouldn't be any less without, because the emotions run high regardless, but the music makes it even more.

There was a mournful piece once early in the first season that, upon doing some research, I discovered was about the loss of a child. That one from "Frederick Barnes," which I talked about then, accompanied the scene where Red visited the house where he raised his family, looked to the top of the staircase with that ever-present sadness in his eyes, gently touched the banister, pulled off the paneling covering the height marks a parent makes to see how their child is growing, and then stopped and stared out the widow, lost in the memory of his daughter playing in the yard.

Whoever is choosing the music has used Radical Face to perfection I think twice now, and one of Electric President's members *is* Radical Face. But I'm still waiting for them to use "All is Well (Goodbye, Goodbye)."

So I collected all our plans and crimes
And set them all alight.
The only thing that bound me to this place,
You took with you when you died.

When I first heard this one, sometime a bit before or after "Madeline Pratt," I immediately thought of The Blacklist, every word aching with sadness. I think this song cuts deepest and closest to Red's heart and would be another brilliant choice for the series. Until then it has a place in my Reminds Me of the Blacklist playlist.

This wasn't supposed to be a post about the music, though. I decided to include the lyrics from two episodes prior to where we find Red now in "Cape May," because I watched it again and realized how true the lyrics were. Suddenly I was writing about the soundtrack. You can listen to it at The Blacklist Tracklist, which I started back in season 1, or The Blacklist Playlist, the one NBC finally created for their epically intimate crime/mystery/thriller series. NBC's playlist I assume is more complete, but doesn't seem to be all in order, and I don't know yet if there are songs on it that haven't been in the show. I have to give it a listen.

I had something else to say, too, and since this is long already, and people have short attention spans, I will split these up into two posts. The next part is coming soon—hopefully, before the next episode—and I'll link to it here when I've finished.