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Red Drops an All-Time Great Reddington Metaphor in This Blacklist Season 9 Finale Sneak Peek
Red explains to Cooper why he can't let Marvin Gerard live
The Blacklist's Season 9 finale, "Marvin Gerard: Conclusion," is split into two parts. The first part airs this Friday on NBC, and Part 2 premieres next week. TV Guide has an exclusive sneak peek at Part 1, which finds Red Reddington (James Spader) explaining to Harold Cooper (Harry Lennix) why he can't let his betrayer live using one of the best metaphors Red has ever said.
Last week's episode "Caelum Bank" revealed that Red's longtime lawyer and confidante Marvin Gerard (Fisher Stevens, who also plays a confidante to a powerful, shady man on Succession) had orchestrated Liz's (Megan Boone) death and Cooper's blackmailing, which set up a showdown between Marvin and Red that will play out over the final two episodes of the season.
In this clip, Cooper sits down with Red to discuss their mutual enemy. Cooper has marshaled the government's resources to capture Gerard, and suggests that Red team up with him. Red dismisses this out of hand, because Red doesn't want Gerard in federal custody, he wants him dead. Red can't let Gerard stand trial, which he makes Cooper understand by using a long, involved metaphor of the Trembling Giant, a grove of quaking aspen in Utah's Fishlake Forest.
The grove, Red explains, consists of 50,000 trees spread out over 100 acres. "In autumn, you look up, every leaf a flaming torch-dancer," he says. The thing about grove is that it's one single gigantic plant. All the trees are connected by an enormous underground root system that form the largest living organism on Earth.
"Harold, my criminal empire is the Trembling Giant," Red says, forcefully. "And Marvin is one of those trees. With my roots."
It's a beautiful metaphor for Red's vast empire, and how precarious it is. If one tree falls, it has serious implications for the whole organism.
Find out how Red and Cooper deal with Marvin Gerard in Part 1 of The Blacklist's Season 9 finale, which airs Friday, May 20 at 8/7c on NBC and streams the day after on Peacock.