The Blacklist Season 6, Episode 1- “Dr. Hans Koehler (No. 33)” Review

The Blacklist makes a big return for its sixth season with a new episode. Titled “Dr. Hans Koehler (No. 33)”, this starts a season in which Red and Liz’s relationship is more in question than ever before. With the two lead characters at odds, the possibilities are endless as Liz hunts for the truth about the man she has developed a strong relationship with for the last five years and believed him to be her father. What exactly happened in “Dr. Hans Koehler (No. 33)”?

Spoilers ahead!! If you have not seen “Dr. Hans Koehler (No. 33)” and do not want to be spoiled, please turn back now. You have been warned!

To quickly recap, at the end of season five, FBI agent Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone) discovered that Raymond Reddington (James Spader), the man who turned himself in five years ago and requested to speak with her to work together and track down criminals, is actually an imposter and that the “real Raymond Reddington” is dead. Liz vows to her dead husband Tom Keen (Ryan Eggold) to destroy the imposter and uncover the truth about who he really is.

The season opens with a bunch of masked robbers attempting to rob a bank, but they face difficult when a man is standing and actively defiant. The man is Reddington and he is humorously explaining to the robbers that their weapons triggered silent alarms, so the time they thought that they had is running far shorter than expected. Dembe arrives and he and Reddington hold the robbers at gunpoint. With cops on the way, Reddington orders a man to go grab a safety deposit box and makes a deal with the robbers: he helps them escape and he gets some of their profits. During the escape, the cops begin to follow Reddington, Dembe, and the robbers, who are now shooting at the cops. Reddington decides to use the lift in the dump truck he is driving and dumps the robbers, who had climbed in the back, into the street in front of the cops. Reddington and Dembe escape with the box and we later see Red returning this very box to the bank. Inside the box is a painting by Van Gogh that was stolen twice and has apparently been left in this safety deposit box for some time. Red returns it, asking the manager to return it to a museum, but to do so anonymously. When asked why he robbed the bank, Red replied that he did it just to see if he “still had it” because he is turning 60 soon. “it turns out I do”. Red claims as he remarks that he feels like this is going to be a very good year.

Red requests that the FBI track down a plastic surgeon by the name of Doctor Hans Koehler, who Red used long ago. Red hopes to give the FBI a list of his clients but also erasing his own file from Koehler’s records. Liz isn’t too pleased with tracking down Koehler, but sees this as an opportunity to uncover Reddington’s real identity. Liz is working with her half sister, Jennifer, to search for Red’s real identity. At this point, Red doesn’t know that Liz is aware he’s an imposter, so Liz is attempting to hide that fact.

Koehler and his medical team are cuffed and shackled while performing an operation on a new client who is holding them hostage. Who is this client and why is he holding Koehler and his team hostage? Well, the latter of the two questions is self explanatory as Koehler is a plastic surgeon who dabbles in modeling criminals into brand new identities, making them a completely different person that who they are currently.

Samar Navabi (Mozhan Marno) is questioned as to whether or not she has been experiencing any noticeable side effects from her near drowning last season. AFter some hesitation, Samar answers with a no, but clearly something is up with her… but what? Only time will tell.

Red and Liz track down Koehler, but it is too late as the “client” has his face modified and Koehler has been fatally shot. Before he dies, Red speaks to Koehler, who whispers something to him, the location of the drive that contains his list of clients. Red recovers the list and deletes his file before he returns the drive to Liz. The client Koehler modified before dying is still at large and he is the focus of the following episode, so stay tuned for more updates!