Wow, Jan from The Office really took a turn with her life path.

Manipulation, death, villainy, and a name that even Michael Scott would have wished he came up with for his secret agent movie.

Isabella Stone was certainly a force to be reckoned with on The Blacklist Season 4 Episode 13, and having Melora Hardin of The Office fame helped elevate the character into a believable and dangerous baddie.

There was just something about the way Hardin brought a real sophistication and smoothness to the character. She was tactful and sinister without being over the top, and she seemed to enjoy messing with other people, whether it was humiliating them or even killing them.

Granted, she was ultimately attacking those close to Red to truly hurt him and his organization, but it was obvious that even without Red getting killed, there was plenty of damage.

Red was willing to risk his life, perhaps mistakenly, in rescuing what he called a friend.

Sure, Red probably was also worried about the man saying something that could truly unravel everything, but it wasn’t just about that.

And Dembe’s comment about Red being so close to death with bodies falling all around him pretty much left the man with a quippy story for everything speechless.

It wasn’t a surprise that Isabella wasn’t willing to talk to the FBI, but it was nice to see that the team’s work wound up being the better play for the hour.

So often, it’s Red’s team getting the job done and the FBI cleaning up. For Liz and the others to save the day and get Isabella alive was a solid accomplishment.

Then again, Red wound up stealing Isabella back. So he got what he wanted.

But doesn’t he always?

It is interesting, too, how the FBI has been working with Red for over four seasons of this show, but there’s clearly some dissension among the ranks about working with the criminal.

And there’s always been those questions here and there, but with Red bringing the team a blacklister because of more personal matters, it’s blurring the lines of them taking down those bigger threats for the greater good.

It’s much more about Red’s problems at the moment.

That’s definitely going to come to a head soon.

And while I know it was a small moment, I liked Ressler questioning their latest case. And to see him get emotional about missing his brother’s operation over it all was a small but touching scene for his character.

Ressler is usually so put together that to get a small crack into him as a person is nice to see.

It my be more for comedic effect when it comes to someone like Aram, but even Aram’s moments of talking about hackey sack or a silly kitten video popping up add so much to his character.

Footbag workouts are actually a great cardiovascular exercise.

Aram

• Permalink: Footbag workouts are actually a great cardiovascular exercise.

Obviously, the show wants to dig into Tom and his past, and now it looks like we have the catalyst to get him on The Blacklist Redemption.

It was only a few small moments of the hour, but it was some good setup to get him on the case and have me intrigued about where the mystery is going to take him.

Plus, Tom’s dad is Terry O’Quinn. Locke from Lost!

My big disappointment though was that Isabella wasn’t the end baddie going after Red. Turns out there’s someone else behind it all, and in classic The Blacklist fashion pulled a “we need to talk” right before the episode goes to credits.

The show certainly knows how to tease.

This was a decent hour with a solid villain in Isabella, and it’s good to see the always winning Red have to struggle a bit. Sure, we love that he winds up besting everyone in the end, but it makes him much more of an interesting character in the long run.

At the same time, I was hoping for more payoff than simply managing to capture her at the end and letting us know that’s not quite the end of the rope.

Guess we have that ice room interrogation scene to look forward to, right?

What did you think of Isabella? Who is behind it all? Are you interested in Tom’s past? Sound off below and be sure to watch The Blacklist online at TV Fanatic.

Sean McKenna was a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. He retired in May of 2017. Follow him on Twitter.