One of the best on-going subplots of “The Blacklist” Seasons 3 and 4 has been Aram’s (Amir Arison) very obvious feelings for Samar (Mozhan Marno) — and a nice surprise of late is the fact that she has come around to see what a wonderful guy he is.
In Thursday’s (Feb. 2) episode, “Natalie Luca,” the potential relationship takes a very sweet step forward, strangely propelled by the case of the week and a small subplot about the gender pay gap.
The case of the week involves the weaponization of “Lucian’s Disease” — a made-up illness for the show with similarities to meningitis. Blacklister Natalie (Elizabeth Lail) is an asymptomatic carrier, and Malik (RJ Brown) the research scientist with whom she’s fallen in love — but can never touch, because she would kill him.
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When Malik is shot — as the two try to escape from the evil corporation that wants to use her “power” for nefarious purposes — they finally hold hands and share a kiss, before he succumbs to his injury. It’s a surprisingly emotional scene, and Samar, who instructed the other officers to give Natalie and Malik their moment, wasn’t the only person tearing up at their first and last kiss.
It makes Samar sad that she doesn’t have anyone like that in her life… But what makes her realize that Aram is actually that person is a detour into learning he makes more money than her, which isn’t fair: Not only are they both agents, but she’s the one who regularly gets shot at.
Aram, because he would do anything for Samar, arranges for money to be taken out of his paycheck to even out their salaries, but has accounting make it seem as though Samar merely got a raise.
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It’s chivalrous? Sure, we suppose so. Perhaps a better solution would have been him fighting for her to make the same money as him. The plot definitely mentioned the gender pay gap while also not actually delving into the issue at all, which feels weird and a little sloppy.
It would have been a little out of character for Aram to make waves with their boss, as opposed to doing a good thing in secret, so that part is understandable: He’s a very meek guy and he would have been worried about further hurting Samar’s pride, so it makes sense he would try to fix things on the sly.
But there was really no better way for Samar to realize that the person in her life who would do anything for her is Aram? Hmm.
Either way, Samar knows she has to work hard to regain Aram’s trust after it was revealed she was secretly also working for Mossad, the national intelligence agency of Israel. A good first step was impressing upon him that she knows the lengths he would go to for her, and she appreciates it.
Perhaps there’s some hope for these two crazy kids after all.
“The Blacklist” airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on NBC, and will take a seven-week hiatus after “Blacklist: Redemption” takes the stage Feb. 23.
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