Quote of the Week: “The Blacklist” of Reasons to Go On

"Raymond 'Red' Reddington:The concept of a Last Stand sounds so heroically romantic, doesn't it, Donald?  But there is a good reason why we didn't see what happened to Butch and Sundance – being riddled by bullets and left to rot under the scorching Columbian sun.  It's not a sequel maker, and if you surmise nothing about me by now, know this: I am going be around for the sequel.

Agent Donald Ressler: You really going to do a field transfusion?

Reddington: Oh, come now, Donald!  Just think how much smarter you'll be afterwards.

Ressler:Why the hell are you doing this?  It's pretty obvious I hate your guts.  I can't imagine you hold a lot of love for me… why save me?

Reddington:  Because that's what you do when someone is dying in front of you.  Allies today, enemies tomorrow – the world is a complex place, further complicated by men's fickle nature…

…Donald!  Donald!!  Feeling any wittier yet?  Any strange cravings for beluga caviar or Marcel Proust?

Ressler: I know you don't think much of me, but you don't get to be assigned to the case like yours unless you pass muster…

…We are not going to live through this.

Reddington: I think we will.

Ressler: How?

Reddington:Have you ever sailed accross an ocean, Donald?

Ressler: No.

Reddington:  On a sailboat, surrounded by sea with no land in sight, without even a possibility of sighting land for days to come.  To stand at the helm of your destiny – I want that one more time.  I want to be in Piazza del Campo in Siena and feel the surge as ten race horses go thundering by.  I want another meal in Paris…  I want another bottle of wine, and then another.  I want the warmth of a woman in a cool set of sheets; one more night of jazz at the Vanguard.  I want to stand on summits and smoke cubans and feel the sun on my face for as long as I can.  Walk on the Wall again, climb the Tower, ride the River, stare at the frescos.  I want to seat in the garden and read one more good book…  That's why I won't allow that punk out there to get the best of me, let alone the last of me."

                                            "The Blacklist", episode 1.9

                                              Written by Joe Carnahan