Leonard Caul

"Leonard Caul" is the nineteenth episode of the second season of the American crime drama The Blacklist. The episode premiered in the United States on NBC on April 23, 2015.

Plot

Liz and Dembe spring into action to save a lung-shot Red and immediately take him to an enclosed location to treat him. Red regains consciousness and tells Liz to talk to Leonard Caul and might have an idea about the Fulcrum. Liz finds Caul and it is revealed that the Fulcrum is a collection of information regarding political assassinations and terrorism for which the Cabal is responsible. Liz narrowly stops the Director's assassination mission on Reddington by blackmailing him with the Fulcrum. In the aftermath, Tom Connolly ends up having a seat within the Director's Cabal, after having leaked information about Reddington's whereabouts to the Cabal. Liz, frustrated with Reddington's scheming which put Tom Keen in her life, asks Tom about what he knows about Reddington.

Reception

Ratings

"Leonard Caul" premiered on NBC on April 23, 2015 in the 9–10 p.m. time slot.^[1] The episode garnered a 1.5/4 Nielsen rating with 7.47 million viewers, making it the third highest-rated show in its time slot behind ABC's Scandal and CBS's Mom.^[2] It was also the thirty-first highest-rated television show of the week.^[3]

Reviews

Ross Bonaime of Paste gave the episode a 7.8/10, stating: "The show is trying out new directions and figuring out how to make the most of the bits that have grown tired. It’s taken a really long time for The Blacklist to figure all this out, but 'Leonard Caul' is absolutely the direction this show should be going into as this second season ends."^[4]

Jason Evans of The Wall Street Journal gave a positive review of the episode, writing: "Wow! Was this only an hour long episode?!?! It felt like 3 hours’ worth of stuff happened. So many fabulous reveals and so much tension. One of the best episodes of the entire season, in my opinion."^[5]

References