"The Blacklist" season 5 premiere finally saw Tom (Ryan Eggold) return to his wife, Liz (Megan Boone), with a romantic promise of never leaving again. But just as he was telling her this, a troubling time-jump scene suggested he might break that promise eventually.
The brief flash-forward saw Reddington a.k.a. Red (James Spader) and Dembe (Hisham Tawfiq) enter the couple's apartment with guns. The master criminal-turned-FBI informant approached an already bloody Tom and fired his gun twice at the wounded man.
While the scene did not really show the bullets hit Eggold's character, most fans are worried that they might have seen the last of Tom in the series. The producers have tight-lipped about his fate, neither confirming nor denying anything, but series creator Jon Bokenkamp was generous enough to shed some light on that big twist.
Apparently, the direction they took for Tom's character is partly to balance out the light tone in Red's rebuilding of his empire. "People can see that it's still a very strange and dark and dangerous and, at times, bloody show," Bokenkamp explained in an interview with TV Line. "We wanted to acknowledge to the audience that the journey Tom is starting on really puts him on a collision course with trouble."
But fans need not worry because Tom will still be in most of the episodes of the new season. Bokenkamp noted that Eggold has been a regular on the show, and he is at the core of "a strange triangle" between Red, Liz, and Tom.
The creator added, "Reddington has had a number of times where he probably would have killed Tom if not for Liz's love for him. So yes, Tom, and the journey that he is about to embark on, is a very important part of this season."
Tom's fate aside, another thing that fans should tune in for is the team up of Red and Cooper (Harry Lennix). Bokenkamp also revealed to Entertainment Weekly that there will be a great storyline in store for Cooper, and it will involve him and Red stepping outside the Post Office and knocking on some doors together, although he will not really be putting his badge aside.
"The Blacklist" season 5 airs Wednesdays, 8 p.m. EDT on NBC.
