The Blacklist kept the audience hooked for 10 long years with the story of Raymond “Red” Reddington, played by James Spader, a wanted criminal and fugitive who turns informant for the FBI and helps them take down other dangerous criminals.
Each episode of the NBC crime thriller series follows Reddington and the FBI hunting down a criminal mastermind. In The Blacklist season 10 episode 16, actress Francie Swift plays the main antagonist, Blair Foster.
Blair Foster is a lawyer and fixer based in Washington, D.C., who helps corrupt organizations and saves them from legal proceedings. Francie Swift, known for her roles in shows like Gossip Girl and House of Cards, does a wonderful job playing the negative character.
Francie Swift plays the corrupt lawyer Blair Foster in The Blacklist
Francie Swift appears in the final season of The Blacklist, playing Blair Foster in the eponymous episode. Foster is a cunning and ruthless fixer operating in Washington, D.C. She helps powerful corporations by aiding them in hiding their scandals and dodging legal trouble.
In the episode, she is hired by Modor & Sons, a chemical company accused of selling toxic products. When a whistleblower named Lawrence Whitaker tries to expose the company, Forster goes to great extents to silence him.
She threatens his daughter and hires mercenaries to snatch the evidence he has against the company. Whitaker eventually ends up in a suspicious car crash and is left in a coma, while Foster’s man retrieves the incriminating document he had.
Meanwhile, Red Reddington senses something fishy in Foster’s activities, and the FBI Task Force starts investigating her, with Harold Cooper leading the charge. As the investigation goes on, the task force finds out how far Foster is willing to go to protect her clients.
Whitaker later wakes up and tells the team about the criminal activities of Modor & Sons; however, Foster continues to outsmart the FBI. While the task force struggles to gather evidence, Red travels to Cuba to identify Foster’s mercenary.
With help from an old contact, he discovers the mercenary is Julian Flores and brings him to the U.S. to testify. This gives the FBI enough leverage to arrest Foster, but she still refuses to hand over her files and betray her clients.
Red then discovers that Foster has ties to Senator Dorf, a politician. The lawyer helped cover up a drunk-driving accident involving the senator’s son. Cooper uses this information to force Dorf to resign and save the task force from a government investigation.
However, Foster walks free, proving that she is a mastermind who stays one step ahead of the task force and is able to manipulate them.
The Blacklist director reveals why Francie Swift was cast as Blair Foster
Saray Guidetti, who directed the Blair Foster episode of The Blacklist, talked about why Francie Swift was cast in the role. The director revealed that the script demanded someone who was powerful yet feminine. She said in an interview with CinemaBlend:
“I really wanted someone who can portray that power, but also that feminine quality, as well as you don't really know how to read her. She can be very sweet and you think that she's on your side, but then she might not be. That was also an exciting part that I was able to have in my script.”
Guidetti added that Swift has the ability to engage people with her oratory skills, a quality that series lead James Spader also possesses. Though Swift had a brief role in The Blacklist, her layered character and powerful performance are still remembered by the audience.
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The Blacklist is available to stream on Netflix.
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