The Blacklist and Suspense

I just finished watching The Blacklist episode “Mako Tanida (No.83).” That’s the first time in a long, long time that my heart actually pounded while I was watching or reading story, my breathing got faster. I know very little about writing suspense except that it’s not the same as surprise and that it’s almost always better than surprise, so now I’m trying to think of how they did that. My first guess was that it came down to two things.

1. I care a lot about the people in the story.

2. This show has proven over and over again that anything can happen.

But that doesn’t explain it, really. Why did I care in the scene with Tom, Jolene, and the Cowboy? I don’t like any of them and yet my pulse was racing. The people I care most about–Red and Liz–weren’t even in most of this episode. Okay, I like Ressler, too, but I’m not invested in him, and yet that climax had me holding my breath.

Did anybody else see this episode? Did you have the same reaction? Do you know why?

WARNING: There are going to be massive spoilers in the comments as we discuss this.