Warning: Spoiler Alert
The NBC series “The Blacklist,” would never qualify as light viewing. Nor could it qualify as a family show for anybody other than the Manson Family, however this week’s installment’s one of the creepiest episodes since the show began airing. Once again the show combined two storylines, one concerning the fate of a religious cult, the other revolving around Red’s search for Alan Fitch’s safe, containing information on the Fulcrum. Add to that the ever-increasing disdain, FBI Agent Elizabeth Keen has for Raymond Reddington and you get the ingredients of this episode’s plot.
We start things off in a church as the Reverend a man named Justin Kenyon, gives a sermon to his congregation. It is a strange tale of two daughters of the only man left in their land. In order to reproduce and keep their society going, each daughter got their father drunk and had sex with him and both daughters conceived. Suddenly Kenyon steps from behind the pulpit, as a woman takes his place, presiding over Kenyon’s marriage to a young-girl who looks no older than ten. Suddenly one of the windows of the church breaks and a canister of some sort of gas is thrown into the room. The congregants try to escape but the church doors are blocked by a scythe, holding the double doors together.
Task Force Director Harold Cooper’s driving with his wife, asking what she wants to have for lunch, but eating’s not on Mrs. Cooper’s mind. She wants Harold to enter a clinical trial, which is his best chance to beat the disease that could claim his life. She tells him whether he gains weight or goes bald doesn’t matter to her, as long as he’s alive. Cooper tells his wife he’ll call the doctor once he gets to the office.
Red meets Liz at the DMV, as he’s keeping tabs on his associate “The Tracker,” a tiny misshapen bald little man with coke-bottle glasses. (For fans of “Fringe,” he played the guy who owned the store that Peter Bishop got rare books from.) Reddington tells Keen that he’s a loathsome little man, but he can find anybody, anywhere. He then tells Liz that Justin Kenyon disappeared about a week ago and the religious cult leader’s used his land to hide shipping containers for a vast array of criminals, hailing from around the planet. The shipping containers contain all matters of contraband, from drugs to rocket launchers and their owners are getting nervous.
Cooper’s informed and attempts to get clearance to search the compound from the Assistant Attorney General, but she denies the request. She tells Cooper that Kenyon has the three best Civil-Rights attorneys in the country on retainer and the government’s struck out twice trying to prosecute him. She questions Red’s information and tells Harold no-dice.
We see Red in “The Tracker’s” office and the little man refuses to assist Raymond until Reddington loses his composure. He then asks whose the subject and Red tells him it’s Alan Fitch, the former Assistant Director of the NSC, killed by terrorists earlier this season. He says’ he’s looking for a safe of Fitch’s located in St. Petersburg, on the second floor of some building. “The Tracker,” says he’ll be in touch.
A graphic tells us we’re on Interstate 65 in Huntsville Alabama, as two state police officers check on a van with Tennessee plates pulled over on the side of the highway. Dispatch informs them the plates were stolen off a Jeep and the two officers approach the van. The first cop lowers his gun as he starts to tell his partner it’s only a…. The van blows up, killing both officers and the vehicle’s occupant.
Cooper gets a call from his doctor and leaves Tech-Wizard Aram, to take the call privately. Harold’s face reflects his fading hopes, as his physician tells him he didn’t qualify for the trial experiment. He tells his doctor there’s nothing to apologize for, then hangs up, calls his wife to share the bad news.
“The Tracker’s” located Fitch’s safe, but he insists on accompanying Red to Russia on Raymond’s private jet, or he’ll keep the information to himself. Red rejects the terms outright, but “The Tracker,” plays on Raymond’s sympathy, saying he’s never traveled outside the State’s and he thinks he and Reddington would have fun. Red gives in and the little man says he’ll pack a suitcase and to pick him up at 5:30 pm.
The van bombing get’s traced back to Kenyon’s compound and Cooper gets the search warrant he requested. He sends Ressler and Keen to search the property, while assigning Samar Navabi to keep tabs on another van that’s headed to DC.
Navabi and an FBI SWAT team locate the van, and Samar says they can stand down, as the vehicle’s occupant’s only a kid. As she says the phrase, she realizes that’s what the Alabama State Trooper was saying jus prior to the explosion. She tells the team to stay put and approaches the van. Sitting in the driver’s seat’s a grime-covered eight-year-old boy, with his finger on the trigger of the bomb inside the van. Samar tells the child he’s too far away from the he other agents to harm them, only she and the boy would get killed by the blast, then talks him out of the vehicle.
Ressler, Keen and the local sheriff lead an FBI SWAT Team in a raid on the compound, they get to the church and find all the congregants dead. All the children of the cult are missing, save for one little girl named Amy. The sheriff, the two agents and the girl get into the sheriff’s vehicle, Liz notices Amy staring out the window and she asks the girl what she’s looking at. Amy replies Watchers and when Liz repeats the phrase, Amy puts her finger to her lips and says it’s supposed to be a secret. As the vehicle drives off we see a young man running through the woods.
In St. Petersburg after “The Tracker,” has them search the wrong apartment, they find Fitch’s safe. When it’s opened the only thing inside it’s a business card containing only an international phone number. Red gives the card to Dembe and tells his trusted friend to get the number to one of Raymond’s underlings.
Aram tells Samar and Cooper, that 53-bodies were found in the church, not one shot was fired. All the victims, were, pummeled, stomped, stabbed or strangled to death. He also tells them that a former cult member named Dawn Weston says the little boy that Samar talked out of the van is her son.
Navabi interviews Weston and she tells her the problems that went on in the cult, Kenyon’s decree was that each man was to have three wives, but when the women started giving birth, they produced far more boys than girls. So Justin invented the walkabout, taking eight to ten year-old boys out into the woods in the winter and leaving them to die. His only explanation was there were too may boys.
She goes into the room her son’s contained in, sitting in a chair, rocking back and forth repeating the same phrase endlessly. Dawn enters the room and asks her son if he knows who she is and he says he doesn’t. Weston starts to cry, which must have evoked a memory for the child as he cried Mama and got up and hugged her.
Turns out the figure running in the woods had a rifle and shot out the sheriff’s tires causing the vehicle to smash into a tree. Liz and Amy, sitting in the back seat are unharmed, the sheriff’s banged up but she tells Liz, Ressler’s pinned. We see that a small tree crashed through the windshield, wedging Donald into his seat. Liz says she’s going to look for help and tells the sheriff to watch out for Amy.
Harold gets a visit from an old friend whose about to become the new Director of the FBI and he wants to promote Cooper on his first day on the job. Cooper thanks him but says he has health problems, then tells his friend that he was rejected as a candidate for a trial treatment, that would have been his best chance to beat his illness.
The sheriff hears noises and pulls her gun, but gets attacked from behind. A group of teenagers surround the vehicle, pulling Ressler and Amy out and kidnapping them both. Donald’s dragged by a chain attached to a motorcycle to the groups hideout, hitting every rock and stick in his path.
Turns out this group of teens are led by David Kenyon, Justin’s son and the first boy cast out into the woods. David adapted to the elements and helped many other boys survive as well, building them into an army. David told his followers that Justin’s a phony, so they wiped out the adults and tortured the elder Kenyon to death, Liz finds him upstairs with branches sticking out of his mouth and eye sockets.
Red and Dembe go to visit an Asian woman named Ruth, whose henchmen are torturing some guy. Raymond says he needs her undivided attention for a few minutes and she has her men take her prisoner outside. Reddington then asks her for the coordinates for the three Hellfire missiles she’s got hidden on the Kenyon compound.
Red calls Navabi and says he’s activated the cameras on the missiles and he sees the teens hunkered down in their hideout, then gives Samar the coordinates of their location. Navabi gets a SWAT Team to meet her to take down the teens, and rescue the two agents and the children.
Liz gets captured as well and asks to talk to David, whose interrogating Ressler and just about to strike the agent, when he’s told Keen wants to talk to him. She asks where Ressler’s at and the younger Kenyon wheels her partner into the room. Liz slips her bonds on her hands and grabs a rifle, taking control, seconds before the SWAT Team storms the hideout.
David slips out and gets into another van loaded with explosives and threatens to pull the trigger. Liz talks him out of it, saying David’s a far better man then his father, but one of Kenyon’s soldiers, kills his leader with a rifle blast, then gets killed by the FBI. Everybody’s safe and the missing children are all found.
Dembe tells Raymond that they couldn’t recognize the voice at the number on the card and gives Red a brand new phone to call the party. The man on the other end answers the phone by saying Yes, and Red tells him he’s calling on behalf of Alan Fitch. The man says you found the safe, and Red responds who the hell is this?
The previews for next week’s episode showed us a familiar face will return to the show.
The Story Continues Next Thursday Night at 9:00 pm on NBC.
