Warning: Spoiler Alert
We got to watch the long-con play out beautifully in the latest episode of the NBC series “The Blacklist,” the FBI Task-Force and their criminal informant Raymond Reddington reunited for the first time since last season. The deception was apparent from the moment the plan went into effect. However the reason behind the subterfuge remained a mystery for much of the night.
You can return home again however it’s rarely exactly as you left it, things change in your absence and those remaining likely have changed things since you left. Elizabeth Keen returned to the FBI Task-Force after a public exoneration however she got somewhat flustered when she learned how her role got altered. Lizzie realized she’d lose her FBI shield and her service weapon, but she failed to realize that being a convicted felon her permit to carry a concealed weapon and her right to own a firearm no longer existed.
She’ll no longer serve in the field, her only contributions will be as a profiler and for her knowledge from her two years as a field agent. Although she told her boss Harold Cooper she’s fine with the restrictions we can tell by her facial expressions and body language she’s deeply disappointed. Keen also gives an unsolicited apology to all the others on the Task-Force, apologizing for putting them in the position she did and thanking them for their loyalty.
Reddington’s day was far from tranquil as some of his employees came under attack and the incident endangered one of his most valuable employees and closest friends. Our first image’s a house in which a hit just took place and Mr. Kaplan’s sizing up the situation. Three women arrive to help Kate clean the crime scene and get rid of evidence, she tells them there’s three victims in the living room and one in the master bedroom. She then tells them they’ve got 18-minutes to complete their task.
Mr. Kaplan’s got a Walkman with her and puts on her headphones and then cranks Maxine Nightingale’s “Right Back Where We Started From.” She’s so engrossed in her work and the music that she fails to notice two gunmen enter the room and execute the three women. One of the gunmen then grabs her from behind and takes off her headphones. He calls her Sugar and tells her she’s the lucky one as she’s going to live to deliver a message to Reddington, that they know.
Red meets with Kate and she says she thinks he’s overreacting and he says given the circumstances he’s not. He then asks about the women and Mr. Kaplan assures him that all three women’s families know they’ll be well compensated for their loss. She then thanks Raymond and leaves the apartment as Liz arrives, she warns Keen that Red’s in a bad mood.
Reddington dispenses with social niceties and asks Elizabeth what she knows about Shell Island and she says she’s never heard of it. He asks her to sit down and tells her that Shell Island dates back to the roaring twenties and it’s a custom and tradition. Shell Island’s the platform for Marcus Caligiuri next in line to Espen Van Der Merwe who controls the Pater Dai Group, the oldest and largest weapons dealer on the planet.
When the criminal elite feel threatened the Pater Dai Group convene a Skull Island meeting, lifelong enemies temporarily put aside their differences to band together to take out a common enemy. Skull Island isn’t a place it’s the euphemism for the conference. Raymond says that they’ve put out the word that a conference will soon take place but he never received a call. He tells Lizzie that one of his competitors Howard Jasnuch transported the mystery man that called for the conference. He says if the FBI can find the guy who called for Skull Island they can catch an entire squadron of major criminals.
Keen shares the info with the Task-Force and Aram gets a hit on Howard Jasnuch and Samar and Donald head to the address to arrest him. Liz starts to join them when Cooper reminds her she can’t and she sheepishly sits back down. Aram says it’s not that bad and then confides to her that he’s uploaded season four of Doctor Who on the mainframe and he raves about Tom Baker.
Liz decides to pay Tom a visit at the docks and finds him outside working on some equipment. They start kissing each other and can barely contain themselves and Liz says let’s get to your boat. However Tom smiles and says he needs to show her something, he then gets on one knee and pulls something out of the tool box, it’s a washer. He slips it on her finger as a place holder and asks her to marry him he says he realizes he wasn’t a good husband but he can be and will be this time. Lizzie smiles and says one thing she learned on the road is she’s got no idea what she wants in ten-years or even next year. She only knows what she wants now. The two run back to Tom’s boat and get busy.
Ressler captures Jasnuch and asks him the identity and the address of the person he picked up. Howard says he doesn’t have a name but he gives Donald the address. Samar and Ressler go to the address and they find a man in his forties and when they ask him his name he says it’s Raymond Reddington.
Navabi catches Liz up to speed when she returns to the Post Office and Keen’s pretty incredulous and says he doesn’t even look like Red when she sees him on the monitor. Ressler says that they only had one picture of Reddington prior to him turning himself in and he’s got a passing resemblance to that. Samar says that they don’t have any DNA of Raymond prior to 1990, so they can’t prove this guy’s lying.
The man’s being held in the glass cage and they bring him out so that he can meet and talk with Elizabeth. He starts smiling as soon as he sees her face and when he gets in front of her he says he recognizes her, she’s Keen and she’s the one he saw with the impostor. She asks him how he knows so much about the case-files and he says they were people and his friends. He kept wondering why all his friends were getting busted but when it came out that she was involved with a fake Reddington he realized what was going on.
He says that he’ll tell her all about the case-files and Skull Island if she gives him ten minutes with the impostor face-to-face. She says the FBI doesn’t have a relationship with Raymond Reddington. The man smiles and says that’s correct but they think they do.
The man who claims to be Reddington starts reciting Raymond’s Naval record and even talks about an off the books mission that Harold’s aware of. Cooper looks shocked when he hears him and asks how could he possibly know that. Red enters and when he’s brought up to speed he says the guy’s a probe, he was sent in to determine how strong the relationship is between the Bureau and Raymond.
The man realizes he’s being monitored by the Task-Force and looks at the security cameras and asks if his friend’s arrived yet. Raymond picks up the microphone and asks him how are the accommodations? The man says that if they meet he’ll give the agents the name of an FBI executive whose scheduled to get kidnapped in 45 minutes. Red agrees to meet with the guy.
When Raymond arrives the guy sneers at him and asks who he really is? He then tells the agents that the executive’s Janet MacNamara. She’s in charge of FBI Human Intelligence Unit and that Marcus Caligiuri’s behind the kidnapping. Aram does a quick search on the net and says that she’s with her son at a piano lesson. Ressler and Samar head down their to intercede.
The man tells the agents that if they let him walk he’ll lead them to Skull Island and Cooper says he’d need to wear a wire. The man says they do extensive searching and screening and Aram tells him that they’ve got a new prototype that he’s going to use. The bug’s are cufflinks and won’t turn on until four minutes after he puts them on so security won’t detect them.
Ressler and Navabi get to the center where MacNamara and her son are but the gunmen are already in the building when they find her. Two guys come down the hall and the two agents shoot them both and MacNamara and her son run for the exit. However there’s a third gunman at the front door and he grabs the woman and puts her in the back of a moving truck. They take off but Ressler actually chases down the truck and jumps on the bumper. He gets into a shootout with the two gunmen, but they backup into another vehicle and Donald falls off.
Turns out Red knew all along where Skull Island was taking place and when he arrives Marcus Caligiuri says that as always Raymond’s fashionably late. He looks around and says it’s good to see so many friends and even more enemies and raises his glass to toast Skull Island.
Reddington then says he’s incredibly angry because somebody that’s in the room executed three women who worked as service contractors for him that morning. He then addresses the “rumors” that he’s been an informant for the FBI for the last couple of years. He says that one of his enemies sitting in front of him sent the bureau an impostor and that man has given the Bureau information leading to losses among their ranks.
Just then the fake Reddington walks into the room and says that Red’s an impostor. Marcus Caligiuri says they should kill them both, however Raymond says that they wouldn’t have sent the fake Red in without a wire. Some hoods hold him down and start searching him and Raymond says he never wears cufflinks. The transmitters are found and disabled.
Red then says okay we can make this quick or painful and asks who hired him, the guy says Caligiuri and Marcus says he’s a liar. Raymond then stabs Marcus in the abdomen and as he twists the knife taking his enemy’s last breath he whispers in his ear that Marcus’ instincts were correct he’s the informant. He then tells Caligiuri to say hello to all their friends in Hell and tell them he’ll be joining them soon enough.
The FBI SWAT Team see choppers heading towards the roof so they charge en masse. Raymond says they’re leaving through the garage the choppers are just a diversion. One of the hoods asks what about the fake Raymond and Red shoots the guy in the chest and he dies immediately.
The fake Red turned out to be an old friend of Raymond named Gregory Devry and he was one of he greatest grifters who ever lived. Red says other than the late actor George Sanders he couldn’t ask for somebody better to portray him. Liz asked how he could kill him and Raymond explains he had inoperable stomach-cancer and he considered this euthanasia and asked for Red’s help.
Later that evening Tom arrives at Raymond’s and Reddington tells him he’s not marrying Liz again. Tom laughs and asks if it’s because he didn’t get permission? Raymond says you married her over my objections once it won’t happen again.
Liz goes shopping and she’s in the parking lot when this good-sized guy in his early thirties asks her if she’s Elizabeth Keen then proceeds to beat the stuffing out of her. He keeps kicking her and calling her a traitor. Lizzie winds up in the emergency ward as she’s suffered three broken ribs. However the doctor says her baby survived the incident perfectly.
The Story Continues Next Thursday Night at 9:00 pm on NBC.
