Warning: Spoiler Alert
It’s Extremely tempting to skip recapping this episode of the NBC series “The Blacklist,” and jump right to the final scene. After all, that’s what the fans will be buzzing about at the conclusion of “The Forecaster.” However, the writers concocted an interesting tale, involving two separate story-lines, one of which lead to the rather surprising conclusion. So, I’ll restrain my impulses and go with a rather abridged synopsis.
Our evening opens with the sound of buzzing and static, as we see a bunch of rapidly changing images. We keep seeing one blue eye, and somebody working with clay. The sculptor forms and then paints a woman, we also see a table and chairs, already formed.
The scene changes and gives us our first look at Liz and Tom’s new apartment, filled with boxes containing all their belongings. Lizzie apologizes to Tom, for leaving him to unpack so she can get to work, he says it’s fine and he and Agnes will rock-out to the Romantics. Tom then opens an envelope that contains all his fake passports, Liz asks if he’s really ready to give up his old life? He smiles and assures her, that he is as he throws them in the wastebasket.
Agent Keen opens her front door and sees a miniature recreation of a scene, known as a diorama. The scene depicts an indoor pool, with a woman lying face down in the water. We also see the table now contains a glass filled with some green liquid.
Turns out it’s a green smoothie, as we find out in the next scene. We’re suddenly at that indoor pool, as a middle-aged woman takes a sip from her drink, drops her robe and dives into the pool. She starts doing laps when suddenly she’s gasping for air. She’s able to reach the safety rope, but too late and she drowns, her body floating on the water recreates the diorama.
Liz enters the Post Office with the diorama in tow, they’ve identified the victim as Federal Judge Tricia Culpepper. Keen received the recreation, ninety-minutes before Culpepper drowned, leading the team to believe that the killer’s taunting Keen. Cooper orders Lizzie to contact Reddington, to find out if he has any insight in the case.
Raymond, Dembe and a real-estate agent named Pamela, are checking out a pristine white apartment. Reddington says to the agent that if he took the place, he could only drink white wines, and he’s not certain he could do that. Pamela whispers to Dembe that he should drink it in the kitchen, seconds later Raymond announces he’s had a revelation and he can drink it in the kitchen.
Red will take the apartment on a month-to-month basis, Elizabeth arrives and Pamela leaves. Lizzie thanks Raymond for getting her the pardon. Reddington says in the words of his grandmother, it’s good to have friends in low places. Then they get down to the reason they’re meeting, Culpepper’s drowning. Raymond says that Keen’s dealing with a member of The Blacklist, somebody taunting her who knows where she lives. Turns out Reddington’s correct, in an indirect way.
Back at the apartment, Tom’s opening boxes and singing to Agnes, when he sees a shadow in front of his front door. He picks up a box-cutter and runs to the door, he sees another diorama in front of him, then hears a door bang shut. He runs out to the street and sees a figure in a hoodie, who starts to sprint away. The person in the hoodie appears to be a woman, as she seems small to be a man.
Tom loses them in the crowd, and suddenly realizes he left Agnes alone with the door wide open. He sprints back to the new place and more to console himself, than his daughter, he picks her up and reassures her that he’s got her. Keen realizes that he can’t just chase trouble any longer, he’s got new responsibilities.
The new diorama, depicts a man lying dead on the sidewalk of a park, the victim of a gunshot wound with blood splattering the sidewalk. There’s also a bike and a building that Aram recognizes as the old post office. Donald says they’ll catch the killer this time, and keep him from coming near Liz again.
Raymond’s putting together a jigsaw puzzle, when he and Dembe are joined by a man with an African accent named Geoffrey Keino. Keino says that he’s surprised that Reddington wanted to see him, Red asks the well-dressed man what he knows about cobalt. The African says that every cellphone battery contains at least three grams of cobalt, computers use even more.
Reddington responds that he’s heard that Keino’s boss Iniko’s investing in cobalt mines and he wants in. Geoffrey asks if Red wants him to set up a meeting with his boss, but Raymond says he wants to make a deal with Keino. He says he won’t deal with Iniko, as he recently murdered a close friend of his. Keino says if he goes against his boss, he’ll get killed. Reddington replies that Iniko will only keep him around as long as he’s useful, so Geoffrey should strike first.
The Task-Force members are down at the park in front of the old post office, not knowing who they’re looking for. They see a guy on a bicycle, but Aram quickly realizes the shooter’s on a motorcycle. Keen tackles the intended victim, saving his life, the guy on the bike gets away. Liz however gets told that the print they recovered from her doorway, during the drop of the second diorama, belongs to Fiona Driscoll.
Red and Dembe drop by a restaurant, where Iniko’s dining and Raymond proceeds to tell him that he’s got an employee that’s out to betray him. He says since he got betrayed by a former employee, he couldn’t allow Iniko to fall in the same trap. He then says that Keino offered him a share of the cobalt mines, if Reddington killed his boss. Iniko asks Raymond to join him for the rest of his meal, but Red begs off.
As they walk away from the table, Dembe takes Reddington to task for using Mr. Kaplan in his story. Red tries to dismiss him, but Zuma says that Kate deserves more respect than that. Raymond doesn’t respond to Dembe, who clearly can’t get over not stopping Reddington from killing his friend.
Ressler and Keen bring Fiona Driscoll into custody, she’s a little slip of a woman in her thirties. However they’re questioning her as if she’s the killer. Driscoll tells them that she’s not involved in the crimes, she just gets prior knowledge through premonitions. She tells the agents that the premonitions have been occurring for the last two-years and she takes them to her apartment to show Donald and Liz, more dioramas.
There are 42, in total and they depict tragedies, from around the globe. Then Fiona reveals that she’s not the one receiving the premonitions or creating the recreations. She introduces Ressler and Keen to her nine-year-old special needs daughter Maggie.
Raymond’s still working on his puzzle when Keino returns to the apartment. He’s terrified as Iniko closed the deal on the cobalt mines, without his assistance and he won’t return Geoffrey’s phone calls. Reddington tells Keino that the time to strike’s now and that Geoffrey should take out his boss with a car bomb.
Aram realizes that Maggie’s picking up cellphone conversations on her hearing aid, as they broadcast at the same frequency. Maggie’s been hearing the calls between Chris Farnsworth, CEO of Jasek Financial and his hitman Ben Charnquist. The Task-Force heads to the Driscoll’s apartment as Mojtabai attempts to track the signal. He loses it, but tells the others he’ll catch them on their next phone call.
Keino shows back up at Red’s apartment carrying a gun, which Dembe takes possession of before Geoffrey’s allowed in. He tells Reddington that Iniko discovered the car bomb and he thinks Raymond betrayed him. Red says that Keino got sloppy and either the bomb maker or the mechanic tipped off Iniko. Raymond tells Geoffrey that he’ll call Iniko and Keino can be prepared with the magic bullet.
Mojtabai’s able to pick up the conversation perfectly this time and they hear that Farnsworth and Charnquist found out about Maggie’s involvement and that’s how the Feds broke up the attempted shooting. The hitman tells Farnsworth to get a name and address and he’ll rectify the problem, just then Charnquist and Liz look out the window at the same time and realize what’s going on.
Liz and Donald run to the hitman’s apartment but just miss him, as he’s at the Driscoll’s. He’s knocked out Aram and taken Maggie. He encounters two uniforms and shoots them both, then takes one of the officer’s uniform and badge. He gets Maggie outside and puts her on a school-bus, as he attempts to hide from the agents, but quickly realizes they’ve got to get out of the area.
Mojtabai tells the pair that the walkie-talkies are broadcasting on the same frequency as Maggie’s hearing aid and if they crank the gain, they can cause Maggie to hear feedback. Charnquist and the girl exit the bus, when she drops to her knees in pain and starts screaming. The hitman starts to shake her and ask her what’s wrong, when he realizes all the mothers are staring at him and he takes off. Keen and Ressler, lower the gain and rescue the girl.
Keino’s pacing back and forth in a hallway, when Dembe arrives. Geoffrey says he can hear Iniko’s voice and Zuma hands him a gun with a silencer that he says is untraceable. Geoffrey asks Dembe if he could betray his boss, and after a second Zuma responds that he doesn’t know.
Keino bursts into the apartment and pulls the gun on his boss, but the chamber’s empty. He screams to Iniko that Reddington set him up, the boss replies they both did and kills his employee with three shots. Blood’s splattered all over the white apartment, Iniko calls his cleaners and Raymond and Dembe pull their weapons.
Farnsworth and Charnquist are back on the phone and Farnsworth says that the hitman’s got one more victim before they can escape. One of Farnsworth’s employee’s who apparently has been in on their crimes. Maggie hears the call and starts creating a diorama taking place at Jasek, showing a man dying in an elevator. Farnsworth meanwhile escapes just before a swat team enters his office to arrest him.
Iniko begs Raymond to spare his life, trying to tempt him with the riches Reddington could acquire through the cobalt mines. Raymond then reveals to Iniko that he’s looking for vengeance in the death of Cyrus Choi, who Iniko had murdered two-months before. Red says that he doesn’t believe that Choi would approve of the venture, as the money will come from using children as slave labor.
There’s a knock upon the door and Iniko says those are his cleaners. Raymond says that he’s going to hire them and the Crime-Lord says they work for him. Reddington says not anymore and shoots the African dead. He opens the door and the cleaners tell him they’ve arrived to meet Iniko and Raymond informs them that he’s dead. The female member of the duo’s pleased as she says he was a tool.
Aram informs them that the elevator was built prior to having emergency pneumatic back-up, so unless they stop Charnquist, the guy’s a dead man. A man in a tuxedo enters the building and the elevator and presses his floor, Charnquist’s busy cutting through the elevator cable. Ressler takes Charnquist out as he shoots him through a window, but the cord’s cut through. Keen saves the man with the emergency stop.
The Cleaners get the apartment back to pristine shape and Reddington’s amazed. He tells the pair that he wants to hire them and he’ll pay them twice what they got from Iniko. The woman tells Red that they only moonlight, as their regular job’s working for the Metro Police Department.
The male part of the pair asks Dembe what happened to their former cleaner and Zuma replies she was murdered. The guy asks if they were close and Dembe says very, he asks if the killer’s been caught and Zuma responds no. The guy asks if they know who did it and Dembe says they do, the guy says then it’s just a matter of time, right? Zuma remains silent.
When they leave Dembe glares at Reddington and asks if that’s what this was all about, replacing Kate? Raymond responds that there is no replacing Kate. Dembe’s glare remains as he says not as far as he’s concerned. Elizabeth comes to the apartment and it turns out that a member of The Blacklist was involved. Farnsworth’s known as the forecaster, Raymond never bank-rolled him as Red wasn’t controlling the venture.
The Keens are enjoying dinner when there’s a knock at the door and Tom asks Liz if she wants to get it? She’s surprised to see a pensive looking Dembe, who tells her he’s worried about Raymond. He says he’s not himself and he can’t reach him, the only thing Raymond cares about is Lizzie and Agnes. He then brings up the couple that were leaving the apartment as she arrived and Keen says Red wouldn’t tell her who they were.
Dembe reveals that the pair were cleaners and Liz asks what’s happened with Mr. Kaplan? She then asks if this has anything to do with faking her death? Is Kate being punished and being replaced by the couple. Dembe responds that they’re not replacing her, Raymond killed Kate. Fade to black.
How will this affect the dynamic of the series, for the short-term and the long-term? How’s Raymond going to react to the fact that he’s now been betrayed by yet another he’s trusted his life to? Will it cause an unrepairable rift between the pair, or will this cause Reddington to see the light? Just when Liz and Reddington have established some mutual-trust, she finds out he killed Kate. Can she ever forgive him?
Will this lead to them discovering that Mr. Kaplan’s indeed alive? Will they find the Tracker and will he once again enter the story. Will we find out who was driving that silver pickup truck that picked Kate up on the road? Will we find out the fate of Dr. Nick? Raymond’s past has caught up with him, how will this play out with those closest to him?
The Story Resumes Next Thursday Night at 10:00 pm on NBC.
