Photo by: Will Hart/NBC
Warning: Spoiler Alert
Megan Boone got most of the spotlight in the latest episode of the NBC series “The Blacklist,” as we watched FBI Agent Liz Keen, go undercover with an elite all-female team of criminals, known as “The Harem.” Perhaps the show-runners decided to air a small screen version of the upcoming film “Ocean’s Eight,” a female reboot of the Ocean’s Eleven series. (Sorry, I’m a purist and have only seen the original movie starring the Rat Pack.) However, there’s a subplot that’s not given much attention in the episode, but it’s ramifications are much larger in the long-term.
Our opening scene takes place in Atlanta, Georgia, as two black SUVs pull up in front of what appears to be a large mansion. The vehicles’ doors open and a bunch of Goons come out, all being directed by some guy with slicked-back hair. The boss nearly bumps into a young pregnant woman, who suddenly appears as if she’s in distress. She moans a few times, but she then tells the guy that she’s fine. She also pocketed the key to one of the SUVs and she and another woman head for the vehicle. She ditches her “baby,” actually a basketball, and though a guard starts to reach for his weapon, he’s gunned down by yet another woman on a roof with a high-powered rifle.
As the women steal one of the SUV’s, the boss and one of his guys give chase in the other. After a high-speed chase that dings up the vehicle, they lose the guys by ducking into a parking lot. We then see them meet with two other women in a warehouse, and we see that the vehicle’s passenger’s side headrest’s loaded with 73 diamonds.
After the credits, we join Raymond and Dembe at Red’s money-launderer Zach Smoll. Reddington tells Smoll, that he wants to invest in a luxury cruise-liner, and instructs him to get the funds ready for the transaction. Keen arrives and she’s not in the best of moods. She tells Smoll and his crew that she’s an FBI Agent, and while she has to look the other way when Reddington breaks the law, the rules don’t apply to them. They get the message and quickly scatter.
Raymond informs Liz that the government’s witness protection list’s been stolen, and though he doesn’t know who has the list currently, he knows who will get it next. Reddington then informs the agent about the Harem’s heist of ten million dollars, worth of diamonds in Atlanta. He tells Lizzie that the Harem only steals from other criminals, and they’ve got their eyes set on this list.
Back at the Post Office, Harold and his team discuss the case and they agree to try to get Keen to get accepted by the Harem. Ressler suggests they use one of their criminal informant’s Craig Gaynier, to say that he pulled a heist with “Liz Crawford,” down in Florida.
Liz disguises herself as a hotel clerk and knocks on the door of the Harem’s leader Margot Roche, and says she needs to check the minibar. Roche lets her in and Keen scurries to the part of the suite where the minibar’s at, she however goes into Roche’s suitcase and steals the pouch with the diamonds, leaving a note to meet her in the bar in its place.
Roche asks why she shouldn’t beat the stuffing out of her, Liz gives her back the pouch and says she wants to join the Harem. She tells Margot that she reads people, then she tells them what they want to hear, so they do her bidding. Liz then goes down her list of scams and says she worked with Craig Gaynier. Roche tells her associate to keep an eye on Liz as she’s going to do some checking. We see that Ressler and Navabi are also in the bar.
Keen and the two women go for a ride with Ressler and Navabi trailing them. Another one of the crew, meets them at their warehouse with Craig Gaynier tied to a wheelchair. He says he’s worked with Liz Crawford, that they stole 2.1 million down in Florida, and his banter with Liz convinces Roche they worked together.
She tells Liz that there’s just one boss, Liz does as Margot says and no questions asked. Liz says okay and then Margot tells her to shoot Gaynier. Liz refuses, saying that Roche doesn’t want blind followers, she values loyalty. Liz worked with Craig, so she’s loyal to him, if Roche brings her on board she’ll be loyal to the Harem. Margot smiles and says that Lizzie’s good. loyalty’s everything. However she then shoots Craig herself, because of some episode in Majorca.
Raymond’s traveled to Sydney, Australia, to talk to Carter Wilson, CEO of Whistler Cruise Line, using the alias Mr. Lockhart. He tells Wilson he’s well aware of all the financial problems the corporation’s suffering and he’s willing to bail them out, in return for the cruise line’s shipping his goods. He tells Wilson when it comes to his shipments, the less the executive knows, the better for all involved.
After Roche kills Gaynier, the women engage in some heavy drinking and Liz wakes up in the middle of the night dazed and confused. She’s soon joined by Emma, who offers a glass and says that Lizzie’s a chatty-drunk. Liz says she hopes she wasn’t too embarrassing and Emma, says instead she was quite revealing. She then tells Liz to get some rest as they’ve got a big day ahead. Of course, Liz’s paranoid about what she revealed and wonders what Emma knows?
Raymond, somehow gets back to Washington from Australia by warp-speed and informs that the first person murdered whose name’s on the WTTSEC (the witness protection list,) got killed by a Jersey gangster named Tony Gianussa. Gianussa also owns the SUV, that the Harem stole containing the 73 diamonds, the Harem’s planning on offering to give him the diamonds back in return for the location of the WTTSEC. Margot starts talking about some complicated plan to get to Gianussa, but Liz says she’s got it covered.
Liz goes to Gianussa’s strip-club and sits down in front of one of the dancers. The woman slithers over to Keen and asks if she’s looking for anything special? Liz drops one of Gianussa’s diamonds into her hand and suddenly, all of the dancers are abuzz. Tony comes out to investigate and goes ballistic when the dancer shows him the diamond.
The gangster throws Keen to the floor and asks if she knows who he is? She says she knows he’s got another 72 stones that he wants to get back. Gianussa puts his pistol in her face and Lizzie tells him unless she walks out in 30-seconds, he’ll never see his diamonds again.
Gianussa sends his crew to the Harem’s warehouse, but he and a goon stay behind with Liz. When the crew arrive at the warehouse, Jessica tells them they best call their boss. Tony gets a call from his guy, telling him the diamonds aren’t at the warehouse. He asks Liz what’s going on, that she said the diamonds were at the warehouse? Liz corrects him and reminds him she said if he went to the warehouse he’d get the diamonds. Since he didn’t go, they’ll have a private conversation.
The goon gets shot and Margot and Sasha step out from the shadows. She says that she’ll give Gianussa a key and the locker number where the diamonds are stored, in exchange for who has the WTTSEC. Tony informs them that the list’s got stolen by the hacker Helldritch, who just got granted asylum in Hong Kong.
Keen’s still suspicious of Emma and starts tailing her, she follows her to a restaurant where Emma meets with Reddington. Liz immediately realizes that Emma works for Red, and though she stays hidden, she’s soon in Raymond’s car asking what’s going on.
Reddington tells Liz that Emma’s former MI-6 and he’s had her undercover with the Harem for some time, as she keeps him informed on what they’re going to steal next. However she had stopped contacting him, so he needed to get Liz on the team as well. Raymond tells Liz that she can trust Emma, however Keen’s not too certain Raymond’s instincts are correct.
Roche sends Emma and Liz on an errand together and Emma tells Liz that she’d been a low-level MI-6 agent, when Reddington recruited her, eight years before. She says she got star-struck, that he made her the center of his universe and it was exciting. However she crossed too many lines along the way, her work, her family and now it was too late. Keen says it’s never too late, but Emma scoffed.
Reddington’s deal with Whistler Cruise Lines, falls through as Red’s been unable to contact Zach Smoll and the money didn’t get sent to Wilson. Instead the CEO says he got the money from Baldur Magnusson, and Raymond wishes Wilson the best of luck. Dembe says quietly to Red that seems like a strange coincidence.
The Harem’s heading to Hong Kong, where Helldritch lives in a fortress like suite in a hotel. The women plan on how they will gain access to the suite and then to extract the chip with the WTTSEC list, embedded in the hacker’s palm. In order to retain the list, they need to simulate the environment of Helldritch’s palm, Emma’s got a plan.
Sasha’s disguised as a hotel maid, hacks the Helldritch’s suite and Emma, Jessica and Liz enter the suite. Liz approaches Helldritch and tells the hacker she wants to talk about the WTTSEC and asks if there’s someplace they can talk. The three women overcome Helldritch and they get the chip and put it in device to keep it safe. Then suddenly Emma takes the list and runs off. Liz attempts to stop her, but when she realizes she can’t she kills Jessica and then calls Margot saying that Helldritch killed the Harem member.
When Liz returns to the Post Office, she tells the Task-Force that Emma had nowhere to go. She betrayed the Harem and Reddington and she’d have nowhere to turn. However she suddenly realizes just where the former MI-6 agent went to.
Raymond figured it out as well and joins Emma as she watches her teenage son Will play soccer at his boarding school. Emma tells Reddington she wants out and she realizes what that means. Raymond tells her he’s going top set her up with a cabin on a lake in Vermont and send her a monthly stipend that will keep her comfortable and pay for her son Will’s education. He then asks her, that if she wanted out, why didn’t she just come to him? She said she didn’t realize that was an option and Raymond said he’s sorry.
Reddington meets with Elizabeth and she guesses that he got to Emma before the FBI could. Red says that he did and he gives Keen the list. She asks him if he killed her like he killed Mr. Kaplan and Raymond looks Dembe in the eye. Zuma maintains eye contact with Raymond and then looks away.
Reddington tells Lizzie that many years ago, a woman from Wisconsin named Maureen Rowan, was out in the middle of a freezing cold night, as her dog Dodger needed to relieve his bladder. While she was out there she witnessed a Russian gangster’s crew move a corpse from a basement to a car trunk.
She testified against the gangster and that turned her life upside down, Maureen Rowan’s on the WTTSEC. She’s also Mr. Kaplan’s sister. Raymond didn’t need to find her, but he needed to make certain nobody else could. Lizzie says that doesn’t make up for all the other terrible things he’s done and he agrees. When she leaves, Dembe says to Reddington that he just felt Lizzie had the right to know about Kate. Raymond says he understands.
Raymond and Dembe head back to his money-launderer, and he’s told that Zach Smoll dropped dead of a heart attack. He never sent the funds and right now the money’s sitting in an unknown account. Raymond thanks the assistant Abe and he and Dembe leave. However Reddington doesn’t believe Smoll died of a heart-attack, this was the opening salvo of a war, waged by an unknown attacker. Could Kate be involved?
The Story Continues Next Thursday Night at 10:00 pm on NBC.
