WARNING: SPOILER ALERT
Welcome back for the second half our recap of “The Blacklist,” episode “The Informant.” Due to the complex story lines of this episode, our choice was either to write a short novella, or to give Elizabeth Keen’s story arc a separate recap. Rather than subject you to tedious writing and confusion, we chose the latter option.
As I wrote in the first recap, this episode proved to be a great showcase to contrast how Donald Ressler and Lizzie, deal with their internal demons. We detailed how important it was for Ressler to battle his dark-side, and to seek the light. His duplicitous ways proved to be a burden he could no longer carry, and he was willing and ready to pay the price for his crimes.
Vengeance’s proven to be an intoxicating elixir for Elizabeth Keen. Her time spent in Alaska, strengthened her body as she lead a Spartan existence. However it took her executing the four criminals that threatened her, for her to feel alive again. She’s hyper-focused on her mission, making the men that killed her husband pay dearly. She’s become Ahab, and the mysterious Ian Garvey’s not only her prey but her obsession. She may feel healthy and alive, but she’s ostracized herself from her old life.
In many ways the Elizabeth Keen we’re seeing, could be best compared to a feral animal. That was well displayed early in the episode, during an exchange with Samar Navabi, as the two bumped into each other at Raymond’s apartment. The pair exchanged pleasantries, with Samar describing her relationship with Aram as boring, domestic and blissful. When she asked how Agnes’ getting along, Lizzie showed her shame as she turned away and made a hasty exit. Navabi said to Reddington “She’s not coming back, is she?” She took Raymond’s silence as an affirmative.
Lizzie’s conducting her own investigation into Tom’s murder from their old apartment, and once again living a Spartan existence. She’s spent the past two days, after returning from Alaska, gathering as much information as she can on the men that invaded the apartment, nearly killing her and taking Tom’s life. She keeps flashing back to the crime as she investigates the evidence she’s gathered, including the swatch of carpet still stained with blood.
We see photographs and names of the men involved, and with each image we watch how they died. Worgul, Madigan, Fishbauch, and Shelly, plus the picture of the red-headed beefy guy that left with Garvey, Bobby Navarro. The police believe that Navarro orchestrated the hit, however they lacked the evidence to hold him. Elizabeth’s memory’s sketchy, but she remembers another man in charge, a man with glasses.
Raymond’s ascertained that the five men worked for the Nash drug syndicate, but he believes somebody may have hired them to do the hit. Unfortunately, he’s been unable to make any headway into the identity of whom that party could be. He’s basically taken on the role of sounding board for Keen at this juncture, and not for advice just information.
Reddington doesn’t approve, and he’s quite fearful about the path Lizzie’s barreling down. However he realizes she’d never accept him as her moral compass, so he approaches the man that already plays that role in her life, Harold Cooper. Raymond explains to Cooper that he’s the devil on Lizzie’s shoulder, but Harold’s the angel on her other shoulder. He says that Elizabeth’s going through troubled waters, and he’s counting on Harold to help her navigate them.
As for the man she’s ultimately seeking, we get our first glimpse of Ian Garvey since the series’ return, when he’s woken by a phone call in the middle of the night. We see he’s sleeping with a woman and he’s wearing boxers and a wife-beater. He takes a swig from a beer bottle on his night stand when he answers the phone, the man on the other end informs him that Keen’s returned to town. The other man asks Garvey if he wants him to act on it? Garvey responds to leave her be, and that he believes time will be their ally. He says he’ll get things together on his end and hangs up.
I’ve stated previously that I don’t believe Ian Garvey stems from the underworld, rather he comes from a career in one of our government intelligence services, either the Agency or the Bureau. I’m uncertain of his status, whether he’s still an active agent or retired, but he’s still retains access to CODIS. Garvey’s likely busted his hump as bureaucrat for years, and he believes the contents of the knapsack are the pot of gold at the end of his rainbow. I’ve got severe doubts that he’ll ever see even a coin.
There’s a knock on Lizzie’s apartment door, and she recognizes Police Detective Singleton, the officer that tried to interview her about the incident after she got discharged from the hospital. She tries blowing him off, saying it’s an inconvenient time, but his persistence pays off and she invites him in for a cup of coffee.
Singleton tells her that the bullets that killed her assailants came from a gun that wasn’t found at the scene. Realizing that the bullets came from Raymond and Dembe’s weapons she pleads ignorance, as well as saying she had no idea who drove them to the hospital. Singleton realizes she’s stonewalling, and says she could be charged as an accessory, if she’s withholding information. The only bit of useful info she receives is that the Nash syndicate operate out of Kaufman’s Food and Liquor, which proves to be her next destination.
Three young low-level hoods are sitting on the corner in front of Kaufman’s when Keen drives up, and one of them approaches the car. She asks the guy where’s Navarro, and he replies she’s got the wrong place. She informs him that she’s aware that he’s a member of the Nash syndicate, and once again asks where’s Navarro.
The punk, thinking he can intimidate Keen reaches into the driver’s window and clutches her throat, big mistake. She promptly puts a handcuff on his hand, and he attaches the connecting one to her car and starts to drive off. She tells the kid he looks athletic, but she’s got a full tank of gas. He quickly says that he’ll contact the bagman Chrisanto, who could lead her to Navarro.
Chrisanto arrives to find the punk sitting in the driver’s seat of his car, so he climbs into the passenger seat. He doesn’t notice that the kid’s bound and gagged until it’s too late. Lizzie’s in the backseat, and starts choking him with some razor wire. She tells him not to panic, because then he’ll pass out, and then she’ll have to kill them. She then asks about Navarro’s location, and he gives up Navarro’s money launderer, Pee-Wee.
Keen walks into the kitchen of a greasy-spoon, where she finds Pee-wee at his day job tending the grill. She asks about Navarro, and he tries to play dumb. When she asks him again he goes for his pistol, but Lizzie shoots him in the thigh before he can grab it. she then asks the young waitress where he keeps the money, and she motions to a refrigerator, stuffed with cash. Lizzie grabs a stack and says Pee-Wee will either give her Navarro’s location now, or after she burns up all of his money, and sets the stack aflame from one of the stove burners.
Navarro’s counting money, when there’s a knock on his door. He looks through the peephole and sees Pee-Wee’s face, and he grumbles as he asks why he’s there. Pee-Wee responds, just let me in and Navarro opens the door, to find Keen standing there with the money launderer’s image on her cell phone, and she’s brandishing a pistol. She asks Navarro if he remembers her, then pushes her way and instructs him to put a pair of plastic handcuffs on himself. She then empties the cartridge from his pistol and puts the gun back on his desk.
She asks Navarro about the man with the Damascus knife that was at her apartment the night of the incident, and the thug responds he can’t remember. She gives him a back hand to his jaw and then shows him pictures of Nik, Pete McGee, and Lena, and asks if he remembers them? She says that Tom was trying to help Nik with something, that got them both killed.
He smirks and says she still doesn’t get it. Tom wasn’t trying to help Nik, rather it was the other way around. She asks what Nik was trying to help Tom with, and Navarro looked down sheepishly and lowered the volume of his voice and said he couldn’t tell her or they’d kill him. Lizzie fell for the decoy, as she let her defenses down and leaned into hear him better. That’s when Navarro made his move, and in the ensuing tussle knocked the pistol out of her hands.
Unfortunately due to allowing the hood to handcuff himself, his hands remained in front of him. He lifted Lizzie up like a rag doll and slammed her head against the wall. She looked like she was blacking out, but fought back until he got his arm around her neck, choking off her air supply.
Lizzie’s losing consciousness, but she starts fixating on Tom’s final moments in the apartment. Beaten to a pulp, he summoned the strength to hold off their attackers until Dembe and Raymond arrived. Inspired by the vision, she loosens the large man’s grip with a blow to his chin. He grabs her again, but she’s able to push him down backwards, so that they both fall on a glass coffee table that shatters under his weight.
Shaken from the incident, Liz gets up an looks at Navarro. His lifeless eyes stare back at her, with a shard of glass protruding from his jugular vein, and blood spurting like a geyser from his neck. She says out loud, okay it’s okay, but she realizes it’s anything but. Lizzie’s crossed the line, she’s turning into a full-fledged vigilante. Although Raymond can likely clean up this mess for her, Keen’s troubled waters maybe leading to a tidal wave.
The Blacklist Broadcasts Episode #100, Next Wednesday, January 17, at 8:00 pm on NBC.
