WARNING: SPOILER ALERT
White supremacists, child brides, a BOLO Alert, Aram and Samar taking a new step in their relationship, and the return of Teddy Brimley. All this and more greeted viewers as the NBC series “The Blacklist,” returned to the airwaves, as another March Madness, goes into the history books. The series that specializes in bait and switch, contained plenty of surprises that kept fans alert and aware. Combine the aforementioned with “TEAM-RED,” working together on a coordinated effort, made for this viewer’s most satisfying episode since Tom Keen’s execution, last November.
Our evening kicked off as we watch a car drive through a toney neighborhood, and pulls into the driveway of a home that’s likely worth seven figures. As we listen to Janis Ian singing “At Seventeen,” we see the driver’s a man in his forties and calls out as he enters the doorway for Reva, whose sitting at a table wearing headphones and working on her studies from high school. The man removes one of the buds from the girl’s ear and asks her how she can concentrate with the music blasting? The young woman asks the man if he’s ready for dinner, and he tells her he’s heading to his study to take a business call.
The man sits down at his desk, opens up his safe and removes a black ledger. He then grabs his cellphone, and places a call to Raymond Reddington. He tells Reddington that he’s got what Red needs, and says that he hope Ian Garvey doesn’t get wind of what he’s doing. Reddington assures him that the Federal Marshall will never know of their meeting and tells the man that if he leaves immediately they can be face to face in 30-minutes. Suddenly the man realizes he’s not alone in his study, and screams wait and no, before an assailant pumps a bullet into his chest. Reddington screams out the man’s name and then hangs up the phone.
Turns out the man named Jerry Jawal, was about to deliver the ledger to Raymond, and the book contained information on the supplier that provides heroin that the Nash syndicate sells on the streets. Reddington’s plan was to use the information to put the syndicates drug-trafficking operation out of commission. He believes that Garvey or one of his soldiers killed Jawal, while Elizabeth Keen informs him that the Bureau suspects a white supremacist named Coogan Hudnut took the man out. Jawal had become port manager of the dock that the syndicate uses to bring the narcotics into the country, and had replaced the previous crew with friends from India. The Bureau believes he killed a stevedore on the dock, and that Jawal’s murder was also racially motivated.
Dembe and Reddington drive over to a bar called the Last Chance Saloon, a watering hole that specializes in racist clientele. A bouncer comes to the door, and tells Raymond that he may enter but that “IT,” must remain outside, referring to Dembe. Red becomes indignant, but Zuma calms him down and says he’ll stay outside. When Reddington enters the bar, he offers the first man that gives him the location of Hudnut ten grand in cash. One of the men jumps at the offer, causing one of his associates to pull out his pistol. Raymond immediately responds, taking out all of the men in the room except for the squealer and the bartender. He’s quickly informed that the man he’s looking for is barricaded in his office at the back of the building.
Raymond shoots the remaining bodyguard, then steps out-of-the-way of a shotgun blast that emanates from the other side of the door. Reddington tells Hudnut that he’s got questions about the racist’s murder of Jawal, but he denies committing the crime. He then attempts to flee from the building, but of course Dembe stops him before he can run.
We move to the Post-Office, where Aram’s beating himself up over losing witness Tony Mejia, during an ambush. However his mood lightens when he shows Donald Ressler an amethyst ring that he got for Samar. Ressler thinks it’s an engagement ring, causing Mojtabai, to question whether he really should give Navabi the gift. Donald believes that Navabi will jump to the conclusion that Aram’s asking her to marry him. He tries to ask Lizzie her opinion, but he quickly changes the subject when Samar enters the room.
Jawal’s family hold a wake for him, suddenly Reva gets a text telling her to go outside. She meets another girl about her age, and Reva says she can’t believe they did it. The other young woman says that Jerry was a terrible man and deserved to die. We then realize that neither Garvey or Hudnut murdered Jawal, the other young woman was his assailant.
The scene shifts to a high school gymnasium, where we encounter a pensive girl waiting to meet someone. A short time later, the girl who killed Jerry Jawal arrives and she says that if the girl wants her help, once the plan’s in motion there’s no going back. She sees her potential client’s still has qualms about going through with their plan, so she gives the girl a burner phone, and tells her if she decides she wants to utilize her services to call her.
Raymond’s standing in a hallway, when he’s approached by a familiar face, Teddy Brimley, the geriatric master of torture. He tells Reddington that Hudnut killed the stevedore, but he didn’t kill Jawal. Teddy then says he needs pastrami, and Red can’t understand what kind of torture Brimley would inflict with the deli meat. Teddy quickly explains to Raymond that the pastrami’s for Brimley’s lunch. Raymond asks if Dembe and he can join him for the meal, and Teddy says he’ll give Dembe the address. Reddington tells the elderly man that he’s happy Brimley’s back in the fold.
Navabi and Ressler head to Jawal’s home and Reva answers the door. They tell her they’d like to ask a few questions about her father’s murder, but Reva explains to the agents that Jerry was her husband, not her father. Her parents arranged the marriage with Jawal in Maryland, and granted their consent for their daughter to marry the much older man. Caught off guard and totally flustered, it’s apparent that she’s hiding something from the agents. However the conversation concludes, when Reva faints and collapses on the floor.
We move to the home that the other prospective client Tara Rayburn, arrives home late from school. She’s also married to man more than twice her age, who owns a local car dealership. Dale joins her in their bed, and Tara starts tearing up as her husband starts to initiate sex with her. The next morning she’s running late for school, but Dale insists he cooks him breakfast before she heads to class. She then pulls out the burner phone, and tells the girl on the other end that she’s hit her limit. The other young woman tells her to stick to her usual routine, and that she’ll take out her husband.
Reva’s taken to the hospital, and the physicians inform her that she’s pregnant. Her father says that the FBI agents thought they were hiding something from them, and he feels that way as well. He demands that his daughter tells him the truth, when Raymond walks into the hospital room and says he’d be interested in hearing the explanation himself. Reva’s dad asks Reddington who he is, and he replies that he’s a friend, or possibly a foe. He then introduces himself as Raymond and says he’s an interested party.
He tells Reva that he knows she arranged Jerry’s murder, and that her husband was a drug dealer. He says that her actions have jeopardized her life and the lives of her parents, then asks Reva the name of the girl who carried out the hit. She says she never got her name, she’s known as the “GUARDIAN ANGEL,” and all she requested from Reva, was the name of another girl who was forced into an arranged marriage.
Navabi heads to Tara’s high school, while Ressler goes to Dale’s car dealership. Samar tells Tara that if the assassination of her husband takes place, she’ll likely spend the rest of her days in prison. Tara starts crying ands says she’s not sure that she can prevent the assassin from going through with the plan.
Ressler informs Dale that Tara’s put out a contract on his life, but he doesn’t believe the agent, saying that he and his wife are deeply in love. Suddenly we see the “GUARDIAN ANGEL,” lurking around the lot, and she puts a backpack in a car parked outside Rayburn’s office. Dale notices the vehicle and calls one of his staff and asks why it hasn’t been moved to one of the work bays? The employee responds that it got moved a while before, and Ressler realizes that there’s a bomb in the vehicle, and tells Dale to hit the floor. Seconds later the bomb explodes, and Ressler leaves the office running through flames to apprehend the perpetrator. The “GUARDIAN ANGEL,” tells two men in the parking lot that Ressler’s trying to kill her, and they stop him from chasing her as she gets on public transit. He then tells one of the men that he’s taking his jacket as the girl’s fingerprints are on it.
Aram receives a message that Bureau agents have discovered the device that caused the vehicle to grind to a halt, when Mejia got abducted. He also finds video footage of the man with “David Bowie Eyes“. Lizzie immediately recognizes the man as one of Reddington’s employees, then heads to Raymond’s to confront him.
Keen allows her emotions to get the best of her and get physical with Red, slamming him up against a wall of shelving covered in books. Raymond admits to her that he abducted Mejia, because if Garvey’s busted before Reddington recovers the duffel bag, his secret will be revealed. He also informs her that Mejia’s safe and hidden away. Keen issues a “BOLO Alert,” in the hopes that law enforcement can find him. What she doesn’t realize is Garvey receives the alert, and he uses it to set Keen up.
The Task-Force, gets a match on the fingerprints and identifies the perpetrator as Anna Gracia Duerte. After obtaining her address, Navabi and Ressler head to her apartment. When they get there they realize that Anna had just escaped, Ressler looks for here on the street, while Samar searches the roof. Duerte makes it to the edge of the roof, when Navabi encounters her and threatens to jump. She then tearfully recounts her story to the agent.
Anna’s originally from Brazil and became friendly with an older man who invited her to see his home. However he had other intentions in mind and forced himself on her. Duerte reported the rape, but her parents took the rapist’s side instead of their daughters. They arranged for Anna to marry the man, 30-years her senior, and the couple emigrated to the States when she was 13.
Despising her husband and revolted by his touch, the young girl reached her limit and stabbed her husband to death. Once she recovered from the shock, she decided to dedicate her life to ending the nightmare for other girls in her situation. She took the lives of nine men, freeing their child-brides from their Hellish existence.
Samar puts her pistol back in her holster and tells Duerte that her parents were killed when she was just nine. Traumatized and unable to make sense of the tragedy, her 15-year-old cousin took her under her wing, and restored Navabi’s faith in the world. However that world came crashing around her, when her uncle announced that he’d arranged a marriage for his daughter and she would go to live with her new husband the next day. Samar begs Anna to try to let her help her, and says this shouldn’t be the end of her story.
Mojtabai finally gets some alone time with Keen, and asks her if Samar will construe the ring as him asking her to marry him. She replies that if Samar wants to marry him, she’ll assume it’s an engagement ring, but if she doesn’t want to commit, she’ll perceive things differently. Suddenly Aram’s afraid of Navabi rejecting him. making him even more fearful to give her the gift.
The U.S. Attorney arrives at the Post-Office, and Samar pleads with him to show her leniency. She says that Duerte could use an insanity defense, but the lawyer says that might get her cleared of killing her husband, but the other acts were clearly premeditated. Navabi responds that these child-brides aren’t isolated incidents, that many states don’t even have a minimum age for a girl to get married. She says that Anna’s going to be perceived as a champion for these girls, and the U.S. Attorney will be thought of as the bad guy that’s trying to put her in prison for life.
Keen gets a call from an officer in Boston, saying that he saw Mejia transported at a private airfield nearby. Aram and Liz meet with the officer, who says he saw Mejia with a man wearing a long coat and sporting a fedora. He says they took a private plane out of the country, but when he brings the pair inside the hangar Keen realizes that Garvey’s set them up. She starts to put up a fight though heavily outnumbered, but she and Mojtabai get rescued by Lizzie’s pair of “Guardian Angels,” Raymond and Dembe.
When they return to Reddington’s, Raymond apologizes to Keen. She believes he’s apologizing for cooperating with Garvey, but he explains that his apology’s for endangering her life, by telling Garvey how important she was to him. She smiles and says that the only reason she’s still alive, is due to the fact that Raymond and Dembe rescued her and Aram. He then tells Liz that he needs her to ask Duerte an extremely important question that will help them both out.
Samar reveals some incredibly good news to Anna. The U.S. Attorney has decided to charge her as a juvenile offender. Duerte has to plead guilty to all the murders, and agree to undergo rehabilitation and counseling. However if she successfully completes the program without incident, she’ll become a free woman when she turns 21. Anna’s eyes fill with tears of joy, and asks how that’s possible, Navabi responds that for the first time in years, Duerte will be treated as a child. Anna informs Liz where they can find the dumpster she threw Jawal’s ledger in. She then joins Dembe and Reddington in a delightful exercise, picking through the garbage.
Aram and Samar get back to their apartment, and Navabi pulls out some takeout trays from a Thai restaurant. Mojtabai asks what’s the occasion, and Navabi says she needed a pick-me-up, after a very tough day. Aram then starts stammering and stuttering, and pulls out the ring from his pocket, saying his grandmother’s getting rid of a lot of her possessions. She’s delighted with the ring and thanks him, he says that the present’s mostly from his grandmother. She tells him that she knows it was really his idea, then asks him if Aram would like her to order different food for him? He smiles and says everything he wants is right there.
Raymond phones Garvey and tells the Marshall that he tried and failed. Garvey responds with the old bromide, that if first you don’t succeed. He then reminds Reddington, that he’s holding onto something very important to him. Red responds that he’s now in possession of something that Garvey considers quite valuable, then says he’ll be in touch and hangs up.
The Story Continues Next Wednesday Night at 8:00pm on NBC.
