Plot

After a politician in Prague is framed for a murder, Red suspects it's the work of The Kingmaker - a strategist behind the rise of some of the world's most powerful politicians. While Red helps Liz and the FBI catch him, Liz uncovers a secret that Red's been keeping from her.—Jiilo_Kim

"The Blacklist" - "The Kingmaker" - April 28, 2014

We open in Prague. A man gets into a car with a driver and he mentions Reddington.The driver announces he's English, which the man in the back thinks is strange. He is offered water by the Englishman and then he promptly keels over. The driver removes his sunglasses and drives off with the man in the back seat.

We cut to that man waking up in a hotel room, half naked in a bed with a young man dead, with strangulation marks on his neck, on the floor next to the bed. The man, a Prague politician, is arrested for murder. The English driver watches the breaking news on the airport TV. The accused man, Emil Dusek,has withdrawn from the senate while he fights the charges.

Red goes to see a fabulously wealthy man in his indoor swimming pool. The rich man is worried about losing Dusek. Red is more concerned about how it happened and thinks it's a frame job by "The Kingmaker" to hurt him and this rich man. Red doesn't know who it is, the rich man notes that someone has spent a lot of time to depreciate Red's image. Red doesn't like this. The rich man says his friends are whispering and they might not remain loyal to Red forever. Red relays the message to those friends through this man: "Shut the hell up."

Liz looks through the photos she found in the envelope, photos of Red going into the hospital her dad was dying in. She shows them to Ressler and they puzzle it out. Red asks for a meeting.

She meets him and immediately asks where Tom is. Red says he's in New York and he's got his eye on him. In the new place he's staying he's working on a medical marijuana deal and all the types are on the table. A stoned Dembe greets Liz eating ice cream. Red tells her about the Kingmaker and how he's hurting Red's business and image. He explains this guy has been responsible for the rise and fall of major political players through scandal, manipulation, assassination etc. It's said he grooms them from an early age. He gives her the tip on Prague. Liz asks to know Tom's move, Red says to get cracking on the Kingmaker.

We cut to the man who is presumably the Kingmaker, the driver from Prague, he's insisting on a hotel staff clean his room meticulously. Apparently, he's a germaphobe. He looks out the window and his view is of the Chrysler building.

The Kingmaker meets with a middle-aged man named Patrick on a bridge. They are planning some kind of car accident off the bridge that will not kill him but will likely set him on the path to greatness he seeks. The man seems nervous so the Kingmaker hopes he's ready to make the plunge, so to speak or else the man will have an ordinary life.

At the Post Office they narrow down the suspect list and find the Kingmaker and discover he's in New York. They head to his hotel room. Ressler and Liz bust in but it's just a nice couple, he pawned his credit cards.

Alan Alda meets with Red in a nice restaurant. Alan, which is also his character's name, thinks Red is out of his mind. Red says someone is after him and he has to go after him. Alan wonders why Red thinks he'll help him. Red says they have a common enemy and mutually assured destruction thanks to info that Red knows about Alan and his collective. Alan says he doesn't respond well to threats. Red says he's not threatening him but seeing if they can work together.

Patrick kisses his wife and they head out towards the bridge, with their daughter. He claims he's taking this route for scenic purposes. The Kingmaker sets the action in motion and the car plunges off the bridge. He saves his daughter but not his wife.

Red and Liz watch the news and Red thinks the Kingmaker did this to help the Assemblyman get to a higher office. Red tells her to check out the bridge and he bets there are no skidmarks. At the Post Office they look into Patrick's life. They're confused that a politician who isn't even running for anything would murder his wife. Liz says husbands lie all the time and can believe it. Ressler notices her attitude.

Aram shows Liz surveillance of Red going into the hospital one hour before her father died.

As they head over, Ressler asks if she and Tom are having problems. She says they had a fight and he left the house and she doesn't know where he is.

They look at the bridge and Red is right, no skidmarks from either car, Patrick's or the oncoming car. Liz says the accident did work, the guy is everywhere on TV, he's a hero. They go and question the guy. He says he and his daughter are traumatized by his wife's death. They ask more questions and he says he's not ready to talk about all this and goes to be with his daughter.

Ressler gets a call about the van that ran Patrick off the road.

The Kingmaker comes to see the van driver and is mad he didn't stay, it was supposed to look like an accident and now the police are looking for him. The van driver says he lied, there wasn't supposed to be anyone else in the car. The Kingmaker kills the van driver.

Alan goes to speak with the members of his collective and they want to know what Red wants. He says he wants his help. He says Red's enemy seems not to want to kill him but ruin his life and eventually kill him, wherein lies the problem. Whatever he's holding over the heads of the collective will automatically go public if Red dies, he's got a protocol in place. The other members of the collective, which appears to number about 10 and have international membership, are worried. Alan says he might need to help him. There is division and they put it to a vote.

Ressler finds the van. And then he finds the man. The Kingmaker made it look like a suicide.

Patrick goes to see the Kingmaker. He's very sad his wife is dead. The Kingmaker says this just makes him seem heroic. He says he's sorry but Patrick needs to see it to his advantage because he's not only a hero but the public will mourn with him. Patrick tells him about the FBI and wants to stop. The Kingmaker says no they must capitalize on the moment.

The gang at the Post Office runs down calls the dead man got from a phone booth. Red and Liz go to the phone booth which is across from a pawn shop, which is a front for an elaborate, fancy private club, cigar club. Red points out people in the club who are bad men. He lights a cigar. She notes her father died of lung cancer. He apologizes. He admits he knew her father. She confronts him about being in Nebraska visiting her dad. She said he didn't mention it and is confused and says her father never mentioned Red. She asks how they knew each other and why he was there. Red says he went to say goodbye. The owner comes by their table. They show him in the Kingmaker's picture and he says he was there for dinner and gives the his hotel name.

Liz and Ressler busts into the hotel room. No one is there but they do find some elaborate computer machinery hidden in the walls. They pull the stuff out and there are photos and schematics and alarm codes on the computers. It is the house of a U.S. Senator Albert Mitchell, they deduce the Kingmaker is going to kill him and Patrick will run in the special election to replace him thus, launching his brilliant career. They've been planning it since 2007.

They go to protect the senator but someone's already broken in. The senator tells his wife to lock herself in the bathroom and heads downstairs with a gun. The Kingmaker easily overpowers him. The senator tries to plead with him and then Kingmaker starts supervillain monologuing about what the murder is going to look like in the press. The senator says he'll do whatever he wants. The Kingmaker says he wants him to resign his senate seat. The Senator says he will. The Kingmaker doesn't trust him and shoots him just as Ressler and Liz arrive. He and Liz tussle and he starts to choke her, and Ressler shoots him in the head.

Alan comes to see Red and says he was told not to come here but he did but he says they're out and they can do their own risk assessment. Alan says he was willing to go to bat for him but others who just wanted to kill Red outright and called his bluff about his evidence against them. Red says that would be a mistake and he will win this war with his enemy even without his and his collective's help. Red says this will ensure when the day finally comes when Red settles up with Alan's alliance, it will be Alan alone in the dark.

Liz calls Red with the news that the Kingmaker is dead. Red is mad he can't talk to him and find out about the situation in Prague which is why he brought her the case in the first place.

Liz and Ressler arrest Patrick Chandler for conspiracy.

Aram calls Liz and tells her that her father didn't die at 5:30 when she thought, but at 4:30 when Red was actually in the room. Liz goes to see Red. He's about to give her an update on Tom when she asks if he killed her father. Red admits he did. Liz says she was right, there was something her father wanted to tell her and Red didn't want her to know. She flips out, he tries to do more justifying saying he was friends with Sam for all of her and most of his own life and says that her father was in pain and suffering and asked to be disconnected from all of the machines. He says he wasn't thinking clearly because if he was he wouldn't have chosen to tell Liz anything because it wasn't his choice to make. He says they said goodbye and Red put him out of his misery. Liz is not having it saying they're done and he's a monster.

She goes home, which is still a mess from the throwdown with Tom. She cries as she surveys the wreckage and takes off her wedding ring.

Red drinks and plays solitaire.

Ressler drinks and reads the paper. Liz goes to see him. She says she didn't know where else to go.