- When Agent Keen is questioned in court as a suspect in the murder of the DC Harbormaster, her unusual relationship with Red and their task force falls under scrutiny. Meanwhile, Red enlists Cooper and Ressler to locate "The Major", a dangerous former associate who is key in keeping Liz out of prison.
- "The Blacklist" - "The Major (No. 75)" - March 12, 2015
Leave it to "The Blacklist" to turn the idea of a "clip show" on its head while simultaneously summarizing the series thus far and, in an almost meta-fashion, addressing how deliciously ludicrous a lot of it is.
But even though the show is rife with flashbacks it also gives us some key pieces of new intel as the show is broken into three parts.
The first concerns Tom Keen. We flashback to his deliquent youth while, in the midst of a purse-snatching in 1994, he was "saved" by a man in a black limousine. When Tom gets in he is welcomed by a man who just so happens to have a thick file on the boy whom we learn is actually named Jake. (Later in the show we get a flashback to a clip of Tom telling Liz his real name Jacob Phelps.) Jake may be a petty thief who has been moved around the foster system but this man sees great potential in him --- his quick thinking, his nimbleness, his apparently high aptitude and test scores-- to be of good use and they have an opportunity for him to leave this life behind and help him become anything. Jake/Tom is confused but, he clearly took the bait. (Perhaps because the mystery man was played by the most excellent Lance Henriksen. Bishop!!)
We cut to current day Tom who is doing the shaven head, disaffected German thing in Dresden on the assignment he got from the mystery man. He is still trying to buddy up to the criminal from last week telling him that he knows a guy who can get them guns without crossing the border. The criminal is all "Pipe down, we don't know you that well yet and aren't sure if we can trust you." (But, you know, in German.) Tom spies on the guy when he goes to make a deal to get guns from some other broker. He then follows that guy and quickly dispatches him with a bullet to the head. Now that the first guy has lost his dealer, he returns to Tom saying that now he could use his help. And Tom is all, "Oh so we're friends now?" (But, you know, in German.)
Meanwhile, the person who could really use his help is Liz. It turns out that that pesky Det. Wilcox has found another way into solving the harbormaster case. He has subpoenaed Harold Cooper to testify before a grand jury as to whether Liz was on official business for the task force or not. Needless to say, Cooper is less than happy about this turn of events and the Deputy Attorney General is even less so. They call Liz into Cooper's office, all "Um, what the hell is up??" She says she can't tell them why she was there but she didn't kill anyone and Meera was dead, Cooper was in the hospital and she did what she had to do to stop Berlin. The Deputy Attorney General says she is going to file a motion to quash the subpoena. And Cooper tells her in no uncertain terms he will not perjure himself to protect her.
But when they get to the courthouse, with a judge famous for being staunch proponent of government transparency, he is not particularly inclined to simply quash the subpoena because the deputy AG says it's a matter of national security without being specific. He and the deputy AG parry and Wilcox complains that Liz is a murderer.
The judge isn't playing though and calls Liz into his chambers and tells Liz to break down the task force from the beginning.
She explains that she has only been a profiler for 18 months and that she was recruited to the task force by request of their confidential criminal informant. She points out this is why the task force work has to be kept secret. He forces her to tell him that the CI is the notorious, FBI Most Wanted Raymond "Red" Reddington and he is now hooked and wants to hear the whole story.
Deftly, as Liz explains the story from the beginning we flash back to the pilot and then to various points in the series up until the present moment with Liz in the judges' chambers. With each new, increasingly tall tale -- Liz didn't want to to do it, Red would only talk to her, she doesn't know why, she didn't know him, he has a list in his head of master criminals, their capture benefits him also, and by the way her husband was a spy and she killed him in self defense, and on and on-- the judge's incredulity grows. She tells him about many of the cases we've seen-- the Courier, the Alchemist-- and he replies that none of this is possible.
When she gets to the part about their secret missions which may all be connected by Red and eventually lead them to some even more secret clandestine organization full of powerful people which could destroy life on earth as they know it, he is having a hard time believing any of it. (She also maintains that Sam's story can't be right because Tom was dead when the harbormaster was killed.) She also gets hot under the collar when the judge seems to question that she's more loyal to Red than the task force. Liz is not having that. She loves this country. The judge still wonders if this goes public the world will fall apart. She says it won't but that people will definitely die. She eventually goes on a rant about how she knows this is ridiculous but there was no way for her to know about any of this, that is effective enough that she gets a smirk at the judge out of the court stenographer.
When they get to the crime she says Sam was a CI for Meera and after her death she wanted to recruit him for herself and that she thought he was hiding out on the boat. She reiterates Tom couldn't have killed the harbormaster since he was dead and notes that this is Sam's word against hers. The judge says not entirely and calls in Cooper immediately to back up her story. Haughtily, without going into detail, he does just that saying Liz was working for the task force. (Although he is clearly troubled that he is doing this.) The judge warns him that he's walking down a dangerous road with regards to perjury. Cooper says he's answered the question and he's done. The judge says he thinks they will be speaking again soon.
While all of this is happening, Red realizes that to keep Liz out of jail -- and to keep the task force from being shut down-- they need to find Tom ASAP. He convinces the gang at the Post Office to abduct a diplomat-- the Malaysian deputy minister to the U.N.-- who knows where "The Major" is. "The Major" is the man who recruited Tom and many other deep cover operatives like him. Ressler and Samar kidnap the diplomat. Red effectively threatens the diplomat into giving up the Major. But after some back and forth about what the Major owes Red for betraying him, the Major won't give up Tom's location because, as he and we viewers know, he was not the person who gave Tom his latest assignment in Dresden. Once they are done and get some kind of lead on time that we are not told, Dembe tells Red that he needs to tell Liz about Tom, about everything. Red says he doesn't think he can do that. Dembe says maybe he should stop thinking about it and do it.
Complicating matters is Sam. You may recall that Liz's Aaron Neville-esque muscle man recanted his story to Det. Wilcox after Red offered to save his brother's life with a heart transplant thus saving everybody. He tells Sam that Liz is currently pinning this all on him in court so he better make up his mind about what he wants to say because he couldn't get the death penalty. But Sam doesn't believe him. (Although he should.) And even though Sam stays steadfast in his recantantation, he slips up and mentions that he already "took a bullet" for this mess and will say no more. Of course, he claims to have not been there at all and that he caught he straight bullet elsewhere, so this sends Det. Wilcox on a search of the boat, which turns up a bullet with Sam's blood on it.
Det. Wilcox goes to the judge with the bullet and DNA evidence. Det. Wilcox notes this is physical evidence of a cover-up of Liz killing the harbormaster, and also that she committed perjury.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content