Oh yay! We wake up to a man coughing up blood. Instead of calling in sick like a normal person, he opts to go in and infect everyone else with his disease. He’s an armored truck employee who is making a delivery to a bank. He barely makes the delivery takes a side trip to the bathroom and notices blood coming out of his ears. He calls 911 and asks for a doctor and then asks if they record the calls. Um, do you not watch the evening news, dude? He decides to start professing his undying love for his wife as he clearly knows he is not going to make it. Then he runs back out into the bank lobby to make sure to infect as many people as possible and dies on the lobby floor. The EMT decides to quarantine the building and everyone tries to make a break for it but the bank security gun holds them all in at gunpoint. Shoulda just called in sick, dude, dayum.
Meanwhile, Liz is spilling her guts to the FBI about Tom. She says he was placed in her life to get to Red. She has no idea where he is now or what his true motive is. I’m sure the FBI will be very helpful to her considering they haven’t been able to solve a single case without Reddington’s help and even he doesn’t know who Berlin is. They ask about any accomplices and she tells them about the fake brother and Jolene who are both dead. And Gina Zanetakos, No. 152.
(Let’s pause to recall Gina’s episode, episode 6. Gina was a corporate assassin. Ressler shot her and she had some minor surgery for the gunshot wound. This is from the IMDb synopsis, “When Gina wakes up in the hospital they interrogate her. She admits to killing the Russian. She was told it was to keep him from spilling secrets about the route Chechen guerillas were using to move supplies. The guy who hired her was making millions providing those supplies. That guy? Red himself. She claims she does not know who Tom is and knows nothing of the picture (of Tom) they found in her apartment. When Tom is finally freed at episode’s end, he and Liz have a long hug. As he looks over his shoulder at the evidence wall he notices a photo of a man. This, he says, is the man who presented himself as the headmaster. It is a picture of Red’s minion. Liz goes to Red and tells him they are done. She has no idea why he is messing with her and her husband but that they’re arrangement is over.”)
Back to the current episode, Gina has recently managed to break out of federal prison. How convenient.
Meanwhile, in, I think, NYC, Tom has grabbed one of Red’s minions who was supposed to be tailing him. He forced him to call Red and tell him they lost him. Red was on a plane with Dembe decoding Tom’s algebra book. The news is grim. For some reason production decided the tail needed a huge spider tattoo on his neck. Tom tells the dude he has been following Red for years. Much ado is made about the tattoo. It was a dark scene with horrific acting.
Liz tries to quit the task force because she doesn’t want to work with Red. She tells Cooper Red killed her father. Whining ensues. Liz agrees to take one more case with Red. It looks like another germ warfare storyline. They dead guy in the beginning of the episode injected himself with the virus to deliberately infect people. It’s a warning shot of sorts to Red. It’s a highly sophisticated mutation of the virus created in a lab by a mad scientist with evil intention who is coming for Red. Why does he have to kill random people just trying to cash their McDonald’s paycheck? No idea. Oh wait, he doesn’t. The virus was designed not to spread this time. The point was to let the FBI know they had the deadly virus available to them. It’s called the Cullen virus.
Red and Liz fly off to meet with Red’s friend, a mad scientist who may know who is responsible. Red gives Liz a copy of Tom’s code book he used to communicate with his superiors. He says it’s an olive branch. Liz is still not happy with Red.
According to the crack investigation of Ressler, the liquid in the syringe found with the dead guy was not the virus at all but the cure. The guy was being blackmailed and in order to live he had to complete some task for the bad guys. He opted to let himself die instead. Berlin has infected a new patsy to complete the task, whatever that is.
Red’s scientist is in the looney bin. Red gets some papers from him about the Cullen virus and they have some pretty looney conversations. This pisses off Liz who leaves and opts to fly home in coach rather than be around Red another minute. Liz says the whole stupid trip was just a diversion to get her alone so he could try to make up with her.
Back at the FBI, that Gary guy who appears from time to time to lecture Cooper and tell him he is doing everything wrong is back. According to Gary, the entire task force hinges on Liz and if she goes the whole thing ends and Red will no longer have immunity and will never see the light of day again. In his next breath he basically says Liz is a loose cannon with whom they have been overly indulgent. Gary, dude, pick a position! Do you want her to stay on or not? He also tells Cooper his job is in question if Liz leaves. Ain’t he just a bundle of sunshine. Does he work with the Alan Alda Alliance?
As it turns out, Liz was wrong about the mad scientist friend of Red’s. She desperately needs information from him so she goes to talk to Red. Red reminds her she is not speaking to him. He shows her an item in a plastic baggie. It’s a gift from her husband he says. It’s the neck tattoo from the guy who he had tailing him. He is trying to make the point to Liz that this is not a schoolyard game they are playing. Red says, ” So about our trip to see Dr. Sanders, will you be flying with me, or are you going to go coach again?” Liz drives the mad scientist even madder with her lousy interrogations. Using the number the crazy guy kept repeating Aram is about to determine the scientist who is working on the virus. Surprise! He lives right up the street in Arlington, Virgina. Five minutes later the task force arrives at the dude house and brings him in for interrogation.
As Cooper and Keen watch the interrogation, Cooper explains all the dire consequences of rookie agent Keen leaving the task force. Everybody knows they can’t find their elbow with a GPS without Reddington. Liz whines. It’s just too much! It seems like Liz is told to call Red and set him up so they can bring him in. She calls Dembe because she is a whiny little ungrateful dumb bitch.
Liz for some reason is interrogating the blackmailing scientist, because she is just so darn good at it. He has infected five people that he is blackmailing. She wants names. He says even if he told her there is nothing that can be done. He’s the only one with the antidote. We see the five random people in a montage. A flight attendant, the other armored car guy, a grandfather. WTF is the point of this? Somehow, our little idiot managed to infect the dude’s water with the virus and explain that she will give him the antidote, when she gets the names. Who is this person? Maybe she is genetically related to Red after all!
The next thing you know, Liz is investigating the case all on her own, like she has had some sort of FBI training after all! She begins to realize that The Blacklist was a list of Red’s enemies that are coming to kill him. Also, in the code book was a picture of “Agent Keen’s Father” Y’all know I have no facial recognition skills so I can’t really speculate on that. You’ll have to help me.
The five people being blackmailed all had something to do with an airport. They think it is a jail break. The five people are the five horses of the apocalypse the crazy friend of Red’s was talking about. Berlin is coming to kill Red today! Suddenly Liz has a change of heart about her resignation. Cooper says it is too late, the director has made his decision.
Liz is frantic and goes to meet Red. She is trying to save him. Meanwhile, the five horsemen have begun their tasks which presumably will unleash Berlin on the world. The task force minus Liz manages to get to the airport but the plane and the passenger are tipped off and do not land.
Meanwhile, Liz is trying to get Red to run. Even Dembe is trying to get Red to run. He’s clearly surrounded. Red is toying with Liz asking her to tell him about her change of heart. Red asks he”r what she learned about her father, Sam. Liz keeps telling them they are coming for him. He says nothing they do to him could be worse than losing her. The feds show up and he points a small gun at Liz and says, “Please forgive the weapon, I don’t want them to think we are in cahoots.” After one of his amusing tales about a near death experience he survived, Red puts the gun inn Liz’s hand and kneels in front of her as the agents move in to take him in. Just at that moment the plane, which had been shot by the military and was a blaze goes overhead. Red says, “And now it begins.”
Next week is the finale. The entire task group is a target. No one is safe. We see Red holding a gun on Tom Keen who has his gun to Liz’s head. Tom says for him to lower his weapon (or he will shoot Liz) Red says, “No.” OMG! Can’t wait!
Liz gets on my nerves, she makes the same facial expression every episode, she don’t listen, acts on her emotions rathe than common sense, and she is suppose to be a pro-filer,but Tom is a better pro-filer than she is ..
Thank gawd for the other actors on the show because it depended solely on Liz only the show would have been cancelled after the first episode.
Reminds me of Oliva Pope annoying mouth/facial expression thing. And the FBI guy in “The Americans” also does a twitch thing with his face. Too distracting.
Thank you for the Gina summary. I couldn’t remember who she was.
Scenes I liked: Red conversing with the scientist. Red asking Lizzie what she had done. Red telling his near death experience.
The rest of the episode drug on, and I was very uncomfortable with the way she bullied the scientist in the mental institution for information. I didn’t believe she put the virus in the water. That’s a Red move.
Are you used to the lighting now Tamara? I had to watch the plane scene a few times to figure out what was going on. It’s also the third time this week that I have watched the bad guy wear a hooded cloak. In a show tonight, the hooded thief was Snow White.. I kept expecting the prisoner to take off his hood and there would stand a bug eyed Marty Feldman impersonator from Young Frankenstein.
I am looking forward to this week’s hostage scene. I will need a lot of James Spader in this episode to hold me over for the summer.
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Thanks so much for commenting. The finale is tomorrow and it takes me SOFA LONG to blog these because like you, I don’t remember who Gina is and still have no recollection of that episode after stopping to research it. Only about 12 people here read my recaps and it literally takes me 3-4 hours to do one because I am so into it and have to go back and read shit.
I guess I am sort of used to the lighting. I didn’t think it was that bad this week because frankly, I knew “Berlin” was on the plane and would live so I didn’t care as much what was happening.
Berlin will be UNVEILED next week as if we are supposed to immediately recognize him.
What if it is HER MOTHER? Just a thought that popped into my head. We are so sure it is a man. Or what if it is Gina and SHE is her mother, Gina and Red hooked up in the past, right?
Am I crazy or am I right?
On Mon, May 12, 2014 at 1:57 AM, Tamara Tattles wrote:
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That’s a great theory. It immediately made me think of Red saying that Sam was going to tell Lizzie things he shouldn’t be talking about as the reason he killed him.
What if Red and Sam found out years ago that Lizzie’s mother was stealing government secrets, and Sam took Lizzie to protect her, and Red took over taking the secrets to build an organization that would keep Alan Alda’s organization in check and protect Lizzie?
I can’t get past Red saying that he would never lie to Lizzie, then backing it up by admitting that he killed Sam. As much as I want to believe he is her father, I don’t think he lied when he denied it.
Having Berlin be Lizzie’s mom would also explain why the outline of her burn scar is on the top of Tom and Gina’s boxes.
I’m trying to watch the old on demand episodes today while I’m working to be prepared for tonight.
I think “Berlin” is a woman. Probably a foster sister Liz grew up with. This plot is all over the place. I want more! I saw 24 and it was a dud. Hopefully the action gets better.
Nevermind! I see you guys are also assuming Berlin is a woman. I think so too! I kept looking at the hands. When she took the key, then fixed the hoodie on her head. Then again I maybe reading too much into it. 🙂
Dear Tamara,
This is the first time I have ever commented on a blog. Just wanted you to know, I follow your recaps of this show and would be so disappointed if you stopped providing them! You help clarify questions I have about the episodes, you poke fun at the same things I do. Keep up the good work!
I think the connection between Liz and Redd and Liz’s father go much deeper. I still think Liz is Redd’s daughter, Redd, gave Liz to Sam to protect her from the person or persons who killed( or so we were made to believe) Redd’s family (if you remember the episode at the end Red bought his old house back then proceeded to blow it up at the end) Could Berlin be related to Redd? Could Berlin be Redd’s ex FIL hell bent on destroying Redd because of the death of his daughter and grandchild? (again or so we are to believe, can it be that simple)? Or could Berlin be Redd’s wife hell bent on destroying him because of an affair Redd had which Liz was the result of? If it one of Redd’s enemies wouldn’t they just have killed him? instead they are out to destroy him! There is far too many plots twists in this show to try and figure out.
Really enjoyed your recap, thank you.
My dvr cut off before next week’s previews. I wonder if they will even clear up who Liz’s parents are next week. They must leave us a cliff hanger to get us back next season. I am wondering if there is significance to the landless gypsy woman that healed him. It seemed oddly detailed for him to waste time telling Liz at the moment 50 guns are pointing at him. All just to say she is important to him, but, that’s Reddington. I am still baffled about Berlin, most likely a female just to give it another twist. I suspect is someone Liz will recognize from her life.
I finally watched this episode. I don’t know why I watch this show. The writing is bad, the acting is bad, the characterizations are bad and inconsistent, it rarely makes sense, liz never enters a building without her gun drawn, I don’t know what is going on from one week to the next and I feel like an idiot for being sucked into this show. I yell at the TV the whole time I watch. Of all the main characters that ever were, or ever will be shown oncrime drama TV, Liz is the stupidest, dumb as a as a board agent of all time. Yet watch, I do. I feel so cheep.
Thank goodness for Reddington. He’s the only reason to watch this piece of crap.
If this show comes back, and it probably will, I hope they hire a new writing staff.
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