The Blacklist - S2E22 - Tom Connolly (#11)
Previously on The Blacklist, ‘Karakurt’
For some reason, Liz is still at HQ, on the phone with Red, and not escaping. She refuses to leave because she’ll look guilty if she does. Liz, honey, you already do.
Red tells her it’s a matter of time before her picture is released and she will test positive for the virus. “You can’t know this!” Erm, what has Red been wrong about so far? NOTHING! Connolly asks Cooper where Liz is; she’s wanted for infecting Hawkins. Cooper just sits there in his feelings about being used. I really hope he’s stalling and not just butthurt. Connolly tells him everything points to Liz—he wagers even her prints are on the truck bomb? Cooper says she’s a distinguished FBI agent (since when?), good luck pinning this on her. Connolly throws out his Big Joker: Liz is also the daughter of a KGB asset. Gulp. He goes over his checklist: Liz was handpicked by Red, they’ve expanded his criminal empire, and they’ve used the task force to do his bidding. Well, when you put it that way. Liz is on the stairs listening to their conversation…not on her way out the door.
Everyone who was in attendance at the funeral for the OREA agents is being detained and the church is under quarantine. Navabi is going over surveillance feeds while Ressler is being harassed by spoiled senators, threatening to sue for wrongful imprisonment. Ressler tells a senator to get his ass back in line. Based on the comings and goings of all attendees, they surmise the person who infected Hawkins is still at the church. Connolly puts DAG Reven Wright in charge of the investigation into Liz. He tells Cooper he doesn’t need to cooperate, but he better not get in their way. If he does, he’ll be tried for perjury and leaking secret Grand Jury proceedings. When Cooper doesn’t seem cowed, he brings up the missus and the clinical trial he will no longer be part of. Can someone please kill this mofo? Cooper dumps the pills on the floor and tells him he’d rather die than continue to go along with this shit. He leaves his office and Connolly has him escorted off the premises and put on administrative leave.
It might be what you think
Ressler learns everyone who is still at the church has tested negative for the virus. The only person who was there earlier, but not now, is Liz.
Get to steppin’!
Overhearing that conversation lit a fire under Liz’s ass; she gets on the elevator to leave. On the phone with Red, she tells him he was right. Well, duh. He tells her where to meet Dembe, but she is caught by Connolly and his goons before she can exit the elevator.
Where they do that at?
While having her blood drawn, Liz tells the phlebotomist she wants to “secure the chain of custody” and her team is to oversee the testing. Girl, bye! Liz tells her interrogators she’s being framed and I cringe in fear that she’ll tell them this farfetched tale. Whoever is setting her up is doing a great job since her prints are on the truck bomb device. For shits and giggles, the agents ask who’s framing her. She says the Cabal and starts explaining what they are. Who would believe this? The agents pepper her with questions about her past—questions she can’t answer, and Liz begins to lose more of her cool. Ressler enters a room where DAG Reven Wright (so she does have a name!) is listening in on the interrogation. She and Ressler trade information: Hawkins is dead, Karakurt’s credentials are legit, and Cooper has been removed from duty. She explains she doesn’t know Liz well, but Cooper being dismissed is hinky. She appoints Ressler acting Director of the task force, stating she needs someone she can trust; meaning he won’t hesitate to take Liz down. Aram interrupts to let them know Liz tested positive.
The Great Escape
Cooper meets with Red to tell him he’s been relieved of duty; Red is not the least bit surprised. They know Liz is being questioned; Red says she’ll be indicted and stashed away with no way to prove her innocence. Cooper wants to go back to help Liz, but Red rightly tells him he can’t just roll back up in there. Instead, they’ll help her escape; Red has someone on the inside and someone at the power company. Red truly is The Man.
Once the power is down, Liz will have 90 seconds to get out of the building with Cooper guiding her via phone. The power goes and everyone at HQ is hip to the game; too bad they underestimate Liz’s desire to not have her hair braided by her cellmate. A guard comes in to move her; she elbows him then kicks off into the interrogator’s ass and starts round two with the guard. He calms her down, saying he’s with Red and gives her a burner. Cooper leads her through the building, but on her way she runs into Ressler. He reasons she should stay and fight. She counters, asking about her blood test; that shuts him up for a minute. Ever the straight arrow, he tries again, to convince her to fight. She says the cameras will be up soon, if he’s going to help her he needs to do it now…or he’ll be seen standing with her. The lights and cameras come back and Ressler says he just missed her, but found her burner.
Putting the plan in motion
Liz, Red, and Cooper are formulating their plan and there’s some confusion as to how she got infected. Ooh, I know, I know! Red asks if anything out of the ordinary happened recently. Karakurt + Union Square = infection. Getting footage of Karakurt at Union Station can help prove her innocence. Dembe interrupts with an insistent phone call for Red. Tom wants to know where his Bae is; he can help keep her safe or take her away. Red tells him to bugger off. This, I don’t get. Why not have Tom help? Red tells Liz Tom offered to take her away to start a new life, but if she leaves before she clears her name, she won’t ever be free. She falls for it. I would have been on that boat, with my life jacket firmly secured. Red sets out to fight on another front and they agree to meet back up once she has the tapes.
Setting the scene
Mr. Kaplan, Red, and Dembe survey the interior of an empty night club, discussing schematics and cell phone jammers. Red’s other henchmen are off securing targets, some of whom are thousands of miles away. They only have one shot at a preemptive strike, according to Red, so they need to get their shit together.
Gimme a sec, something is in my eye
Outside Union Station, Liz and Harold chat about what led them here. He tells her he’s dying and she admits the missus already told her. Tom Connolly took advantage of his illness, offering hope and Cooper did things for him in return. He apologizes for violating her trust. Rubbing his hand, Liz tells him she’s had a pit in her stomach since she found out, and she can’t imagine what he’s been going through, and starts to cry. Cooper gets teary-eyed, too. I have an eyelash in my eye, so I let them water to work that out. Cooper tells her to pull herself together because he doesn’t want to spend his remaining days blubbering in a car with her.
Liz tries to get it done
Inside the station, Liz flashes her badge and tells a security guard she’s investigating the OREA bombing and she needs to see their security tapes because they believe the suspect fled through the station. The guard asks for a warrant, and she spots her picture on a newsfeed. To divert his attention, she rages about how people are dead and he’s wasting her time. The guard receives a call from his supervisor, who tells him to give her whatever she requests. Turns out the supervisor did a favor for Cooper.
The guard leaves Liz to find the footage. She sees “Karakurt” and realizes it was actually Andropov. When he tackled her, he sprayed a mist into her nose. The guard sees Liz on the news and goes to find her but she’s gone, along with the security tapes. Liz tells Cooper they need to find Andropov and question him, but he can’t; the wife has been taken in for questioning for that classified document she leaked. They need to get a divorce.
Liz pays Anton a visit, asking for Andropov’s whereabouts. He gives her the address and tries to leave the conversation. For some crazy reason, Liz asks him more about her mother. How is this the time for these questions? He tells her he doesn’t know anything. When she presses, he tells her he can’t say. Liz confronts Red about Anton and he admits he acquired Anton’s services for his silence.
Liz: “I know you think you care about me, but every time you do something that makes me think you really do, you do something else that reminds me you simply aren’t capable of it.”
Red: “I’m a sin eater. I absorb the misdeeds of others, darkening my soul to keep theirs pure. That is what I’m capable of.”
Liz asks what sin she committed but Red changes the subject to Andropov. She says she’ll go after him by herself.
Okay, so maybe I can’t do it alone
Liz goes to Tom, asking for his help in getting Andropov and clearing her name. He tells her there ain’t no way she can clear up this mess. He makes one last pitch to get her to leave it all behind, but she gives him the same song and dance Red gave her.
Together, they hit Andropov’s place. She finds a flash drive in a laptop and removes it without undocking it first! Who does that? Tom searches the rest of the apartment and sees Andropov made it to the street from the fire escape. Tom takes the same route and Liz takes the stairs, while Andropov gets in his car, telling someone on the phone he’s been made and is on his way to the extraction point. Tom gets in his beautiful cobalt blue Mustang so he and Liz can tail him. Car chase! Like any good wife, Liz tells Tom how to drive as they chase Andropov through the streets.
Andropov makes it to the extraction point; Liz and Tom roll up and Andropov is shot by the men who were supposed to be extracting him. Shots are fired by both sides and Andropov crawls toward Liz and Tom. The bad guys get away and Andropov dies. Liz cries about how he was the only one who knew about her mother. Wait, what? So this isn’t about her freedom anymore?
All I want is you
On the boat, Tom is patching up Liz’s boo-boos. She tells him while the all that shooting was going down in that alley all she could think was that she should have gotten on his boat. Yeah, that’s what I said two episodes ago. They exchange soulful glances as he continues to tend to her wounds. She tells him she doesn’t want to regret not saying yes to him. She asks him to take her with him and he tells her if she runs she’ll never get her answers as to who she really is. She tells him she doesn’t have to know who she is to know what she wants—him. In the background is a montage of them in the throes of passion. Note: I couldn’t help but pout when I noticed her panties. My panties never fit that well. I wonder if she used hairspray to keep them from riding up.
Back on track
Getting dressed, Liz finds the flash drive she pocketed from Andropov’s place. Using Tom’s computer, she finds several documents including info about Cooper’s medical condition. She takes Tom’s gun, tells him about what she found, and tells him she’ll be back. But we all know she won’t. She calls Cooper and takes off.
Don’t get choked out!
Cooper storms into his doctor’s office and chokes dude up so hard and so high, I’m surprised he didn’t go out the window. The doctor tells him he only went along because they threatened his family. Cooper doesn’t give a rat’s ass since he and his family have suffered, thinking he was getting cured and it was a lie. The doctor admits Cooper was never sick. The drug he was taking, created by Andropov, mimicked symptoms of a brain tumor; even the brain scans and blood tests were faked.
Red: the man with the plan
Red has collected a group of world-renowned, investigative journalists at the night club. Taking the stage, he introduces himself and tells them about the Cabal. The Fulcrum is displayed on a screen, proving all that he says. A journalist asks what Red expects them to do. He tells them to study the information, investigate it, and report it. At least he tells them doing so will put them in the Cabal’s crosshairs.
The jig is up, Connolly
Cooper tracks down Connolly and demands to speak with him. Connolly balks, but Cooper tells him Dr. Levin spilled the tea and recorded their conversations. Liz comes out and tells Connolly he needs to hear what they have to say. They have all the tapes from Dr. Levin’s meetings with Connolly; proof that he blackmailed the doctor. Liz tells him they’ll make it all go away if he drops the charges against her and prosecutes Karakurt. Connolly shakes his head, wearing his smarmy smile while she continues, saying he will not press charges against Mrs. Cooper, and Cooper will be re-instated. Oh, and The Director is not to touch Red. Hmm, how naïve.
Connolly asks why he would do any of that and Cooper says because they’ll take the evidence to the bureau if he doesn’t. Scoffing, Connolly states he owns the bureau and that’s pretty much true. They threaten to go to someone else and Connolly tells them The Cabal’s reach is far. They got that judge to let Keen go, right? This detailed conversation, full of classified information, is going down in a room shaped like a rotunda with other people inside. I hope they know everyone can hear what they’re talking about.
Adding insult to injury, Connolly tells them in a few hours, he’ll be giving a speech to the F.O.P., in which he tells them he is in the midst of taking down a rogue task force. They have a plan for every member of the team which will result in job loss, prison time, or the death penalty. Yahtzee! Seeing no way out, Liz pulls her gun on Connolly. This dude scoffs again! Cooper tries to talk her down, but Connolly keeps talking crap about how he’s a cog in the machine and taking him down won’t mean anything; he’ll just be replaced. Cooper continues in his efforts to get her to stand down, but Liz is losing it. She shoots Connolly while having a flashback to her childhood.
Always on the run
Liz escapes the scene before the police arrive, leaving Tom’s gun and Cooper to explain everything. She calls Ressler from a stolen cell phone and tells him Cooper is innocent. He tells her she needs to come in or he’ll have to hunt her down. She hangs up on him and instead calls Red. He says he knows about Connolly; he’ll call back with an address.
They meet and Liz tells him she remembers what happened the night of the fire. She heard her parents arguing, her father was hurting her mother, so Liz shot him. She says he had her memory blocked to protect her and he agrees. He says he failed at being her sin eater. He never wanted her to be like him. Dammit, another eyelash is in my eye.
Their getaway car arrives and they make their escape. Cooper turns in his badge and is escorted from the scene of Connolly’s shooting, as DAG Wright and Ressler look on. The Director opens his newspaper to an article about the existence of The Cabal. Tom sails away on his boat. Back at HQ, Ressler puts a picture of Liz on their board. In a government building, a “Most Wanted” flyer featuring Liz is posted next to Red’s flyer.
