The Blacklist - S3E21- Susan Hargrave (No.18)

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Previously on The Blacklist, “The Aratax Network (No. 41)”

Susan “Scottie” Hargrave has a problem and its name is Raymond Reddington. One look at her picture and Red solved the riddle of who Dr. Stalder and Panabaker were meeting. Taking matters into his own hands, Red contacts Scottie to set up a meeting, by way of killing some of her henchman and leaving a note pinned to the chest of one of her men. And by pinned, I mean he used a knife to drive home the message. This doesn’t change Scottie’s plans with her client, the VP of Vestent Petroleum, Samuel Rand; nor does it make her meet with Red.

The team tries to play by the rules, but Panabaker, the state’s attorney, and who the hell knows else is blocking them at every turn. A fed up Cooper, decides it’s time to stop playing by the rules since none of the other players are. Jacob shows up to their briefing and Ressler can’t resist being a dick. Look, if y’all could get the job done without him, he’d be at home rocking his baby to sleep. Aram is such a clueless sweetheart here, having a hard time believing the government is protecting Halcyon. His naiveté is cute sometimes, but after everything that happened with The Cabal (dammit, I swore to never mention it again!) and Liz’s death, his disbelief is perilously close to stupidity.

The Blacklister Susan “Scottie” Hargrave; co-owner of Halcyon Aegis, with her husband, Howard. Halcyon provides security services, or rather private military to do illegal or distasteful shit.

Since Scottie won’t answer his calls, Red meets with Hitchins and forces her hand to set up a meet with Bradley, a Halcyon account rep. Red shows up saying he needs Scottie’s ear about what happened at the church and though Bradley agrees to help, Red kills him. Because nothing says “I mean business” like killing someone’s account rep. This is classic Red, the one who’s been missing for a few weeks now. After shooting Bradley, he looks at his watch and declares he’s starving. Gulp.

Something doesn’t add up with Scottie and her attempted abduction of Stalder, so they need to get intel. The best and only way to do that is to get it from Stalder’s assistant, Amanda. Jacob, team player that he is, volunteers to get it; you know because he’s hot and knows how to work a woman for information. One failed covert mission later, Jacob has a date with Amanda, but no intel. Of course, Ressler hates on him for it, as if Jacob wants to date her. He’s a con man, that’s what he does. Why don’t you go undercover, Ressler, and show him how it’s done? Oh, yeah, you can’t stop looking like a cop for five minutes. If he doesn’t have something integral to say, he needs to shut the hell up.

Jacob is so good, a real pro. He comes off so believable on his date with Amanda. She wants to know more about him so he tells her about his dead wife and his daughter and she falls for it. It’s true, but still. One minute she’s like “Aww,” and the next she’s damn near in his lap, counting his teeth with her tongue on her. He spills his drink on her to get her out the room and while she changes, he uses the thumb drive. But he must have been too damn good, because she’s back before the jump drive can finsh. So what does Jacob do? He kisses her senseless and gets her close to the computer, so he can remove the thumb drive. He stops the kiss before it gets too far and says it’s too soon. That man is good.

Mission Amanda is deemed successful when they overhear a phone call from Scottie to Dr. Stalder. His employer hired Halcyon to kidnap Liz, but they killed her instead, so now his employer wants Scottie dead. Scottie offers up Red to make them square; that’s not a bad deal. But people keep forgetting who they’re messin’ with.

Red posing as a buyer interested in the Rand brownstone, so he can find out why Samuel Rand contracted Halcyon, is as funny as he is frightening. Typically, guns are pretty persuasive, but Rand won’t talk, so his wife spills the beans and all the tea. A competitor is buying oil from terrorists and selling it cheap, so Vestant hired Halcyon to get involved. And how does she know all this? She reads his email since she caught him cheating…with porn. Lady, if you don’t sit yo’ ass down somewhere.

Red tells Cooper about Rand, his contract with Halcyon, and how Halcyon is playing both sides against the middle. In yet another convoluted storyline, some secret plan was made to cheat people out of money, or oil, or something that has nothing to do with the plot. It makes for good action, but what’s the purpose? Cooper, with that mega clout, sends a team to the Netherlands to stop Halcyon. Who knew he had that kind of reach? The Team sees Rowan on the docks and sends in the SWAT team who manages to stop the bomb Rowan planted, from destroying the dock or killing anyone.

Scottie calls Raymond because he’s been bugging her and killing her people; guess it’s time to see what he wants. He wants to talk in person, but that would be foolish, because Scottie is why Liz is dead. And Scottie doesn’t seem stupid. She suggests they meet at the airport, but that would be difficult for Red because…he’s Red. With the help of a lovely pair of pop bottle glasses, Red manages to make it through airport security, but Scottie calls 911, so airport security grabs him before they can talk.

Of course she bought off one of the guards; she couldn’t take a chance, knowing Red wants her dead. Too bad she didn’t think of someone bugging Stalder’s phone and finding out her plans. Red heeds part of Jacob’s warning about going to airport. Yeah, he still goes, but he takes Dembe and a few other guys, too. They have the guard drive them to the meet with Scottie and Red’s men pick them off, one by one. Finally, a chance to talk! Red asks who hired Halcyon to go after Liz, and instead of just answering the question, Scottie decides to get cute and says Liz wouldn’t be dead if she had been in a proper hospital. So Red shoots her in the arm. She kinda had that coming. Red and Mr. Solomon are the only people who don’t ever seem scared of what people might do to them, so they can talk shit all damn day. A bullet wound and ruined dress later, Scottie tells Red what he already suspected; Alexander Kirk hired Halcyon. Since Halcyon flubbed up Liz’s kidnapping so bad, Kirk will be after her, he’s already sorta-kinda after Red, so Red suggests he and Scottie work together to take him down.

Best line: “So, let’s get you bandaged up, not that you aren’t even lovelier with a little blood trickling down your arm.”~Red

Second best line: “As far as I’m concerned, Susan Hargrave has Liz’s blood on her hands. When I watched them lower her into the ground, I promised myself that people would be held accountable. That I would see to it. And my any means, that’s what I’m gonna do.” ~Cooper

Funniest line: “I once spent part of a summer in Bermuda. The island, certainly not the shorts.” ~Red

Best exchange: 

Hitchins” “Halcyon is off limits.”

Red: “Elizabeth Keen is dead.”

Hitchins: “I heard. And after all you did to protect her, too.”

Red: “Boy, I can’t wait to hurt you someday.”