The Blacklist - S3E6 - Sir Crispin Crandall (No. 86)

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Previously on The Blacklist, ‘Arioch Cane’

Sir Crispin Crandall is crazy with money and power—and, well, just plain crazy.

Team Red gets together in Canada to complete the top secret plan—breaking into a bank to get to the safe deposit boxes.

Team Post Office tries to work the case Red hands them while keeping the Director in the dark. Too bad he finds out what they’re up to.

Cooper lectures Tom about his homicidal tendencies and the fact that he’s going to get innocent people killed. Unbothered, Tom tries to protect said innocent people, but gets gripped up for his trouble. Good thing trouble is his middle name.

Get a grip

Thirty-two people, leaders in the sciences and such, were snatched from all over the world. Dr. Kucera, a mathematician is the latest victim, whose disappearance leads them to the next potential victim, Dr. Neehoff—who just happens to be in America. Briefing the Director about the kidnappings, Ressler and Navabi keep his attention while Aram deletes Halmi’s name from the list.

BOLO

Red is looking for the Director’s most trusted advisor, Andras Halmi; a Belgian economist, correction, econometrican (who knew that was a thing?). Halmi is key to clearing Liz’s name so they have to find the Blacklister who’s gripping up folks, to find Halmi.

The A-team

The FBI has known about the kidnappings for a while. And have not bothered to warn anybody. Red steers them toward a Blacklister, so they can find Halmi, to get the Director off their backs. But, he never gave them a name. The Director confronts them about talking to and helping Red and Liz. Ressler tells him they have, so they can get closer to finding them—but they’ve also brought down several people to bring down the Cabal.

Y’all not slick

The post office team updates the Director on the case, but he’s no fool; he has an analyst hack their system to find out what they’re hiding. Mr. Solomon calls him and tells him the team is looking for Halmi. The Director sends him to get Halmi, oh and he can kill Red and Liz while he’s at it.

The Blacklister

Sir Crispin Crandall, a billionaire recluse, who was thought dead. He lives on his airplane, which refuels in the air, and has only landed 30 times in three years. Each landing coincided with the abduction of renowned scientists and mathematicians; always one man and one woman. Crandall believes humans are on the brink of extinction, and cryo preservation is the only hope.

Most guano line ever

“You and I, along with the others, will free ourselves. We shall slip the surly bonds of earth, and touch the face of God.”

Pffft, Tom don’t even care

Cooper berates Tom about killing the money collector; he warns him that the Charlie Volkens will be after him and Asher Sutton. His paltry attempt at scaring Tom with pictures of Volkens falls flat. Okay, unless the pictures are of maimed bodies, how would that help? Tom reminds him that the Bureau couldn’t find Volkens but now he’s coming to find Tom. Unimpressed, Cooper says he’s coming to kill him. But he’s coming, that’s the important part. Tom vows that he’ll drag Karakurt back if he has to. In a last ditch effort, Cooper says Sutton will get killed, too. Tom is all, “Do I look bovered?”

Holding out for a hero(ine)

Navabi and Ressler head out to Dr. Neehoff’s home, but the kidnappers grab her before they can get there. The local police block their escape; one guy decides a shootout with the police would be nice, another runs off, and the last one, holding a gun on Dr. Neehoof, is killed by Navabi.

Are we done yet?

In Montreal, a building inspector is slowing down Red’s plans— and won’t take bribe. Red has Marvin Gerard dig into the inspector’s life to find a weakness. Bingo! He’s in love with an aspiring pastry chef. Red convinces her that the inspector is buying her a restaurant, which just so happens to be the space he’s using for his plan. Red tells him he needs one day of uninterrupted work then they can have the place. Seeing her happiness, the inspector gives in.

The sins of the father

Ressler interviews the kidnapper who tried to get away, but he won’t talk. The Director takes a shot; using the age old tradition of threatening someone’s kid, he convinces him to rat on Crandall.

Red’s Best Lines

“The future is a sucker’s bet—a maybe, a contingency, a ‘what if’. The only thing that is real is the present, and you’ve plundered it; robbed it of the very geniuses that might have averted the dystopia you so fear. Indeed, perhaps even the very one who might have devised a means to revive your sad, tired, frozen ass.”

Pit fighter

Tom’s attempt to help Sutton and his fiancée get out of town does not go as planned. He and Sutton get taken to Volkens’ turf, where they’re chained together and told to fight to the death. Tom says he doesn’t want to fight, he just wants the Russian. But the crowd, including Volken and Karakurt wants blood. Given a knife, Sutton takes a few swipes, but Tom takes him down and takes him out.

Take the box, leave the thumbs

In the cryo chamber on Crandall’s jet, Liz and Red locate Halmi, and get away with his thumbs before Mr. Solomon and his goons can kill them. Learning Red has Halmi’s thumbs, the Director calls Banque Candien du Nord, with a fake warrant to hide his real agenda: to get to Halmi’s safe deposit box before Red. In the building under renovation, Red and his team tear through a wall and help Red make his way into the safe deposit boxes. Using the severed thumbs, he opens Halmi’s box, but leaves the thumbs for the Director.

Red better have my money

Red calls the Director and tells him to exonerate Liz. He warns him that his plan is to take down the Cabal piecemeal; if he continues, they’ll kill the Director. The Director has been stealing from the Cabal, so he could dip. But Red has his money, so… But he’ll stop bother the Cabal if Liz is exonerated. In a move that won’t be good for anybody, the Director declines Red’s offer. Suit yourself.

But you’re not slick either

Using camera footage from Crandall’s jet, Ressler proves the Director gave them the wrong location for Crandall’s landing, and sent his henchmen to kill Liz and Red. Worried that sharing info with the Director could get Liz and Red killed next time, Ressler assures her that the National Security Advsior has to give the Director the boot, since he lied.

Harden my heart

Bruised, bloody, and determined Tom meets the Russian. Volkens remarks that it takes a hard heart to kill a man with a knife. Can he get credit for not wanting to kill Sutton? No time for chitchat, Tom tells Volkens he wants to speak with Karakurt, not him—so he can take him back to D.C. to prove his wife innocent. Since they don’t believe him, he tells them how things will go down: he’ll grab the big guy first, Russian Guyavitch (as he calls him) will shoot the big guy as he tries to shoot Tom, Volkens is a punk so won’t put up a fight, then it’ll be just Tom and Karakurt. And that’s exactly how it goes down. Like he told Cooper, Tom drags Karakurt by his collar.