The Blacklist: The One Where Spader Just Earned An Emmy (S1:E7)

Thru RR we learn that it is a waste byproduct of nuclear reactors and is highly regulated, thus only a handful of people in the world can procure it in sizeable quantities and he happens to know 3 of those people,  1 was apprehended by Russian authorities last month, the 2nd was vaporized by a US drone and the 3rd is likely Barnes’ supplier, who RR has set up a meeting with for that afternoon.  In Cuba.

Of course, RR wants Lizzie to go with him, but she turns him down because she tracked down his old research partner and wanted to follow up on that lead.  Lizzie heads to interview said ex-research partner and RR gets into a vehicle to his awaiting Asian security team member, who informs him that something he wanted monitored in case it ever went on the market, is on the market and would he like her to move forward with the purchase, to which he confirms that, yes, he would.

Lizzie/Ressler meet with Barnes’ old research partner, who said she hadn’t spoken with him in about 5 years, that he was obsessive about his research, he was a rising star who was ahead of his time and had no personal life.  She said they often worked 16 hour days, to which her husband chimed in that even that was sometimes an understatement, that Barnes often had his research team there all evening.  

At this moment, their son walks in (Ethan) and he has the same visible purple veins on his arms/neck that is typical of someone with Kurz Disease.  Lizzie gets the wife alone and asks her if her son has the disease, and when that is confirmed, she asks if Barnes is actually Ethan’s ‘biological’ father, not her husband - which is also confirmed.  The ex-research assistant also shares the fact that Barnes is aware that he is Ethan’s father and that Ethan was diagnosed with Kurz when he was 5.  They were told that the disease was untreatable, that because it is such a rare disease - there’s no money in finding a cure so there’s no pharmaceutical companies researching it, which was unacceptable to Barnes.  Annnnd now we have motive behind his recent killings - raising awareness about Kurz, what better way than to mass murder groups of people with it?

Meanwhile, in Havana, Cuba - RR meets with “Manny Soto” the contact that has access to the radioactive waste mentioned earlier.  

(SIDENOTE - - “Manny Soto” is played by Dexter character Detective Angel Batista - awesome!)  RR orders 12 kilos of it, and while this conversation is taking place, the Asian security chick confirms to his black security guy that she’s secured the funds to make the purchase she discussed with RR earlier.  

RR informs Manny that he needs it right away and is told that’s not an option, so he suggests maybe he should just go straight to Manny’s source himself (which of course, Manny was not to pleased with) and during their interaction, RR manages to slip a black chip/bug device under the table, tells Manny that his client has 10 million, in cash, right now and asks that he make the arrangements asap.  RR leaves and of course, Manny immediately calls Barnes to make said arrangement. The chip that RR left under his table was a phone number tracing device to be able to track who Manny called, and just like that - they had Barnes’ location - in Arlington, VA.

RR immediately informed Keen so she and Ressler went to what ended up being the General District Courthouse in Arlington, where we see Barnes enter a courtroom with his signature silver briefcase in hand, pretending to be one of the people who was called in for possible jury duty.  When asked for the summons he received, he looks thru his jacket and said he must have left it in his vehicle, he’d be right back.  He leaves the courtroom, but not with the briefcase, and fastens the doors behind him with a zip tie, ensuring no one inside would be able to exit.

At the same time, Lizzie & Ressler arrive at the courthouse and set the fire alarms off so that the building would be immediately evacuated, only Barnes is still able to remote release the gas into the courtroom and then blend in with the crowd of people from other rooms being evacuated.  Ressler is scouring the building and hears the screams/pleas from the people trapped in the Kurz room, just as 2 firemen arrive, so he orders their masks & oxygen tanks from them before telling them to help evacuate the building, including themselves. 

Meanwhile, Lizzie is on the hunt for Barnes and when she finally spots him, the chase is on.  Ressler gets the doors open to find every person in the courtroom is dead but one young woman.  Lizzie chases Barnes outside, but he grabs one of the security guards on the way out and threatens to shoot him if she doesn’t drop her gun in 3-2-1 and just as he says “1” she backs down and does as he says.  He then shoots the windows above them out, causing people to panic and Barnes is able to get away in the mayhem.

Before Cooper lets her have it for relinquishing her weapon, informing her that she’s going up for administrative review over whether or not she’ll be sanctioned over the incident, I found myself wondering why in the world she would make the decision to save one man’s life over potentially thousands and thousands by not shooting Barnes on the spot.  Especially being trained for these types of scenarios (I’m assuming) where you have to make split second decisions under pressure?  Even if I were that ONE hostage, I would have agreed with the opinion that she should have sacrificed my life for the lives of many. Stupid, stupid move Lizzie.

We’re then brought to a beautiful home in Tacoma Park, MD, with a “For Sale” sign in the front yard, along with a realtor waiting on what turns out to be the Asian security chick.  The realtor informs her that the house is in escrow and they are only accepting backup offers, however “Lu” (Asian chick) pulls out double the asking price of the house, in cash, and - I guess as it turns out, the initial applicants just didn’t have good enough credit and RR just purchased the house.

Meanwhile at the FBI, we’re informed 26 are confirmed dead from the courthouse and the 1 survivor was still alive, but that the doctor assumed with the level of exposure, this probably would not be the case for long.  Malik pointed out that it appeared as though between the train incident and the courthouse incident - Barnes appeared to be targeting random groupings of people.  All ages, both genders, all races, etc.., and following this logic, is it conceivable that he’s doing this for a reason?  An experiment or demonstration?

It’s at this moment however that Cooper pulls Lizzie into another room to hand her ass to her regarding the whole relinquishing of her weapon as mentioned earlier.  Lizzie realizes that Ressler had to have reported her, so she confronts him about it and he’s basically like “Damn right I reported that shit.  And if you can’t understand why your call was a bad one, then you don’t belong in the tactical unit.  Beyatch.”  (I’m not a Ressler fan but I do agree with his douchebaggery in this instance….)

Meanwhile, the 1 survivor is having the last blood test drawn by the doctor to confirm she has not, in fact, been infected by Kurz Disease.  She has an armed guard just outside her door, who didn’t even question Barnes (dressed as a nurse) when he came to her room and informed her he needed to switch her IV bag.  The girl passes out and Barnes takes out a plethora of weird looking medical tools.

Cut scene to RR on his plane back from Cuba. Lizzie calls him and informs him of Barnes’ escape and asks for help, to which she is hung up on.  (Not a good day in Lizzie’s world, eh?)  She calls RR back and basically guilts him into agreeing to help again by explaining that it was HER that let Barnes get away and pleads with him to help her.  Of course, he agrees, and asks her about the 1 sole survivor of the courtroom attack, wondering if Barnes had paid her a visit yet.  In other words - chances are - this is one possibility regarding where Barnes might end up at some point SOON, DUMBASS!!

Lizzie and Malik bombard the survivor’s room, she’s still passed out but Barnes is gone.  The doctor comes in, and when Lizzie explains that the patient may be in danger, the doctor discovers that a bone marrow biopsy had been performed on her.  Lizzie realizes that Malik was right that Barnes was performing an experiment of sorts - searching for someone with a natural immunity to Kurz Disease.  Malik deduces from this that Barnes is going to use the survivor’s genetic immunity to synthesize an antidote and Lizzie completes their combined trains of thought that once he does this, he’s going for his son.

On their way to Barnes’ baby mama’s house, Lizzie calls her to warn the cheating wife that Barnes is probably on his way there at any point, only in the middle of the conversation, Barnes is standing in her kitchen.  He tells her that he needs to see Ethan, she refuses, a struggle ensues and he ends up strong arming her to the ground, which Ethan catches the tail end of.  Barnes attempts to tell Ethan he’s a friend of theirs and he needs him to trust him, but the kid’s not having any of it, runs off & hides in his room.  Barnes finds him and uses whatever that drug is that people put on handkerchiefs & put over their victim’s mouth/nose to make them pass out.  

Lizzie and Malik arrive just as Barnes lays Ethan on his bed, unconscious.  Lizzie comes into the room with her gun (hey!!  Novel idea, how about you hold onto it this time, eh Lizzie?) drawn & they tit for tat about how, yes, what he’s about to inject into his son may very well cure him but - it could also kill him as well and he was crazy to think that she is going to allow him to inject anything into the kid.  (“There’s no universe in which I let you stick that thing in his neck!”)

Barnes calls her bluff, and attempts to inject Ethan and is shot dead on the spot.  

RR and Lizzie have a brief conversation outside about cause & effect, and that Barnes’ motivation behind his killing spree was actually to save the one person in the world he loved, which RR “gets.”  When Lizzie asks if his comments on the subject were directed at her he responds “Aren’t you presumptuous?”  She continues on, pontificating if this is how he’s able to do what he does, under the misguided notion that he’s protecting her, and if so - from who?  She assumes her husband.  She then drones on about how she appreciates the help he is providing on a work level only, and that that is where their relationship needs to remain, at work - she tells him flat out she does not want him in her personal life.  So, he lays it out there.. he gives her the opportunity to have him leave her life for good, she just has to say the word.

And she can’t.  (I don’t fault her, I wouldn’t be able to either!)

When she returns home, Tom’s sitting in the middle of an empty living room eating Chinese food and they reminisce about their first few days living together and end up having some sexy time.

And in the final scene of the episode, and one of the show’s best scenes to date, RR and his 2 security members enter the home that he purchased and he is definitely sad/melancholy.  One of his security members goes directly to the basement, while RR says he remembers the home being bigger.  

He walks into the kitchen and the Asian chick asks him of all the places in all the world, why this place?  He answers that he raised his family in this home.  He hangs his hat on a doorknob of what appears to be a sunroom, and removes a piece of paneling from the wall - indicating a height chart that stopped at “3 years.”  

He gazes outside to the yard, and sees a young brown haired girl playing with bubbles on a bright summer day.  The camera pans in on his face, and he’s smiling - but a painful, sad smile - he doesn’t say a word but the look James Spader conveys in this scene is so intensely powerful, so tragic and haunting, that they should just hand him the Emmy for Best Actor in a Drama Series without further ado.  

Sad smile:

The horrifically tortured look that followed:

The three of them leave the home and as they are getting in their vehicle, “Lu” says “This place must hold a lot of memories for you” to which RR responds, “I spend every day trying to forget what happened here.  This should help.”

They drive off and the house explodes in ginormous bursts of flames.

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