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Quick update from Baby Z:
There’s some great Reddington quotes (as usual) from “The Courier” episode this week currently being compiled - - will be posted, along with the episode recap, this weekend!!! Might be introducing a new “The Blacklist” weekly feature as well!!!
-BZ
By: Baby Z
YOU GUYS!! I just spent the last 2 hours writing an awesome recap of episode 3: Wujing (which, I KNOW, is already an episode late!!) and I had maybe 10 minutes to go when the system just - DIED and I got that little sad TV face guy on tumblr and the entire article is GONE!!!!
Therefore, for episode 3, you will be receiving a scaled down recap from its original. I apologize, I love this show SO much and want to do it justice, which a scaled down/short recap could never do, but - - there’s just no way to recover or redo what I lost and I have a to do list that won’t allow me to spend another 2 hours rewriting the original article.
I have also learned to hit “Save Draft” when posting articles here, and to click it often. FUCK!
ALSO - - THERE’S A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT AT THE END OF THIS RECAP ABOUT A NEW “THE BLACKLIST” FEATURE I’LL BE DOING FOR EACH EPISODE!! BE SURE TO CHECK IT OUT!
Episode 3: Wujing begins by showing an American man getting into his vehicle in Shanghai, China, only to be delayed by a Chinese man riding a bike in front of him. Said Chinese man turns toward the car and shoots the guy right thru the windwhield, thus teaching HIM a little lesson in patience. A couple motorcycles then pull up, shooting him again thru the passenger window, taking the briefcase that was on the passenger seat, and driving away.
This is followed by a Chinese man attempting to gain access to something on a computer when he reaches over and grabs a bloody hand (just a hand, no body!) to use for the “fingerprint-required” access, and when this does not work, he orders someone to “Get Reddington!”
Oh yes, get Reddington indeed.
Back at La Casa de Keen, Tom is fast asleep in their bed, while Lizzie is once again going thru Tom’s secret box even though he’s like 10 feet away.
She grabs the gun from the box, a bucket and like 3 huge phone books (seriously, who does this?) and heads outside where she then fills the bucket with water and the phonebooks and then shoots the gun into the phonebooks, obtaining a bullet & casing, which she brings to work and has forensics run it against any crimes, etc..,
Meanwhile, Raymond Reddington (RR) is at the park in a dashing suit, a man approaches and attempts to hand him an envelope to which he responds “Good God, not here.” without even looking up. I just want to lick him he’s so cool.
Long story short, RR informs the guy that his “normal” guy is not available, he’ll be going thru a different “tech” and that he should let Wujing know, do their due diligence and get back to him.
Back at Lizzie’s, they’re having breakfast at the kitchen table when Tom asks her if she’s alright and attempts to talk about the man who, you know, tortured and stabbed him. Of course, Lizzie can’t discuss it but assures him that the guy is dead. A friend comes over to bring some food and to bring Tom to physical therapy, and when thanked she says “Friends don’t let friends starve who have been stabbed by psychopath killers.” Ba dum bum! I’m thinking….too soon for the stabbing jokes, friend?
Remember when I mentioned in my episode 2 recap that RR’s HAT has played a role in the first 2 episodes, and wondered if this would be a recurring theme? Well cue to the next scene where Lizzie’s meeting up with RR in a HAT STORE, filled to the brim (ha) with fedoras. RR informs her that he’s been hired by Wujing to decode a file, most likely containing the name of an Agent Wujing will then kill.
We learn that Wujing formally works for the Ministry of State Security and that while he’s not officially sanctioned by the Chinese government, unofficially he’s contracted to take out rival agents, American, British, etc.., RR tells her that he’s set it up with Wujing that she’s (under a cover, obviously) the encryption specialist “tech” that he mentioned to the dude in the park.
Back at the FBI offices, Cooper, Ressler and Malik all think they should move forward with RR’s plan, while Lizzie’s like, “Uh…. you want me to SPY on a SPY KILLER while pretending to be a specialist in encryptology, of which I know nothing about…. no thanks.” Ressler reminds her that in that case, the next Agent killed by Wujing will be on her hands, and - of course - Lizzie gives in.
Meanwhile, back at her apartment, immediately upon Tom and their friend leaving for physical therapy, we see that the building is being watched by someone eating an apple across the street, followed by a team of people going into their apartment and installing what is assumed to be cameras all over the place.
Lizzie meets up with RR and lets him know that she’ll go along with his plan, on the condition that he tells her why he picked her. They return to the FBI offices where RR tells them that 6 years ago a radio station building was purchased by a corporation funded by the Chinese government. Wujing operates out of this building, and is where they will be meeting him. Lizzie, again, reminds them she knows nothing about encryption, so CIA agent Malik and Lizzie meet up with a Chinese dude that Malik calls in.
There’s a lot of techie talk during this scene so I’ll just summarize: basically, Wujing will give her a file that, when she plugs it into her laptop she will be prompted for a 4-digit code, which her computer will provide. She just has to have a satellite signal for this to work. If she doesn’t have a satellite signal, she’s given a little chip thing called a “remote mirroring program” that will give the FBI/CIA outside remote access to be able to take over and decode.
While waiting for RR to come get her, Agent Malik sticks what looks like a nicotine patch onto Lizzie’s arm, telling her that it will be able to track her up to 300 yards, and is made of a material that’s undetectable should she be ‘wanded.’ Her and RR head to the radio station where…guess what? She’s wanded.
She makes it past the wanding, however due to the chip in RR’s neck, he does not, but he tells the “wander” (same guy he met at the park earlier) that it was implanted by Somali pirates that imprisoned him for 3 weeks and that if the dude had a clean razor blade and some morphine he would gladly remove it. Because the dude knows RR is not a threat to them, he seems OK with this explanation, but then announces that he has to run a biometric print scan on Lizzie. When she asks what system it’s being run against, the 'wander’ says "All of them" and she looks as though she’s going to pee her pants.
However never fear! The FBI/CIA next door intercept the biometric print scan request and ensure that the results show she’s not found out.
RR and Lizzie are led to an elevator that takes them so far down into the ground, I begin to think possibly they are headed to hell… and when they get to the bottom, they’re met by Wujing.
After the first set of taps, she typed out that there wasn’t enough time to deliver in person, that the agent would be killed. He tapped again and she typed out that she needed access to Jin’s computer and asked if he had any suggestions, to which he threw the word “distraction” into his small talk, and she typed “Yes - distract them!”
RR walked over to the security monitors and started freaking out that Wujing had put them in danger, that there was an FBI van right outside, etc.., etc.., and while all of this was going on (Wujing ordered one of his minions to check the van out, etc..,) Lizzie inserted the “remote mirroring program” chip into Jin’s USB port (that totally sounded dirty to techie nerds!)
The satellite program worked and they were able to decode the file (and a lot more according to the FBI/CIA IT guy next door) from Jin’s computer. The next victim for Wujing to kill was named Henry Cho, however it turns out, Henry was not an Agent. Henry Cho is actually an architect that owns a pretty major construction company and the CIA asked for his help because he was contracted to build some Chinese government building in Shanghai.
According to his passport, he was currently in DC and not Shanghai, so after a quick call to a stupid receptionist at Cho’s company, Wujing tells her Cho’s brother’s been in an accident and he must reach him and she tells him where Cho is at (with his son). Wujing orders his minions to that location at the same time Ressler and Malik are doing the same.
Meanwhile, RR and Lizzie are like, “OK so…we have to be going now…” and Lizzie has an opportunity to motion that she needs to grab that remote satellite mirroring chip from Jin’s computer, but RR says to leave it. Suddenly, alarms start going off in the room and Wujing emerges from his office saying that their system is set up to inform them if any communication to a government server takes place from one of their systems. He says that RR must have been right about the FBI being there, only they weren’t outside but rather right there in his dungeon, to which RR warns him to be careful about who and what he’s accusing. Wujing assures him that it’s not HIM he’s accusing but rather Lizzie and his minions run up and have their guns pointed at her.
Wujing says he knows exactly who the traitor is, and we’re supposed to believe he thinks it’s Lizzie but he turns around and punches Jin to the ground, then proceeds to beat the ever loving crap out of him. At one point, Lizzie almost (stupidly) thinks she needs to step in and stop him, but RR stops her from doing so. Wujing stands up from the beating, grabs Jin’s laptop and slams it to the ground, which is when Jin notices the little chip thing that Lizzie inserted and JUST as he’s about to point this out to Wujing, RR snags a gun from a close standing security person and BAAAAAAM!!! Shoots Jin dead.
Wujing, who I’m assuming wanted to question Jin some prior to killing him, grabbed a gun and pointed it at Lizzie saying “You killed one of mine, now I kill one of yours” and RR basically tells him that Jin was useless to him, that Wujing would’ve beat on him for 20 more minutes before killing him himself, but that killing Lizzie would be bad for business, making contractors think that they shouldn’t work for him.
Wujing thinks it over and decides RR’s right and that they need to get out of there because the FBI will be there shortly, so he leads them out via a different exit and they jump into a truck with Wujing, who drops them off after a few minutes.
While all of this was going on, Agent Malik was able to reach Henry Cho on his cell phone just in time to warn him about Wujing’s men coming after him, she instructs him to hide and just as they hang up, the elevator is coming to their floor. Henry grabs his young son, they high tail it to a flight of stairs and go to the floor below where the bad guys now are. He hides his son under a construction/paint tarp on the balcony, instructing him not to come out, kisses him on the forehead and then tries to run and hide himself when the elevator appeared. The bad guys are searching for him when Malik and Ressler arrive. Ressler engages in a fight scene with one of them, who he ends up flailing over the side of the balcony off the building (another running theme of this show!!) He starts fighting a 2nd bad guy when a 3rd finds Henry Cho’s son, so Henry Cho comes out of hiding and just as bad guy #3 is about to shoot Cho, Malik shoots him and Ressler beats #2 unconscious. All is well and Malik actually says to Henry Cho, “Thank you for helping the CIA.” Uh…… yeah…. no problem!
Back to Lizzie & RR: turns out Lizzie removed her nicotine patch tracking device and stuck it on the door of Wujing’s vehicle prior to them getting out, so the FBI were able to bust him afterall. She and RR had a conversation about their agreement: her help in exchange for him telling her why he chose her and he said “Because of your father.” She asked him what he meant by that and did he know her father, and he responded that he wished the answer were as simple as it seemed, which annoyed her and she got out of the car (probably the most unrealistic thing someone would do in this scenario, no?)
Back at the FBI offices, Ressler tells Lizzie, “I may have had doubts about you but what you did today was good work…. if you couldn’t handle this job, Cho wouldn’t be alive. Whatever else went down you should feel good about that.” When he leaves her office, she sits down and sees the ballistics report on the bullet from Tom’s secret box gun on her desk.
We then see her drive home, and after pulling up in her car, she grabs the ballistics report, opens it and finds “Classified Information” as the “results” on the bullet. Wuh wuhh wuhhhhhhhhhhhh!!
However back at the FBI, Ressler goes to Cooper’s office and tells him that because of his suspicions about Lizzie, he put in an order that anything she requested should be reported back to him, so he, too, received a report about the bullet. He told Cooper that at her level, the information was classified, but not at their level. Cooper opened the file and said “This isn’t just classified - the debriefings on this homicide include the Secretary of Homeland Security!” He asked Ressler who else knows about this and the scene cuts to Lizzie walking in to her apartment to find they’re having a little party, she’s told, to celebrate Tom being alive still.
Back at RR’s hotel, he opens the envelope that he was given by Wujing as payment for decoding - which contained only this:
And finally, back at La Casa de Keen, Lizzie and Tom have a brief conversation whereby he apologizes for asking about the man who stabbed him, saying that he gets that she can’t tell him shit because of her job. He’s then wheeled away by a friend, and Lizzie’s left standing in the middle of a room full of people, but looking as though she feels completely alone.
The camera then pans out to directly across the street where we see the apple-eating man from earlier watching a bunch of security monitors of their apartment. And, as usual, the episode ends with the viewers having 432 more questions and no answers.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Because Spader’s character Raymond Reddington has such awesome 1-liners in this show (excellently written by the show’s writers but brilliantly executed by Spader) - I will be doing a weekly “Kick Ass Reddington Quotes” series of articles for each episode, beginning with this episode. Keep your eyes peeled for Episode 3’s Kick Ass Reddington Quotes article - - which will be posted soon!!
Have a tutti fuckin frutti day,
-BZ
Excellent observation ¬_¬
I am not the least bit afraid to admit how much I love James Spader. Or this show.
-BZ
By: Baby Z
Ever since he played Steff, the asshole we all loved to hate in “Pretty in Pink” I knew that James Spader was destined for awesomeness. Yes, he was good in “The Practice” and in “Boston Legal,” I didn’t really jump on the whole “Robert California” train with his role on “The Office” too much, although Steve Carrell’s shoes would’ve been hard for any actor to fill, truth be told.
But along comes Raymond Reddington in “The Blacklist” and finally - FINALLY we get to see James Spader in the role he was born to play. Brilliant? Yes. Snarky? As hell!! A criminal mastermind at the top of the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List?? Oh hell to the Spader yes!!!
The show opens with Reddington turning himself in to the FBI, basically by walking into their offices, thru their security & metal detectors and right up to the main guard station, announcing who he’s there to see and handing over his name unabashedly. While waiting, he walks to the center of the atrium, removes his jacket & hat placing them over a briefcase that was delivered to him just outside the building and then calmly bends down to his knees and waits.
Just these first 2 minutes of the show had me hook, line & sinker.
By way of an awesome profile shot of Spader, the camera pans in on an “FBI Most Wanted” flyer for Raymond Reddington, Spader’s character in the show:
(Pic courtesy of Eric Rosenberg, Creative for NBC - Behance page)
We are then filled in via a pretty moronic discussion between FBI Agents Cooper and Ressler (Cooper: Is it really him? Ressler: Uh, yep, prints match. Oh - and I’m pretty sure that you’d have to be a complete asshat to say you’re someone on the FBI’s Most Wanted list when you’re really not?) that Red Reddington (RR moving forward) was in the Naval Academy, top of his class and was being groomed for Admiral by the young age of 24. Then in 1990, he disappeared - leaving behind his blossoming career, and his wife & child at Christmas time.
He was gone for 4 years before classified documents started appearing from a wide array of countries with his name on them, apparently brokering illegal dealings between countries, essentially placing him in the role of a terrorist whose only allegiance was to that of the highest bidder.
And he continued these illegal dealings until - this particular day when he just up & decided to turn himself into the FBI. When Agent Cooper asks why he’s turning himself in, we’re informed that they do not know- RR is not speaking to any of them.
And, as if by cue, a confined to some weird compartment type contraption, RR says:
“Evidently someone with the authority to make decisions has arrived. I think I smell the stench of your cologne, Agent Cooper. Smells like hubris.”
Which in and of itself is such a brilliantly delivered line but for those who don’t know - hubris means excessive pride or self confidence - arrogance… and the way the word “hubris” so casually rolls off his tongue is… well, it’s nothing short of perfect if I’m being honest. Excellent writing, writers - and even better execution, Mr. Spader.
RR continues on to say that he’s well aware that everyone’s wondering why he’s there. He rattles off 3 dates and events that the FBI was unaware were related let alone the doing of one man, and said that that man is Ranko Zamani. "You want him. I want him. So let’s say for the moment…that our interests… are aligned.“
A random FBI Agent does a Google search (ok, not really) on Ranko Zamani, who comes up as having been deceased for 6 years. This amuses RR, who pontificates the irony, then, that Zamani just stepped off of flight #283 from Munich to their very own Washington DC airport. The FBI agents kick into gear and within 30 seconds are able to find out the identity Zamani is assuming and get 9 points of confirmation that it is, in fact, Zamani from his flight’s ARMREST.
I know. Far reaching at best.
After humiliating Agent Cooper by making him admit that they were wrong, RR informs them that they’re now going to play by his rules - number 1 of which is that he will only speak with Elizabeth Keen, a name that means absolutely nothing to any of them.
Cut to Elizabeth Keen’s normal life with her normal problems (her & her husband sleeping in on her first day at a new job, rushing around like a madwoman trying to get ready, who’s taking the car and who’s taking public transportation today, etc.., etc..,) and it is just before they go running out of their home that Keen’s husband tells her not to forget that they have their last adoption meeting at 1:30. She assures him that she’ll be there, of course, and a little bit of foreshadowing on my part tells me to place money on the exact opposite.
Her husband leaves, followed a minute or so later by Lizzie who bounds out the door to find him standing on their front stairs gazing at her lovingly. They have a little "moment” whereby he tells her how amazing she is, and she assures him that this new job will not get in the way of their “family plans,” their family is still her priority and 5, 4, 3, 2……1….
The FBI shows up in DROVES to “summon” Lizzie, who we find out is starting her first day at her new job as a PROFILER. They bring her to RR, and their meeting has a very “Silence of the Lambs” feel to it, however it’s RR’s hinting that he may be her father that are of particular note to me.
RR then informs Lizzie that Zamani’s plan is to kidnap US General Riker’s daughter within the next 36 hours, and that if she does not stop him, he will kill the little girl. How does he know all this? He’s the one who got Zamani into the country. Dun dunnnn dunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!
Lizzie, with the assistance of pretty much every FBI Agent within a 100 mile radius, descend upon the ballet class of US General Riker’s daughter and once they have her in their care, a tailgate-party worthy line of FBI vehicles is heading over the bridge in DC when they are rerouted by a Hazmat team and told to turn around due to a chemical spill. It is during said “U-turn” that Zamani’s men attack the barrage of FBI vehicles, guns a'blazin and gas cans and explosions ensue, and before you know it - a gas mask is being handed into the (now flipped on its side) FBI truck containing Lizzie and the little girl and Lizzie informs her that some men are going to take her but that she will come find her. The little girl puts on the mask, the mysterious arms reach in and lift her out of the vehicle and a newly detonated gas can is left in the girl’s place for good measure.
Once the dust clears a bit, we see that Zamani’s team now have the little girl and are leaving via boats beneath the bridge.
Back at the FBI headquarters, RR reviews the “evidence board” with Lizzie, trying to figure out what Zamani’s next move might be, and it is deduced that Zamani hired a chemist at some point to build a bomb. Due to all the help that RR is providing, he procures himself a nice hotel suite compliments of the FBI thankyouverymuch and Lizzie leaves to “clear her head” and I believe she mentions needing a shower.
She arrives at her apartment, which is FILLED with lovely pink balloons and streamers and a sign that says “It’s a Girl!” and for a brief moment she is elated that the “final adoption meeting” went so well without her, you know, being there and all until she is sees that her husband is tied to a chair and has clearly, for lack of a better term, had the shit beat out of him. Zamani appears and wants to know exactly what the FBI knows about him and his plans, and once he is satisfied that she’s told him everything she knows, tells Lizzie she is going to need to make a decision between stopping him now, saving many Americans lives or not stopping him now in order to save her husband - who he proceeds to stab repeatedly in the femoral artery region of his thigh.
Cut scene to hospital room, where Lizzie’s husband is most definitely not in good shape (but alive) and NOW it’s personal & Lizzie’s on the warpath, gunning for RR, whom she is now convinced is involved in all of this even to the point of helping plan the attack on her hubby. RR attempts to get her to relay to him EXACTLY what Zamani said to her in her apartment, but it all happened so fast & there was so much blood that she can’t be sure, but manages to blurt out that Zamani thanked her for the FBI taking care of the aforementioned “chemist” for him, which tells RR that the bomb is still in play.
But Lizzie’s had enough of RR’s shit, grabs a pen from the table and STABS HIM IN HIS CAROTID ARTERY, removes the bloody pen and leaves RR gasping for air. But not before he manages to tell her that if she kills him, she will never know the truth about her husband.
I know, right? …..the fuck??
She goes home to clean a very bloody apartment and get some comfort from a dog they suddenly have (?) and the following morning decides that she wants to know more about what RR was talking about with regards to her husband, only dun dunnnnnn dunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn - - RR has disappeared from his hospital room.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I am loving this show and most things about it so far but, does it not seem to you like this has been a 3 hour event so far?
This show is going to be one HELL of a show to recap, of this much - I am sure.
The following scene shows RR meeting up with Zamani at the Lincoln Memorial, leading us all to believe that he has been a part of this entire plan all along, and when RR asks Zamani about Lizzie’s husband, Zamani responds that he did what RR asked him to do. It’s a good thing the FBI put that tracker in RR’s shoulder at the beginning of the episode because NO WORRIES FOLKS - the FBI is all over this, they should only be STEPS behind him, yet never seem to catch up. RR calls Lizzie’s cell phone and asks her if she remembered anything else about her encounter with Zamani, and she tells him about a tattoo on his hand. RR responds that Zamani is a Serbian Orthodox and would not have a tattoo, which helps Lizzie figure out that it was actually a handstamp - and that of the DC Zoo. Zamani’s plan is to detonate the bomb at the DC Zoo!
She somehow manages to get there, and into the center of said zoo within minutes (meanwhile the FBI Agents tracking RR are still “hot on his trail”) and she spots the US General’s little girl sitting on a park bench, strapped with the bomb in question with 3 minutes on the timer. RR calls her cell, tells her that a friend will be there shortly to help and for her not to touch the bomb.
The FBI has finally caught up with the tracking device, only it is in Zamani’s possession, not in RR’s neck, and along with the tracking device is the detonator for the bomb. Zamani is on a building ledge, is going to detonate the bomb and then leap to his death from the building only - - FBI Agent shoots the shit out of him first, sending him over the edge of the building just before he has the opportunity to hit “Blow Up” or whatever it is that detonators are labeled.
Lizzie, in an attempt to keep the little girl calm, tells her a story about what helps HER when she’s scared. Earlier in the show, RR had mentioned to Lizzie that he noticed she messed with a particularly unsightly scar on her wrist that she explains happened in a fire when she was 14. Now, she explains to the little girl, that the scar is what helps her to be brave in times when she was scared, because it was from her daddy and now I want to know what the fuck RR did to Lizzie at 14 that caused such a result.
In the meantime, RR’s “friend” arrives, he is foreign and she cannot understand him, however he manages to detonate the bomb, after which he removes from the little girl and disappears with to God knows where. RR (and a bazillion FBI agents) arrive seconds later (of course). Lizzie is upset that there’s a chemical weapon in the hands of what turns out to be a Ukrainian friend of RR’s, and well - that’s the price ya pay to have it not blow up a zoo full of children, Lizzie - lesson learned.
One of the final scenes of the show is RR in an FBI boardroom with Agent Cooper, where he explains that their collaboration isn’t over, that Zamani was just the 1st on a long list he refers to as his “Blacklist.” This list contains people the FBI cannot find because they don’t even know they EXIST (booooyah!) and amongst them are politicians, mobsters, hackers, spies, and – that RR will be willing to help the FBI get these people, but only if they agree to his rules:
RR Rule #1: He never sleeps in the same place more than 2 nights in a row.
RR Rule #2: He wants a fully encrypted 8mm chip embedded in his neck, not the garbage tracker they inserted earlier.
RR Rule #3: He wants his own security. He has assembled a list of 5 acceptable applicants, of which the FBI can choose 2.
RR Rule #4: Whatever RR tells them, falls under an immunity package that he negotiates himself.
Annnnnd the 5th and final rule: RR speaks only with Elizabeth Keen.
And on that note, we cut to Lizzie at her apartment, cutting a hole into the flooring, where she finds a large wooden box. It’s contents include a SHIT TON of money, a gun and so many passports I wouldn’t even wager a guess as to how many - all containing her husband’s picture, and all with different identities.
She returns to see RR, who in all his James Spader glory says to her, “You’ve discovered something curious about your husband, haven’t you Lizzie?” and we are treated to an awesomely bluesy-indie version of Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” to close the series premiere.
My personal opinion:
This is a kick-ass, awesomely awesome show based on the pilot, excellently written and perfectly executed by its main star. I can’t wait for more, although the recaps may have to shorten a bit.
Have a tutti fuckin frutti day,
-BZ