The final season premiere sets the stage for the return of Blacklisters past.
It’s been six months since Marvin Gerard (Fisher Stevens) swan-songed by telling Wujing (Chin Han) that Red (James Spader) has spent the last decade betraying the criminal elite to the FBI – let’s see how that’s going!
Well, for Aram (Amir Arison), sabbatical in New York seems to be going delightfully. He’s in jeans! He’s also leaving the Met with a bag from the gift shop. But his peaceful day on the Upper East Side is interrupted by the sight of a bearded and unkempt Red getting into a taxi across 5th Avenue and pretending he didn’t see his old friend.
Obviously, it’s time to call Cooper (Harry Lennix), who is playing cards with a happy Agnes (Sami Bray). She clearly listens in as Aram fills Cooper in on his Red sighting, but while they’re on the phone, an apartment across the street explodes. Hilariously, they immediately assume that Red is to blame simply because he was in the vicinity. They’re not wrong!
Cooper calls Dembe (Hisham Tawfiq), who is happy to ditch post-Gerard paperwork at the Task Force office to pick up Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff) from his group meeting celebrating 311 days sober. The two arrive in NYC at what I like to call “MTS” — “Magic TV Speed” — just in time to run afoul of Chinese official Chin Yao (Grant Chan).
The apartment Red blew up is an annex of the Chinese consulate and law enforcement is barred from entering, but I think we know our Task Force doesn’t let a little thing like international law get in their way — especially when a fireman finds a body in the rubble.
While Ressler grabs the dead woman’s laptop, Yao calls Wujing to let him know what happened. Wujing also immediately assumes Red is responsible… I swear, you run an international crime syndicate for a few decades, and you get blamed for everything!
A little more MTS, and the Task Force has assembled back in DC to identify master thief Jennifer Moores (MaYaa Boateng), who you’ll remember from season 8’s “The Fribourg Confidence.” She was clearly hired to steal something, but when Dembe finally calls Red’s new head of security, he discovers that Chuck has no idea where his boss is or that he was back in the country at all. Dembe doesn’t say it out loud, but I will: You are bad at your job, Chuck.
With Aram’s techie skills unavailable, Dembe recruits Tashido Ito (Alex Shimizu) to help with Moores’ laptop. As always, Tashido is accompanied by his mother/agent Mariko (Anzu Lawson), who’s aghast that Dembe has turned FBI and likes payments in cash.
Tashido races to pull information from the laptop before Cooper can get his semi-illegal search shut down by Judge Vance. Ito manages to find out that Moores was planning to steal Picasso’s The Night Owl, a sculpture being held in an art storage company called Luxe International.
Dembe knows a lot about Picasso, it turns out — the artist was obsessed with owls after he found a wounded one in his studio (This is all true, by the way). I do love the implication that Dembe spent a lot of his time with Red learning about things like fine art… all while actually keeping Red safe at the same time, Chuck.
Luxe is located on Montserrat, a British island in the Caribbean. Ressler and Dembe meet with two Luxe security officials, Richard Deever (Chris McKenna) and Siya Malik (Anya Banerjee). Malik, you say? Yes! Malik as in season 1 regular Agent Meera Malik (Parminder Nagra), who was killed in the show’s very first season finale.
If you needed a reminder because you’ve been watching this show for nearly a decade, here you go: Siya is Meera’s grown-up daughter. She’s smart too, recommending that Cooper make a call to get his agent’s access. When he does, Deever and Malik come clean: Luxe is a front for a CIA black site, and Malik is MI6. Also, The Night Owl isn’t a sculpture, it’s a person. A very familiar person.
Welcome back, Alban Vesili (Daniel Sauli), aka The Freelancer aka the first criminal Elizabeth and Red ever put in jail, aka the assassin we last saw working for Elizabeth in season 8.
While Ressler and Dembe ponder that revelation, we finally check in with Red. He’s back to his properly groomed self and shopping for real estate with a clearly frustrated agent. She’s showing him a lovely nautical-themed space with an indoor balcony and a chef’s kitchen, but he reminds her that he wants 30,000 square feet, two stories, privacy, and no kitchen. Why does he need this very specific property? Guess we’ll find out next week!
Back at Luxe, Vesili is another criminal amused by Dembe’s conversion to law enforcement and I sincerely hope this bit continues all season. He’s less amused to remember Elizabeth’s eventual betrayal that landed him back in off-the-books prisons and has no clue why the Chinese or Jennifer Moores wanted to break him out.
But he’ll find out soon, because Wujing and a gazillion bad guys have just shown up, shooting their way into the CIA black site so easily it’s a little disturbing, frankly. Malik and Deevers attempt to smuggle Vesili out through the garage while Ressler and Dembe hold off the shooters in a firefight.
In an excellent display of multitasking, Ressler calls Cooper to let him know what’s happening and Dembe figures out there must be a mole that alerted Wujing to Vesili’s location. This is also about the time Deevers is pulling a gun on Malik, because he is the mole. When she starts to lift her gun, he shoots her directly in the chest before taking off with his stolen Freelancer. Don’t worry, she’s wearing a vest.
Back in DC, BOLOs are out on all the relevant criminals, but there’s not much to go on until Red arrives and everyone is finally on the same page about Gerard, Wujing, and the danger from former Blacklisters. Dembe’s worry only grows when he asks about security and discovers Red is running around taking public transportation with nary a bodyguard to be seen.
It’s official, Chuck is a waste of payroll and my sworn enemy.
Malik meets with Cooper, speaking kindly of how he personally came to tell her family of her mother’s death. The secrecy surrounding that event shaped her life, pushing her to join MI6 so she would never be on the outside of such subterfuge again — and now she wants onto the Task Force to finish the work her mother started. Just one case, she says, which is TV code for the rest of the season. Welcome aboard, Siya! I hope no one ever tells you the details about your mom’s murder, it was really awful!
Finally, we see Wujing introducing himself to Vesili. They have a common enemy to discuss.
The Back-list:
- What did Aram buy from the Met gift shop? Coffee table book? Puzzle? An art themed throw pillow?
- “We can get in your car right now and I can take you to any number of fabulous kitchens and cook you a gorgeous meal — a lovely roast chicken, a duck breast…” Listen, real estate agent Andrea, if Raymond Reddington offers to make you a roast chicken, just say yes!
- Agnes calling Cooper “Pops” only made me tear up a little, because I am a soft softie who softs.
- Our final season table has been set: old Blacklisters are out for the blood of our heroes (and anti-hero). Which Blacklister do you most want to see come back? Sound off in the comments!
