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The Blacklist season 1
Season of television series From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The first season of the American crime thriller television series The Blacklist premiered on NBC on September 23, 2013.[1] The season was produced by Davis Entertainment, Universal Television, and Sony Pictures Television, and the executive producers are Jon Bokenkamp, John Davis, John Eisendrath, John Fox, and Joe Carnahan.
Quick facts No. of episodes, Release ...
The Blacklist | |
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Season 1 | |
![]() Season 1 DVD cover | |
No. of episodes | 22 |
Release | |
Original network | NBC |
Original release | September 23, 2013 (2013-09-23) – May 12, 2014 (2014-05-12) |
Season chronology | |
List of episodes |
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Premise
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The first season introduces Raymond Reddington (James Spader), Elizabeth "Liz" Keen (Megan Boone) and the members of the Task Force, a multi-agency law enforcement working group dedicated to hunting down Reddington. Reddington surrenders to the FBI and offers to identify and help capture the criminals he has worked with, whom he calls "The Blacklist", but only if he is allowed to work with Liz Keen, a rookie profiler at the FBI. He refuses to explain why Liz must be involved. The Reddington Task Force, led by Assistant Director Harold Cooper (Harry Lennix), becomes the lead law enforcement agency responsible for capturing or killing the members of the Blacklist at Reddington's behest (usually to Red's benefit), which causes conflicts, particularly for Special Agent Donald Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff), who was originally tasked with capturing Reddington. This is the only season for Meera Malik (Parminder Nagra), a CIA officer and member of the Task Force, who is killed in the season finale. The season also introduces series antagonist Milos Kirchoff (Peter Stormare), AKA Berlin, a former Russian KGB officer with a longstanding hatred of Reddington. A major subplot for the season is Elizabeth Keen's discovery that her husband Tom Keen (Ryan Eggold), a schoolteacher to all appearances, is actually a covert operative with an unknown agenda and Liz's efforts to discover who he actually is and who sent him. A second subplot involves the Cabal, a shadowy multinational group that holds positions of influence in government and business, and their interest in Reddington's activities. The Cabal is usually represented by Alan Fitch (Alan Alda), the Deputy Director of National Intelligence, who tries to maintain a civil relationship with Reddington despite the Cabal's misgivings while trying to determine what Reddington actually knows.
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Cast
See also: List of The Blacklist characters
Main cast
Recurring cast
- Amir Arison as Aram Mojtabai, a quirky and skilled technician who regularly assists the FBI.
- Charles Baker as Grey (Newton Phillips), Red's aide.
- Hisham Tawfiq as Dembe Zuma, Red's trusted bodyguard.
- Deborah S. Craig as Luli Zheng, Red's other bodyguard who usually handles finances.
- Jane Alexander as Diane Fowler, the US Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division.
- Alan Alda as Alan Fitch, a member of a mysterious government organization that has come in contact with Red.
- Susan Blommaert as Mr. Kaplan, who is actually a woman and Red's personal "cleaner".
- Graeme Malcolm as "The Man with the Apple", an unnamed man in charge of the surveillance of the Keen household.
- Rachel Brosnahan as Lucy Brooks (alias Jolene Parker), a woman working for Berlin who weaves her way into the Keens' life.
- Lance Reddick as The Cowboy, a bounty hunter hired by Red to track down Jolene Parker/Lucy Brooks.
- Emily Tremaine as Audrey Bidwell, Ressler's former fiancée.
- Peter Stormare as Milos Kirchoff, AKA "Berlin", a former member of the KGB and an escaped convict.
- Dikran Tulaine as Max, a skilled bomb maker and longtime acquaintance of Red's
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Episodes
See also: List of The Blacklist episodes
More information No. overall, No. in season ...
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Blacklist guide | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | US viewers (millions) | |
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1 | 1 | "Pilot" | N/A | Joe Carnahan | Jon Bokenkamp | September 23, 2013 (2013-09-23) | 12.58[1] | |
One of the FBI's most wanted men, Raymond "Red" Reddington (Spader), strolls into the bureau headquarters in D.C. and turns himself in to Assistant Director Harold Cooper (Lennix), offering information on a attack about to be perpetrated by a Serbian terrorist Ranko Zamani (Jamie Jackson), previously thought dead. Red insists on working exclusively with Elizabeth "Liz" Keen (Boone), a newly hired profiler who is told by Red that Zamani plans to kidnap and booby trap the daughter of the general responsible for the deaths of Zamani's family. Liz gets to the girl first but loses her in a raid by Zamani's forces. Zamani attacks her husband, Tom, in their home, gravely wounding him. Red briefly escapes custody to meet with Zamani, revealing that he masterminded the ploy, as well as the attack on Tom. Red removes the tracking device and places it with Zamani, which helps Special Agent Donald Ressler (Klattenhoff) track down and kill Zamani. Liz finds the daughter and a bomb in her backpack, which is disabled by an associate of Red's. Returning to the FBI, Red offers to provide information on a number of the world's dangerous criminals, his "blacklist", in return for immunity from prosecution. At home, Liz discovers a hidden box containing cash, fake passports, and a gun, all belonging to her husband. | ||||||||
2 | 2 | "The Freelancer" | No. 145 | Jace Alexander | Jon Bokenkamp | September 30, 2013 (2013-09-30) | 11.35[2] | |
Red alerts the FBI about the location and time of a train derailment, which Red believes to be the work of an assassin known as "The Freelancer", a brutally merciless assassin who frequently disguises his killings as large scale mass casualty events. Through his killings, he has claimed the lives of 3,600 unintentional victims, almost all of whom were casualties of a hit on a single target. Red and Liz learn of the Freelancer's next target: Floriana Campo (Isabella Rossellini), a humanitarian working to end sex slavery by cartel gangs. The two attend one of Campo's charity events where Red identifies the Freelancer, whom Liz apprehends. However, the Freelancer confesses under torture that he was hired by Red to poison Campo. It is revealed that Red knew Campo was a fraud; she is actually running a sex slavery ring and uses the charity to eliminate competition, a fact that he forces her to admit to Liz before she dies. Meanwhile, as part of Red's immunity agreement, CIA Agent Meera Malik (Parminder Nagra) is assigned to his security detail. Tom is released from the hospital, and Liz decides against confronting him about her discovery or reporting him, taking Red's advice to seek a third option. She later views a recording of Tom speaking of his love for her during an adoption hearing. | ||||||||
3 | 3 | "Wujing" | No. 84 | Michael Watkins | Lukas Reiter | October 7, 2013 (2013-10-07) | 11.18[3] | |
Chinese spy Wujing (Chin Han) asks Red for help to decrypt a message taken from a murdered CIA agent in Shanghai. Red appoints Liz to go undercover as a master decrypter so that the FBI can uncover Wujing's next target, and they arrive at Wujing's underground base in the States. With help from a CIA-provided device, Liz decrypts the message which reveals Wujing's target: D.C. based architect and CIA asset Henry Cho. As Red and Liz accompany Wujing's gang in escaping from the FBI following a brief standoff after Red kills one of Wujing's men that he and Liz framed, Ressler and Malik save Cho and his son from Wujing's assassins. Liz plants her own tracker on Wujing's car, leading to his arrest. Red reveals to Liz that he chose her to work with him because of her father, but he supplies no further details. Meanwhile, Liz requests a ballistics report on the gun from Tom's box. The results are classified as it was involved with a high-profile homicide. An unknown party sets up surveillance on Liz's house, led by a man who is shown eating an apple every time. Red opens the letter containing Wujing's payment, which is a sheet of paper with a number on it. | ||||||||
4 | 4 | "The Stewmaker" | No. 161 | Vince Misiano | Patrick Massett & John Zinman | October 14, 2013 (2013-10-14) | 10.93[4] | |
The trial of drug lord Hector Lorca (Clifton Collins, Jr.), who holds a grudge against Liz for his arrest, is interrupted when a vital witness is kidnapped and presumed dead. Red believes the witness was taken by "The Stewmaker" (Tom Noonan), a chemical expert who uses chemicals to dissolve his victims' remains, and who is also believed to have been responsible for countless disappearances. Liz appeals to Lorca to help capture the Stewmaker, only for Lorca to escape and arrange for her to become the Stewmaker's captive. Red and Ressler are forced to work together to save her; Ressler poses as an inside man when they meet with Lorca, who in return for safe passage out of the country gives them contact information for the Stewmaker, whose real name is Stanley Kornish. Meanwhile, Liz is being tortured by Kornish with injected chemicals. Red finds Kornish's hideout, saves Liz, and kills him by pushing him into the chemical bath Kornish had prepared for Liz. Red also steals a photograph from the picture album containing all Kornish's victims. Liz finds out that the homicide perpetrated with her husband's hidden weapon occurred in Boston while she was there with Tom, who said he had a job interview at the hotel where the murder occurred. | ||||||||
5 | 5 | "The Courier" | No. 85 | Nick Gomez | John C. Kelley | October 21, 2013 (2013-10-21) | 10.44[5] | |
Red informs Liz that a courier (Robert Knepper) is scheduled to deliver a valuable shipment to an Iranian spy. Following a car chase, Liz and Malik manage to arrest the courier, and they learn he was hired to deliver Seth Nelson, an NSA analyst. Nelson has been entombed and only has a limited amount of air left. While the FBI searches for him, the courier escapes. Red coerces the courier's contact, intelligence broker Laurence Dechambou (Barbara Schulz), to help find him, and with that information Malik and Ressler eventually track the Courier and then kill him in self-defense. Liz and Red meanwhile, find and save Seth. As an act of gratitude, Seth gives Red documents regarding the high-profile murder Liz suspects Tom was involved in, and Red sends them to her. At the same time, Tom discovers the box and confronts Liz about it. They are unaware that their house is bugged with cameras and listening devices. | ||||||||
6 | 6 | "Gina Zanetakos" | No. 152 | Adam Arkin | Wendy West | October 28, 2013 (2013-10-28) | 10.51[6] | |
After Liz and Tom argue about the former's suspicions about the box and the Boston murder, where the victim was a defecting Russian agent, he claims he is being set up and insists that they turn it into the FBI so his name can be cleared. Elsewhere, Red informs Liz and the FBI that the next name on the Blacklist is a deadly corporate terrorist, Gina Zanetakos (Margarita Levieva), who he claims is Tom's lover. Liz and Ressler uncover a plot by Zanetakos to explode a dirty bomb at a port in Houston on behalf of a company with a stake in competing port, who hope to profit from the diverted shipping traffic. They arrest her and stop the bomb's radiation from being released into the port. Elsewhere, Tom maintains his innocence while being interrogated by Malik. When Zanetakos says Red was behind the Boston incident, and Zanetakos has never seen Tom before, Liz is furious with Red for having seemingly set Tom up. As Liz and Tom return home, the men watching them say to one another that while they don't know whether Tom is innocent or not, they however "sure he doesn't work for Reddington", and wonder who he really works for. | ||||||||
7 | 7 | "Frederick Barnes" | No. 47 | Michael Watkins | J. R. Orci | November 4, 2013 (2013-11-04) | 10.34[7] | |
After a chemical attack on a subway, Liz reluctantly seeks Red's help to find the person responsible. According to Red, Frederick Barnes (guest star Robert Sean Leonard) is a brilliant former government scientist, who has weaponized a deadly, but rare, disease that he son suffers from. Hoping to develop a cure, the Task Force suspect that Barnes wants to spread it so that the pharmaceutical industry would find the threat it poses significant enough to fund its research. However, after a second attack where the sole survivor is visited by Barnes in the hospital, Liz realises that his real goal was to find someone immune to the disease. Barnes succeeds in producing a potential antidote from the survivor's bone marrow, but Liz kills him to prevent him from injecting the untested cure into his son and potentially causing him further harm. Liz tells Red she wants nothing to do with him outside of work. Red, meanwhile, shows great interest in a house which is for sale. He buys it, tells his bodyguards that he raised his family in it, and in order to "forget what happened here", he blows it up. | ||||||||
8 | 8 | "General Ludd" | No. 109 | Stephen Surjik | Amanda Kate Shuman | November 11, 2013 (2013-11-11) | 10.69[8] | |
A cargo plane is destroyed by an extremist anti-capitalist group whose leader, General Ludd (Justin Kirk), is determined to destroy the country's financial system. Red demands access to the ViCAP database in return for his help in stopping the threat. Meanwhile, Tom informs Liz that her adoptive father, Sam, is dying, after previously keeping it secret that his cancer had returned. Due to the terror caused by General Ludd's group, all planes are grounded and Liz is unable to fly to Sam's (guest star William Sadler) hospital. Red visits Sam, and the two reminisce as old friends. Sam expresses a desire not to die a slow death and says that he wants to tell Liz "the truth" before he dies. Red tells Sam that Liz must never know the truth, and then smothers Sam with a pillow, both to keep the truth secret and to end Sam's suffering. Unaware of Sam's death, Liz realises that Ludd's attacks were simply part of a heist to steal a hard drive containing the blueprints for the newly minted U.S. currency. However, Red is able to capture him and steal the hard drive before turning Ludd over to the FBI. Red uses his new access to ViCAP to look up the number the Chinese gave him, which is the number of a file on a woman named Lucy Brooks. Red comforts Liz as she mourns her father. | ||||||||
9 | 9 | "Anslo Garrick" | No. 16 | Joe Carnahan | Story by : Joe Carnahan & Jason George Teleplay by : Joe Carnahan | November 25, 2013 (2013-11-25) | 10.96[9] | |
Anslo Garrick (Ritchie Coster), a terrorist who once worked with Red but parted from him on bad terms, initiates an attack on the Task Force's blacksite headquarters in an effort to abduct Red. During the raid, Donald is severely wounded from a shotgun blast to the leg from a mercenary. Red carries him to a bulletproof holding cell, and the two remain locked inside, as Red attends to Donald's wound. The rest of the blacksite's occupants are captured except for Liz and technician Aram Mojtabai (Amir Arison). The two work their way through the facility, disabling signal jammers so they can call for backup whilst taking out Garrick's men along the way. However, one of them knocks Liz unconscious. Garrick wants Red out of the safe room but needs the code to open it. Cooper is the only one who knows the code but refuses to give it to Garrick, even when Garrick threatens the life of Red's other bodyguard Luli. Despite begging Cooper for her life, Red is forced to watch as Garrick kills her. Garrick next puts a gun to Dembe's head, with Cooper still refusing to give the code. Dembe tells Red that he's not afraid to die and that they'll meet again. The two say goodbye to each other by reciting a verse from the Quran before a gunshot is heard as the episode cuts to black. | ||||||||
10 | 10 | "Anslo Garrick Conclusion" | No. 16 | Michael Watkins | Lukas Reiter & J. R. Orci | December 2, 2013 (2013-12-02) | 11.67[10] | |
The gunshot heard at the end of the previous episode is revealed to have come from Aram, who kills Liz's attacker providing a distraction that spares Dembe. Liz and Aram restore communications but they too are captured by Garrick. In an effort to save Liz, Red blackmails Ressler into giving up the password, and surrenders to Garrick. Liz escapes captivity during the getaway, and utilizing a contact Red named prior to her escape, a woman named "Mr. Kaplan" (Susan Blommaert), discovers that the security team spying on her home is part of a larger operation by an unidentified party providing surveillance on everyone on the task force. While in captivity, Red resists torture and is evasive with talking to a former colleague named Fitch (special guest star Alan Alda), who hired Garrick to capture him. He later manages to kill Garrick with a pair of surgical scissors and escapes before an FBI rescue team enters the scene. A hospitalized Ressler is visited by a former fiancee he alluded to in the previous episode, Audrey Bidwell. Red is wanted for capture by the task force. Red makes a phone call to Liz, who asks Red if he is her real father, but Red denies it, and gives her another warning about Tom before disappearing. | ||||||||
11 | 11 | "The Good Samaritan" | No. 106 | Dan Lerner | Brandon Margolis & Brandon Sonnier | January 13, 2014 (2014-01-13) | 9.35[11] | |
Red remains missing and conducts his own investigation to hunt down those who betrayed him during the Anslo Garrick incident. The entire FBI team is under investigation as internal affairs tries to find the mole. Aram is initially suspected, but Red is able to prove he was set up. Meanwhile, a serial killer from Liz's past, "The Good Samaritan" (guest star Frank Whaley), strikes again. Liz is allowed to join the hunt for the killer, as Cooper knows Red will likely realize how much this unsolved case means to her and reach out to help her. Soon Liz discovers that the victims are all linked through their abuse of a family member, and that the killer was likely an abuse victim himself seeking revenge for his torment. Though she kills the Good Samaritan, she gives the man's final near-victim (guest star Frank Pando) a warning to treat his wife better or she'll make him regret hurting her. Red confronts a financier named Henry Krueger (Victor Slezak) for lying to him about Aram and forces Kreuger to give up the name Newton Phillips, who is in fact Red's aide. Red later confronts Phillips for betraying him and kills him. Red then visits Liz to tell her that Phillips couldn't have pulled it off by himself and that there's another mole inside the unit. | ||||||||
12 | 12 | "The Alchemist" | No. 101 | Vince Misiano | Anthony Sparks | January 20, 2014 (2014-01-20) | 8.83[12] | |
Red informs Liz that "The Alchemist" (guest star Ryan O'Nan), a man who can alter a person's DNA and their appearance into that of someone else's, has been contracted to protect a well-known mob informant and his wife, whose deaths he fakes using two innocent people in their place. After the Alchemist kills the couple afterwards, however, the Task Force deduce that he is eliminating anyone who he can be traced backed to, which includes his estranged wife and daughter. However, Liz realises that the Alchemist faked their deaths as well and track all three to a convenience store, where the Alchemist is shot dead after his daughter is wounded, though it is unclear if she survived afterwards. Meanwhile Liz and Tom find themselves at another bump in their relationship and Ressler debates whether or not he should give Audrey his blessing to marry another man. Meanwhile, Red continues conducting his own investigation into the second mole and discovers their identity: Meera. He later pays Meera a visit at her house with a loaded gun to interrogate her. Also, Lucy Brooks (Rachel Brosnahan), the woman Red was looking for in ViCAP, is shown with files about Liz and Tom, and she infiltrates the Keen's baby shower party, introducing herself as "Jolene Parker", a substitute teacher. She flirts with Tom and in the end, they visit an art exhibit together because Liz is late from work. | ||||||||
13 | 13 | "The Cyprus Agency" | No. 64 | Michael Watkins | Lukas Reiter | January 27, 2014 (2014-01-27) | 10.17[13] | |
After a recent spate of abductions of babies from their mothers, Red informs Liz that the "Cyprus Agency" is the illegal adoption organization responsible. More or less coincidentally, Liz and Tom contemplate adoption of their own which fuels her to tack down the organization's CEO, Owen Mallory (Campbell Scott). Ultimately, the task force discovers the Cyprus Agency's secret: it kidnaps young women and keeps them in captivity as breeders for the babies it puts up for adoption, and that Mallory is the father of all the children. Meanwhile, Meera willingly aids Red in his investigation for the mole who had her unintentionally leak the information about the task force. Covertly using Cooper's badge, Meera's intelligence leads Red to Assistant Attorney General Diane Fowler as the ringleader of the leak, prompting him to confront Fowler in her own home, planning to kill her. She tells him that she knows about "that day", about what happened to his family, hoping Red will spare her for information. But Red still kills her, responding that he wants to know it more than anything in the world, but he'll find someone else who can tell him. He then calls Mr. Kaplan to clean up. In the end, Liz finds herself unable to adopt a child as long as her marriage to Tom continues to suffer emotional strain. She is shown frustrated at home sitting in between baby stuff, while Tom goes to see Jolene. | ||||||||
14 | 14 | "Madeline Pratt" | No. 73 | Michael Zinberg | Jim Campolongo | February 24, 2014 (2014-02-24) | 11.18[14] | |
Madeline Pratt (Jennifer Ehle), a professional thief and former lover of Red's, enlists his help in stealing a statue called the Effigy of Ashtarte from the Syrian embassy. The statue is believed to secretly contain the names of Soviet agents in the US that are believed to be still active. Red enlists Liz in the operation, with her posing as a grifter and an associate of Red's, only for the pair to be double-crossed by Pratt, who takes the Effigy. The Task Force learn that the Effigy really contains coordinates for Soviet nuclear weapons hidden across the country, which Pratt has sold to the Russian Mob. Faking their capture, Red succeeds in tricking Pratt into giving up the location of the Effigy and the coordinates. The statue is secured and one of Pratt's allies is arrested. Pratt is able to free herself and steals a precious painting from Red as payback. Meanwhile, Cooper presses Red on Fowler's disappearance given the timing of it, and later has a meeting with Meera to discuss finding out what Red knows about it, convinced that he's involved. But Cooper's investigation into Fowler's disappearance is effectively stonewalled by Special Agent Walter Gary Martin, who says that the orders "came from the top". | ||||||||
15 | 15 | "The Judge" | No. 57 | Peter Werner | Jonathan Shapiro & Lukas Reiter | March 3, 2014 (2014-03-03) | 11.01[15] | |
When a former Assistant U.S. Attorney is found bedraggled and walking the street after being missing for 12 years, Red suspects he was a victim of "The Judge", a mysterious vigilante that dispenses "eye for an eye" justice on justice officials who have wrongly convicted people. Red then tackles his own agenda in finding out about the past of Lucy Brooks. Lucy, still using the alias, Jolene, attends a teacher conference with Tom in Orlando. As Liz works the case of The Judge, whose real name is Ruth Kipling, (played by Dianne Wiest) she discovers that a former Taliban collaborator named Alan Ray Rifkin, who is about to be executed for treason and murder, has reached out to her. Cooper had been the Federal agent who put him away, though he was only able to after beating a confession out of Rifkin under orders from prosecutor Tom Connolly. After Rifkin is executed, Cooper and Connolly become Kipling's captives and Cooper is nearly electrocuted, until Red arrives with proof that Rifkin really did commit the crimes for which he was executed. The Judge is convinced to surrender and Cooper is released. When Cooper suggests Red brought him this case to gain leverage on him, Red replies that "a war is coming", and he may need Cooper's help. Back in Orlando, Tom declines "Jolene's" offer of an affair. She then gets Tom to admit that Liz isn't just his wife — she's also his target. | ||||||||
16 | 16 | "Mako Tanida" | No. 83 | Michael Watkins | Story by : Joe Carnahan Teleplay by : John Eisendrath & Jon Bokenkamp & Patrick Massett & John Zinman | March 17, 2014 (2014-03-17) | 10.97[16] | |
Osaka-based Yakuza crime boss Mako Tanida (Hoon Lee), who Ressler apprehended whilst hunting Red, escapes from Abashiri Prison and forces an ex-collegue of Ressler's stationed there to commit ritual seppuku, claiming revenge for "collateral damage" caused by their team. After another team member turns up dead in America, Ressler fears he may be next and grabs Audrey, attempting to take her somewhere safe. But they are attacked by Tanida, who shoots and kills Audrey. Ressler vows to take out Tanida, despite warnings from Cooper and Red to let other agents take it from here. Meanwhile, Lucy/Jolene announces plans to move in next to Tom and Liz, but Tom later meets Lucy in a hideout and the two discuss mutual, though possibly conflicting, plans to get to Red under order's from "Berlin". A bounty hunter hired by Red to abduct Lucy/Jolene, is knocked out by Tom, who later kills both of them to keep them from reporting back to their respective superiors. Collaborating with old FBI buddy Bobby Jonica, Ressler locates Tanida, but later learns that Bobby is the mysterious "Tensei" – the man who took over Tanida's criminal empire while the latter was in prison; Booby also murdered Mako's brother, Aiko, and covered his death to use his identity. Blaming him for Audrey's death, Ressler attempts coercing Bobby into committing seppuku before being stopped by Liz, though Bobby ultimately does kill himself. Later at home, Ressler receives a gift from Red: a box containing Tanida's severed head. Later, Red enjoys a private ballet show of Swan Lake. | ||||||||
17 | 17 | "Ivan" | No. 88 | Randy Zisk | J.R. Orci & Amanda Kate Shuman | March 24, 2014 (2014-03-24) | 10.80[17] | |
A programmer for the NSA is killed in a supposed car accident, but further inspection reveals that his car was hacked. While investigating the programmer's death, the task force learns that the NSA was working on a prototype device called the "Skeleton Key", capable of hacking into the entire American computer networks infrastructure. Red initially believes an elusive Russian hacker named Ivan (Mark Ivanir) is responsible for the theft, but a personal meeting with him has Ivan claiming that someone else has been masquerading as him. Further investigation into Ivan's claims leads the task force to high school student Harrison Lee, who was responsible for the theft of the Skeleton Key. Lee stole the key and used it as part of his plan to enter a romantic relationship with the daughter of one of the Skeleton Key scientists. Meanwhile, Liz investigates the disappearance of Jolene/Lucy after being approached by Lucy's former parole officer. She discovers Tom's makeshift headquarters, but Tom has just torn down and burned all photos of Red and Liz. He performs a sneak attack on Liz at the hideout, and flees before she can recognize him. During the aftermath of the Skeleton Key crisis, Liz sees in a photo of some trash taken in Tom's hideout a toy that she had given Tom for his pre-school cover class the morning of the investigation. Finally understanding his warnings and upset by the recent revelation, Liz turns to Red for emotional support. Red refurbishes an old music box whose song Liz knows from her childhood, and gives it to her as a gift. | ||||||||
18 | 18 | "Milton Bobbit" | No. 135 | Steven A. Adelson | Daniel Voll | March 31, 2014 (2014-03-31) | 11.39[18] | |
A series of seemingly unconnected murder-suicides are attributed by Red to a life insurance claims adjuster named Milton Bobbit (Damian Young), who convinces terminally ill people to carry out the acts in exchange for financial rewards for their surviving family members. The targets of the murders are ultimately discovered to all be part of a clinical drug trial for type 2 diabetes that Bobbit was part of that caused people to die, and Bobbit himself is found to be terminal. Liz, Ressler and the team catch up with Bobbit before he himself takes out the next victim: the doctor who headed up the trial. They manage to arrest the doctor and let Bobbit commit suicide. Menawhile, after Red gets some DNA results on Tom, he determines that his supposedly visting brother Craig (real name "Christopher") is part of the operation Tom is running. Liz traps Christopher in his hotel room and tries to get answers. Tom calls Christopher while Liz, Red and Dembe are in the room, and mentions "Berlin". Red demands to know what's in Berlin, but a frightened-looking Chris says he cannot say anything. After Red threatens that he'll find a way to make him talk, Chris hurls himself through the hotel room's window, falling to his death, after which Tom attempts to convince Liz that "Craig" had to fly home. | ||||||||
19 | 19 | "The Pavlovich Brothers" | Nos. 119-122 | Paul Edwards | Elizabeth Benjamin | April 21, 2014 (2014-04-21) | 11.24[19] | |
Xiao Ping Li, a scientist involved in a biologic weapons project known as White Fog, is drugged at an immunization center in China and whisked to Washington, D.C. by CIA agents for interrogation. The Chinese hire the Pavlovich brothers, who specialize in abductions of high-value targets, including General Ryker's daughter, to snatch Li back. Meanwhile, Tom discovers that Liz knows his secret, informs his people and flees. While the team tries to locate Li, Red makes a deal with the Brothers to abduct and deliver Tom to Liz. Liz tries to torture Tom into revealing his bosses, but he quickly turns the tables and corners her. After explaining his job never included hurting her, he claims to be "one of the good guys" and tells Liz that Red isn't at all who he seems to be. Before fleeing, Tom tells her about a safe deposit box, the key to which she has already found. With Tom in their view, Red instructs Dembe not to capture him again, but rather follow his tail. The next day, Liz opens the deposit box and is shocked when she looks at in the photo inside. | ||||||||
20 | 20 | "The Kingmaker" | No. 42 | Karen Gaviola | J. R. Orci & Lukas Reiter | April 28, 2014 (2014-04-28) | 10.85[20] | |
After a politician in Prague is framed for a murder, Red suspects it's the work of the Kingmaker (guest star Linus Roache), a strategist behind the rise of some of the world's most powerful politicians. One of Red's allies tells him that the recent news of a siege on Red's interests is causing several key people in his organisation to start distancing themselves. The photos Liz found shows Red at the hospital where Sam had died. She confronts Red about it, but he steers her toward the more urgent matter of The Kingmaker being in the U.S. Liz and the team are able to uncover a plot by the Kingmaker to run the car of a New York state assemblyman off a bridge, making him look like a hero by saving his family. This puts him in the best position to win a special election for a Senate seat, which the Kingmaker vacates by killing the senator holding it. Ressler and Liz enter the senator's home, where the Kingmaker attacks Liz before being killed by Ressler. Red meets with Fitch, suggesting the attacks on the former are a mutual problem and that they should cooperate against their common enemy. Fitch meets with members of his global alliance, then tells Red they have chosen not to ally themselves with him despite Red's threats to expose them. Liz then visits Red about Sam, and Red finally admits he killed Sam. Liz calls Red a "monster" and says the two of them are through. | ||||||||
21 | 21 | "Berlin" | No. 8 | Michael Zinberg | John Eisendrath & Jon Bokenkamp | May 5, 2014 (2014-05-05) | 10.47[21] | |
Liz tells Ressler, and then the FBI, her story about Tom. In the midst of a virus outbreak inside a bank, Liz refuses to work with Red and sends Cooper her resignation. Red tries to explain to her that the outbreak is connected to Tom, and ask if her anger towards Sam's death is worth putting lives at risk. Agreeing to work the case as her last one with him, the two meet with Dr. Sanders (John Glover), an expert on the virus, who is also a mental patient. When Dr. Sanders turns looney, Liz storms out, accusing Red of using the visit as a diversion to change her mind about quitting. Meanwhile, Cooper is given an ultimatum by his superiors: if Liz walks, Red no longer has immunity and the task force is no more. Liz learns that Dr. Sanders had created an antidote for the virus and the team suspects that he was working with another doctor from outside the mental institution, one Dr. Nikolaus Vogel (Brennan Brown). Once he's arrested, Liz blackmails him into talking. Dr. Vogel gives up the names of 5 people involved in a prison plane transport, all airport employees infected with Cullen. Liz begins to have a change of heart about leaving, but Cooper tells her it's too late. She finds Red and warns him about the FBI's pursuit and his immunity. She begs him to run, but he refuses, wanting to know about her sudden change of heart. Liz tells Red that despite her wanting to kill him for ruining her life, she needs answers from him just as he needs them from her. As Red surrenders himself, the prison transport plane flies overhead and crashes. | ||||||||
22 | 22 | "Berlin Conclusion" | No. 8 | Michael Watkins | Story by : Richard D'Ovidio Teleplay by : John Eisendrath & Jon Bokenkamp & Lukas Reiter & J. R. Orci | May 12, 2014 (2014-05-12) | 10.44[22] | |
Some of the plane's inmates are revealed to be at large, with one of them being Berlin, the man who has been targeting Red's organisation. The members of the task force start being targeted, with Malik being killed and Cooper being put into a coma. A injured guard on the plane (Peter Stormare), is questioned in the hospital and tells the story of Berlin: a man in a Russian prison whose enemy sent him parts of his dead daughter, one by one, until he managed to escape seeking revenge. Fitch meets with Red, saying that his organization has finally agreed to join forces with Red against Berlin, and he arranges to give Red back his immunity deal and an opportunity to escape from FBI custody. Red encounters a man (Andrew Howard) believed to be Berlin and tortures him for information. They are interrupted when Tom appears with Liz at gunpoint. Red kills "Berlin" and Tom shoots Red in the shoulder, prompting Liz to break free and shot Tom. Dying, Tom whispers something to Liz, with his body later vanishing when other agents arrive. Red later says to Liz that the man he killed was not Berlin, who is instead revealed to be the injured guard who has escaped. Liz says that Tom told her that her father is alive, though Red assures her that her father had definitely died in a fire. Berlin walks the streets carrying a pocket watch with the picture of a young women, with Red concurrently carrying the same picture that he recovered from the Stewmaker. Red later removes his shirt to treat his bullet wound, revealing burn scars on his back. |
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Reception
Summarize
Perspective
The first season of The Blacklist received strong reviews from television critics. On Metacritic, the season has a score of 74 out of 100 based on reviews from 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[23] The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an 82% approval score based on 57 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The consensus reads: "James Spader is riveting as a criminal-turned-informant, and his presence goes a long way toward making this twisty but occasionally implausible crime procedural compelling".[24]
David Wiegand of the San Francisco Chronicle said about the pilot: "You think you know this situation and how it will turn out, but there are surprising, yet entirely credible, twists throughout Monday's episode".[25] Robert Bianco of USA Today said: "The Blacklist is a solid weekly crime show built around a genuine TV star. That's the kind of series the networks have to be able to pull off to survive. And with Spader in command, odds are NBC will".[26] Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter praised both Spader's performance and the procedural elements of the show: "There's an overarching element to the premise as well that makes it intriguing without making it overly complicated".[27]
Ratings
More information No., Title ...
No. | Title | Air date | Time slot (EST) | Ratings/Share (18–49) |
Viewers (millions) |
Viewers Rank (Week) |
DVR 18–49 |
DVR Viewers (millions) |
Total 18–49 |
Total Viewers (millions) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Pilot" | September 23, 2013 (2013-09-23) | Mondays 10:00 pm |
3.8/10[1] | 12.58[1] | 11[28] | 1.7 | 5.696 | 5.5 | 18.279[29] |
2 | "The Freelancer (No. 145)" | September 30, 2013 (2013-09-30) | 3.3/9[2] | 11.35[2] | 15[30] | 2.2 | 6.504 | 5.5 | 17.858[31] | |
3 | "Wujing (No. 84)" | October 7, 2013 (2013-10-07) | 3.1/9[3] | 11.18[3] | 11[32] | 1.9 | 5.720 | 5.0 | 16.904[33] | |
4 | "The Stewmaker (No. 161)" | October 14, 2013 (2013-10-14) | 3.0/8[4] | 10.93[4] | 15[34] | 2.0 | 5.524 | 5.0 | 16.452[35] | |
5 | "The Courier (No. 85)" | October 21, 2013 (2013-10-21) | 3.0/8[5] | 10.44[5] | 19[36] | 2.0 | 6.204 | 5.0 | 16.641[37] | |
6 | "Gina Zanetakos (No. 152)" | October 28, 2013 (2013-10-28) | 3.1/8[6] | 10.51[6] | 15[38] | 2.0 | 6.098 | 5.1 | 16.609[39] | |
7 | "Frederick Barnes (No. 47)" | November 4, 2013 (2013-11-04) | 2.9/8[7] | 10.34[7] | 16[40] | 2.3 | 6.589 | 5.2 | 16.925[41] | |
8 | "General Ludd (No. 109)" | November 11, 2013 (2013-11-11) | 3.0/8[8] | 10.69[8] | 16[42] | 2.1 | 6.326 | 5.1 | 17.014[43] | |
9 | "Anslo Garrick (No. 16)" | November 25, 2013 (2013-11-25) | 3.0/8[9] | 10.96[9] | 13[44] | 2.1 | 6.375 | 5.1 | 17.339[45] | |
10 | "Anslo Garrick (No. 16) Conclusion" | December 2, 2013 (2013-12-02) | 3.2/9[10] | 11.67[10] | 9[46] | 2.0 | 5.856 | 5.2 | 17.540[47] | |
11 | "The Good Samaritan (No. 106)" | January 13, 2014 (2014-01-13) | 2.5/7[11] | 9.35[11] | 15[48] | 2.0 | 6.060 | 4.5 | 15.407[49] | |
12 | "The Alchemist (No. 101)" | January 20, 2014 (2014-01-20) | 2.3/6[12] | 8.83[12] | 18[50] | 1.9 | 6.622 | 4.2 | 15.454[51] | |
13 | "The Cyprus Agency (No. 64)" | January 27, 2014 (2014-01-27) | 2.5/7[13] | 10.17[13] | 16[52] | 2.1 | 6.668 | 4.6 | 16.839[53] | |
14 | "Madeline Pratt (No. 73)" | February 24, 2014 (2014-02-24) | 3.1/9[14] | 11.18[14] | 11[54] | 1.9 | 6.353 | 5.0 | 17.532[55] | |
15 | "The Judge (No. 57)" | March 3, 2014 (2014-03-03) | 2.7/8[15] | 11.01[15] | 10[56] | 1.9 | 5.879 | 4.6 | 16.891[57] | |
16 | "Mako Tanida (No. 83)" | March 17, 2014 (2014-03-17) | 2.7/8[16] | 10.97[16] | 7[58] | 1.9 | 5.911 | 4.6 | 16.880[59] | |
17 | "Ivan (No. 88)" | March 24, 2014 (2014-03-24) | 2.8/8[17] | 10.80[17] | 9[60] | 2.2 | 6.519 | 5.0 | 17.318[61] | |
18 | "Milton Bobbit (No. 135)" | March 31, 2014 (2014-03-31) | 2.8/8[18] | 11.39[18] | 11[62] | 2.0 | 5.868 | 4.8 | 17.257[63] | |
19 | "The Pavlovich Brothers (Nos. 119–122)" | April 21, 2014 (2014-04-21) | 2.8/8[19] | 11.24[19] | 4[64] | 2.1 | 6.510 | 4.9 | 17.753[65] | |
20 | "The Kingmaker (No. 42)" | April 28, 2014 (2014-04-28) | 2.7/8[20] | 10.85[20] | 9[66] | 1.9 | 5.656 | 4.5 | 16.447[67] | |
21 | "Berlin (No. 8)" | May 5, 2014 (2014-05-05) | 2.7/8[21] | 10.47[21] | 10[68] | 1.7 | 5.696 | 4.4 | 16.162[69] | |
22 | "Berlin (No. 8) Conclusion" | May 12, 2014 (2014-05-12) | 2.6/7[22] | 10.44[22] | 11[70] | 2.0 | 5.853 | 4.6 | 16.297[71] |
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Accolades
More information Year, Award ...
Year | Award | Category | Nominee | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards[72] | Top TV Series | Dave Porter | Won |
Golden Globe Awards[73] | Best Actor – Television Series Drama | James Spader | Nominated | |
People's Choice Awards[74] | Favorite New Television Drama | The Blacklist | Nominated | |
Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards | Outstanding Stunt Coordination for a Drama Series, Miniseries, or Movie | The Blacklist | Won | |
Saturn Awards | Best Network Television Series Release | The Blacklist | Nominated | |
Best Actor in a Television Series | James Spader | Nominated | ||
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References
External links
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