If you missed part one of this two-hour event, check it out here.
The episode begins with Dom letting in Elizabeth after she revealed that she knows he is her grandfather. They sit down, and she wants to know why she couldn’t know that he was her grandfather. He says that he made a promise to keep her safe. She realizes that he knows who Reddington used to be, and she asks him to tell her. She says that she knows her mother didn’t drown and that she helped someone become Raymond Reddington.
"But she wasn't safe." – Elizabeth #TheBlacklist pic.twitter.com/vgJUNQI6uh
— The Blacklist (@NBCBlacklist) April 27, 2019
He begins his story as we see flashbacks of Katarina. She walks out of the ocean and into a church. A priest asks her if she is okay, and Katarina collapses. She wakes up in the church with a young woman standing over her, and she tells Katarina that she has been asleep for a few days due to a fever. The woman asks Katarina’s name, but Katarina doesn’t reply. Katarina is filling out information when a woman tells her that people are there for her and she is safe. We hear Liz say, “But she wasn’t safe. She was being hunted.” Liz mentions Anton Velov, a man who was searching for her. Back to a flashback, Velov is checking with the coroner to see if Katarina’s body has washed ashore. The coroner says no, and Velov says that he knows she is out there still. Dom suggests they take a drive so he can show her something.
Katarina is still at the church shelter and she is wrapping silverware, watching her surroundings. She steals a spoon and puts it into her pockets, for a weapon. Suddenly, a woman who appears to speak Russian comes busting through the door, hysterical. The staff are about to call the police as the woman picks up a knife, when Katarina translates that the woman doesn’t want the police called. Katarina and the woman are talking to a counselor, and the woman says that her boyfriend has been hurting her, per Katarina’s translation. She also says that her arm might be fractured.
As Katarina is not needed, she leaves the room when the young woman from before calls her by her name. Katarina turns around, and the woman shows her a newspaper article of her drowning and “death.” She tells her she is on her side and trying to help give her a second chance. As Liz and Dom drive to their destination, he tells her that Katarina kept to herself, but because she was working for the Cabal and betrayed the Soviet Union, many powerful people were searching for her. She had to disappear but was buying time at the shelter.
The Russian woman who was hiding from her boyfriend is seen thrown into the women’s restroom door and up against a wall by her boyfriend. Katarina is hiding in the stall, and she makes a noise that the boyfriend hears. He finds her and tells her to get out, but Katarina locks the door and attacks the boyfriend. The Russian woman runs, and Katarina warns her to forget that she or the woman’s boyfriend was ever here. Katarina stabs him with the spoon she stole. She takes his credit cards and ID and burns the rest of his wallet.
We see a man at the Russian Embassy receive a fax about a free crossword. He takes it to a cafe and deciphers it. It has a place and time to meet, but he must come alone. He arrives at the train station, but Katarina never shows. An announcement is made about Ilya Kostov losing his briefcase. He gets the briefcase and finds a key to a motel. He goes to the motel and finds Katarina. They embrace, and he is confused on why they are there and how she is alive. She wants to make sure that she stays dead.
Dom tells her that Katarina loved her but that Reddington was an assignment. Dom was her mentor, and he told her to turn Reddington, not to have an affair. Dom says that both her parents loved her, but Liz interjects and says that they also fought over her. The night of the fire, Liz shot her father and he died. It’s also the night that Katarina left Liz with Mr. Kaplan. He tells Liz that she may have been scared but she wasn’t alone.
Katarina and Koslov are in the motel room, and he is stunned by how she is alive. She planned on killing herself but walked out of the ocean. She tells him that she is in danger, along with everyone she has been associated with. Koslov says that he is with her and pledged their lives to each other, but they need a good plan. They discuss a plan but need transportation, passports, time… which they don’t have. She mentions that there was an incident at the shelter were she killed a man with a gun. Velov will know it was her. Velov is seen questioning the Russian woman with the abusive boyfriend, and she does her best to lie. He threatens her by saying they can make her disappear.
Koslov and Katarina get their passports ready, and they discuss whether pulling Reddington out of the fire was the right thing, even though he still died. She packs a bag with thousands of dollars and seems to end up in New York. She meets with her mother and tells her she needs to disappear. The briefcase has money for her to go anywhere in the world and that everything she will hear about Katarina on the news is true: that she is a traitor. Katarina says her goodbyes and leaves her mother.
As Koslov and Katarina pass the motel, Velov is there. She used the abusive boyfriend’s credit card to pay for the room, but Koslov says there is nothing in the room that would tell him where they are going. Katarina tells him that if he knows she’s alive, then he knows where they are going next. Back with Dom and Liz, she says that they were going to see him in Moscow.
Katarina and Ilya arrive at Moscow to see her father, and she goes in alone. He sees her and is angry. She betrayed him and their country. She tells him that he needs to leave, because those who are after her will also think that he is on her side. A knock at the door is heard, and Dom answers. He says that she was here but they had set a meeting place where the Soviet Union could capture her. They don’t believe him and storm in. They search the rooms, and Katarina tries to make a run for it but is caught. She pulls her gun and says she has nothing to lose. A man brings her father in with a gun to his side and tells her to put the gun down. She does, and her father is released. They embrace but the man says to kill them both anyway. They are on their knees about to be killed when a different man who is about to kill them is shot. Ilya has come to the rescue and kills the remaining men. They all escape.
Dom, Ilya, and Katarina are at the river, and Dom tells them how to escape. They are going to take a train and then meet with someone from the American Embassy. She tells him that he needs to vanish. Liz and Dom are again onscreen, and she tells him that he did indeed grant her wishes. He protected his daughter and Liz. Back in Moscow, Dom says he will go to America, and she tells him that he can’t see her or Masha again. They say their goodbyes. Liz asks what he did next, and he said he got rid of Velov’s men and got to America. Katarina didn’t have the same luck.
Katarina tells Koslov that the Cabal will destroy Reddington’s reputation. He had a wife and daughter, named Jennifer, who is almost the same age as Masha (Liz). The Cabal doesn’t know he is dead, and they will discredit him to keep their existence a secret. Raymond told her everything, and the Cabal had a plan to destroy him if he ever found he out he was sleeping with the enemy. “They will destroy him. Then they will destroy us. And they won’t stop until they do.”
They arrive at St. Petersburg, and Katarina almost drowns in the tub. Katarina calls Sam, and Katarina tells her she misses her, and Masha asks when she is coming home. Katarina says it will be a little bit, because she has work to do. Sam gets the phone and asks her where she has been and what’s going on but she tells him to take care of her, and she hangs up. She becomes angry and destroys the room. Koslov reads about Reddington and hatches a plan. He goes to Katarina’s room and finds the room destroyed with her over the balcony, about to jump. He says he has a plan and pleads that she listen.
Raymond Reddington returns from the dead. #TheBlacklist pic.twitter.com/GHPudwKHRi
— The Blacklist (@NBCBlacklist) April 27, 2019
He tells her that since Reddington is supposedly missing, why couldn’t the $40 million that he has tucked away in the bank go missing as well. He decides to become Raymond Reddington. We finally learn the identity of the “imposter.” He will change his face and identity and pick up the money at the bank, and they can run and hide. In the car with Dom and Liz, she says that he would need a doctor, which is how Dr. Koehler came into play. They also discuss how he would have needed information about him, like his mannerisms, personality, etc. Katarina, who had studied him for years, provided the information. Back with Katarina and Koslov, he tells her he is willing to do this for her. Katarina asks that if something happens to her, that he will take care of Masha. “Like she was my own.” We see him walk into the bank, with his voice changed, going unnoticed and receives the $40 million.
Liz and Dom have reached their destination, the post office. This was the last time he saw Katarina, in his rearview mirror. She gave him a safety deposit box key and said that she would reach out. Liz pulls out the security cam footage of Dom at the post office, and this is where he picked up the letter from Katarina’s mother, because he knew the letter would never reach Katarina. He tells Liz that she has never made contact after 28 years. He believes that she has died. Liz thanks her grandfather for telling her the truth. “You and my daughter, you’re the only family I have.” Dom apologizes for not treating her like family but asks if he can please meet Agnes, her daughter. She says yes and expects him to spoil her rotten.
Liz goes to Hong Kong as Reddington is at a dinner, and she tells him she knows the truth. He tells her that his search for the truth of who turned him in has cost his relationship with Dembe. She apologizes but says they have nothing to fight over anymore. She tells him that Dom told her everything, and Reddington doesn’t show any emotion. Dom walks into his house as Reddington awaits. He tells Dom that he has possibly made everything worse and he needs to tell him word for word what he told Liz.
Here is the trailer for next week’s episode at a new time:
The Blacklist airs Fridays at 8 p.m. EST on NBC.