If you missed last week’s recap, check it out here.
Agent Park is at a diner completing a crossword puzzle. She’s asking her
friend for help on the puzzle when a sketchy man walks in. Her friend eyes him
and tells Park she will be right back. She goes to the back, where she meets with Jenna (her sister), and gives the man an envelope. Meanwhile, Park gets a call from Cooper. Park is watching the interaction in the back of the diner get tense and physical while she talks to Cooper. Her friend comes back and the man leaves. Park asks if everything is okay, and her friend says it’s just landlord troubles.
Reddington is at his restaurant when Dembe and Park walk in. Reddington and Park exchange words, and he tells her about the next name on the Blacklist: The Wellstone Agency. They are a translating service for criminals and Liz recently acquired their services. He had a contact, but they recently had a falling out, and that’s why he’s asking for the Task Force’s help. Red says that if they can find out who her interpreter was, they may be able to find her. Park suggests that Red leave Elizabeth alone, as Dembe tells Red that Paula, Glen’s mother, needs to speak with them urgently. Red tells Park that he’s heard it all before.
Reddington: It’s a luxury to stand on the moral high ground and critique those of us on the low ground. A lot of people do exactly that, until they need my help.
She says that she will NEVER ask for his help.
Park briefs the team on The Wellstone Agency. She tells them they work through dispatchers who contact the criminal parties and arrange payments. Their way in is through the interpreters because they rely on referrals to hire their translators. Reddington’s interpreter will refer a translator of their choice, who will be picked up and vetted. This gives them a window to access the system and get the name of the interpreter Keen hired, as well as who she was meeting. Cooper wants to keep it between the team, and since Aram can speak six languages (atta boy), he’s been selected to go undercover. Cooper tells Park to reach out to Red to tell him that Aram is going undercover and to arrange a meeting with his contact as Ressler is instructed to create a cover story. Cooper gives Aram the flash drive from the coffee cup and asks him to unlock it, but keep it between them.
Red and Dembe meet with Glen’s mom at his house. Red notices all the bustle around the house and asks what she’s celebrating. Paula breaks the news to Red and Dembe that Glen has passed away from West Nile Virus, two weeks ago. Reddington thinks it’s a joke, but heartbreakingly realizes it’s not. Paula tells them that she was looking through Glen’s things, and she found a note addressed to Red (well, his alias). She tells him that the memorial is at the DMV and he would’ve wanted them there. Red stands with Dembe in disbelief and despair.
Park is at the hospital for her friend Melissa from the diner, who’s been badly injured from a fire in the kitchen. Park meets Jenna, who tells her that they’ve been behind on payments and recently started doing business with a loan shark. Park asks for a name and says that she will take care of it. Next, Park aggressively arrests Mason Dieterle — the loan shark — for arson, loansharking, and attempted murder.
Red, who is displaying a conglomerate of emotions after learning about Glen’s untimely death, is venting to Dembe back at the restaurant about Glen’s letter. Red says that Glen told his mother, and the world, that he was the muse for Huey Lewis, to explain away how he got luxurious items that were really from Reddington. Hilariously, Red reads the letter to Dembe and has witty asides. For example, Glen’s letter reads, “this in a word, the reason” and Red responds with, “two words” (Oh, Red). Red’s in charge of carrying out Glen’s dying wishes.
Reddington: It’s as if he is reaching up from the grave to torment and abuse me one last time.
Dembe tells Red that he has to carry out Glen’s dying wish, which is convincing Huey Lewis to come to his memorial. Red adds that it wasn’t Glen’s only wish, as he also wants to have his ashes spread at the feet of the Statue of Liberty. Red is refusing to follow through, but after some soul-searching and glares from a wise Dembe, he asks Dembe to get Mr. Lewis’ address, but he will NOT break into the Statue of Liberty to spread his ashes.
Aram sits down with Reddington’s contact, Radley Jorgenson, at a park chess table. He tells Aram what to expect, but tells him if Wellstone finds out, they won’t hesitate to kill them. Aram takes the red pill on the table (germs, Aram!), and slowly passes out. He wakes up in a nice office and a woman named Miss Jessica greets him, to describe what assessments he’ll be given, as we see Aram being put through these tests to assess his skill level.
Cooper calls Park into his office and tells her about AUSA reviewing Dieterle’s case. He gloomily tells her that Melissa has died from her injuries, and that the charges of arson and attempted murder will not be made against Dieterle because there’s no evidence to support it. He lets her know that Dieterle was arraigned for a loan sharking charge, but he made bail. He wants her to promise that she won’t act on her anger and hurt Dieterle, and she gives him her word.
Red goes to Huey Lewis’ house in a hilarious, quirky scene. Reddington gets right to the point and explains to him that a close friend died. As this friend was a huge fan, he asks Huey if he would consider coming to Glen’s memorial at the Rockville, Maryland DMV (for a price, of course).
Lewis: To play the funeral of some guy at the DMV?
Reddington: Regional Manager. (We laughed out loud.)
Red illustrates to Huey the importance behind the request: Glen told his mother that he was the muse for all of Huey’s songs. If Huey showed his face for a few minutes, said a couple words, and went on his way, Red will be in his debt. Unfortunately, Huey asks him to leave.
Aram gets taken back to the room he woke up in. He sees a laptop open on the desk, but as he pulls a flash drive from his tie, he accidentally spills his drink. Leaving the mess, he runs to the computer before Miss Jessica appears, and inserts the flash drive into their system. He goes through the client list and finds Keen’s picture, just as Miss Jessica walks in. She is taken aback when she sees him standing at the laptop, but thinking quickly on his feet, he tells her that he went to find a tissue to clean up his mess, when he saw that the screen was pulled up with client names. He sneakily pulls the flash drive out and says that Wellstone is sloppy. What if he was a FBI agent? (Too close to home, Aram.) She apologizes for the mishap and tells him that if he would have them, she would like to welcome him to The Wellstone Agency.
Back at the Post Office, Aram tells Cooper and Reddington the name of Liz’s interpreter, Alexander Frayne. Next, Red calls Frayne’s work to tell him that the MPD are coming to pick him up because he works for The Wellstone Agency. Frayne is instructed by Reddington to meet at Dupont Circle, and he gets into Reddington’s car. He shows him a picture of Liz and request the name of who she meet with, as well as their discussion. He says that he can’t tell him, but when Red pulls his gun, a frantic Frayne says that he doesn’t know any information because he is left in the dark, but knows the man was Bosnian. He says that the head of the company has the names, and Red decides that Frayne call his contact at Wellstone to say that there is a situation but that Red is willing to help them.
Park is at the Post Office and she gets a text from Jenna, saying that Dieterle and his men were at the diner, and they would be returning later that night. Park calls Jenna to say that she said she’d take care of it, and she leaves the Post Office. Suddenly, Park is looking at herself in the mirror and is covered in blood. She rubs the splattered blood off her face and relives the altercation between herself and Dieterle, as do the fans, that ended with her hitting him in the head in with a glass ashtray. She calls Reddington to say that she needs his help.
Aram gets a call from Jorgenson to say that Wellstone discovered that there’s a mole, and the FBI is onto them. Jorgenson says there’s a target on their backs, just as Aram is picked up by Miss Jessica to say, “The Colonel would like to see you.”
Park waits for Reddington at Dieterle’s as Aram is seen walking to meet with the Colonel. Cooper tells Ressler that he told Reddington he was going to pick up Frayne, but Reddington got there first. Aram walks into the office to see Reddington sitting there to converse with the Colonel. Red tells Aram that the head of Wellstone is deaf, so Aram interprets and signs for the two criminals. Reddington tells the Colonel that there is a mole in Wellstone, who works for the FBI, appearing as an interpreter. Red first wants the Colonel to delete his file from the system, and he wants the name of the man Keen met with. He writes the name on a piece of paper and Reddington grabs it. The Colonel asks for the mole’s name, but as Red refuses, the Colonel pulls a gun on Aram (who is still interpreting, poor guy). He says that either Aram’s the mole or he will kill Aram to send a message to those who betray him. Red tells him that he suggested his newest interpreter because the leaks came before his employment. The Colonel decides to leave with Red, and Aram helps destroy some evidence until the FBI arrive.
Back at the Post Office, Cooper tells Park and Aram they may be able to make a case against Wellstone because Reddington was wearing a wire. Aram says the Colonel got away, and he didn’t see the name Colonel gave Red. Cooper says Red gave him the name, Adin Makovic, and Aram looks into him. Cooper tells Park that Dieterle is missing and asks if she had anything to do with it as we see Reddington arrive to Dieterle’s apartment. She says she didn’t go after him. Aram goes to Cooper to tell him he couldn’t get into the flash drive, but he contacted his friend at the NSA to help.
Reddington arrives to the DMV with Dembe for Glen’s memorial. Suddenly, Huey Lewis arrives and gives a heartwarming, uplifting eulogy speech for Glen, as Red and Dembe watch in awe. After, Red sees Glen’s ashes and brings the urn to Glen’s office to dump them in a trash bag, just as Huey walks in. Red says he can’t believe he came, and Huey reveals that he knows he’s Raymond Reddington. Huey wants to hear the weird, quirky story of Red’s relationship with Glen and how special he was; his favor is that he wants to hear Red’s eulogy. Dembe comes in and brings Red replacement ashes to put in the urn.
Red, Huey, and Dembe break into the Statue of Liberty and a teary-eyed Red delivers a profound, heartbreaking eulogy about Glen. He says that Glen could be infuriating, but loved life and was unafraid.
“I wish more people were unafraid like Glen.”
The party at the DMV ends, and the last shot is a focus on Glen’s picture.
What a magnificent tribute to Clark Middleton. Glen “Jelly Bean” Carter will be remembered forever. A brilliant performance from James Spader and the rest of the cast in this episode.
Check out next week’s promo below!
The Blacklist airs Fridays at 8 p.m. EST on NBC.