Recap: We’re Seeing Double in ‘The Blacklist’ Season 8, Episode 9 “The Cyranoid”
If you missed last week’s episode, check it out here.
This episode begins with Red and Dembe sitting and waiting in a house, as a man is overheard on the phone telling a woman looking similar to Liz that two men know about the contract and they’re coming. This woman enters the house and goes to the drawer where her gun should’ve been, but Red has it.
*12 hours earlier*
At the Post Office, Cooper is talking to the team. He thinks the reason Liz has done terrible things is because she is trying to out a traitor of the U.S.: N-13. Cooper fills the team in, and tells them he believes Reddington deleted the files about Rakitin. The drive that Keen stole proved Rakitin was giving intel to Reddington, so Aram hilariously says, “Two plus two equals Mr. Reddington is N-13.” On the drive, it had deep cover intel that exposed the identities of CIA agents around the globe, so Cooper asked the House Intel chair who in the Office of Intelligence and Analysis had clearance to this information, and the answer was five. He wants the security clearance of these five to be frozen and a full workup done because one of them is a traitor.
Suddenly, Reddington and Dembe arrive at the Post Office and Cooper takes them to his office. Dembe plays a recording for Cooper of a phone call between Chemical Mary and an associate of Neville Townsend of the Townsend Directive. We see her telling a man on the phone that Keen wants to make a deal and Neville needs to get to the district as soon as possible because her life depends on it. Red suspects that Liz is going to meet with Townsend to kill him out of revenge for hunting her mother for all of these years. He says he needs Cooper to track where the call came from because the call was made on a satellite phone. Dembe hands Red a phone call he needs to take and it’s Rakitin. Rakitin tells Red that Cooper ordered his security clearance to be frozen and he must’ve opened the drive. He tells Red that Cooper needs to be stopped and Red sternly tells Rakitin that he’ll take care of it.
Associates of Townsend knock on a door of an apartment building and one of them says they are here for Mary. A woman looking like Keen opens the door. Meanwhile, Ressler and Park are trying to pick up audio from inside the building from their van parked out front. Ressler notices another SUV parked near the building, as one of Townsend’s men asks “Liz” (haven’t seen her face yet) if the people outside are with her. She goes to look out the window and Ressler tells the team to breach because he believes he sees Liz. Suddenly, “Liz” has a bag put over her head as Ressler and Park split up. Two of Townsend’s men start evacuating the building with Mary and radio to the men parked in the SUV that Keen lied. Park gets involved in a shootout and “Liz” gets the best of one of Townsend’s men. Ressler runs through an alley and meets “Liz”, but she escapes. Ressler continues to run after her, but “Liz” is caught by Townsend’s main associate. Ressler and Park meet back up as “Liz” is taken away with Townsend’s men, but Mary is left behind and they arrest her.
Chemical Mary is in the interrogation room and reveals that Liz kidnapped her to get revenge on her brother: Neville Townsend. Red gets a call from Cooper telling him that Townsend got Liz, but they got Chemical Mary. Cooper hangs up with Red as Park tells him that they found Rakitin. Park and Cooper are on scene of where Rakitin supposedly is, and walk towards a car with a dead man inside. It’s not the Rakitin we know to be.
A woman named Blake, is trying to convince a man named Godwin, not to wake Mr. Townsend, but he says that it’s urgent. He goes into the room and Blake gently wakes Mr. Townsend. Godwin tells him, “It’s Elizabeth Keen. We have her.” Neville goes to the room where “Liz” is sitting with a bag over her head. The bag is taken off and Neville becomes upset because it’s NOT the real Liz. Townsend’s associate tells him to hear her out and the “Imposter Liz” tells Neville that she is Elizabeth Keen. A woman we can assume is really Keen, is watching and listening through the imposter.
Cooper calls Reddington and he is NOT happy. Cooper is on the scene of where Rakitin (fake Rakitin) was found. Cooper accuses Red of killing Rakitin to cover up the fact that Red is N-13. Red is at his restaurant and tells Cooper that he didn’t kill anyone and he hangs up with Cooper. He tells Dembe to go check on Rakitin.
(This next scene is a doozy, so stick with us). Neville and “Imposter Liz” are sitting down to chat. Neville’s associate hands him a paper that was found inside the jacket of “Imposter Liz” and he asks about Mary. “Imposter Liz” says that Mary is in FBI custody and Neville starts to say that, “she took her to.. what, hurt me?” “Imposter Liz” says that she (REAL Keen) is there and he doesn’t have to talk about her in the third person. We see a subtle glimmer in the eye of “Imposter Liz” and the REAL Liz is watching and listening from a secure location, telling “Imposter Liz” what to say and do. Neville asks why she took his sister, and “Imposter Liz” relays the information saying that she had to, in order to get a face to face meeting. She says that she had nothing to do with the ambush that happened earlier, and that the FBI can’t help her, but he can. He’s confused as to why she would ask for his help when he killed her mother, but she reveals that the Kazanjian Brothers betrayed him and cut a deal with Katarina to give her the time she needed to clear her name of being the infamous N-13. She goes on to say that Katarina knew that Townsend and the rest of the world wouldn’t stop hunting her until she proved her innocence. She tells Neville that Raymond Reddington killed Katarina Rostova, and he connects the dots that Red is N-13. “Imposter Liz” continues saying that she can prove that Red is N-13, and that he’s the reason Neville’s family is dead. He’s the one Neville should kill, and she can help him do that.
Dembe brings Rakitin to the restaurant to meet with Red. Red sternly asks what he’s up to, and Rakitin explains that he threw the FBI off of his trail by giving them a fake “Rakitin.” Red utters that he may have tricked them for a day or two, but they’ll come looking for him. He warns Rakitin telling him that he’s been engaged in a thirty-year project, and if Rakitin jeopardizes that again, he’ll let him go permanently.
At the Post Office, Park is watching security footage and discovers something. She plays it back for Aram and they discover that it’s not really Liz that was taken. At Townsend’s, “Imposter Liz” plays the recording of Reddington killing Katarina; she tells him that she needs his help to take down Reddington. He says that in order for him to agree to this alliance, he will have her prove herself. Back again at the Post Office, the team tries to determine who “Imposter Liz” is, but Cooper says they won’t have to go looking far because she surrendered.
Ressler sits down in the interrogation room with “Imposter Liz.” She proves that it’s really her by revealing the “adult time” her and Ressler had. He tells that they aren’t giving her immunity, so “Imposter Liz” asks Cooper, who’s watching, if he’ll reach out to Panabaker to see if she’ll make a deal.
In Cooper’s office, Panabaker says that she won’t give immunity to a stranger, while also making a dig at Ressler that’s so hilarious that we put it below.
Red calls Cooper in his office with Panabaker there. Cooper explains to Red that Townsend doesn’t have Liz and they grabbed a look-alike. Red tells Cooper that this imposter is actually a cyranoid, broadcasting the experience to the Liz, and essentially being her eyes, ears, and voice. We see Cyranoid Liz/”Imposter Liz” disable the cameras in the interrogation room, and escape. Aram leaves to confront Mary about her crimes as Cooper tells Ressler and Park that Cyranoid Liz escaped. Cyranoid Liz goes into Mary’s interrogation room and she remembers her conversation with Neville about killing his sister, but he says that this is his price. Cyranoid Liz kills Mary, as Aram approaches the room.
Aram pulls his gun on Cyranoid Liz. Park and Cooper search through the security cameras and find Aram and Cyranoid Liz, so Cooper orders a lock down of that section. Cyranoid Liz tells Aram that it’s her, that she (Real Liz) hired the woman he’s looking at to do and say what she asks. Aram is growing increasingly angry and threatens to shoot as Cyranoid Liz continues to slowly approach him; we see one of her eyes glimmer again. Aram asks Cyranoid Liz why she would kill Mary and she tells him that she doesn’t expect him to understand, but she is trying to stop Reddington. Suddenly, she knocks him into the window and closes the door behind her. She grabs a radio, breaks the keypad on the door, and runs.
Red and Dembe enter a radio shop and ask the worker there to speak to the Commissioner. The worker tries to maintain he doesn’t know who that is, but Red threatens him with his gun. He agrees, and he puts his ear piece and eye contact in to page the Commissioner. Simultaneously, Ressler finds Aram and Aram lets him know that Keen is telling the cyranoid what to do. The Commissioner gets online and Red says that he needs information on where to find one of the Commissioner’s contracts (Liz) or he will tell the world about his enterprise. The Commissioner (and his cyranoid) tell Red that the only way to find Keen is to trace the signal from the cyranoid while the two are communicating in real time.
Back at the Post Office, everyone is scrambling to find Liz’s double. Ressler radios Cyranoid Liz to try and convince her to show herself. Suddenly, Cyranoid Liz gets the best of Ressler and radios Cooper to stand down, or she will shoot. She makes Ressler put in the new code to the elevator, and she escapes.
Flashing forward to the episode’s beginning, Cyranoid Liz tells Red that she isn’t online so she doesn’t know Liz’s location. Red orders her to get Liz online and she complies. Once Liz is connected, Red tells Liz that he wants to end this peacefully and wants her location so they can meet face to face. Liz refuses, so Red empties the cyranoid’s gun except for one bullet. He points the revolver at the cyranoid’s head and every time Liz refuses to give up her location, Red pulls the trigger. The cyranoid pleads with Red while also relaying Liz’s messages. Before Red gets to the last chamber, Liz tells the cyranoid that she’s sorry and disconnects. The cyranoid tells Red that Liz is gone, and Red tells her it was a trick to trace Liz’s location.
Cooper and Panabaker are in his office and they discuss where Cooper is willing to draw the line when it comes to Keen. He tells her that now, he thinks it’s time to draw that line. Park tells Aram and Ressler that Rakitin is not really dead; the real Rakitin killed one of the suspected five, and downloaded the incriminating files on his computer found at the scene. As Panabaker leaves, Cooper approaches the trio to tell them that Panabaker is issuing an arrest warrant for Keen because he asked her to.
Red and Dembe go to the warehouse where Liz was stationed, but she is gone. Red calls Townsend and says that Liz can’t be trusted, but Neville says otherwise.
Neville: “It turns out you’re due for a reckoning, and Elizabeth Keen and I are coming to deliver one.”
Thanks for sticking around, Blacklisters!
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The Blacklist airs Fridays at 8 p.m. EST on NBC.