Blacklist Toms brother

This episode was so packed with juicy reveals and nail-biting twists that on any other show, itd be a season finale. Its only been a few weeks since Liz Keen found out that her whole marriage is a sham, and that her husband is a sleeper agent for some unknown organization so terrifying that people would rather jump out of a ten-story window than be made to talk about it. But instead of stringing us along, The Blacklist gives us exactly what we want, when we want it. After the last couple episodes of skin-crawling restraint between the fakely-weds, all hell breaks loose and it is awesome. Liz takes a wrench to Tom, looking for answers, but what he tells her brings no consolation. As weve been expecting, Reddington has done some very bad things and hes probably done them to Liz.

Theres a secondary plot line in this episode involving a woman smuggled out of rural China by American Intelligence. They want her knowledge of biological weapons. But when she arrives in D.C., shes intercepted by the Pavlovich Brothers, who are working for the Chinese. The Pavloviches were also the shock-and-awe team that kidnapped the Generals daughter in the pilot. Truth be told, I could barely pay attention to this poor refugee, because all the real action happened when Tom, Liz or Red were onscreen.

Liz is unraveling understandably, considering her awful situation with Tom. Its gotta be torture choking down his sunny pancake breakfasts when all you really want to do is choke the life out of him for pretending to love you for two years, then guilt-tripping you into almost carrying his child, then sleeping with that tramp in Orlando before brutally murdering her the nerve! But Im getting ahead of myself. She doesnt know he killed Jolene yet. At the start of this episode, all Liz knows is that Tom works for Berlin, hes got a key hidden under a lamp, and hes spent two years running deeply personal surveillance on her. So yeah, shes about to blow a gasket. During a tense morning exchange, Liz pops a tracker device into Toms keychain. [Why are we always seeing them at breakfast? Jon Bokenkamp really wants us to understand how great Tom is at making pancakes. Maybe hes saying a man that dedicated to maple syrup cant be all bad. Blacklist Love Lesson #1: Pancakes = redemption.] Tom asks about Jolenes disappearance, and when Liz says the police have a lead, hes visibly shaken. Liz tromps over to Reds place and, with the acuity of someone whos always two steps behind, says gravely, Tom killed Jolene. Red just replies, yes. The audience sighs.

Red has already pieced together that Jolene was also working for Berlin, but cant think of why Tom killed her: Perhaps he was ordered to murder her, or hes just out of control, irrational, paranoid and reactionary. [Hes also describing the four stages of crazy that Liz will pass through in this episode.] As an afterthought, he mentions that the Pavlovich Brothers are in town.

NEXT: Genocides and germ warfare

Over at the Post Office, which is increasingly an afterthought in the minds of both the audience and Liz, the team of lovable, bumbling FBI agents are sorting out this weeks crisis. The Pavloviches specialize in extraction. They cut their teeth on Milosevics protective detail during the ethnic cleansing in the Yugoslavian Wars. Theres a resumé builder. I guess a background in mass killings explains why they dont shoot for subtlety on their jobs. Reddington fed Liz the intel that the Pavloviches were after Xiaoping Li, an immunologist who had been picked up by the Americans after she signaled that shed be willing to turn over classified info about a Chinese biological weapons program. So the Feds saddle up and ride out to pick up Li personally. To no ones surprise but their own, the Feds lose the woman to the Serbians, who brought bigger guns and a helicopter to the party.

Now that the Feds are batting zero, Agent Malik mentions that Li doesnt just have knowledge of any old biological weapons program; she actually has the formula for an internationally forbidden, deadly compound called Whitefog, which would represent the biggest intelligence coup in a decade. Welldamn. Their only lead is the burned remnants of the chopper, where the Serbs ditched it in some field. In the midst of this dire revelation, Liz gets a call from Red, who tells her that Tom is suspiciously not at school today. Liz is incensed. She sprints out of the office, calling over her shoulder, Text me when you hear anything about the helicopter. Yeah, you go. Well handle the germ warfare.

Liz and Red sit in a car, watching Tom insidiously read a newspaper in the park. [Wouldnt it be amazing if he was just playing hooky? A super spy has got to get bored with 4th grade reading. I was bored with 4th grade reading.] Today, though, Toms on a mission, and as he moves toward the National Archives building, Red sends his investigators after him. I love Reds hires. Every single character he employs is brilliant. His PIs turn out to be college kids making out, a mom with a baby stroller, a skateboarder and a financier, all of whom blend in perfectly. Cue Lizs irrational stage of crazy: she leaps out of the car and, with no pretense of stealth, just runs right into the building after Tom. Tom is about to make a parcel exchange with man in a trench coat, but feels eyes on him and turns around to find his wife peering over a balcony. So he aborts the mission and disappears. Ladies and gentlemen, a slow clap for the FBI agent. At some point, you gotta help yourself, Liz.

When she gets home, Tom is there with a wine bottle open and Reds music chest playing. He found it in the basement and asks Liz where it came from. She says her father gave it to her [which might not be lie, since Red could be her dad], but Tom doesnt buy it. Im not sure what the music box signals to Tom, but it obviously means something more than just my wife has a new toy. He asks, point blank, if she was at the Archive today, and she mumbles about being cooped up at the office. Well, the woman I saw wasnt half as beautiful as you are right now, he says and kisses her on the lips before heading to the door to walk the dog. He stares at her and when she asks what? he answers, Nothing. Love you. Ill be right back. And then, the next things Liz knows, the dog is scratching at the door and Tom has evaporated. After watching the scene a second time, it occurred to me that Tom didnt have to say those things how beautiful she was, that he loved her. He couldve just said Im heading out with the dog, honey and left it at that. I think he was sad to leave. I think maybe he kind of does love her. Or maybe Im just hoping he does, because otherwise its too painful to think about how he led Liz on.

NEXT: Could Tom really leave?

Red comes over to keep Liz company as she gets angry, then heartbroken over Tom leaving her. Even though she had seen him in action as a spy and confirmed it in more ways than one, she still could not believe that she fell in love with and married someone who saw her as nothing more than a job. That is crushing. We had sex last week, she rails. I was excited to have a child with him. He was the one person I chose in my life who made me happy, who made me feel safe. What does that say about me? Everything that we had was a figment of my imagination. Worse, it was a lie. It was right in front of my face and I didnt see it. As Red sits there listening, I cant help but think that someday, she might be saying these exact words about her relationship with him. Poor Liz; shes been royally screwed over in her lifetime. Red tells her time is the only salve for her wounds, and she tells him to f off. I feel that. Shes been used, and she wants to make Tom pay.

Red hears her plea and follows up with the trench-coated man who attempted the package exchange with Tom. He gets the man to fork over the list of all the drops and pick-ups that hes ever made [only four], and Dembe makes copies of the package that the man was supposed to give Tom an advanced calculus textbook. [Go figure.] Dembe and Red use the addresses to triangulate Tom Keens wearabouts in a fortified warehouse. How do you plan to get him out of there? Dembe asks. Do we know any vicious killers that specialize in extractions in this town? Hmmm.

Meanwhile, the Feds have cobbled together some intelligence, and theyve figured out where the Pavloviches are holding Li. Liz calls ahead to Reddington and gives him the coordinates as the team leaves the Post Office. Red rolls over to the Pavlovichs place directly and hires them to extract Tom Keen. No need to waste talent. The Serbs throw Li in a wooden box and head out with Reddington. So by the time the Feds make the scene, Red is gone, the Pavloviches are gone, and Li, the germ warfare specialist, is gone. Damn again. But on the wall, they see a jumble of letters written in chalk. What could that be? Why, its the formula for displacement of water! Whats, that Lassie? Li is at the loading docks down by the pier?!

The Pavloviches like to get jobs done quickly and with as many explosives as possible. Its admirable, really. They just dive in and blanket the situation with firepower. In this case, they blow open Toms safe house and fire on everything that moves but crafty Tom escapes in a new Mustang. [Did you catch his ad?] Theres a car chase with some intense gear shifting and sprays of bullets, but the Serbs corner our teacher/spy and he comes out with his hands up. What do you think theyre going to do with him?

NEXT: Liz gives Tom the third degree

Reddington asked that Tommy be turned over, trussed up like a turkey and tied to a chair in Lizs dining room. I love it when Red gives gifts. Liz comes home to quite a surprise: a whole coterie of mass murders helping themselves to her red wine and staring at her handcuffed husband. She doesnt even hesitate. Never look a gift horse in the mouth. When your lying sack of sh husband is handed to you with a bow on head and his hands tied behind his back, you just go with your gut and get the pliersbecause its finger breaking time.

How could you do this to me? How could you lie to me and pretend you loved me? she cries. And he tells her this terribly sad story about the moment that he knew she loved him. After their fourth date, he found that shed drawn a heart in the dust on his loafers. Ever since that moment, I just felt sorry for you, Tom continues. Because I knew that I had you. Part of me didnt want it to work, but it did. She just sits there crying silently, listening to him. I felt sorry for you is probably the worst thing he couldve said. Id rather he said I felt nothing, because Im a cold monster.

Liz jumps on the phone with Red to tell him that the Feds suspect he kidnapped Li to get the germ warfare plans. He denies it and points her to Ralph Sisco, whos head of smuggling for the Chesapeake Bay. Liz doesnt give a crap, though, because shes too busy threatening Tom with a wrench. Oh Liz, you dont have it in you, he taunts. Big mistake. Never taunt a woman scorned. She snaps his thumb in a couple different places, like shes tightening a leaky pipe under her sink.

Brief interlude where the Feds apprehend Li from the Pavloviches at the loading docks. Im sorry for that womans trauma, but this is just a diversion from the real action. Back to Rosie the Riveter!

You broke my thumb, Tom marvels. Yeah. If youre looking for sympathy you might want to try honesty, shoots back Liz, high off torture. Ill start. I hate pancakes. [Thats gotta be a lie right? Who the hell hates pancakes?] Heres some honesty for ya, says Tom. If youre going to handcuff a guy, dont break his thumbs. Rookie mistake! Tommy rips out of the chair, rolls across the dining room table and smashes Liz into the kitchen counter, wheres hes spent the last two years slaving over pancakes no one really wanted. A house-destroying wrestling match ensues; I was screaming expletives at the TV the whole time. This was INSANE. After how much subtle bullsh these two have been feeding each other, its so cathartic to see them duke it out.

NEXT: Wait, Toms a good guy?

Tom finally gets the gun and tells his wife to cuff herself to the banister. Im not here to hurt you, Liz, he says, pleading with her to believe him. I was never here to hurt you. Im one of the good guys. Reddington, hes not who you think. I can prove it. The key in the lamp. I know you found it. Take it to box 3929 in Bradford Bank. Goodbye, Liz. What? I did not expect Tom to take this route on his way out the door. A dig at Red and then a treasure trove of information in the form of a safety deposit box? He disappears, and the camera pans to the floor, to the shattered remnants of dishes and vases. We got it: Keens life is in pieces.

Agent Cooper noticed Keens distracted manner and asks Ressler about it. I think shes having troubles at home, he says. Understatement of the century.

Josh Ritters Change of Time plays through the rest of the episode, perfectly capturing Liz, adrift in the darkness, unable to trust a single person in her life. I had a dream last night/ and rusting far below me/ battered hulls and broken hardships/ leviathan and lonely/ I was thirsty so I drank and though it was salt water/ There was something about the way it tasted so familiar.

For a second time today, Red sits with Liz to comfort her in her broken home. How is this all going to end? she asks, on behalf of us all. Red responds with one of his brilliant monologues: This is an end. And then something new will begin. You deserve the best in life, Lizzie. I know that sounds odd coming from the man who has brought you some of the worst. But its the reason that Tom had to work so hard to be that for you, to be kind, to be thoughtful, to make you laugh, to make you love him. Because you deserve that, and it will come. [Blacklist Love Lesson #2.]

Liz has to know whats in the box. She takes the lamp key and slips to the bank. From the safe, she pulls out a folder with the design of her scar on the cover remember, its the same as the print from Toms wooden box that he kept his passports in. She pulls out photos of something we cant see and the final shot is her slack jawed in surprise. Oh Blacklist, youve done it again.

Next week, it looks like Red is up against the fence, beset by a new Blacklister but also by an angry Liz. We see her calling him a monster in the promo, so she must confront him. I love this new Agro Liz. Dont take this crap anymore, girl!

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