Red Reddington has his next target brought to him in this episode of The Blacklist, titled Wujing. Elizabeth also does some digging to try to figure out who her husband is, and the mysterious “apple man” plants some bugs in the Keens’ residence. What is going on here? Well, we do not have all of the answers for The Blacklist, but if you would like an episode refresher for Wujing, or want to see what we think, check out our episode recap for The Blacklist, Season 1 Episode 3: Wujing after the jump!
Don’t need the The Blacklist episode recap for Wujing? Click here to jump directly to Josh’s thoughts on the episode!
To see Violet’s thoughts on this week’s The Blacklist episode Wujing, click here to get directly there!
The Blacklist Episode 3 Wujing Recap Overview
Need a quick The Blacklist episode recap of Episode 3 titled Wujing? Here is a summary of events for the episode. Each event is linked to the more detailed The Blacklist episode recap for Wujing if you need more information!
- A man in Shanghai is murdered. HIs computer is stolen, and his hand is cut off and taken by a group of Chinese men.
- Elizabeth seems bent on figuring out the secrets her husband holds, even having his gun checked out by the FBI anonymously.
- Reddington tells the FBI who Wujing is, and that he wants him to crack a code to locate a CIA operative. Reddington comes up with a plan to catch him and learn his secrets. The FBI just needs to get Elizabeth on board with the plan.
- A mystery man bugs Elizabeth‘s house, Keen and Reddington begin their code-breaking in the underground bunker of Wujing‘s.
- Elizabeth Keen and Reddington are able to pull off the operation, at the expense of one of Wujing‘s men. The race is on to save the CIA informant
- Wujing and his men are caught after a standoff between Wujing’s henchmen and the FBI
The Blacklist episode Recap: Wujing, the Details
Loss of Life and Hand
This episode of The Blacklist begins in Shanghai, China, in a bank. A white man leaves the bank, enters an SUV, and is driving through a trade district. Suddenly, his car is shot at and several men attack him. They kill him, take his bag he had been carrying, and they also take his hand. Back at some sort of “base”, the group has tried to get into the files on the now dead man’s computer. Unable to, the presumed leader demands to have Reddington called.
Can’t Ever Trust a Man Wearing Hipster Glasses…
In Elizabeth’s apartment, her husband is asleep, and Elizabeth is inspecting the contents of her husband’s hidden box. She then takes a bucket, the gun from the box, and some phone books outside, puts the phone books in the bucket with some water, and fires the gun into it. She then searches for the shell casing and bullet, perhaps for forensic testing.
A little later, Elizabeth and her husband are talking. He asks about the attacker, and Elizabeth isn’t willing to tell him anything other than “it’s over”. A friend named “Ellie” has come over to take care of her husband, and she leaves for work. He creepily looks out the window to see her leave. When Elizabeth arrives at FBI headquarters, she has the lab test the bullet and casings.
Reddington Wants to Catch Wujing, Elizabeth Isn’t so Interested
Reddington, meanwhile, is sitting at a chess board in a park, and is being watched by an agent. A man approaches him for a job, but he says the “usual” person for the job is incapacitated at the moment. The guy is in a rush, so Reddington offers a different person to handle the job.
Elizabeth meets up with Reddington at a hat shop, and we learn that the person killed in China was a CIA agent. We learn that Reddington has broken CIA codes, to funnel information to foreign interests. Reddington has already given Elizabeth her cover as a decryption specialist, but Elizabeth isn’t excited.
The FBI agents meet about Wujing, the man hiring Reddingon for decryption. Director Cooper and Agent Ressler want to proceed with Reddington’s plan, but Elizabeth is unwilling to at this point.
Household Bugs, and Basement Hacking
Next, we see a shadowed older man watching Tom Keen, Elizabeth’s husband, leave. When they leave, they enter the house, and seem to plan bugs and wires in the house. We are unable to identify who they are with as they are wearing construction worker type clothes.
Elizabeth talks with Reddington, and makes a deal to learn why she was picked by Reddington, and so they begin. The plan is then discussed, which is Elizabeth decodes the message, and both the FBI and CIA see the intended recipient of the message, and a “race” begins to save the agent from the Chinese. Elizabeth is then given a “magic box” to help decode the code.
They set up the operation, and Reddington is running late. Elizabeth is given a GPS “patch” that will not be detected by metal detectors. Reddington shows up, and they begin. They meet with Reddington’s client, and they wand both Keen and Reddington. Reddington’s locator chip goes off, but Reddington has a good cover. The client then runs Keen’s prints, and the FBI frantically tries to intercept the information being transmitted so her cover isn’t blown. It seems they succeed, and they move on.
Reddington and Keen are put into an elevator, and the GPS signals are lost as they go deep underground. The FBI scrambles to try to figure out where they went. Reddington and Keen meet up with Wujing. Keen sets up her “equipment”. Ressler thinks Reddington could be playing them, and prepares a team to go in for rescue in 5 minutes.
Things Go As Plan, Almost
Elizabeth types on the screen asking for Reddington’s help, as no one else is watching her screen. Reddington uses phrases of double meaning to communicate with Keen while not drawing suspicion from the clienteles. Reddington takes a look at the surveillance, and points out the FBI van to distract the men and Wujing. Reddington and Wujing argue, as Elizabeth puts a dongle on one of Wujing’s computer to upload out. Wujing has become agitated, and Reddington tries to diffuse the situation. The message comes through for both the FBI and Wujing. Henry Cho is the next agent on the chopping block for Wujing, and for rescue by the FBI. We learn that Henry Cho is not a CIA agent, but is just an architect. He was used to plant bugs throughout a building he constructed. They learn that he is returning to the U.S., and the two parties proceed to search for him.
Reddington says it is time to go, and Wujing gives him his payment. Reddington tries to hustle out of the room. Reddington tells her to leave the dongle so they can escape quickly, but alarms go off. Wujing then says he knows he has a spy, seemingly leading to Elizabeth, but Wujing then begins beating a fellow operative. It seems the device Keen used flagged that operative’s computer. Beaten, and lying on the floor, the operative spots the USB dongle and tries to point it out. Reddington grabs a gun and shoots him dead. Wujing threatens to kill Keen for Reddington killing one of his men, but Reddington is able to talk his way out of it.
Wujing concedes, and they begin to flee from the FBI, who they presume will flood their building soon. Meanwhile, Henry Cho has been talked to by the FBI and he has attempted to find hiding in a building he is working on. Both the FBI and Chinese have arrived there, and the “competition” begins. Henry’s kid is taken, and Henry tries to talk the kidnapper down. They both are saved by an agent.
Wujing is Going to the Pokey
In the car, Wujing says he can help them get out of the country, but Reddington says they will be fine on their own. Wujing lets him them out. A little further down the road, the FBI catches Wujing. Keen had placed her GPS tracker on the vehicle, allowing the FBI to track the car.
Reddington and Keen talk in the car. She asks her question: “Why me?” He answers, “Because of your father.” He says that the question is as complicated as the answer, and remains unclear about the answer. Keen, frustrated, leaves the car.
Back at headquarters, Ressler and Keen talk, and Ressler compliments her work. She seems solemn despite the congratulations. On her desk is the ballistic report on the gun. She drives home, and finally opens the envelope and looks at report. The results are marked as classified. Back at headquarters, Ressler has gotten the full report, and is suspicious of Keen once again, discussing this with Cooper.
Reddington eats alone, and we see he opens a letter in Chinese lettering with the numbers 042983, and nothing else. Back home, there are people visiting to wish Tom well. Tom talks with Elizabeth, saying her secrets are okay. The episode closes out with the shadowed man from the middle of the episode watching the surveillance cameras that had been secret installed in her house.
Josh’s Thoughts: The Blacklist Episode 3, Wujing
I was very impressed with this episode of The Blacklist. I felt, for the most part, the writers covered the bases well to make the episode make sense, and the intensity of the scenes with Reddington 300 feet below ground, stuck with these Chinese no-do-gooders, it was thrilling to see how it all played out. James Spader certainly is the high of the show, who is certainly warming up to me very well in The Blacklist. While not in the same league as Spader, Megan Boone playing Elizabeth Keen is becoming more tolerable for me as well. I thought they both did a great job in their scenes this episode.
I am curious to know who the mysterious apple man is. Is that Elizabeth’s father? An agent hired by Reddington to keep an eye on Keen and her husband? Hard to say at this moment, but suffice it to say, Keen is going to eventually spot one of these bugs, and the investigation into who these people really are will begin.
The conversation Keen has with Reddington regarding her father unfortunately does not shed much new light on who Reddington is to Keen. I am going to stick with my theory that Reddington may be her biological father, and that maybe she was adopted by another man. Regardless of how that story plays out, I have a feeling Elizabeth’s father is not as dead as she thinks. Considering how often the father is brought up, he is bound to turn up somewhere.
Now, who is this Tom Keen? He must be in deep cover, but for what reason? Is he supposed to watch Elizabeth for something? Does Tom know more about what is going on with Reddington than he lets on? I have to say, all these questions, while mind numbing, are fun to watch unfold. Or at least hope for a tidbit to unfold. Well, let’s see what happens next week on The Blacklist, with the episode titled The Stewmaker!
Violets’s Thoughts on Episode 3 of The Blacklist, Wujing
The show is growing on me, but I’m not all in yet. I will say that I found this episode to be more believable than the first two episodes, and I don’t remember the acting bothering me at all this episode. One thing I did find hard to believe was Elizabeth Keen as a super hacker. Even she initially didn’t have confidence that she would be able to pull it off. Other than the fact that she is far from an expert on the subject, her lack of confidence was probably also because she is a professional profiler, and she knows that if someone were to look at her, she would not fit the profile of a hacker. I was surprised that Wujing was not more suspicious of her. However, I did enjoy the tension of Reddington and Keen’s scene with Wujing, and liked the way that everything played out. The scene with the architect was just as enjoyable.
As for the Apple Man, who is this guy? I really have no clue. He seems to have come out of nowhere. Speaking of nowhere, once again that’s where we got with finding out exactly why Reddington is so fixated on Elizabeth, and who her father is. Reddington’s answer, “Because of your father” could mean anything. Maybe Elizabeth’s father was a secret agent and Reddington knew him, and he made Reddington promise to look after Elizabeth if anything ever happened to him. Maybe her father didn’t want Elizabeth to follow in his footsteps, so he wanted Reddington to protect her, which is why Reddington showed up on Elizabeth’s very first day. Who knows? This is certainly information the show is not giving up anytime soon, because they want people to keep watching.
Then there’s the issue of what do the numbers 042983 mean? It looks like a birth date. Could it be Elizabeth’s birth date? That doesn’t seem likely, because that would be something Reddington could probably easily figure out on his own. Is it a passcode to something? To what? Once again, the show sucks you in with unanswered questions. Hopefully we’ll get some answers in the next episode!
Scenes from The Blacklist, Episode 4, The Stewmaker
Here are scenes from next week’s The Blacklist episode titled The Stewmaker:
