Violet recaps the midseason finale of The Blacklist, titled Anslo Garrick, Part 2, which is the conclusion to the previous week’s episode in which an old acquaintance of Red infiltrates the FBI black site! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts on the episode.
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The Blacklist, Season 1 Episode 10: Anslo Garrick, Part 2 Recap Overview
Need a quick The Blacklist episode recap of Season 1 Episode 10, titled Anslo Garrick, Part 2 Here is a summary of events for the episode. Each event is linked to the more detailed The Blacklist episode recap for Anslo Garrick, Part 2 if you need more information!
- Aram destroys the last signal jammer and calls for help, then shoots the guy that captured Keen. Garrick does not end up killing Dembe, but brings forth Keen as his next victim. Reddington makes Ressler give him the code to save Keen. Garrick escapes with Reddington and Keen in an ambulance as the cavalry arrives.
- Keen tries to take over the ambulance, but gets pushed out. She tries to follow it via Red‘s GPS tracker, but the tracker is removed, so they lose him. Diane decommissions the task force, but Aram secretly helps Keen. Reddington is taken to a warehouse and chained up.
- With Aram‘s help, Keen discovers that someone has been monitoring her from the house across the street. She breaks in, finds a man there, and shoots him before he shoots her. She calls Mr. Kaplan for help, who turns out to be a woman. Reddington is given injections to enhance his pain.
- Kaplan and Keen head to an industrial address listed on the GPS of the dead guy’s car, where Reddington‘s heavily armed team takes out the guys inside. They find a surveillance outpost that was monitoring the FBI black site.
- Fitch, a man from Reddington’s past, alludes to a secret Red knows about the people he represents. Keen figures out that Reddington is being held at a decommissioned black site. Reddington stabs Anslo with a pair of scissors and escapes before the FBI arrives.
- Tom wants Elizabeth to leave her job. Audrey visits Ressler in the hospital. Reddington is placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. Reddington calls Keen. She asks if he is her father, but he says no. He tells her to be careful of her husband.
The Blacklist Episode Recap: Anslo Garrick, Part 2, the Details
Aram Saves the Day
The midseason finale of The Blacklist, which was Part 2 of the previous week’s episode, titled Anslo Garrick, begins a few moments before the last episode ended, although this time we get to see from Aram’s perspective, in addition to Reddington’s. Aram finds the last jammer, and the signal restores 100%, so he is able to call for help. Aram comes across Keen and the guy who captured her. From Reddington’s perspective, it gets to the point where Garrick is about to shoot Dembe, when they hear a gunshot. It turns out Garrick did not shoot Dembe after all, it was in fact Aram shooting Keen’s captor. However, Garrick’s men investigate the gunshot, and capture both Keen and Aram.
Garrick brings Keen forth as his next victim. At this point Reddington slaps Ressler awake and demands the code. Just then, Keen’s phone rings, and Garrick answers it. It’s Tom. She yells for him to call the FBI, and Garrick hangs up. Ressler tells Reddington that the code is “Romeo.” They open the door to the box, and apprehend Reddington.
Garrick and his men walk off, and bring both Reddington and Keen with them. It seems that the cavalry has arrived in the building, and gunfire breaks out between them and some of Garrick’s men. One guy is left behind to guard the FBI agents in the room with the box, but Ressler sits up and shoots him. Garrick and a few of his men are able to escape with Reddington and Keen through a tunnel. They get into an ambulance and drive away. Dembe follows through the tunnel.
Reddington is Kidnapped
In the ambulance, Anslo’s team is trying to extract the chip from Reddington’s neck. Reddington tells Keen, “The Emissary Hotel in Chicago. Mr. Kaplan.” Keen charges the paddles and uses them on one of Anslo’s guys, then takes his gun and shoots the driver. Anslo takes over driving, as Keen gets pushed out the back of the ambulance. Keen stops a car and gets in the passenger seat, demanding that the driver follow the ambulance. Aram is able to track the GPS and direct her which way the ambulance went. However, Anslo removes the tracker from Reddington and drops it in the middle of the street, so they lose Reddington.
Reddington is led into a warehouse with a bag over his head, and is chained with his arms above him in the middle of the room. Back at the black site, Diane decommissions the task force, saying there must be a mole, and declaring Reddington to be no more than a fugitive at large. Keen convinces Aram to secretly get her closed circuit feeds from a block around the building from where Reddington came in, going back an hour. Keen calls the Emissary Hotel and asks for Mr. Kaplan, but she is told he is not available.
Anslo wants to know who Keen is and what makes her so special that Reddington came out of the box for her. Reddington doesn’t answer, but they talk about their past dealings, and Reddington points out how Anslo made deals behind his back that he knew he wouldn’t approve of. Anslo kicks him.
Mr. Kaplan
Keen returns home to a worried Tom. He asks her to walk away from her job. Just then, Keen gets a text from Mr. Kaplan saying to call him. Then she gets a call from Aram, which she answers. He says he sent her the files, but Reddington wasn’t followed. However, he found a pattern in the transmissions, a series of calls made from different burner cells, each call placed just seconds after Reddington arrived at the post office. All the calls were made to the same number, and he was able to figure out the address – which Keen realizes is right across the street from her house.
Anslo tells Reddington that he was merely hired to get him to the venue. He has Reddington injected with a solution that enhances the feeling of pain.
Keen breaks into the house across the street through a back entrance. She goes upstairs and finds a room with surveillance monitors of all the rooms in her house. An apple is sitting on the desk. A man approaches her from behind with a gun, but she is able to overcome him, and shoots him first. She calls Cooper, but then changes her mind and calls Mr. Kaplan instead.
Mr. Kaplan arrives – and it’s a woman. She tells Keen that she has two directives: to protect her, and to find her employer. Her team will arrive soon. In the meantime, she finds the man’s car key and tells Keen to find his car.
Reddington is resisting the injections, so Anslo demands that the dosage be increased.
Outpost
Keen goes outside and finds the man’s car, while Kaplan sees to the body. She runs facial recognition, but no match is found. Kaplan gets in the car with Keen, and they find an industrial address on the GPS that they head to. Tom is looking out the window and sees them drive off. They arrive at the location and pick up Dembe. Gunfire breaks out as Reddington’s heavily armed team infiltrates the building. The team takes out all the men inside, but Reddington is not there.
A man arrives to speak to Reddington, saying it’s been 20 years.
Cooper, Aram, and the FBI arrive at the building where Keen is. Inside the building they have found some kind of operations outpost 3 miles from where the post office is, which seems to have been manned by the people who infiltrated the black site and kidnapped Reddington. Aram finds something important to show Cooper.
Cooper reveals to Diane that the surveillance outpost was monitoring the FBI black site and its communications. He also shows her they they’ve been watching her too.
Reddington is Resourceful
The man has Anslo’s guys take Reddington down to sit in a chair. Reddington secretly steals a pair of scissors from one of the guy’s pockets. The man tells Reddington that the people he represents are nervous, and don’t know what to think. He says that they could have killed him at any time, but they let him live, and in exchange, they trust that their secret remains secret. Reddington insists that nothing has changed, but the man says everything changed when he surrendered to the FBI. The man makes it clear that there’s nowhere Red can go, there’s no one he can trust to keep him from them.
Keen and Malik discuss the fact that Garrick might have someone on the inside. They also talk about Ressler, who is still in surgery. Keen takes a look at a file of a decommissioned black site in Baltimore, and thinks that it might be where Reddington is being held. Malik confirms that the ambulance Garrick had used was found burning near there. She goes to Cooper with the info, who checks with Diane about whether they are shut down or not.
The man is done talking to Reddington, so Anslo wants him to deliver on what was promised. The man is afraid that if Anslo kills Red, it might trigger something Reddington has in place. Anslo is upset about losing so many of his men today, and says that it’s his turn to have a talk with Reddington. Anslo goes back to talk to Reddington, but Red is confident that Fitch won’t let him “finish it.” However, Anslo threatens Lizzie. When Anslo gets too close, Reddington uses the pair of scissors to stab him. Later, Keen and Cooper arrive with the FBI and find Anslo’s lifeless body on the floor.
FBI’s Most Wanted
An upset Tom talks to Elizabeth about Anslo threatening to kill her, and about the cameras in the house. He reiterates what he said earlier, that they should leave this place.
Ressler’s ex, Audrey, arrives to visit him in the hospital, because she’s still listed as his next of kin. He sees that she is engaged, but asks her to stay for a few minutes.
Cooper confirms to Diane that Reddington was in fact at the building, that his killed his captor and escaped. Diane says that whoever is after Reddington is after them, and as of now, the only target on the Blacklist is Raymond Reddington.
Kaplan calls Elizabeth and tells her it’s done. Reddington is placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. Audrey and Ressler seem to be getting along at the hospital. Reddington calls Lizzie from a pay phone. He tells her that if she is ever in need, he will be there. Lizzie asks Reddington if he is her father. After a pause, he says no. Then he tells her to be careful of her husband, and hangs up. As he walks away, he appears to be in New York City.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 10 of The Blacklist: Anslo Garrick, Part 2
I wasn’t as much of a fan of Part 2 of Anslo Garrick as I was of Part 1. The last episode was so beautifully done, at least, Reddington’s parts were anyway, especially his conversation with Ressler, and the scene leading up to Dembe’s death. Except, as we found out in this episode, the show only fooled us into thinking that Dembe was shot, when in fact the sound of the gunshot was Aram shooting Elizabeth’s captor. What a cheap trick. I felt betrayed. Part 2 essentially cheapened Part 1. I mean, it’s nice that Dembe lived, but if they were going to let him live, then he should have done something significant in this episode. However, he was kind of just in the background. As for Aram, kudos to him for showing some guts and skill.
We still don’t know who Apple Man is, just that whoever he was working for was monitoring the FBI black site. The guy that Keen killed is probably not Apple Man, but Apple Man’s associate that we’ve seen him switch off with. Is Apple Man working for the people that Fitch represents, or are they two separate parties? Who exactly does Fitch represent? What is the big secret that Reddington is keeping? Is Apple Man actually the man in charge? More questions that we can look forward to getting answers to in the future.
After the situation at the black site was resolved, and Reddington was captured, I felt like there wasn’t much going on. He was chained up and given an injection to enhance pain – but for what purpose? Then Fitch comes to talk to him, followed by Anslo, and he’s able to easily kill Anslo and escape. Then Keen shows up with the FBI just a little too late. Speaking of which, it really did not make any sense how quickly Keen was able to jump to the conclusion of where Reddington was being held. She glances at one file that Malik is looking at, and says, hey, this must be the place! Um, ok… It’s annoying when this show randomly comes up with a solution with no real justification.
So, Lizzie finally wises up and asks Reddington if he’s her father. But he says no for some reason. Why would he lie? Does she believe him? Or maybe the show is trying to trick us again and make us think that Reddington is her father when in fact he really isn’t? It seems like Lizzie could have somehow run a DNA test by now. But anyway. Then there’s Tom. I really want to know who he is and what his agenda is. As of now, it appears that he’s trying to convince her to walk away from her job. But I think we all know that’s not going to happen. I wonder if Keen is starting to believe Reddington’s warnings about her husband.
Anyway, lots of questions in the midseason finale. Hopefully we’ll start to get some answers when the show returns for the second half of Season 1!
Josh’s Thoughts: The Blacklist , Season 1 Episode 10: Anslo Garrick, Part 2
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Scenes from The Blacklist, Season 1 Episode 11: The Good Samaritan Killer
Here are scenes from the next episode of The Blacklist, titled The Good Samaritan Killer:
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