Violet recaps Season 1 Episode 9 of The Blacklist, titled Anslo Garrick, where an old enemy of Reddington tracks him down to exact his revenge! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts on Part 1 of this two part episode.
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The Blacklist, Season 1 Episode 9: Anslo Garrick Recap Overview
Need a quick The Blacklist episode recap of Season 1 Episode 9, titled Anslo Garrick? Here is a summary of events for the episode. Each event is linked to the more detailed The Blacklist episode recap for Anslo Garrick if you need more information!
- Ressler brings Reddington to the black site because he is being targeted for assassination. However, Reddington figures out it was all a set up by Anslo Garrick to get him to this exact location. The black site is attacked, and Keen gets trapped inside an elevator.
- Garrick’s men jam telecommunications. Ressler is shot in the leg trying to get Reddington to the box. Reddington fends off attackers and seals himself and Ressler in the box. Keen escapes from the elevator.
- Under Cooper’s orders, Aram goes to the main generator room to hack the telecom signal. Keen makes contact with Cooper before he and Malik are captured in the armory. Reddington gives Ressler a blood transfusion.
- Keen takes out the guys Anslo sent to the armory to get more explosives. She and Aram team up to look for signal jammers to disable. Reddington tries to talk to Ressler, who is in bad shape. Cooper refuses to open the box for Anslo, demanding that he let his people go first.
- Reddington cauterizes Ressler’s wound. Keen and Aram find and destroy another jammer, then split up.
- Anslo’s man captures Keen. Cooper allows Anslo to shoot both Luli and Dembe in the head rather than give him the code to the box.
The Blacklist Episode Recap: Anslo Garrick, the Details
The FBI Black Site Is Attacked, Keen is Trapped in an Elevator
Season 1 Episode 9 of The Blacklist, titled Anslo Garrick, begins at a future scene, with Ressler writhing in pain due to a badly injured leg, as Reddington wields a knife and appears to cut into his leg.
Flashback to 13 hours earlier in Munich, Germany, Reddington is drinking with some associates, when Ressler shows up. He tells Reddington that Keen needs him, though she couldn’t come on short notice herself. Unfortunately, it’s above Ressler’s security clearance, so he doesn’t know why, all he knows is that she’s been “detained.” It was merely his job to locate and retrieve Reddington.
Back in D.C., Elizabeth is home, mourning her father. Tom leaves her alone to go through boxes of her father’s things. She finds a stuffed rabbit that has been partially burned, and has a flashback to a fire.
Ressler brings Reddington, Luli, and Dembe to the FBI black site. When Reddington asks where Keen is, Ressler admits he lied to Reddington. Cooper and Malik explain that he’s being targeted for assassination. Malik insists she got intel from a reliable source, but as Reddington delves further into the matter, he realizes that it was all a set up by a man named Anslo Garrick to get the FBI to bring him to this exact location, and that the black site is about to be attacked.
Meanwhile, as Reddington explains this, Keen arrives in the parking garage, and outside we see a trash truck pass through security, as the driver is being held at gunpoint by a man laying on the passenger floorboard, wearing camouflage. The trash truck backs into an area that it shouldn’t, and several armed men get out of the back and shoot the guards they come across, and easily get inside the building, then cut the power. This causes Keen to get stuck in an elevator, in which her phone has no service. Cooper orders a full facility lockdown.
Ressler and Reddington Get to the Box, Keen Escapes from the Elevator
Garrick’s men get deeper into the building, and effortlessly take out the unsuspecting guards. In the office, they are unable to get a call out, because Garrick’s men have jammed all telecommunications. Reddington warns the FBI not to make a stand, and to get their people out. Cooper orders nonessential and unarmed personnel to evacuate.
In the elevator, Keen hears gunfire, and tries to get out through the top of the elevator. Meanwhile, Cooper orders a full data burn as he tries to get to the armory with Malik and a few others. Elsewhere, Ressler is bringing Reddington to be detained in “the box.” Reddington warns that Garrick means to take him and kill anyone in his way, and wonders why Ressler doesn’t just let them have him. However, Ressler says Reddington’s his responsibility. Just then, two armed men show up with assault rifles. Ressler is able to shoot both, but not before one gets a good shot at his leg.
Reddington uses Ressler’s keys to unlock his cuffs, then he takes Ressler’s gun and shoots the pipes up ahead to make steam come out, then shoots the attackers to make sure they’re dead. Reddington takes a grenade from one of the attackers and throws it at a few more guys coming their way. He then takes the gear from the dead attacker, and drags Ressler with him. Meanwhile, Keen is able to escape from the elevator.
Reddington drags Ressler to the room with the box, and has Ressler scan his fingerprints and input the code, while Reddington grabs some medical supplies. As they make their way to the box, Reddington uses his newly acquired assault rifle to hold off the guys coming after them. They are able to get into the box and seal it without getting shot. Anslo Garrick takes his ski mask off and greets Red through the glass. In the elevator shaft, Keen continues her escape.
Anslo Confronts Reddington
Reddington doctors up Ressler’s wound, while Garrick talks to him about how he’s been wanting to break Reddington for 5 years, and the day will end with Reddington’s screams.
Cooper, Malik, and others make it to the armory and gear up. Cooper orders Aram to get to the main generator room so they can hack the telecom signal. Keen gets into the office and bandages her hand. People are shot dead on the floor, and she hears Cooper on a walkie talkie, and responds. He tells her that Ressler and Reddington are unaccounted for, and presumed down.
In the box, shock is beginning to set in for Ressler. Reddington uses his tie to make a tourniquet for Ressler’s leg. Garrick tries to convince Reddington to come out of the box in order to save Ressler’s life. Reddington merely replies to insult Garrick’s scar and messed up eye, which Reddington caused. Garrick shoots at Reddington, but the bullet ricochets off the glass on kills his own man. One of his guys rigs up an explosive to the door.
Aram makes it to the main generator room. Meanwhile, the armory is overrun by attackers.
Keen distracts one of Garrick’s men with a voice recording of herself calling for help. Despite her warning to him not to make any sudden movements, he does, so she shoots him in the head. Then she takes his gear.
Aram brings up video feed, in which he sees that Cooper and Malik have been captured.
Garrick’s man informs him they don’t have enough explosives. He tells his men to get more explosives from the armory. Inside the box, Reddington asks what Ressler’s blood type is. It turns out they’re both B-, so he informs Ressler he’s going to give him a blood transfusion, and proceeds to do so. Anslo informs Reddington that the charges are set to blow inward. Anslo then warns Ressler that sepsis will soon set in and poison his blood.
Keen Teams up with Aram
Aram sees on the video feed that men are going after the explosives. It looks like he makes the decision to go after them. In the armory, Keen is able to get one of the attackers to shoot his own man. Then she gets the remaining guy to radio to Anslo that they’re on their way back. Then she knocks him out. Aram shows up and tells Keen that he’s trying to restore the telecom, and that everyone else is captured.
He brings her to the generator room to show her the video feed of Reddington and Ressler, telling her that Ressler’s in bad shape. He hasn’t had any luck with hacking the signal, which is being jammed internally. Keen decides that she and Aram are going to find the jammers, because if they are disabled, the signal will reset automatically.
In the box, Reddington asks Ressler what happened to Audrey Bidwell, his ex-fiancé. He says she left him because of his obsession with trying to chase Reddington down for 5 years.
Anslo’s men discover the two men Keen left behind in the armory. Anslo orders his men to find who did it.
Reddington reveals that he knows a great many things about Ressler. Ressler asks what the Blacklist is all about, presuming it’s revenge. But Reddington says that’s too easy. Ressler thinks they’re not going to live through this, but Reddington thinks they will. When Ressler asks him how, Reddington lists all the things that he wants to do one last time before he dies, saying that’s why he’s not going to let Anslo get the best of him.
Anslo brings Cooper into the room with the box so that Cooper can get him into the box. However, Cooper demands that his people be released first. Anslo holds his gun to Cooper’s head, saying that he bets someone else can get him into the box. Cooper doesn’t flinch, replying, “Then place that bet.”
Meanwhile, Keen and Aram find and destroy a jammer. The telecom signal automatically restores to 15%.
Reddington Cauterizes Ressler’s Wound
Reddington interrupts and distracts Anslo before he decides to shoot Cooper. Suddenly, Ressler is doing worse. Reddington tells Ressler he has to cauterize the wound, which he will do by cutting open his leg to get at the artery, then sprinkling combustible compound on it and igniting it. Reddington says that if Ressler doesn’t tell them how to open the door, then he has to do this, or he will die. Ressler tells him to do it.
Reddington sterilizes his knife, then pours alcohol directly on the wound. He tells Ressler to hold still and that it will be over in a second.
Keen finds and destroys another jammer. Aram says destroying two jammers would provide about one bar of cellular strength, but Keen says it’s not enough and suggests they split up to make things faster, despite his reluctance. The signal increases to 30%
We get back to the scene at the beginning of the episode where Reddington uses his knife to cut into Ressler’s leg. He sprinkles gunpowder on the wound, then lights it on fire with a match.
Goodbye Luli and Dembe
Just then, Anslo brings in Luli with a gun to her head, demanding to be let into the box. Reddington tries to convince Cooper to give Anslo the code as Anslo gives a 10 second countdown, but it’s no use. Anslo shoots Luli in the head, and her blood splatters all over the box door.
Keen finds another jammer, but the guy she knocked out earlier sneaks up behind her and knocks her out, then radios in that the threat is down.
Anslo gets Dembe and puts a gun to his head, as Reddington pleads with Cooper to tell Anslo the code. Reddington tries to wake Ressler up to get the code, but he remains unconscious. Dembe says his goodbyes to Reddington. Reddington pleads with Cooper one last time, to no avail. Dembe and Reddington sing a song together in a foreign language [which one of our readers has pointed out was a Muslim prayer from the Holy Quaran], then Anslo shoots Dembe in the head.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 9 of The Blacklist: Anslo Garrick
This was my favorite episode of the season so far. Yes, even though we were left with a cliffhanger and still have Part 2 to go. Hopefully Part 2 can uphold the standard that Part 1 has set, but I’m going to guess that it will, and that it’s quite possible that the next episode will soon become my favorite. But we shall see. Anyway, I think one of the reasons that I liked this episode so much was because it strayed from the formulaic “Keen tries to catch bad guy, then screws up/reaches a dead end and asks for Reddington’s help, Reddington helps save the day” that we’ve become used to in this show. What’s more, it hit in the FBI’s own black site, which they previously thought was not only unknown, but impenetrable. Additionally, it showed Reddington’s human side, that he is vulnerable, and that he doesn’t always have all the answers. It was an exciting episode, and kept me guessing about what would happen next.
One of my favorite scenes was when Reddington was telling Ressler all of the things that he wanted to do one last time. There was such imagery and sincerity in that little speech, and James Spader’s delivery was amazing. My other favorite scene was the end, when Dembe said his goodbyes to Reddington. You could see the trusted friendship between the two, and that Reddington was truly sad about what was about to happen to him. The way they sang that song together was heartbreaking. You hoped what you knew was coming, somehow wouldn’t come. But inevitably, it did.
Just a couple of complaints. Garrick’s men seemed to be able to take out the FBI guys a little too easily, although I suppose you could argue that they were caught unawares. But isn’t it their job to be vigilant enough to protect the site? My other complaint is that, although it was cool to see Keen secretly going around kicking butt, I kind of didn’t buy it, especially considering her poor performance as of late. I don’t feel like she could have improved this much, this fast. On the other hand, I’m not sure why she just stood there and let the guy knock her out at the end. The show just seems a little inconsistent about Keen’s ability.
Overall though, an emotional, exciting episode, of which I am looking forward to seeing the conclusion!
Josh’s Thoughts: The Blacklist, Season 1 Episode 9: Anslo Garrick
Wow, what an episode of The Blacklist. It is actually nice to see Reddington actually in a vulnerable position that he can’t just talk his way out of. The compassion he has shown to Ressler—knowing that Ressler tried to kill him, is interesting. It is also interesting hearing Reddington’s logic as to how he handles death—saving one guy’s life only to kill him a few weeks later.
I really think my theory is correct about Reddington’s past. I think he was a FBI agent, that was burned in some operation, and was forced into exile, and I believe it may not have been his fault. This of course made him leave his daughter with a foster family. I am still unclear as to his now motivations to begin hunting down these “Blacklisters”.
Another thing I really liked about this episode is one of the Blacklisters actually finding out that Redddington is working with the FBI. It is about time that someone found out. It will be interesting having Reddington not always being the attacker, and now may have to play some defense as well.
As for the FBI’s next move, I really have no idea. Cooper seems dead set on not opening the vault. I am kind of curious why, given that our villain seems to only be after Reddington. Is Reddington that important to Cooper? The FBI seemed to be content before he came into the picture, and since Reddington has already opened their eyes to this other “world” of criminals, it seems like they have a good starting point if they lot Reddington. I am kind of wondering if maybe there is something more Cooper is protecting than Reddington’s information. Maybe it is simply that he doesn’t want to negotiate with terrorists.
I look forward to tonight’s episode. I think I have to say that for network television, The Blacklist is one of the best shows I have seen in a while. Not as good as other shows such as Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead, but way better than anything on network television right now.
Scenes from The Blacklist, Season 1 Episode 10: Anslo Garrick (Part 2)
Here are scenes from the next episode of The Blacklist, titled Anslo Garrick (Part 2):
What did you think of Season 1 Episode 9 of The Blacklist, titled Anslo Garrick? How do you think Part 2 will end? Let us know in the comments below!
Red and Dembe were not “singing some foreign song together” people. They were reciting a Muslim prayer from the Holy Quran. Some cultural awareness would do much to lessen the amount of people that must have been offended after hearing a sacred prayer referred to as a “foreign song”.
Awareness, guys. Awareness.
Thank you for your comment. We apologize if we offended anyone. We did not call it “some foreign song,” but simply said that “Dembe and Reddington sing a song together in a foreign language.” We have no Muslim background, and in all fairness they were singing in a foreign language, just as we described, so there was no way we could have known what they were signing. We have now added your insightful information to our recap. Again, apologies to anyone we offended.