Blacklist Fulcrum key

But, hes not exactly right. The episode begins with someone who has been watching Liz for a while. He has audio recordings of Liz talking to Tom and pictures of everyone involved in Lizs life, including lots of pictures of Liz and Red. The surveillance man also has a deep cut on his neck, like someone tried to slit his throat.

Back to Liz, Dembe, and the bleeding Red. They are still under fire from a sniper. Dembe sees an assassin walking up the road and takes the man out. This is clearly a coordinated effort to kill Red. Dembe manages to drag Red into the limo as Liz provides covering fire. The three of them drive away and Liz calls Cooper at the FBI Post Office. Cooper and Aram are tracking Lizs phone and trying to get them to a hospital when Dembe grabs Lizs phone and tosses it out the window. Instead, he hands her a phone and tells her to dial *77. When Liz does, Mr. Kaplan answers. She directs them to a nearby warehouse. Liz is insisting they take Red to a hospital, but Dembe refuses.

We see a series of doctors, nurses, and EMTs getting text messages from Mr. Kaplan that just say 77. They all drop whatever they are doing and immediately head to the warehouse, where a hospital operating room is being instantly created out of nowhere. Mr. Kaplan is awesome!

The Director is told that though Red has been hit, he is not dead. The Director calls the surveillance man and says he needs to know where Red has been moved to. Surveillance is amazing at his job. He hacks into all the traffic cameras in the city and is able to track Reds car to the warehouse. I dont think Red is going to be as safe there as Dembe and Mr. Kaplan think.

The doctors are working on Red, who is coughing up blood and looks bad. He reaches out to Liz, who takes his hand [see, she cares!!]. Red manages to say, You need to find Leonard Caul.

At the FBI, they are freaking out because no one knows where Liz and Red have gone. Dir. Cooper speaks with Tom Connolly about it. Connolly, by the way, was at his Senate confirmation hearing for Attorney General when he got the news that Red had been shot. He delivers a great line, I was caught with my pants down, and as my 3 ex-wives can attest, thats not a pretty site. I want to hate Connolly, but Im having trouble.

Connolly tells Cooper to contain this, and adds that the full resources of the Justice Department are at his disposal.

Liz calls Cooper and him where they are. She also wants help finding Leonard Caul. Apparently, Caul is the mystery person Fitch had Red look for earlier in the season. Im not sure how Red got Cauls name, but now we at least have a name for the person Ive just been calling Mystery up until now. The FBI team figures out that Caul tried to check into a hospital a few weeks ago with 2 missing fingers, but got spooked and ran when police showed up. But, he left his fingers behind.

Two FBI agents show up at the hospital/warehouse. Liz believes they are here to protect Red, but Mr. Kaplan guns the men down instantly. They werent FBI, they were more hit men. Mr. Kaplan saw that they had guns that would not be issued to an FBI agent and took them out. Mr. Kaplan needs her own show! Shes awesome!

Reds surgery is not going well. The doc that was supposed to stop the bleeding was shot and killed in the shootout with the hitmen. Red cannot be moved even though surveillance man is outside and will soon be ordering more of The Directors men to come attack the warehouse.

Liz calls a man named Nick who was her boyfriend before she met Tom. Hes a doctor and she begs him to help save Red.

Liz then brings Red and the entire medical team to the warehouse at which Tom is hiding. Tom agrees to let them come in, as a favor to Liz, even though he hates Red. Liz didnt expect Tom to still be there. Nick arrives and begins operating on Red. Tom says Red is bad news but Liz says Red still knows things about her past and she wants those answers. Tom says that maybe he can help.

Nick says there is still a bullet in Reds body, one with an exploding cap that has not gone off. He describes it as having a landmine inside your body. He says he can take it out, but he wants to be paid $376,422, which is exactly how much student loan debt he still has. It takes Mr. Kaplan about 5 seconds to pull out a giant briefcase with a half a million dollars inside. Mr. Reddington insists on being prepared for all contingencies. Shall we continue? she asks.

The FBI team figures out that Leonard Caul is a former FBI agent named Joseph McCray. Cooper calls in some favors from Connolly and others to find Caul/McCary.

Dembe tells Liz to go to Reds secret apartment to find a special case that can decipher the Fulcrum. Dembe says Red would not want Liz to go to the flat, but Dembe must stay by Reds side right now and he trusts no one else but Liz with this task. Raymond must never know you were there, Dembe says. It is also revealed that Leonard Caul would know how to use the device and read the data on The Fulcrum.

Cooper is talking to Connolly about how things are going. Connolly wonders if Red doesnt really feel any personal connection to Liz, that he only wanted to get to her so he could get The Fulcrum. Theres a possibility shes being completely manipulated by Reddington.

At Reds apartment, Liz finds all kinds of goodies from past episodes the metal briefcase from the car under the Kenyon Family church, the key that Red took from the bottles hanging outside the headquarters of The Front. The entire season is coming together right here, right now! Liz also finds something else in the apartment, a photo of a young girl being held by someone whos face is blurred by the sun. Liz seems to recognize the photo is she the young girl in it? Is the blurred face Raymond Reddington? There are also photos of a military man and a young woman graduating from college. What do they all mean?!?!?

Red wakes up from surgery. His first question for Dembe is whether Liz is ok. You were right, Dembe, he says, I should have told her. Red says that Liz wont be able to find Leonard Caul, but that once Caul finds out Liz is looking for him, he will find her.

At that moment, a surveillance man bursts in on Liz at Reds apartment. She says she wont lead him to Red. Surveillance man says he doesnt want to kill Red, thats what the Cabal wants. He then holds up his hand and reveals that two fingers are chopped off. It is Leonard Caul! It turns out he had not been the one giving up Reds location to the Cabal. Hes been following Red, waiting for a signal to reach out to him. When Liz started searching for Caul, thats when he knew the time had come for them to meet. Liz gives Caul the interface for the Fulcrum and the key to operate it. They put The Fulcrum in and turn it on.

At the warehouse/hospital Tom is talking to Red. He talks about the day [in season one] when he says Red at the hospital when Sam died. He recalls Red threatening him that day about not letting anything bad happen to Liz. Tom then says that Red is the one who hurts Liz the most.
Liz and Caul are driving to where Red is. Liz is speechless having seen the evidence on The Fulcrum. She cant believe all the powerful names who are part of The Cabal. Caul says that The Director of Clandestine Services for the US government is the leader of the group.

As Liz approaches the safe house, she sees a bunch of The Directors assassins preparing an assault. She calls Tom to warn him and Dembe. Liz also calls Cooper to get the FBI to help. Liz wants to go back but Caul says it would be fruitless. He points out that The Director is dead set on killing Red because he thinks Red does not have The Fulcrum. Liz gets an idea!

Mr. Kaplan is by Reds side with a gun. He tells her to leave and save herself. He calls her by her first name, Kate, and tells her to get away because if Red dies, theres something she is supposed to do. Kate Kaplan kisses Red gently on the forehead, gives him her gun, and flees.

The assault begins! It is dozens of The Directors men against Dembe, Tom, and a few of Reds closest allies. It is a bloodbath, with The Directors men being killed left and right, but there are too many of them. A few of them get to the room where Red is lying in bed, but Red manages to shoot them with Mr. Kaplans gun. Then, he runs out of bullets.

Liz barges into The Directors office. She shows him The Fulcrum. We get brief glimpses of the evidence on it assassinations, terrorism. The Director is horrified. Call it off, she demands.

We see Red surrounded by The Directors assassins. They pause for a moment and then they all retreat. The Director told them to stop. Back at his office inside CIA headquarters, he tells Liz, You have no idea the enemies youve just made. Yes, I do, she replies. As Liz leaves, the Director has a parting shot. I never saw it before how much you look like your mother. Ooooooh!

Liz goes back to see Red, who is now under FBI protection. He wants to tell her about Tom, but she wants to hear none of it. Red insists, telling Liz that he hired Tom to be a friend, not a lover. Red knew that someday his relationship with Liz would endanger her life and he wanted Tom to protect her. Toms job was to get close but never to get intimate and fall in love. In fact, when Red found out that they had become involved, Red fired Tom. Thats when Tom went to Berlin.

Red says Toms relationship with Liz was what drove him to turn himself into the FBI. The whole reason he did it was to be able to help Liz find out that Tom was dangerous and not who he was pretending to be.

Is that all of it? Liz asks. Some of it, Red replies. Liz is angry that he hasnt told her everything. It wouldnt kill you to lie just once to make someone feel good, she says as she storms off.

The Director is talking to someone at his office. He talks about how the work of the Cabal saves lives and makes the world a better place. He thanks the person he is speaking to for, betraying a friend, and congratulates them for getting, a seat at the table. The camera pulls back to reveal that The Director is talking to Tom Connolly. This may be the least surprising reveal in Blacklist history.

The episode closes with a tearful Liz being consoled by Tom. She asks him, Tell me what you know about Reddington.

And the episode is over!!

Wow! Was this only an hour long episode?!?! It felt like 3 hours' worth of stuff happened. So many fabulous reveals and so much tension. One of the best episodes of the entire season, in my opinion. Mr. Kaplan was a real star! So, what did you think? Now that The Director knows that Red has The Fulcrum, how will that change things? And who was in that photo? It has to be Liz and her father, right? Leave your thoughts in the comment section. Ill see you there!

If you want to read more of Jason Evans comments on the movie and TV industry, follow him on Twitter @TVFilmTalk. Be sure to check Speakeasy every week for his recaps of The Blacklist!