The Breakdown
A prisoner escapes from a prison in Japan. The escapee goes to a FBI agent and has him kill himself in order to save his family. The Japanese man is named Mako Tanida and he was captured as collateral damage for a failed FBI attempt to capture Reddington.
Jolene is at Lizzie and Tom’s house and plays as if she doesn’t know Tom, Jolene also asks Tom how did he like the exhibit and why didn’t he bring Lizzie. Lizzie wants to know the answer to that as well.
Red meets a woman at a ballet rehearsal. Red wants to deliver a check in person and wants to know if everything will be ready on time. The woman says that it will just like every-year.
Red gets in touch with Ressler after Ressler goes to Lizzie to try to contact Red. Red tells Ressler that Tanida has escaped from prison but the Japanese will deny it. Red also tells Ressler that Tanida will try to come after more members of the FBI for revenge purposes. Tanida has entered the country under the alias Yaso Atony. Tanida approaches an agent, McGuire, that worked with Ressler. The agent doesn’t member Tanida but Tanida promised the agent that he will. McGuire is found dead under a bridge.
Tanida is a drug lord that pushed a lot of heroin on silk road (yay current events reference)! When Tanida was locked up, his empire still survived, it even got bigger. This is thought to be the work of his brother Aiko Tanida. Aiko started going by the name Tensei after his brother was imprisoned. Jolene meets Tom and go into a building. Tom is telling her what went wrong (him being stabbed and Lizzie finding his go money and passports) and this is why he is behind schedule and hasn’t checked in with his handler in 4 months.
Tom raves about being hand-picked by Berlin to run this mission. Tom even tells Jolene that he was next to Red and could have put a bullet in his head. Jolene tells him that Red wasn’t his target. Tom also tells Jolene that Red was funneling money through Lizzie step-father. Red and Jolene leave the building and the man Red hired (Cowboy) is outside tailing them and taking surveillance. Ressler and Cooper are told that agent McGuire is dead and that Tanida is in the country near Prince Georges county, Maryland. Ressler lives there and runs home to get Audrey to take her to a safe house. While leaving in Ressler’s SUV, a truck runs into them. Audrey’s head hits the window and bleeds on impact. Shots are fired from the truck. Ressler gets out of the SUV and shots one of the men in the back. Tanida is in the front and goes at Ressler head on, they struggle briefly. When Audrey gets out of the car Tanida shoots her in the chest. Ressler goes to his woman while Tanida escapes the scene.
Cooper talks to Ressler after his lost, he promises Ressler that they will bring Tanida to justice. Ressler doesn’t want to hear anything of the sort. Red talks to Cowboy and wants him to bring Jolene to him. Red’s spy is going to double the price for that service simply because he doesn’t like Red. Ressler goes to an associate (Robert) to try to track down Tanida and find Tanida’s brother. Ressler learns that Tensei is a ghost has hasn’t made any known moves.
Ressler meets with Red to get a location on Tanida. Red tells Ressler to back away from the situation because he doesn’t want him going to a dark place. Ressler says he is already there and doesn’t care. Red tells Ressler that there is a house in Columbia heights that doubles as a hospital, Ressler should check there if anyone had any injuries from the scuffle. Ressler and his pal, roll into the house and find one of Tanida’s men. After Ressler shoots the man in the leg he gives up Tanida. The man tells Ressler that Tanida is on 22nd and Vermont. (Apparently just walking around) Jolene walks to an underground parking lot and tosses a burner phone. Cowboy follows her and Tom follow him. Tom attacks Cowboy but doesn’t kill him. Tom and Jolene move the body.
Lizzie get a call about an incident at the house in Columbia heights. Malik is with her, Malik wants to know how Ressler and Robert knew about this place. Lizzie tells her Red of course. Lizzie meets with Red to ask why he helped Ressler. Red says that he didn’t help Ressler he just gave Ressler direction. Lizzie tells Red that they need to find Tanida before Ressler does. Lizzie also asks Red for info on Aiko “Tensei” Tanida. Red tells her that he is dead. Tansei died during the capture of Mako. Lizzie brings this information to the team. Malik pulls the file on the Tanida’s case and Lizzie finds out that when the Japanese told the FBI that Aiko escaped they may have been lying.
Aiko’s car was ambushed and only the driver and an america was found. Lizzie thinks that the american was Robert Jonica, Ressler’s pal who lead the investigation and knew inside information about the Tanida’s clan. Lizzie thinks that Robert has been running the operation as Tensei. Tom and Jolene are back at his lair. Tom tells Jolene she lead Red straight to him and sooner or later Lizzie will find this out as well and the whole thing will be compromised. Ressler and Robert find Tanida and the three of them go for a ride. Tom tells Jolene to call Lizzie and tell her that her boyfriend got a job in Ohio and she will be skipping rocks soon. Cowboy tells Jolene not to do this because Tom will kill her the second she gets off of the phone and him after he is done with her. Jolene calls Lizzie and tells her the fable. Tom strikes her and mildly begins to kick her ass. Cowboy semi breaks free from the not so well tied down position he is in. Tom punches him a few times, knocking him out. Tom then goes back to putting in work on Jolene. Tom puts a sheet over Jolene’s head and strangles her when he is done he shoots Cowboy.
Tanida, Ressler and Robert go on a little drive. Tanida does the thing most scumbag criminals do and ask how long did it take for Audrey to die. Tanida then starts crying about how he hasn’t seen his brother since that night he was locked up. Tanida says that he doesn’t blame the other 2 agents as they knew nothing. Robert wants Tanida to shut up. Tanida tells Ressler that he doesn’t even blame him because he was just doing his job. Robert yells at Tanida a little more and as Tanida spills the beans Robert shoots him. Ressler tries to get the gun from Robert and Robert crashes the car. The car is flipped over.
Lizzie is trying to contact Ressler and his GPS is down and he is not responding to his cell phone. Lizzie tells Cooper that Ressler has a place in Prince Georges county, Maryland and that is where he was going to take Audrey for safety. Ressler wakes up and sees Robert fleeing into the woods. Ressler tracks him down and Robert tries to explain. Ressler tells Robert about when he was shot and says that Red brought Audrey back to him. Ressler says that his enemy, Red, brought Audrey back and his best friend, Robert took her away from him. Robert says it was Tanida and he isn’t included (in Audrey’s murder.) Ressler gives Robert a sword and hands it too him and gives Robert a chance to do the honorable thing (and kill himself) or he will do it for him.
Ressler is still waiting for Robert to pick up the sword and kill himself. Robert will not pick it up. Robert also feels that Ressler isn’t going to kill him as well. Lizzie has found the turned over car and hears Ressler screaming at Robert. Lizzie approaches Ressler with her firearm drawn commanding that Ressler put his down. Lizzie tells Ressler not to shot and if he does that he will go to jail for life. Robert is now telling Ressler to kill him, Robert fears for what may happen to him in jail as he is a dirty federal agent and apparently criminals don’t like law enforcement agents “behind the bars”.
Ressler orders Robert to pick up the sword. Lizzie wants Ressler to put the gun down. Ressler fires about 6 or so shots. They fly past Robert’s head. Ressler hands Lizzie the gun. When Ressler gets back to the turned over car he notices that Mako is gone. At the ballet the girls are gossiping about the show that they are about to do for one of the biggest donors. They also say that they think his daughter used to perform there. Red sends Ressler a note saying that his pain will not go away but little by little he will learn to live with it. Red also sends Ressler Mako’s head in a box. Red is the solo person at the ballet, he looks on at the performance with great joy.
The Analysis
The Blacklist goes “The Americans” and has set Tom up as a Russian spy. If Berlin was in Russia but you get the idea. I was excited when we thought that Mako got away. I thought that this would be a nice person to have come back later on in the series but thinking about Mako’s story it seems that everyone he needed to kill is dead so that probably wouldn’t have played out well. I do not engage in nor endorse man on woman violence but I did like to see Tom step out of the teacher role and kick some tail. It seems that next week Lizzie “may” find out the truth about Tom. We know that Tom is a plant but we have yet to find out who he is and why Lizzie is the targer. Is it really about Lizzie or is it really about Red? We may find out next week but if I had to bet we will be just as lost as we are now.
