The Blacklist ‘Frederick Barnes’ Recap – Episode 01.07

The Breakdown

A man on a train get chatted up by a strange stalker women. She asks about his hat, after they chat he leaves his briefcase. The woman tries to tell him that he left the briefcase. The train stops at the Woodley Park stop. (I like this show but I hate they way they make up places in D.C. at least this is an actually subway stop in D.C. it is where the zoo is in case you were wondering.) The sliver briefcase leaks a gas that kills everyone on the train.

Ressler calls Lizzy and tells her to turn on the TV. The news is carrying the story of the train gassing. Lizzie comes in to see the train footage of the man getting on at DuPont Circle. (another real DC stop!) An anonymous tip calls on the FBI hotline. Guess who it is? Red, he knows (of course) who the man was on the train. His name is Frederick Barnes a former government employee and innovative scientist. He is now selling his innovative people killing techniques. However Red is worried because Barnes normally doesn’t deliverer his merch he usually just sells it.  This now makes Barnes the new most dangerous man in the world.

The people on the train were killed by a disease name Kurus disease. The disease usually takes years to kill. Barnes has found a way to speed up the process. Red wants Lizzie to go to Cuba to find a man who could have supplied Barnes with the radioactive material (strontium 90) in order to procure the disease. In an elevator Lizzie shows her displeasure with Red for framing Tom. Red tells Lizzie that in time she will find out the truth about Tom. Lizzie gets out of going to Cuba by tracking down one of Barnes’ old colleges, Ann Forester. Red gets into his limo heading to Cuba, he asks Luli to tell him something good to make him feel better. She tells him that something he is looking for is for sale. Red has her go on with the sale.

At Ann Forester’s house Lizzie questions Ann about Barnes and where he may be and when she last saw him. While talking Ann’s son comes out and Lizzie sees a marking on him that suggest he has kurus. She confronts Ann in the kitchen while she is trying to find Barnes’ contact info. She admits to Lizzie that the kid is fathered by Barnes and her husband doesn’t know. Lizzie comes to the conclusion that Barnes is trying to infect people so that this disease can get funding so a cure can be found. Being that when Barnes tried to get funding he was shot down because this disease only affected a small amount of people and not very important.

Red is in Cuba to find a Manny Soto, the man who supplied Barnes. Red convinces Soto to call the buyer he sold the strontium 90 to. Red places a device under Soto’s table that will intercept his call. Soto calls Barnes and Red has the call traced and finds Barnes’ location. Barnes is at a courthouse in Arlington. He calls Lizzie who is with Ressler with this information. Barnes has shown up for jury duty with another sliver briefcase. He gives an excuse to get out and he is asked to present his summons. Barnes says it’s in the car he will go down to get it and leaves his sliver infected briefcase. Barnes blocks the door and begins to head out.

Liz and Ressler storm into the courthouse and pull the fire alarm. Barnes activates his briefcase to go off killing everyone in the room. Barnes and the entire courthouse start to proceed down the stairs when Lizzie spots him. Ressler finds the room that is locked and grabs an oxygen mask and gas tank from the incoming fire fighters and goes into the infected room. He finds a woman screaming for help in the back and pulls her out. Barnes runs away to avoid Lizzie, gets outside and takes a gun from a security guard and holds him hostage. Lizzie tells Barnes to drop the gun, he tells her to do the same. He says if she doesn’t he is going to kill the guard. Lizzie drops her gun and kicks it to Barnes. Barnes then shoots out the glass at the top of the courthouse and escapes.

Agent Malik feels that there may be a connection with the people who Barnes is unleashing this disease on. In Tacoma Park Luli is approaching a house in escrow. She brings a bag of money to the real estate agent and wants to steal the house from under the previous buyer. At HQ Cooper has Lizzie reprimanded for dropping her weapon to Barnes. Her future will be decided by a board. Afterwards Lizzie approaches Ressler about ratting her out. He admits that he did it saying that she shouldn’t be here if she doesn’t understand why she should have taken the shot on Barnes when she had the chance. At the hospital the lone survivor is getting blood taken from her. When the doctor leaves, Barnes comes in dressed in scrubs. Barnes changes the IV bag of the woman and she passes out. He pulls out a kit of tools and smiles at her.

Lizzie has called Red for help, when she asked Red he seems pleased that she came to him. He tells her that Barnes has more than likely going to finish off the survivor. Malik was right, Barnes was looking for someone who was immune to kurus and the woman who survived had no signs of the disease. Barnes has taken a piece of the woman’s bone marrow to synthesized a cure for his son Ethan. Lizzie calls Ann to see if Barnes has tried to come for Ethan. As she is speaking to Ann, Barnes is standing in her kitchen. Ann runs and Barnes knocks her down. Ethan comes around the corner and Barnes chases him.

Cornering Ethan in his room Barnes grabs the boy and chloroforms him. Lizzie and Malik rush in and Malik finds Ann on the floor. Lizzie goes to Ethan’s room. Barnes is there about to stick the needle in Ethan to cure him when Lizzie stops him. She says that his cure is experimental and could kill the boy. Barnes feels that if he does nothing than Ethan dies. He also feels Lizzie isn’t going to stop him. As Barnes goes to inject the boy Lizzie shoots Barnes.

Barnes is dead and Red is at the scene speaking with Lizzie. Red says the he can understand why Barnes would kill thousands to save one person. Lizzie feels that this statement was directed towards her. Lizzie tells Red she doesn’t need his protection. Red tells Lizzie if she wants him to leave just say the word and he is out. Lizzie says nothing and Red tells her he will see her tomorrow. Back at HQ Lizzie tells Ressler she thinks about the moment she shot Barnes over and over again in her mind and admits that he was right. It was the right thing to do. She also states that she believes Barnes had the cure but it would be better for Ethan if he gets it through the proper channels. Ressler says that it’s too late for Ethan. Back at the house that Luli brought under Red’s orders. Red, Luli and Dembe enter it. Red admits that he raised his family there.

Red peels back a board that indicated marks that were used to mark the growing of a child. Red stares out of the window and remembers a young girl playing in the yard. As they are leaving Luli asks Red that he must have some good memories from that old house. Red says that he tries everyday to forget what happened there and maybe this will help with that. As their car pulls away the house blows up.

The Analyis

This was a very different episode which I enjoyed. There wasn’t a bad guy for the sake of being bad, it was a man trying to save his son by killing thousands of people. I did sort of wish that Barnes would have been able to inject the cure to Ethan before Lizzie shot him. It’a not often you root for a person killing hundreds of people but I did root for Barnes a little inside. Once again with next weeks episode we are being lured into finally getting answers. We see Lizzie’s father for the first time. Call me cynical but I have a feeling that we are not going to get what we think we are going to get. It seems as if Lizzie’s father wants to tell her the truth about something and Red doesn’t want that to happen. I feel by the end of next weeks episode we will have more questions than we had before and I am ok with that. I just will have some satiation with that fact the we are (possibly) seeing Lizzie’s father. Beyond that I am still interested in the Tom story.