The Blacklist ‘General Ludd’ Recap – Episode 01.08

The Breakdown

A man and his son are playing in park where a burned person sitting in a chair falls out the sky. Pieces of a plane starts falling as well, the man grabs his son and attempts to get away. They did not make it out of the park alive.

Lizzie gets a call from her father who is in the hospital. He tells her its nothing serious but an oncologist is having him take more tests. Red is asking for the ViCap which is a database on a super secret FBI server. Coopers resists at first and Red tells him that he isn’t a contractor. He brings the FBI the criminal cases he wants to work on not the other way around. Cooper asks if he can lead them to the person that took down the plane. Red tells them that the plane wasn’t taken down by a person but by a group called General Ludd. Red claims he can lead the FBI to their founder a Nathaniel Wolfe.

While getting information about one of the people spotted near the plane they found out his name is Author Delaney and a 2nd man named Roger Guard was involved. They end up being the same person. In a house Wolfe has a computer turned into a bomb and tells the people who made it he thanks them, for working with him.

Lizzie finds Red in a house with Lui and a woman printing money. Lizzie is about to ask Red about Wolfe when Red asks how is her father doing. She doesn’t ask how he knows this information. They head to Miami to talk to a doctor who did surgery for Wolfe (Wolfe had his appearance changed). Before they go in Red tells Lizzie they need to make this quick because he has somewhere to be. They go into the doctor’s office and play a game of cat and mouse with the doctor. Lizzie threatens him because she is FBI and the doctor tells them Wolfe is going by the name Bradley Holland. Red flips on the doctor about flipping on the clients. Red sends criminals to the doctor and doesn’t feel he can trust him because he shouldn’t tell information like this to anyone.

We find out Wolfe’s dad was a worker for an airline that tanked due to wall street and this is why Wolfe is going after these airlines. Wolfe has just went through a security check at Reagan airport, the FBI wants him to be held because they feel he is going to take down another airplane.

Holland (or Wolfe) goes to get a flight in the airport, Holland being a pilot the lady at the gate gets him on a flight and in first class. While waiting to board Holland speaks to a guy and they end up talking about the last plane crash. The guy ends up being a hedge fund manager and is everything that Holland hates. Holland even says this to the man, telling him “you’re the poster child for everything General Ludd stands for” and asks is the man nervous. The man responds “not in the gold club I’m not”. Holland gives his bag (with laptop bomb that he activated) to the female guard that got him on plane and asks her to put it in the plane as he left something at gate 6. Tom calls Lizzie while she and Ressler are on their way to the airport. Tom tells Lizzie that the cancer came back and he is on the next flight to Nebraska for her dad. When Lizzie and Ressler get to the runway at the airport the plane blows up sending Lizzie and Ressler in the air. Red is at the hospital with Lizzie’s father (Sam) saying it has been far too long.

Lizzie asks Cooper if she can go to Nebraska to be with her dad. Cooper tells her no because all planes are grounded due to the attacks and the 911 protocol has been put in place. Sam tells Red that Lizzie needs to know the truth. Red thanks Sam for taking care of her and loving her as if she was his own but Lizzie can not know the truth. Lizzie and Ressler find a storage unit that Holland owns and finds a wall much like criminals use to plan their heist. However in Hollands wall there are a series of identities. Malik finds out the Holland’s plan hinges on the fact that Holland’s next identity is to be a man named John Horbeck. Horbeck is a truck driver that will transport 5 million dollars. Holland wanted the FAA to ground the planes so that the company Horbeck works for will transport the money being that planes are down. In Queens, Horbeck and his partner are driving the armored car that is transporting 5 millions dollars. At the hospital Sam calls Lizzie and tells her the truth. He tells her that the cancer is back and it is spreading everywhere. He also tells her that the doctors gave him 6 months to live. Lizzie says that she will be on the first plane there when the code red is lifted. Red is complimenting Sam on raising Lizzie and saying Sam did a good job and he can only hope to protect her but Sam will always be her father. Red smothers Sam to death, after he does so he almost begins to cry and kisses his old friend.

Tom gets to the hospital too late. The nurse gives him the news that Sam died. Red calls Lizzie to ask if she needs anything. Lizzie figured he is talking about the case and says no. Red is offering his plane to her in order to see her father. Red gets a cup of coffee and sits down next to Tom. Tom tells Red what happened and consoles him. (Tom knows Lizzie was taken in by Sam, which is odd) Tom says he has no idea how to tell Lizzie. In the armored car Holland is driving through the city when Ressler and Lizzie spots him. Being cornered he pulls into an alley then shoots a few shots at Ressler and Lizzie. Holland heads to the back of the amour car where his dead partner is. Holland pulls out a device which cracks the safe in the amour car. A partner of Holland takes the money out of the car (still in stacks) then blows it up sending money into the air. This creates a distraction and Holland blends into the crowd, puts on a hood and a mask and is out of Lizzie and Ressler’s site.

Lizzie thinks back to when Red offered her his plane and figured that Holland is going to fly. She calls Red to find out where Holland could be flying from. Red says he will see what he can find. Holland heads to a plane where Red and Dembe are. Red got the pilot to take a hike. Red explains to Holland that he loves capitalism and knows Holland switched the plates that were in the safe with a fake set. These are plates of the new hundred-dollar bill. Red robs Holland of the plates and tells him to get on the plane. Red leaves and as Holland is walking to the plane the FBI pulls in to arrest him. Ressler tells Lizzie he’s got this and to go see her dad. Tom calls and gives Lizzie the news. Lizzie and Tom attend Sam’s funeral. Cooper lets Red get on the FBI ViCap (Violent Criminal apprehension program) database in Coopers office. Red looks up a woman (which I think is the same woman that he took the picture of that the stewmaker had). Lizzie goes back to the house she found Red in where the money was being printed. Red asks how was the funeral and tells Lizzie the best way to remember her father is to talk about him. They sit on a swing and Lizzie tells Red stories about her father.

The Analyst

Vindication finally! We find out, or all signs lead to Red being Lizzie’s father. Reading this report when Spader actually doesn’t think Red was going to be Lizzie father and didn’t necessary want it to pan out that way makes me wonder did the writers just give up on it. Or did they reveal this information so early in case a 2nd season wasn’t ordered. Anyway we got our answer, now the main question is about Red and Tom. We know that Tom doesn’t know Red, so what does Red want with Tom. I could jump the gun and say maybe Red wants Lizzie all to himself but if that were the case he would have let Sam tell Lizzie the truth. So the next question we have upon us is who is this woman Red is finding information on. We know that she is dead so it’s not like he is searching for her. But could this be Lizzie’s mom? I recall in last weeks episode that Red said that he wanted to forget everything that happened in the house he had Liu purchase. We also were informed by Tom that Sam raised Lizzie as a single parent. So we don’t have to wonder where is Lizzie’s mom. Going back to the pilot recap Lizzie doesn’t talk about her mom in a pleasant way so her being a criminal or being in a FBI database of criminals seems to tie in. Lastly it seems that Malik is the smartest and most valuable agent on the show. Lizzie only comes up with an answer after calling Red and Ressler is just a bodyguard of sorts. In the episodes of this show we’ve seen Malik solve this case and one last week. Save Ressler from being shot to death or pushed off of a building by an Asian gang  in The Courier  so props to Parminder Nagra for being the unsung hero of this show.