'The Blacklist' Recap: 'Madeline Pratt'

This week on The Blacklist, Liz’s marriage continued to fall apart, Cooper tried to investigate Diane’s disappearance and Red helped a former lover.

The Blacklist was back and better than ever this week. After the long break because of the Olympics, Blacklist returned with a blacklister named Madeline Pratt. While she wasn’t as evil as some of the others, she was definitely vindictive.

The episode began with a woman in Turkey. She was grieving the loss of her husband and trying to get into his safety deposit box. As she opened the box, the bank manager said, “I’m sorry for your loss, Ms. Reddington.” The woman grins and opens the box.

Meanwhile, Red is getting acupuncture and is told by his assistant that his safety deposit box and that the woman who took it left a note that Red should meet her at the Windsor Lounge. When they meet, Red says that the documents that she took are work $10 million. She asks about Florence and says that she only stole the documents to get her attention.

Back with Liz and Tom, the tension is so thick that you can cut it with a knife. Tom is still angry with Liz not wanting to adopt the baby. He isn’t saying it out loud but the audience and Liz know it. Tom says that a friend is pregnant. Liz tries to talk to him about it and he storms out. At this point, Tom is looking less like a villain and more like an exhausted husband. He is tired of Liz’s job. He wants to see her. He’s a little whiney. And, from next week’s promo, he’s looking a little unfaithful.

Red and Liz meet at Red’s house. He talks about a horribly ugly painting. He says that Madeline Pratt is the next name on The Blacklist. He says that she asked him to help her in a heist. For help, they go to a man named Novak who deals with the black market of rare antiques.

Madeline was to steal some Syrian effigy. It turns out that it isn’t the statue that is worth it. There is a list of secret Russian agents inside. The list is super important. Madeline wants to steal it from the Syrian Embassy. Red says that Liz should go undercover to help Pratt steal it so the US can get it. Though, there is danger because she will technically be on Syrian soil and the FBI can’t help her if she is caught.

Liz auditions for Madeline, trying to prove that she is good enough to steal it. She pickpockets Madeline’s cell phone and tells a creepy story about robbing a gas station. She tells her that she won’t do it but Madeline offers double and Liz agrees.

Tom apologizes to Liz for walking out. He said he is going to a teacher’s conference in Orlando and wants Liz to come with him. She agrees. But, side not, for a teacher, Tom travels a lot. I mean, seriously, he’s gone to other states at least three times. Come on.

The night of the theft, Red is Liz’s date for the Embassy party. He warns her because Madeline hid the fact that she is dating a Syrian. Red believes that they may be using Liz as a distraction so Madeline can steal it herself. Red says that he will protect Liz.

By the way, guys, I still don’t think Red is Liz’s father. I refuse to believe it. He is very paternal toward her but they do not have the same DNA.

At the blacksite, Cooper is talking to Agent Malik. He says that he believes Diane is dead and that Red had something to do with it. He thought it was weird that Red refused to come back to the blacksite until the mole was caught and then, after Diane went missing, he came back.

At the party, Liz and Red dance to calm her nerves. Liz sneaks in and goes to steal the effigy. When she makes it through all of the security guards, she opens the safe and the alarm goes off.

While Liz was breaking into the safe, Red was dancing with Madeline asks why Red didn’t show up in Florence. The alarm goes off and Madeline’s super scary Syrian boyfriend grabs her and they go into the safe room.

After Liz is captured, Red uses a unique way to get her back. He pretends (very convincingly) that he is the Syrian president’s sassy gay friend. He says that Liz is the Syrian president’s lady and that she is basically a hot mess.

Because they don’t have the effigy, Liz has to cancel on Tom. He, understandably, is really mad. No matter how whiney he is, it still sucks when your wife cancels on you a lot. He says that he’s going to go sooner because they need time apart.

When Liz hangs up the phone, Ressler says the best line of the episode. He looks over, with a straight face and says, “Do you want me to rough him up for you?” Liz simply says that she hates her job. Can we just let Tom go live in Florida and get rid of this Audrey character? Ressler and Liz belong together. Am I right?

The FBI figures out that a Syrian warlord used to own the effigy. So, they bring the man in. When interrogating him, they find out that it doesn’t have a list of 6 Russian people. Rather, it has 6 Russian nuke locations.

Red finds Madeline and wants the coordinates of the nukes. As they’re talking about it, two men kidnap them. They wake up in a prison. Red tells Madeline a story about Christmas. He says that he was driving home for Christmas and he ran out of gas before he could get to his family. When he finally got there, he was ready to see his daughter and wife but, when he opened the door, all he saw was blood. He said that he didn’t come to Florence because he was heartbroken.

When Red finishes the story, the Syrians grab him and take him for more torture. Madeline, touched by the story, says that she’ll tell them everything. It turns out that Red wasn’t being tortured. He set Madeline up so she would tell him what he needed to know.

She asks if the story was true about his family but he doesn’t reply.

The FBI rushes to find the effigy. They catch the Russians just as they’re getting the effigy. There is a major shootout. The Russians almost get away but Ressler jumps on him, fights with him and gets it. When he opens it to get the names, there is nothing inside but sand.

Cooper tells Red that everything was wrong. They couldn’t find Madeline and they didn’t have the location of the nukes. Red trades the location of the bombs for the effigy. It is weird that Red would trade something that is worth a lot for something that is worth nothing. But, they do the trade.

Cooper meets with another man, Walter, who is weird. He tells Cooper to stop looking for Diane. They said that they’d take over.

At the end of the episode, it turns out that Red gave his ugly painting to Madeline and replaced it with the Effigy, seeing as Madeline left a note about Florence. When Liz was sitting sad, Ressler offered to stay because Audrey would understand if he was late. She told him to go home.

The end.

So, what do you think? It looks like Tom will be cheating on Liz with someone who is on the Blacklist.