'The Blacklist' Recap: 'Ivan'

On this week’s episode of The Blacklist, there was a technical terrorist with a strange motive, Red made a music box and Tom got caught.

The episode began with a man alone in a high-tech lab. All of the sudden everything goes crazy. The cameras follow him. The monitors flash. The man in the lab calls someone and says that they’ve been compromised. Then he gets in the car and drives away. However, the hacker activates the airbag, killing the man instantly.

Flash to Red with Mr. Kaplan, Mr. Kaplan found Jolene and The Cowboy’s bodies. Red calls in Jolene as a missing person and tells Mr. Kaplan to put it back exactly how he found it.

Liz gives Tom an extra unique Uncle Flippo flashlight. Uncle Flippo, according to Elizabeth, is a popular hippo character. Tom didn’t recognize him even though he was around children all day. Before they could talk about it, Detective Debarros knocks on the door and tells them that Jolene is missing. Liz says that she will help in any way. Tom plays dumb.

Because Liz has to meet with the detective, she runs late for her meeting with Red. When she arrives, he gives her a clip of the paper about the car accident. He says that it wasn’t an accident. It was the work of Ivan. He knows because Ivan confessed on the dark part of the internet.

At the Post Office, Liz is running through the case. When she finishes, she, Aram and Ressler go to check out the car. Before, Liz asks Aram to check into Jolene’s phone records. Aram finds that the car accident was on purpose. The airbag went off before the accident and a binary code for IVAN was left. Before they can investigate more, black SUVs surround the area.

Turns out the dead guy, Nathan Platt worked with the NSA. And the thing that he had was the skeleton key. The skeleton key was to be used for cyber warfare. They decide that they need to talk to Ivan to figure out what he is up to.

Red tricks Ivan. Red tells him that he owes him $5 million plus interest. Ivan refuses. So, Red tells him that the police are after him and he can get him out. When the police arrive, Ivan agrees to pay Red $8 million in exchange for an out. Ressler chases after them and Red shoots him. Although, it is clear after that it was just a ruse.

When Ivan is on the plane, he tells Red that it wasn’t him and he doesn’t know who it is. So, Ressler and Meera continue to look into fake Ivan. It turns out that a woman named Ruby Lee’s social security payments were increased. When they interview her, she tells them that she knows nothing about technology and that her 17-year-old grandson does all of the digital stuff.

Meanwhile, Liz realizes that Jolene’s last call was to her. She goes to the address where the call was made. Before she goes, she calls her husband and tells him the address. Shocker, Tom is inside doing all of his spy work. So, he rushes to wipe the scene of all details and burn them.

Image Courtesy of NBC

Liz walks in to see burner phones, guns and an empty board. She realizes that she isn’t alone. So she looks around. Tom is almost caught but he knocks her down and runs off. He runs to a payphone and says that he was forced to liquidate the scene.

Liz calls the detective and tells him what happens. Then, she asks him if she can be put on the case to keep tabs on everything.

I’m going to take a shot in the dark. I believe that they’re going to try to pin Jolene’s murder on Liz. She is getting involved in the investigation and Jolene’s last call was to Liz. There’s no way Tom is going to go down for it. So, Liz is somehow going to get the blame. Just a guess.

Ressler, Meera and Liz then go to Harrison, fake Ivan’s, school. We see him staring at a girl at lunch. He clearly has a little crush. When he sees the cops, he runs. When they chase him, he uses the skeleton key to set off the school alarm and escape.

Aram learned that Harrison plans to use the key to get Abby, the NSA task force leader’s daughter. When the FBI try to call the leader, all of the lights go out. Harrison used the key!

Harrison texts Abby with the key. He pretends to be her friend. He leads her to the DC metro station. He explains everything. He says that he loves her and that he is keeping her from moving to Colorado. Abby freaks out, like a normal person would, and tries to run away. Harrison chases her but she falls on the stairs and knocks herself out.

Before Harrison can help her, the FBI arrive. Harrison hops on a train. Liz, chasing the train, jumps in. She realizes that he is on a suicide mission and tries to convince him to stop the train. Meanwhile, everyone else in the FBI is worried about her. Liz convinces him just in time and he stops the train.

Let’s be honest here. Nobody cares about the silly teenager and his crush. Can we just talk about the ending of the episode? Tom got caught. Another clue was dropped that Red is Elizabeth’s father. Everything is crazy!

Liz goes home, exhausted, and tells Tom that she needs wine. She also tells him that someone knocked her down at Jolene’s apartment. She checks her email and sees the evidence for Jolene’s case. As she looks through the pictures she stops on a picture of the trashcan. It is Uncle Flippo in the can.

She has flashbacks about all of the Tom hints that she missed. She tears up and tells Tom that she’s fine and it’s a work thing. However, she goes to Red’s house. She tells him that she’s figured it out.

He shows her a music box that he made. She says that she recognized the song. She said that it was a song that her father used to sing her after she had nightmares. As the song plays, she lays her head in his lap and he tells her that everything is going to be ok.

I’m the only person in the world that wants Red to be Elizabeth’s father. The FBI has Elizabeth’s DNA and Red’s DNA. They would have to be the most incompetent FBI in the world not to notice the father/daughter similarities. Also, remember that the FBI interviewed the wife and daughter when he first went missing. I want to believe that, if they were looking for Red, they would keep tabs on the wife and daughter. But, hey, this is TV. Anything can happen.

I’m sure that the writers are headed toward that paternal revelation but I hope that it doesn’t come true. The Blacklist is great when it surprises all of us and revealing that Red is her father is too obvious.

What did you think of the episode? Do you think Red is Liz’s father?

Best Reddington Quote of the night: “Another fabulous example of your tax dollars at work. And another reason why I don’t pay taxes.”