There’s only one episode left this season for The Blacklist, so it’s safe to say that “Karakurt†is the buildup episode for the season finale. Conspiracies continue to be uncovered, and The Cabal is still one step ahead of our trusty task force. What is coming for Liz, Red, and the rest of the team?
The Cabal is planning an attack on a defense installation. The question on everyone’s mind now is where? We start the episode on a college campus where an older man is speaking about the Patriot Act. A student walks by, signs his petition, and shakes his hand. Only moments later the student is dead with blood streaming out of his eyes and ears and white liquid spewing from his mouth. What a brutal way to go.
During last week’s episode, Quon Zhang was hired to smuggle Karakurt into the country. Karakurt is referred to as “the left hand of the SVR,†Russia’s external intelligence agency. The task force knows that The Cabal are planning an act of terror in the United States that will start another Cold War. Liz and Ressler go to talk with their CIA counterparts in Russian intelligence to warn them that Karakurt is in the country and planning an attack. Sadly, the Russian intelligence officers don’t believe Liz and Ressler.
After they leave the CIA building, Samar gets word to Liz and Ressler that Karakurt made an IED that he left in a white moving truck. Liz spots the truck in the lot right next to the CIA building, but it’s too late. The bomb goes off, killing everyone inside. Now, it’s a race against the clock to see the bigger picture attack from Karakurt. When Liz and Ressler find a location on Karakurt from one of Red’s contacts, Harold Cooper gives them the go ahead to pursue him.
Tom Connolly shows up at the Post Office just in time to screw up everything. We know that Connolly has a position within The Cabal and only has their interests in mind. He threatens Cooper to mislead his team away from Karakurt. Connolly leads Liz and Ressler to Union Station. Liz runs into a man potentially matching Karakurt’s description, but he knocks her unconscious. Now, Cooper is worried that he sent him team into an ambush, all in an attempt to save his wife from prosecution for her illegal actions in keeping her husband safe.
The task force tracks down the CIA’s Confidential Informant, CI, while trying to figure out what the plan is for The Cabal and Karakurt. The CI was in contact with a doctor. The doctor’s lab reveals that he was building some sort of bio weapon. Luckily, Reddington just so happens to have a contact that can figure out what the weapon is and how it will be used. She surprises Liz and Red when she reveals that the bio weapon is not a Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) but a Weapon of Individual Destruction (WID), a customized virus synthesized to kill one individual. Now, they just need to find the intended target.
Reddington realizes that a weapon like this must be tested before they can use it on the intended target. They find the college student who exhibited the same symptoms that the virus would exhibit and ask his mother a few questions. It turns out that she had an affair with a senator, Senator Hawkins, and the senator is her son’s father. Now, the task force has their target. All of the high value players will be at a memorial honoring the fallen CIA agents and Russian counterparts, so the attack will happen there. They just had to prevent Senator Hawkins from coming into contact with Karakurt.
Liz seemingly prevents Senator Hawkins and Karakurt from ever touching and whisks him away in an FBI SUV. Moments later, the senator starts exhibiting symptoms. The picture is finally coming together. The senator became infected after touching Liz. Now, it appears that Liz is the attacker. And, since her parents were Russian spies, it will appear that Liz is a Russian spy, thus potentially creating the next World War. Scenes from the finale show that Liz will be on the run as the FBI’s most wanted.
Tom Keen wasn’t seen very much in this episode, but it’s clear that he is turning over a new leaf. He met in a diner with Liz to discuss their relationship. He still wants to run away with her on his boat and never come back. Maybe after being the FBI’s most wanted, she will reconsider. He even attempts to have her call him Jacob Phelps, his birth name. Liz seems to want to have some sort of relationship with Tom, but she’s too distracted with figuring out what happened to her parents and the events on the night of the fire.
