The Blacklist Redux:
Elizabeth Keen is a married mother who enjoys a quiet life with her husband (who is not Tom) and daughter until notorious criminal Raymond Reddington comes into it.
Ranko Zamani (No. 10)
The Banker (No. 26)
The Chemist (No. 127)
The Innkeeper (No. 183)
[The numbers can be found on the 'Classified' Blacklist Trailer]
As soon as the alarm clock begins to play our wake up song of the week: "Break Up the Concrete" by The Pretenders, it's time to start the day and there's no putting it off. I get up and stretch. I can feel the sunlight hitting my face. It's going to be a wonderful day.
Gabriel groans beside me. He takes my vacated pillow and smothers the back of his head with it, trying to drown out the sound of the song. On my way to the bathroom, I wrestle the pillow from his hands and kiss his cheek.
"Time to wake up, babe!" I tell him. "A very exciting day!" I tell him.
I go to my closet and change into a suit. It's my first day as an FBI profiler. I've worked very hard to get here. The D.O.D MISO (PsyOps) division wanted me, but I respectfully turned them down. That's where Gabe works. There literally can be no secrets between us, so there aren't. It's hard to keep things from someone trained in the psychological.
"I'll work on breakfast and coffee while you wake Mel," he grumbles out when I reappear in the bedroom.
I go into our five-year-old daughter's bedroom and smile at my sleeping angel. I walk over to her and sit on the bed. I brush her dark brown hair away from her face.
"Lanie, time to wake up. Wake up, baby," I tell her gently.
She suddenly pops out of bed with an exclamation of, "I'm up!" Her blue eyes, so like my own, are saying the opposite right now. But technically, she is awake.
She's beginning to come into her own person and it's a very entertaining person at that. She's such a happy kid and I'm truly thankful for that. She wasn't exactly planned, but she brought a whole new light to my life that I didn't know was missing.
Melanie and I walk into the kitchen to smell the glorious smell that is breakfast. It looks like eggs, sausage toast and coffee.
"Someone's been busy," I compliment Gabe.
"Never a dull moment in this house," he comments with a giant smile.
I don't think so either. I just smile back at him. After we've all breakfasted, I hand Melanie her backpack and we leave the house to take her to school. But as we exit the house, a small convey of what is obviously FBI vehicles show up on my front porch. I can even see a helicopter.
An emotionless-looking and serious Agent steps out of the car and walks hurriedly to me. He shows me his creds.
"Agent Elizabeth Keen? Agent Donald Ressler from the Washington Field Office. I need you to come with me right away."
"Never a dull moment," Gabe says in shock as he gazes at the parade that's appeared on our doorstep.
"It's going to be okay, Lanie," I tell my daughter with a kiss to the forehead. "Can you take her?" I ask Gabe.
"Yeah, I'll take care of this, don't worry," Gabe tells me while he rubs my arm comfortingly. I don't know what I'd do without him.
"I'll see you both later. I love you," I tell them before I step in the car.
"We love you, too," they say in unison.
The ride in the Chopper is awkward.
"Reddington: How do you know him?" I'm asked through the com.
"I don't. I know his file, but who doesn't," I reply.
"So you've never met?" Ressler asks me in a shocked voice.
"Of course not. I mean; he's a profiler's dream."
"Well, then. You're dream is about to come true because he said he wouldn't talk to anyone but you."
"You seem a bit put-off by that, Agent Ressler. You were his case Agent, weren't you?"
"Yes."
"Well, a man like Reddington wouldn't turn himself in unless it serves his purpose. He must want something from me. What it is, I couldn't begin to tell you because I don't know what the hell it would be," I tell him.
I soon find myself at FBI HQ sitting in the office of someone obviously important. I stroke the ugly scar on my palm as I wait.
I look to the corner of the room when I hear the sound of the door opening. AD Cooper walks into the room and I immediately rise to greet him.
"Agent Keen. Do I have that right?" AD Cooper greets me as he shakes my hand.
"Yes. Hello, Assistant Director Cooper," I greet him.
We both sit down and he just sighs. "Can you tell us what's going on?" he asks me.
No, I'm sorry AD Cooper, I can't tell you what's going on right now. All I know was that when my husband and I were going to take our daughter to school, the FBI shows up before I'm able to appear for duty.
"I honestly have no idea. I wish I could. I've gone through the same background checks, psychological profiles. I'm sure that OPR is trolling through my life right now and I can tell you that they won't find one thing connecting me to Reddington."
"They tell me today is your first day as a Profiler," Cooper says.
"Yes, sir."
"Do me a favor. Profile yourself."
"Well, my thesis paper was published —"
"I have your resume. It's quite impressive. Why choose the FBI over the MISO division of the DOD?"
"I don't like games, Assistant Director Cooper. Like most kids who raised themselves, I can show narcissistic tendencies. My old colleagues called me 'sir,' because they thought I was a bitch. I can be withdrawn at times —" I tell him.
"Do you find it odd that Reddington surrendered himself the day you started working as a profiler?" AD Cooper asks me.
"It suggests he was waiting for me."
"Why you? Specifically?"
"A man like Reddington doesn't do anything if it doesn't serve his purpose. He wants something from me." I respond. "And no. I have no idea of what that something is."
I find myself in what they "sentimentally call the Post Office."
Post Office or not, this is a Black Site I'm in. Ressler, Cooper and I are in something I'm going to call the Nest. I see Reddington restrained in the steel chair in the cage and he's just staring forward. He looks oddly comfortable in there. I imagine that man would be comfortable anywhere.
"Shall we do this?" I ask them rhetorically.
Cooper hits a button on the keyboard and the cage begins to back away from Reddington and I exit the nest-like viewing structure and descend down the steps. I can feel and see Reddington's eyes on me as I walk briskly towards him. I forgo of sitting in the chair and just stand in front of him. I've got to be anything but submissive towards him. I've got to assert my dominance right here, right now.
We just stare at each other for a while. He's looking at me like he hasn't seen me in a long time. I don't know why, it's not like I know this man.
He finally gives a slight chuckle.
"Agent Keen, what a pleasure," he says in his Boston-accented voice.
I decide to ignore the pleasantries. By the way Reddington's looking at me, I don't think we have the time for them. "Zamani," I say in a demand.
"Within the hour, Zamani will abduct the daughter of US General Daniel Ryker. There will be some kind of diversion, communications will be scrambled and he'll grab the girl. He wants to be out of the country in 36 hours. If you don't move quickly, she will die. That's what I know."
I immediately turn away without any hint of goodbye towards the shackled man. I go back into The Nest where I left Cooper and Ressler. "Send SWAT to the girl right away."
"He's bluffing," Ressler observes. I have a feeling that he and I are not going to see eye-to-eye.
"He's establishing his value. You asked me here, you asked my opinion so here it is: that girl is going to get taken," I tell the two men.
"I've been the case agent on this guy for five years —"
I just scoff. "And five years has gotten you what?" I ask him heatedly. Ressler's just pissed because Reddington wants to work with me and not the guy who's spent most of his career hunting him down.
Ressler and I just look to Cooper for our orders.
"Ressler, go with SWAT to pick up the girl," Cooper orders him. "Keen, stay here and Profile Zamani."
"Yes, sir," I tell him excitedly. I'm a bit too excited to crawl inside the head of a terrorist, I suppose, but it's the job. It's the one thing I know for sure. It's the one thing I know I can do correctly.
"What do we got on Zamani?" I ask the agents and techs in the War Room.
"Ranko Sinisa Zamani: Serbian National educated in the US."
I immediately start the profile: "Okay, so he's smart, organized. Plans ahead."
I bring out my cell phone and dial Ressler's number that I was given earlier.
"Ressler, if you get a hint of something funny going on, you get out of there. Zamani's organized, educated — he's going to ambush you."
I hang up the phone and stay with the techs. "Give me background on Zamani — friends, family, anything you can about his home life."
"CIA says he carries Nipah virus, it's terminal," one of the techs tells me.
This is good. For the profile at least, since he's already dying, he's probably going to go out by suicide by cop. "Dying makes him dangerous — makes him think he's got nothing to live for. He's probably going to make us kill him. What about Ryker? What's the connection between them? Since children are involved, I'd bet that it has something to do with family and his homeland."
"General Ryker assisted NATO troops in the Bihac pocket region. He bombed a chemical weapons facility there, —"
"— Poisoning the village, yeah. So now, Zamani is going to do anything in his power to take from Ryker what Ryker took from Zamani. Nothing like a little revenge for breakfast," I quip.
Some of the techs just laugh.
I go back towards the box that cages Reddington.
This time I join him inside the box and sit on the metal slab that is supposed to be a bed.
"Zamani wants revenge for what Ryker did to his family. Ryker poisoned Zamani's home, killing his family, so he's going to use the General's daughter for revenge," I tell him as I sit down on the metal slab.
"Very good," Reddington tells me. "Family does make us act in an irrational manner. I mean, look at you: Abandoned by a father who was a career criminal and a mother who died of weakness and shame. You felt so betrayed by your own family that when the newest member of it was in your womb, you ran."
I just shrug, but I find my thumb going towards my scar to stroke it. Once I'm aware of the action, I quit. "You know my history, so what? You requested to speak to me, so I'd be under the impression that you were stupid if you didn't know about me and you don't strike me as stupid."
"It's hard, isn't it?" he suddenly asks me.
I don't exactly know what he means so I'm just going to tiptoe around him. Well, my version of tiptoeing.
"Profiling Zamani? No, not really. It's my job."
He just gives me a slight laugh. "Not that. I mean, balancing work and being a mother."
"Only those who don't want it to work can't make it work," I tell him defiantly. "At least I'm not one who sees my family as an anchor that needs to be cut loose. You might have it in your mind that you were trying to protect them, but what did you do, really? You made them vulnerable. Do you even know what happened to them?"
My phone suddenly rings and Ressler's name is on my screen. "Everything go okay?" I ask him.
"Yes, the girl and the General are in protective custody."
He suddenly cuts me off.
"Wasn't that rude?" I ask myself aloud. I look back to Reddington. "Well, Zamani's plans have been hijacked. But we still don't know who he's working with or where to find him, and for that, I'm going to need your help."
Reddington smiles weirdly at me after I tell him that.
I step forward to unshackle him and the guards immediately come forward, but I wave them off. After he's free of the chair, I bring out my handcuffs to cuff him. As I do so, he gently grabs my wrist and rotates it so that my scar is visible to him.
"I've noticed how you stroke it," Reddington tells me. I see his eyes rove over the peculiar shape of my scar.
He's asking me how I got it and to pacify him, I decide to answer. "There was a fire," I respond as he lets me cuff him.
"Someone tried to hurt you?" His tone is somewhere between a question and a statement.
"I don't remember," I respond.
And that's that.
We go towards the War Room and find that pictures are now up on the boards.
"At least you know what Zamani looks like," Reddington comments as he looks over the photos.
"You going to help us or heckle us?" I ask him sharply.
He walks along the evidence boards and laughs as he spots one of the pictures. He just laughs. "I haven't seen him in years. Very interesting fellow. Totally unrelated to this."
Reddington then goes to another photo. He takes it down off the board and puts it on top of another photo. "You're pointing at the wrong guy here. This is 'The Chemist.' He's a highly regarded munitions expert. Left MIT to work for the Russians. Last two years, very expensive freelancer."
He continues to look at the board. "I don't know what the Hell any of this is. Ah, the German: Banker, name's Reinhardt. He's most likely moving the money."
"So, Zamani's 36 hour timeline suggested a singular event. Given The Chemist and the Banker's involvement, there was probably going to be some sort of bomb and Beth Ryker was going to be delivering that bomb. Zamani was going to use Beth to settle the score."
"I have an acquaintance," Reddington tells me. "We call him 'The Innkeeper.' He runs a series of safe houses. Lean on him, he'll know where to find The Chemist. Find The Chemist, you'll find Zamani."
"Where is this Innkeeper?" I ask him.
"If I tell you, you have to give me something in return. No more restraints, no more cages. If you want to capture Zamani, he has to believe that I'm moving freely, in touch with old friends, staying in my favorite hotels."
"You think we're going to put you up at the Sheridan?" Cooper asks him.
"Keep your Star Rewards Points, Harold. The Sheridan is not my scene," Reddington tells Cooper.
I'm with Ressler (who's on the phone) and other field agents as we watch Reddington eat by himself. It's got to be a lonely life he leads. He knows that by having close relationships, he opens himself up to vulnerability and a man like that doesn't accept vulnerability. You don't last long in the criminal world if you do.
"Found the Lab. Interrogating the Chemist as we speak," Ressler reports as he comes back into the viewing room with the monitors linked up to Reddington's hotel suite.
"What about the bomb?" I ask him.
"Looks like we got there before he built it," he reports.
I pack up my legal pad full of notes that I will use to write up my Profile on Reddington and leave the hotel. I need to go home. I need to see Gabriel and Melanie and I need to shower.
I walk into the house. After a day with Reddington, a relaxing dinner at home is just what I need. I walk in to find the house eerily quiet and dark. For the past five years, this house would be neither of those things. By now, I'd have a mass of little girl attached to my legs.
This is not good, the little voice in my head tells me.
"Gabe?" I ask into the empty air of the house. "Lanie?"
When I receive no reply that is when I start to really panic. I move into the dining room and find Gabe sitting there. He's duct taped to one of the chairs and has blood all over him.
"Gabe!" I say as I begin to walk forward, but I see Gabe shake his head.
I hear the sound of a gun and see Zamani walk out of the shadows, aiming the gun at my head.
"Sit down!" he orders me.
As he's got a gun to my face, I follow his instruction. It doesn't take my training to know that he'd use the gun he has in his hands.
"Gabriel and I, we have been talking, trying to figure out how you knew I was in town, how you figured out my plan to take the General's daughter."
I pay no attention to Zamani. "Gabe, look at me," I beg of him.
"Your people came for my Chemist friend. You saved me payment for services, for that, I thank you. You know, Reddington, my old friend, he is always so obsessed with you, not sure why," Zamani tells me.
"Where's my daughter?" I ask Zamani.
"Your daughter is to become a martyr," Zamani says as he drives a knife into Gabe's abdomen. Zamani then leaves.
I scream right along with Gabe. I take tape off of his mouth and he whispers one word to me before he passes out. That one word is "Bernstein." It's our code word that means forget about me and go do what you need to do. It comes from the Bernstein Bears children's books.
Time to go into Mama Bear mode.
I pick up the phone and call 911. As soon as the paramedics come, I go straight to the hotel.
I go barging into Reddington's suite. I find him at the dining table doing something with a newspaper. It looks like he's trying to do the crossword in pen.
"He's not done!" I scream at Reddington. "Did you send him? Are you the one who did this?"
"Did what?" Reddington asks me nonchalantly.
"He was in my house!" I shout.
"Calm down and tell me what happened," Reddington tells me.
"CALM DOWN?! You expect me to calm down?! He's got my daughter! My daughter has taken the place of Beth Ryker and you know what that means? It means that he's going to strap a bomb to her! Because of you! He said your name!"
Reddington's face shifts away from the hard bravado.
"Ah, I see. Was that not the plan? You get your friend to make a house visit, get him to tell me that you're obsessed with me, but taking my daughter was not part of the deal, is that it? If anything happens to her, I will personally make sure they bury you in a goddamn hole so deep — or better yet, I'm sure there is some sick, twisted, sadistic people out there who'd just love the chance for a little sit down with you. And if you think I'm incapable of doing something like that, you keep one thing in mind: you're nothing to me."
I march back out of the room. I put my cell phone to my ear and call Ressler. I fill him in on what happened.
"Since we foiled Zamani's plans, he's going to want the biggest cluster of kids around, so I'd recommend securing all zoos, parks, playgrounds and the like."
Based on a whim, I go to the Zoo first. I seem to have been the first Agent to show up. I show my credentials to the girl behind the entrance and she allows me in.
I don't want to call Melanie's name because she might run to me and trigger the bomb that could be on a pressure switch. I look around for her. I finally see her on a secluded bench. I get out my cell and call Ressler.
"DC Zoo," is all I say before I hang up and move towards Melanie. "Lanie!" I shout at her as I run towards her. "Stay there, baby! Stay right there."
"Mommy!" she sobs out in relief.
I look into her terrified blue eyes and her fear leaches into me. I unzip her jacket to find wires all around her.
"He said not to take it off," Melanie tells me.
"Good girl," I tell her.
I look at her backpack and see that there is less than three minutes remaining. My cell phone rings and I immediately answer it.
"Whatever you do, don't touch it," Reddington tells me.
Easy enough for him to say, he's not here and this isn't his daughter sitting here terrified with a bomb strapped to her.
"There's less than three minutes left. I have to evacuate and call the bomb squad."
"You're people will never get there in time. My friend is on his way," Reddington tells me.
He hangs up after that. Soon after that, a man comes running towards us and plops a bag down on the bench beside Melanie. He starts talking to me in Russian. I can only understand some of what he's saying. I'm too flustered to be listening to him. I can speak and understand Russian just fine. I just don't feel like carrying on a conversation with the guy.
"Are we going to be okay?" Melanie asks me as
"Of course, baby. We're going to be okay," I tell her as I move the hair away from her face.
She grabs my wrist on the way down and starts stroking my scar. When I hear the bomb start to beep rapidly, I lean my forehead against my daughter's and I do something I haven't done in over a decade: I pray.
It apparently worked. He shouts out in victory. He takes the bomb out of the backpack Melanie has on and starts running away. As soon as she's clear, I pick her up and hold her to me. She wraps her legs around my waist and sobs into my neck.
"Consider the device his payment," Reddington says as he appears.
Just then the Agents start swarming in like bees to the hive. Ressler is the first to appear. He immediately goes to Reddington and cuffs him.
I sit Melanie and myself down on the bench.
"We're going to be a great team," Reddington tells me.
"Go burn in Hell," I tell him, standing up. "Better yet, stay there," I say in passing.
I walk us to the car. Lanie's calmed down a bit. I look into the round, young face that houses my own blue eyes and I feel at peace.
"What d'ya say we go see Daddy?" I ask her.
Lanie gives me a big grin in response and just hugs herself tighter to me.
I wonder what they're doing with Reddington. I hope that they're going put him in his place and not give in to the insane demands that he no doubt has. I imagine that there is an immunity deal somewhere in there. I seriously hope that they won't.
Lanie and I arrive at the hospital and I walk towards the room number the reception desk gave me. As we walk hand-in-hand towards the room, I can hear two male voices laughing.
"Are we interrupting?" I ask them.
The man Gabe is talking is a Doctor.
"Hello, Mrs. and Miss Keen," Gabriel greets us with a smile.
"Daddy!" Melanie says excitedly as she jumps onto Gabe's bed.
"Oof! Easy, Mel-Bell," Gabriel tells her softly as he carefully brings her into his arms. He gives her a raspberry on the cheek.
"Take it easy, all right?" the doctor tells him.
"Thanks, Doc," Gabriel responds.
Once were alone, Gabriel just looks at me. "Good job, Mama Bear."
I just nod silently. This is slightly awkward.
"Number 4 turned himself in," I tell him. He knows who Number 4 is.
"I figured it had something to do with Reddington when I heard Zamani say his name."
"I'm so sorry," I tell him. I walk forward and grab his hand and keep it in mine.
Gabriel has a look of pure confusion on his face. "What for, babe?"
"Reddington's request was that he speak with me. Whatever reason he had for surrendering has to deal with me. He knows about me, Gabe. He knows my history. He even knows that I ran when I first found out I was pregnant."
Tears start pouring out of my eyes before I can stop them.
"Hey," Gabe tells me softly. "You didn't hold the knife. You didn't tell Zamani to come into our home. The only thing you did was save our girl."
"I know, but —" I begin to say.
"No 'buts.' Listen to me; Reddington is a narcissistic psychopath who wouldn't blink an eye while burning the world down were it to serve his purpose. Trust me — who do you think got him to Brussels so Ressler could try and kill him?"
"What?" I ask him, bewildered.
"The Brussels Op was a DOD/FBI joint task force which is why I plan on asking Cooper if I can join the Reddington task force."
"You're serious?" I ask him.
"Deadly."
"You're going to have to Profile me," I tell Gabe.
Gabe's green eyes shine with the confusion that is clearly plastered all over his face. "Profile you?"
"Alive or dead, I'm Reddington's victim."