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Lord Baltimore” is the first episode of Season 2 of The Blacklist, the twenty third episode overall and the Season 2 premiere. It aired on September 22, 2014 on NBC.

Synopsis[]

The episode opens with Reddington being transported along a jungle road by some child soliders, they destroy a military vehicle following them with a bazooka and then bring Red to a Congolese warlord named Yaabari. Red offers Yaabari 3,000,000 dollars in cash for the name of a bounty hunter who has been hired by Berlin to kill him. Yaabari is belligerent and tells his men to kill Red and keep the money, but Red had planned ahead and used 3 Hellfire missiles he had recently acquired to attack the base and get Yaabari to give him a name, “Lord Baltimore”. Red sets the cash on fire and leaves.

At the Post Office, Walter Gary Martin and Donald Ressler talk to Deputy Attorney General, Reven Wright, who is angry that Red burned the money (apparently it was government blackbook dollars). Agent Martin, the interim director of this task force while Harold Cooper is in recovery because of his near death at the end of Berlin: Conclusion, says that the situation is under control. Reven Wright isn’t satisfied because Red has given out 12,000,000 dollars in blackbag cash to his friends and says she wants to talk to him. Ressler tells her that’s great, but around the Post Office they have a thing, Reddington only talks to Elizabeth Keen.

The scene cuts to Liz lying on her back in a motel room looking at a ceiling covered in newspaper clippings, reports, and photos of Tom, Red, and more. She looks like she’s been there a while as she brushes her teeth, eats something from a takeout box, then grabs some documents and goes to meet Red. He shares the lead with her about Lord Baltimore who is an experienced tracker of sorts, using internet data, status updates, etc. to find people. Red says it’s their first lead and if they find Lord Baltimore they’ll find Berlin. While they talk, a mysterious person in a car watches Liz through binoculars from a distance.

At the Post Office, Liz tells the team about the case. Agent Martin is less then enthusiastic, but Aram knows all about him. He pulls up a file on Rowan Mills who works for a big data firm and recently had 250,000 dollar deposited into her individual retirement account then quickly transferred to an offshore account. Ressler and Liz go talk to her, but she claims that she’s the victim not the criminal here. She also shares that she was targeted before in August and that the information gathered could be used to track someone. Liz notices that she was fidgeting with her ring nervously while talking to them. In the car, she points this out to Ressler and talks about how easy it is to track someone, but he just thinks she’s being paranoid and that’s why she’s living out of trunk, using aliases, and moving motels all the time. Liz says she feels like she’s being watched, while Ressler says she needs to stop and that Tom is dead. Liz asks Ressler if he has talked to Dr. Friedman yet to which he gets defensive and says the Bureau doesn’t care about their mental health and he doesn’t need to talk to a psychiatrist. Liz disagrees and says in her professional opinion he should go talk to Dr. Friedman.

A man (Marcus) walks into a dirty apartment to meet Berlin. He is an associate of Lord Baltimore, says that they have found Reddington, but because the feds are involved now they will require additional fees. Berlin smashes his head against the tub and holds him underwater for a bit before saying no additional fees and that he just wants Red within 24 hours. Meanwhile, Rowan listens to a voice message telling her that they know about her chat with Liz and Ressler and threatening her not to talk to the FBI again.

Of course, she tells Ressler and Liz right away. While they are talking Aram calls and says she’s innocent because a lot of data was stolen, but from the outside. He also says it doesn’t make sense because Red is a Luddite and doesn’t use modern technology so why would Berlin hire Lord Baltimore to find him, unless they’re actually tracking someone else, maybe someone on the team. The FBI raids an apartment and brings Rowan there to see something, while walking in the man who visited Berlin is show standing there and makes eye contact with Rowan. The apartment is full of evidence incriminating Rowan, but she denies all of it and says she has never been there before in her life.

The scene cuts to Harold Cooper walking into his home to see Dembe and Reddington sitting there. Red tries to convince Cooper to come back to the task force and gives him his only copy of “their adventure in Kuwait” as a reason to come back. Cooper says that he is out and wants to go to the Dominican with his wife. Red tells him he knows about the diagnoses and what the doctors found while at the hospital, but says he is strong and can still survive.

Back at the apartment Rowan tells the Liz and Ressler that the only explanation for the apartment is her twin sister Nora, who supposedly died seven years ago in Mosul, must actually be alive and doing all this as Lord Baltimore. The hooded watcher from earlier is again shown wearing gloves and watching through binoculars.

Red and Dembe walk into a hotel and go up the stairs, while Red tells Dembe that he doesn’t recognize the concierge and he wants to know who he is. As they walk up the stairs a helicopter shows up and a team of men breach the building, taking Reddington and knocking out Dembe. Red believes Lord Baltimore took him, but it turns out to actually be Mossad. He confidently tells her that he will be released within the hour, she laughs.

Liz and Ressler are seen interviewing Rowan, her mother, and Nora’s team leader in Syria about Nora. They learn that she was a troubled child, molested by her uncle from ages 7 to 12, and also the bravest member of her team. Rowan tells them that Nora pressured her to get information about a competing security firm she could use to get the upper hand and hit Rowan when she refused. Her team leader tells Ressler how she died, but also confirms that the body was never recovered. They release Rowan because they think Nora is still out there and they don’t have cause to hold her. Red tells Samar Navabi that he knows who she is by telling her about her younger brother Shahin Navabi who was killed in the 2009 Pishin bombing. Then he asks how she found him and she explains that they placed a traceable dye into the kind of ties he likes (Zegna) to find him.

Dr. Friedman finds Ressler at the Post Office and says she could suspend him, but he ignores her and goes to talk to Rowan’s mother again. Aram tells Liz that he has figured out how Lord Baltimore tracks his victims and that he isn’t looking for Reddington, but someone else. Agent Martin shows up to where Mossad is holding Reddington and remands him into his custody. Red tells Samar on his way out he knows who ordered the bombing that killed her brother and it wasn’t the people who publicly claimed it. She already knows and alludes to having him killed already. Liz tells Red that Lord Baltimore wasn’t looking for him, but someone else. He quickly realizes it’s a woman named Naomi Hyland and tells her to send units to protect her now. She asks him why and he tells her that she is his wife.

We cut to a group of couples sitting together discussing atheism. Naomi is there and she goes to the kitchen where she notices a man at the backdoor. A group of US Marshals enter and tell her that they have a credible threat and she needs to go with them. She starts crying and tells her husband shes sorry and then says, “He’s back isn’t he”? Rowan is in her apartment looking at a photo when the man who made eye contact with her earlier walks in. She freaks out, but he tells her he is Marcus and he isn’t their to hurt her. He puts on a record for her to listen to and tells her to come back, to remember. Ressler is back at her mother’s house and goes to back where he finds Nora Mills body and realizes that Rowan is living with split personality disorder. Rowan wakes up and asks Marcus how long she was out.

Ressler notifies Liz who is at Naomi’s house listening to her talk about how she doesn’t want to give everything up again and how hard it is being Reddington’s wife. Rowan, Marcus and a team show up and take Naomi. Liz is shot with a stun gun, but is able to shake it off and shoot Marcus before he can kill her and then runs outside, sees Rowan walking down the street and tackles her. Naomi is taken to Berlin, who’s cut off hand has been replaced by a hook.

Liz and Ressler interrogate Marcus and Rowan, but neither of them are talking. Marcus says they shouldn’t ask him, but Nora because she put it together. Liz realizes that Rowan and Nora don’t know the other exists or what the other does because of the dissociative personality disorder and they need to find the trigger for Nora. She goes to Marcus to find out and then uses it to switch Rowan to Nora using the song that Marcus played earlier. Nora comes back and tells Liz, but they get there too late. All of Lord Baltimore’s men have been killed except one who gives Red a message. Naomi tells Berlin she can’t help him find Reddington, but Berlin just tells her to lay down and then takes her picture. Red and Dembe go to the apartment building from the message where he finds a locket with a picture inside it.

Liz tells Ressler that Red didn’t find Naomi. He asks if a Mossad agent really captured Reddington. Dr. Friedman comes in and wants to talk to Ressler, but he isn’t having it and has a controlled outburst about how he feels. Liz is sitting on a bench as her lawyer comes up and tells her that her marriage with Tom was legally annulled by a judge. She tells him she’s keeping his name “Keen” because he was a fake and it was never his name. Ressler is shown taking pills to cope and the hooded person is still watching Liz as she looks out the window. She walks back into the Post Office with a new hair do as Aram meets her all smiles and tells her Martin is no longer interim director. She asks who they answer to now and turns around to see Harold Cooper back as the director.

Red gets a package from Berlin with a cell phone in it. He answers it and it’s Berlin whom he ask where Naomi is and is taunted that she would be sent to Red “piece by piece”. He opens the other box in the package and sees one of Naomi’s fingers inside it.

Press Release[]

RED CONFRONTS AN IMPORTANT PERSON FROM HIS PAST - Red continues to battle Berlin and faces a new threat from a man named Lord Baltimore. An important person comes back from the past into Red's world. Meanwhile, Liz tries to move forward with her life after her showdown with Tom.

Number on The Blacklist[]

  • 104

Unanswered Questions[]

  1. How long will the Milos Kirchoff storyline be used?
  2. Raymond Reddington
    1. Red's behavior was more reckless than usual, he could have died before or during the meeting with General Yaabari.
    2. Red's offer to surrender his evidence of the Kuwait incident to Harold Cooper implies that Red's syndicate is deserting him.
    3. Will Red change his necktie and fashion buying habits?
    4. Red aided the FBI less than usual. He did not have to aid Liz other than the basic information about the Blacklister.
      1. A: Red was able to confirm that the gossip/rumor was true, meaning that the FBI could then actively pursue Lord Baltimore.
      2. Q: I am referring to constant action. Here he gave Keen the starting evidence and let the FBI do the majority of the work. At the end Red gained the message from Milos Kirchoff. In previous episodes and “Monarch Douglas Bank”, he gives Keen the starting evidence, supplies aid when Keen needs help, and gains something at the end.
      3. A: Telling the FBI the name of the target (Naomi Hyland) surely counts as aid when needed and he gained Samar Navabi as an ally.
      4. Q: Considering her actions in “Monarch Douglas Bank”, Samar's actions may have been pre-arranged with Red to give her credibility with the FBI.
  3. Elizabeth Keen
    1. Evidence of Red's victory over Keen, her behavior towards Nora and her handler. Such as not offering medical attention for the leg wound.
    2. Liz adopted Red's tactics of constantly changing her living conditions. This allows Red to offer suggestions and help with improving her techniques.
    3. Liz's paranoia about Tom was severe. How long will it last?
    4. Why did Liz keep the last name of Keen? It was a false name used by Tom Keen.
    5. Why did Keen choose an annulment over a divorce?
      1. A: Maybe she is Roman Catholic.
      2. A: The difference is that an annulment is retroactive and basically makes it so that the marriage is considered never to have happened. Also, a divorce would require the other party's consent. Since Tom (which may not even be his real identity) turned out to have married Liz just to keep tabs on her and worked for a criminal, an annulment seems like the better option.
    6. Who is conducting reconnaissance/surveillance on Elizabeth Keen?
      1. A: Tom Keen is not dead. See the glasses on the dashboard.
  4. The FBI
    1. Did the U.S. government supply the AGM-114 Hellfire missiles? Deputy Attorney General Reven Wright complained about Red's use of the FBI's slush fund. Walter Gary Martin defended the expenses as needed for the Milos Kirchoff hunt.
      1. A: Red bought them with the money from the US government.
    2. How did Red convince the FBI to let him spend at least 12,000,000 dollars of their money?
    3. Why did Mossad and the FBI cooperate?
  5. Mossad
    1. Why did Mossad agent Samar Navabi kidnap Red?
      1. A: On the orders of Walter Gary Martin.
      2. Q: Martin could have ordered Keen to contact Red. Samar was skeptical that the FBI would overrule her.
      3. A: After what happened in “Berlin”, Liz may not have agreed, or would certainly have alerted Red.
    2. Why did Mossad extract Red using an attack in public? Using a helicopter gunship will result public outrage. The other guests at the hotel attacked are likely high-ranking politicians.
      1. A: They probably used a cover story that they were making a film or TV show and all the other people were extras. Only Dembe Zuma is shown as suffering any injury. Red noticed that the usual staff were not on duty.
      2. Q: The building and windows were shown suffering damage. That means real ammunition was used. What did it gain Mossad to use a public extraction? They could have kidnapped Red similar to his tactics in “Madeline Pratt”.
  6. Nora Mills
    1. How many of Nora's other clients will be arrested?
    2. Will Nora Mills be granted release from prison if her dissociative identity disorder is cured?
      1. A: Nora stole Rowan's identity. Nora also committed murder. If she is cured of thinking she is Rowan, she would go back to her original identity.
    3. How was Nora able to keep her condition a secret? Why did Rowan not suspect something was wrong because of the missing time she experienced when Nora was in control?
    4. Why did Keen and Ressler believe the polygraph (lie detector) results? The methods of lie detection can be defeated by training the subject to control their body language. In “Lie Detector (1954)” the expert admits that polygraph (lie detector) is not always reliable.
    5. Why did Nora feel guilty about murdering Rowan? She followed through on committing the murder.
      1. A: She clearly was not in a good place, mentally and emotionally, if she committed the murder and developed dissociative identity disorder in the first place. It also sounds like it was a crime of passion, i.e., not pre-meditated, but something done in the heat of the moment that she later wished she had not done.
    6. Why did Nora leave through the front door where the FBI and police could see her? If she had used the back door then Keen would have not seen her.
      1. A: Rowan exited the front door. Nora reset herself after the shooting
    7. Why was Aram Mojtabai following the urban legend of Lord Baltimore?
      1. A: Aram is the information technology geek. Of course he is interested in these kind of things.
  7. Rowan Mills
    1. Why did Elizabeth Keen and/or Donald Ressler suspect that Rowan was dead?
    2. Why did Ressler assume a mental “split” after finding the body?
      1. A: It was an explanation for the lie detector result.
    3. Why did the Mill's mother keep the body of Rowan?
      1. A: She did not, Nora did, presumably as part of her guilt complex. When Ressler arrived to investigate, the mother said “Rowan” did not want anyone going back there.
  8. Yaabari
    1. During the opening chase, both the insurgent and goverment forces showed incompetent training. The insurgents displayed reckless behavior despite the danger. The government forces could not hit the jeep at close range and did not attempt to evade despite the rocket-propelled grenade being in plain sight.
      1. A: The insurgent forces, at least, have the excuse of being untrained soldiers.
    2. Who was firing the AGM-114 Hellfire missiles?
    3. How did Red know the location of Yaabari's camp?
    4. How did General Yaabari know about the bounty hunters hired by Milos Kirchoff?
      1. A: In case he found Red and could then sell him to the hunters.
    5. What happened to General Yaabari's ear?
      1. A: He lost one of his ears due to a war wound.
  9. Why did Nora's team alternate between bullets and tasers?
  10. Was Naomi Hyland in protective custody? She stated that the FBI believed her claims of innocence. In “The Judge”, Admiral Richard Abraham was not forced to resign.
    1. A: She was in the United States Federal Witness Protection Program to protect her from Red.
  11. Is Ressler in danger of wrecking his career?
    1. A: No.
  12. What is wrong with Harold Cooper? Both Cooper and Red implied that Cooper's time is running out.
    1. A: It could be a type of cancer since it was discovered at the hospital.
    2. A: Or aneurysm. Or a lot of other things. Too early to speculate.
  13. Why was Milos Kirchoff sitting in ice water?
    1. A: An ice bath is used by some athletes to help in recovery after muscle strain, Milos Kirchoff left the hospital before his recovery was complete.

Slanders on the FBI[]

  1. In addition to Ruth Kipling, many members of The Blacklist seem to be regarded as legends or myths by law enforcement. Even Raymond Reddington has had trouble finding information on them. Considering the network of informers the FBI has, they should have at least heard the same rumors.
    1. A: Some members of the FBI have heard some of the rumours, Aram Mojtabai knew about Lord Baltimore, Meera Malik knew about Wujing, Donald Ressler knew about Mako Tanida, and the entire team had heard about General Ludd's operation.
  2. The agents/marshals outside the Hyland home were not in sight of other team members, nor did they have open radio links as a fallback. The FBI knew about Milos Kirchoff's efficiency and ruthlessness.

Trivia[]

  • One of the other bounty hunters mentioned is called “Orci”, named after executive producer J.R. Orci.
  • “Lord Baltimore” is a reference to the movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”, where the character name comes from the Indian tracker.

Cast[]

Main star[]

Guest star[]

Co-star[]

  • Flint Beverage as Herman Gossling
  • Jennifer Kim as FBI Tech
  • Tom Hammond as Husband #1
  • Neil Hellegers as Husband #2
  • Pat Patterson as Wife #1
  • Kate Grimes as Wife #2
  • Amani Emanuel as Child Soldier #1
  • Derek Johnson as Child Soldier #2
  • Bluend Mulbah as Child Soldier #3
  • John-Patrick Driscoll as Inspector Stevens
  • Jeff Talbott as Liz's Lawyer
  • Paul Nugent as Bellboy
  • Jeremiah Wiggins as Concierge
  • Hwalan Shub as Korean Woman

Gallery[]

External Links[]


Season 2 Episodes
 · Lord Baltimore  · Monarch Douglas Bank  · Dr. James Covington  · Dr. Linus Creel  · The Front  · The Mombasa Cartel  · The Scimitar  · The Decembrist  · Luther Braxton  · Luther Braxton: Conclusion  · Ruslan Denisov  · The Kenyon Family  · The Deer Hunter  · T. Earl King VI  · The Major  · Tom Keen  · The Longevity Initiative  · Vanessa Cruz  · Leonard Caul  · Quon Zhang  · Karakurt  · Tom Connolly  ·
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