Tonight on NBC their hit drama The Blacklist starring James Spader airs with an all-new Friday, April 30, 2021, episode and we have your The Blacklist recap below. On tonight’s The Blacklist Season 8, Episode 15 called, “The Russian Knot”, as per the NBC synopsis, “The Task Force hatches a plan to steal a Soviet-era cipher machine needed to decrypt coded messages. Townsend puts Liz’s loyalty to the test. Red and Dembe are called to an unexpected meeting.
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In tonight’s episode of The Blacklist, the episode begins with Townsend who calls Liz to join him at his house where he has the four men he gave the task of going after Reddington. The four have plastic bags on their heads and they are taped around their necks. Townsend has a knife and he stabs the first man. Liz tells him that he is insane, he puts a plastic bag over her head. He ends up killing all the men and taking the plastic bag of Liz’s head when she says she has a lead to get Reddington.
Reddington is sitting on the park bench, Dembe joins him and he tells him that Anne had a daughter. Dembe tells him that Paula called, Glen’s mother, she wants Red to call or come by the house, she said irons in the fire, hot ones and it is serious business.
Red meets with Cooper and tells him that “love is knot” is a clue to decrypting a code. The Soviet-era cipher machine decrypts coded messages. And if they want to decrypt the message, they need to get a hold of that machine.
Cooper meets with the task force and they hatch a plan to get the cipher machine, Reddington made it clear there is no diplomatic angle here. Meanwhile, Liz is hatching a plan of her own.
The museum is holding a fundraiser on Friday night, the task force plans on making their move then. Cooper tells the team if they get that machine, they have a good chance of finding out what Liz is up to.
Cooper and the task force are going through the front door, while Liz and her people go through the basement. Cooper is there saying that one of the paintings is stolen so he has an excuse to gain access, it is a painting that Red donated. Aram works on getting the cameras bypassed in the room where the cipher machine is located, Ressler and Park are there. Aram tells them there should be a sensor on and it is not.
Townsend calls Liz, he tells her that he had a dream that he was at a wedding, but he wasn’t, he was at a funeral and Reddington was in the casket, and Liz is holding Townsend’s hand. Liz hangs up, she has to concentrate. Meanwhile, in the room where Ressler and Park are, the cipher machine basically falls through the floor. Ressler looks down and he sees Liz, she tells her people to run.
Cooper is looking at the painting with the head of the Belarusian museum while Park has caught up with Liz and they are fighting in the basement, one of Liz’s men hit her on the head and knock her out. Liz comes around the corner, Cooper is there and she tells him that she needs the cypher or she is dead. Cooper asks her if there is any of the old Liz there, she leaves. Aram runs up near Ressler and they both check on Park.
Dembe and Red visit Paula, Red asks her if there is anything she would like to tell them. She says she knows who he is, she hands him a manuscript named, “My Name Ray,” that Glen wrote. She goes on to tell Red that she is retired from Bell and since Glen died, things have gotten tough. She went back to work at the phone company part-time, if he could loan her a. hundred a seventy dollars, it would help. Red gives her the money and tells her it is a gift for her continued discretion. She wants to pay him back, he says that they will say that he is buying Glen’s manuscript.
Cooper has the cipher machine, he switched it with a fake. Cooper calls Red and tells him that they have the cipher machine and the museum has he fake. Cooper asks Red how Liz knew they were there and Ressler says Liz acted like Townsend had no idea she was there. Red says all that matters is that they have the machine and he will now be able to read the text. Paula tells Red that she had dinner with Ernie at Perkins, she sweet-talked him. She told him she found out she had a half-sister and was desperate to get an address. She got it for her, her sister’s name is Emma Foster.
Liz calls Ressler and tells him that Red is lying to him, he told him that she wanted the device to keep him from reading messages from her and Townsend. She was there to get the machine to read Red’s messages. He uses the knot to decrypt messages in the classified ads in the Washington Post. He didn’t want her to read what he is doing. She says she is not the enemy, Red is, and wants him to let her prove it to them. Ressler explains everything to the task force and tells them Liz wants to meet them. Cooper says if this proves finally that Red is a Russian double agent, then they want to listen to her. Ressler tells him that Liz wants proof that they are not going to double-cross her. Cooper tells him he has his word. He calls Liz, and Cooper puts the plan in motion to double-cross her.
Red goes to see Emma Foster, Anne’s daughter, who didn’t know what happened to her until Red told the news.
Ressler is in the park, he is going to meet with Liz while Cooper, Park is in a van. Ressler sits down with Liz. The task force has eyes on Liz, she tells Ressler that she does know she is right about this and she wished he would believe her. Liz looks around and sees people watching her, she starts to run. Ressler tells her that they lied to him, he swears. He runs after him but soon finds that there are many women in the same red jacket and ball cap, put there to confuse them on who the real Liz Keen is.
Red shows Emma her mother’s estate, it is three million. She asks him if he knew that she was in love with a wanted fugitive and she was worried that the people that were after him would come after her. Red says he doesn’t know what to say, she says she wants to remember her mother’s love and kindness, not the criminal that she was involved in. He says her mother wanted her to have everything she could give her, and that is this money, she can pay all her bills and donate the rest if she wants. He tells her that she died by accident, the fugitive was responsible. Emma asks him if a man like that will ever get what is coming to him, he says he does.
Liz goes to see Belsky, the Russian expert in Soviet-era decryption, he told Reddington about the ads. Meanwhile, Cooper brings the machine to Red and he shows him how to input the message. Later, Cooper tells Ressler that he is sorry that he lied to him.
Paula visits Red at the restaurant, he tells her that he has a job for her.
Ressler calls Liz and says he is sorry to her. He gives her alphanumeric intel to help her decode her strip of numbers. The message says, “it’s time, mobilize assets.”
Liz goes to see Townsend, she puts a plastic bag around his head, she says she has her proof that Red is N13 and he is going to get it through his thick skull that while they may be partners, she does not work for him.
THE END!
