'The Blacklist' Season One Finale Recap: 'Berlin: Conclusion'

On the season one finale of The Blacklist, Berlin was revealed, someone died and everything was insane. (If you haven’t watched the episode, don’t read this. There are massive spoilers. Seriously.)

In my opinion, there are two types of television shows. There are television shows you watch and television shows that you love. If it is a show that you watch, you don’t mind missing it and you play on your phone when it gets boring. If it is a show that you love, you can’t handle missing a new episode and you can’t take your eyes off the screen. For me, The Blacklist is a show that I love. And, this episode is exactly why.

The episode began where last week’s ended. As the plane crashed, there were survivors getting out. There were dead bodies lying around. It was gruesome to see charred bodies but I ignored it. It’s The Blacklist, nothing is ever clean. The prisoners tell a tale of the man in the hood. He was chained to a guard and cut his hand off.

Meanwhile Red is being put in chains in the post office. The security officer asks Red if it is worth it. He asks if Agent Keen is worth turning himself in. Red says that it is worth it.

Liz and the team are working on their final case. Aram figures out that the plane flew under the radar and after interviewing the prisoners and looking at the evidence, they assume that Berlin is Russian.

Tom meets with a Russian man, we assume to be Berlin. He gives him a list of everyone on the task force. Berlin-guy says that they’re going to take out the team one by one.

Red gets a visit from Fitch (Alan Alda) and Fitch is worried that his team didn’t know where the plane came from. Red points out that he tried to help Fitch but Fitch wouldn’t listen. Fitch decides to give red a “fighting chance” by having him transported. Red says that he can get out of it.

Red is put into a car with Fitch’s FBI buddy. Red mocks him and he says that he hopes Red dies. But, he doesn’t. He gets away. He runs to a pay phone and tells Liz that the entire task force is in trouble.

Agent Malik and Ressler are in the field. They’re looking for a Russian who might know something at a nightclub. They separate, Ressler goes upstairs and Malik follows a shady guy.

Malik doesn’t see the shady guy slip behind her and he slits her throat. Elizabeth arrived too late and simply found Malik lying in her blood

I guessed that someone would die in this episode. I knew that it would be a major character. And I was right, sadly. RIP Agent Meera Malik.

Liz meets with Red and wants to know why they are being targeted. He says that the task force has pulled Berlin out of the shadows. He says that as long as the task force works, Berlin can’t have them alive. Liz asks what Sam has to do with any of it. Red says that Sam is a puzzle piece in an unfinished puzzle. He points out that Sam is her father. He changes the subject and points out that Berlin wasn’t the only prisoner on the plane. They need the manifest.

The prisoner decides to talk. The plane was a Russian plane. They send Red to talk to the Russian Ambassador.

The Ambassador comes home find Red holding his dog. Red demands the manifest. The man asks if Red is going to kill his dog. Red says that he isn’t a monster and that he’d never kill a dog. But, then he throws a knife at the man’s leg. Red gets the list.

The FBI visits the guard in the hospital. The guard in the hospital with one hand cut off. The guard says that Berlin isn’t on the manifest. He tells the story of Berlin. He was a KGB agent with a daughter. One day, his daughter fell in love and was sent to prison. Berlin arranged for his daughter to escape and Berlin was sent to prison because of it. He prayed his daughter’s safety but every day he got his daughter’s body parts. He says that Berlin is looking for payback.

Fitch’s FBI agent meets with Cooper and says that Red has escaped. The agent wants the task force to keep working. Cooper says that he is trying to get Liz on board. He gave Liz the evidence bag from their first case to show Liz all of the good that Red has helped them do.

Ressler questions the assassin that killed Malik. He says that he needs the information and that he has basically turned to the dark side of the FBI and doesn’t mind breaking the rules to get the information he needs. He chokes the man until he gets the information out.

Red meets with Fitch. Red says that Milos Kinsky is Berlin. He tells Fitch to use his spy satellites/NSA to find him. Fitch apologizes because he just heard about Cooper.

Liz and Red meet and she says that Cooper isn’t dead…yet. She says that she wants to know more about Sam. Red says that Sam tells the story one way. An old friend showed up at Sam’s house with a little girl whose father had just died in a fire. The friend needed to run and asked Sam to take care of her. Liz said that her only memory of her father was when he pulled her out of the fire to save her.

Red tells Liz that knowing who her father was would put her in grave danger. She asks why and he doesn’t tell her. He tells her that killing Sam was the most difficult thing he’s ever done and that was to keep her safe. He said, after doing that, he wasn’t just going to tell her now.

Fitch calls Red and says that he found Kinsky. Red goes alone. He basically kills everyone. He finds Kinsky and tells him that he remembers everyone’s name. He doesn’t understand why he doesn’t remember Berlin and that he doesn’t know what he did to make him so mad.

Kinsky doesn’t talk. Red shoots him in the hand. He shoots him in the hip. He is about to shoot him in the knee when Kinsky says that it is because of something that happened in 2010.

Tom then arrives with Liz. Tom and Red point their weapons at each other. Tom says for Red to put down the gun. He says no. Tom puts the gun to Liz’s head. Kinsky tells Tom to shoot her. Liz begs him not to. Red shoots Kinsky and tells Tom to put the gun down.

Tom fires at Red and Liz then fights Tom for the gun. Liz shoots Tom in the stomach. He staggers back and she shoots him two more times. Red wants to finish him off but Liz says that she’ll do it.

Tom looks at Liz and apologizes. He whispers something in her ear and DIES. First Malik, then Cooper and now Tom? I knew that there was going to be bloodshed but wow!

Back with the task force, Ressler, Liz and Aram are trying to figure out this Berlin thing. They had accounted for everyone but none of them were Berlin. Aram repeats the phrase that the prisoners said and realize that Berlin didn’t cut off the guard’s arm; he cut off his own. Berlin was the man in the hospital.

Just as they run to get him, he has killed the police officer and escaped. Red said that he knew Kinsky was not Berlin. He said that Berlin was after him before 2010. He wants Berlin to think that he’s not looking for him anymore. Red says that Liz can either handle the difficult choice of working with him or she could take the easier path and quit working with him. She doesn’t say anything and he says that he will leave on a plane tonight.

There is a montage (I hate montages) of Liz leaving her empty house, Cooper’s finger moving at the hospital and one-handed Berlin looking at a watch with his daughter. Then there is the cleanup crew looking at Kinsky and Tom’s body is gone.

Tom’s. Body. Is. Gone. Is he alive? Did Mr. Kaplan clean it up?

Finally, Liz goes over to Red’s house. She tells him that Tom told her that her father is still alive. Red says that he died in the fire. They both agree to work together to find Berlin.

Just as Red is getting ready to go to bed, he looks at the photo of the girl that he took from the stew maker’s death photo album. The picture he had is of Berlin’s daughter. Finally, he removes his shirt to find his entire back covered in scars. He had scars that could come from saving a little girl in a fire.

If you’ve been reading my recaps all of this season, you’ll know that I do not believe that Red is Elizabeth’s father. I think that Red did save Elizabeth from the fire but he set it to kill Elizabeth’s real dad.

And… that’s the season. I had fun recapping it and I hope you had fun reading my recaps. Comment on what you thought of the finale.

Quote of the night: “The girl, she’s worth it..” –Red, telling the agent that Liz is worth everything that he had gone through.