BWW Recap: BLACKLIST Warns, Don't Phish With This Creel

Gypsy Rose Lee perfected the striptease that emphasized the tease and avoided an actual reveal. THE BLACKLIST has copied her style - when will we get any concrete information on Elizabeth Keen? This week, we managed to learn only that she isn't Red's missing daughter, Jennifer. In non-Keen news, we learned that Naomi's real name is Carla and that Red was a lousy husband. Perhaps we should discuss government mind control programs instead. That's Red's solution to these issues.

A woman stares, paralyzed, at her bank as a Mysterious Man In A Car watches her. She finally goes inside, argues with her account manager, leaves, gets a gun, and returns to shoot up the bank. Mystery Man whispers into a recorder that this is progress.

Naomi and Frank want to go back to Philadelphia. Red wants Naomi to tell him about Jennifer. He can protect her, though Naomi disagrees. She's more curious about how Red managed to wind up working with Elizabeth Keen, about whom she knows something, but what? Liz is equally interested in Naomi, if only to debrief her after Berlin. Did Red hide Naomi in Saint Kitts or Solvang? "Solvang? I never send anybody I care about to Solvang." He deflects by telling Liz that the murder above was part of a strange list of Shootings of Random Weirdness and that the government is trying social experiments on an unsuspecting public.

Liz and Ressler, with the aid of Aram The Great, research the various Shooters of Randomness. All were reported to be fairly normal until they were pushed by strange stresses like accusations of pedophilia, adultery, or the like. Aram says that all of them also have the aberrant gene mutation MAOA-L, the "warrior gene." In real life this usually manifests itself in making risky choices, not offing bank officials.

Mystery Dude dictates as he watches a car chase and shootout on local news. It's another success. He is Linus Creel, Number 82 on the blacklist, and he wants to meet with a Senator Sheridan. Cooper wants Liz and Ressler to meet with Sheridan, too, because Sheridan controls the black budgets and would know if this is being funded by the government. He also wishes Red would tell fewer truths about things the government's swept under the carpet. Cooper knows about a few of these projects himself. Sheridan promises to send Liz everything he has on Project 7, though he isn't funding it, and though mind-control programs don't work. Creel, outside the door waiting to meet Sheridan, doesn't like that. They do work! They do!

Naomi and Frank agree that the FBI can't protect them. They disagree about Red. Frank says he's a lunatic and can't help; Naomi says she knows better. Red says they'll have to move, that he'll get them new identities, because he can't protect them in Philadelphia. He hasn't protected the Phillies, either; apparently his super powers of criminal prowess do not work on the City of Brotherly Love, which is encased in Red Kryptonite. For no particular reason other than exposition, Naomi reveals that her real name is Carla Reddington and that she was "a miserable housewife married to a miserable man." Are Red's warm memories of home merely romanticized fantasies? Or did he really pull a number on Madeline Pratt?

Red and Liz visit Red's frenemy Haskell, a tinfoil-helmet researcher. He says that Project 7 is an offshoot of the Human Genome Project. A convenient photo shows someone Liz saw at Senator Sheridan's office, whom Haskell identifies as Dr. Linus Creel. Liz, Ressler, and The Amazing Aram determine that Creel was on staff at the various hospitals where each Random Unlikely Shooter was treated. Aram can't hack Creel's firewalls, which irks him.

Pee Wee Vargas, still in Ringo Starr wig and turtleneck, visits a woman who appears to be involved with Frank. He says she doesn't take care of her dog properly. This is much like HANNIBAL Lecter telling you that you feed your pet the wrong kibble. Something bad will undoubtedly happen to you. Red later takes Frank for a walk. He and Vargas show Frank a lovely dog. Then he shoves a sharp object in Frank's neck and does an "if you ever hurt her" routine on him. Suddenly Frank likes Philly less.

Creel counsels his extremely stressed patient, Duncan. He fails to calm Climbing The Walls Man, whose online girlfriend, Amber, is driving him insane. A nurse interrupts the session to say that a new patient is just Creel's type. Angela, who's stressed to shaking point and wrapped in signs of self-injury, lost parents at age four and has marital problems of the third kind. She also has a history of suicide attempts. Her tale is heard by Aram and Samar in an unmarked van, and Samar wants to place odds on every word of "Angela's" story being true, which Aram doesn't believe. Creel loves Angela and is running blood tests on her, probably testing for warrior gene. He loves that she wants to chain her husband up, make him a prisoner, and hold him until he's honest with her. That sounds pretty ordinary, though, when you're talking about Not-Tom. When Creel exits the room, "Angela" steals his passcodes.

Naomi/Carla bonds with the lovely dog even as Frank tells her that Red really could help them out and that he's tired of cheese steaks, pretzels and Eagles games.

Duncan, Anxiety Man, is having a tense moment online with Amber. We can tell that he's problematic, because in a 1960's, DRAGNET kind of way, the set designer has surrounded him with tie-dye and the sound guys have synced in loud music that's not Mahler, but brain-rotting rock. He's an evil hippie who must be taken down by Joe Friday. Or Ressler. Maybe Ressler is Joe Friday.

Now things get weird, as if they weren't before. Aram finds a file of Creel's in which only one patient hasn't become a Random Shooter yet, and that's Duncan. Duncan goes to a gun rally, thinking Amber is there. Liz breaks into his apartment, and finds the gun rally information. Senator Sheridan is speaking at the gun rally. Creel interrupts Sheridan, because gun violence could be stopped if everyone were tested for MAOA-L. He spots Duncan and tries to get Duncan to kill him, because he could become a martyr for the MAOA-L cause, and because he can then prove that mind control does work! It does! Duncan's not shooting, so Creel admits that he catphished Duncan as Amber. Please, Duncan, shoot him, he begs. Liz and Ressler get there, but Creel grabs Liz as a hostage. Before FBI hostage protocol can take place, a hidden sniper takes Creel out. Where have we seen a sniper lately? Oh, last episode, hanging out around Liz.

Samar gives Liz the file that Creel had started on her. What does it say? Then Samar pays off Aram for winning their bet. Is she being a good loser, or is she covering for Liz? She is on Red's payroll, after all.

Liz tracks down Naomi/Carla. "You have questions you think I can answer about the past." Cue candles, crystal ball, and tarot cards. Neither realizes that Red is eavesdropping on Psychic Hotline. "He wants something from you." Duh. Is he also tall, dark, and handsome? Naomi reads that Red can make a woman feel special in a way that no other man can. Rabid female Spader fans gush loudly enough for a nation to hear. Madeline Pratt joins in. Red chooses this moment to tell Naomi that Frank and her lovely new dog are ready to go.

Naomi confesses that she knows nothing of Jennifer since she left witness protection. Red kisses her goodbye (rabid Spader fans faint, and a nation hears THE COLLECTIVE thud) and sends her off with Frank and her new canine friend. A million miles away, Madeline Pratt is cursing his name. Liz, also cursing Red's name, tells him to can the protective detail and snipers keeping her safe. Red, in this week's twist, accuses Liz of hiding something. You can almost see the worm turning.

Liz goes to relax, tossing a set of keys in her hand and staring thoughtfully at a locked door across from her. If Linus Creel were alive, he might be proud.

Does Liz have Not-Tom chained up and held prisoner until he's honest with her? Does she have the warrior gene? Is Pee Wee Herman's wig worse than Megan Boone's from last season? Could the producers give us one small reveal on Liz's past? Just one? Share your thoughts @MarakayBWW or @BWWTVWorld!

Photo Credit: David Giesbrecht/NBC

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