BWW Recap: Who's That Girl? 'Luther Braxton' Raises Questions on THE BLACKLIST

After months off screen, THE BLACKLIST needed to come back with a bang. There's shooting and explosions aplenty in "Luther Braxton" (No. 21), but it's more likely the placement after the SUPER BOWL than the predictable moments that will give this a ratings bump - let's see the ratings for part two of the episode on Thursday night.

We open with a montage of NBC News - guess why it's the only network that seems to be covering the momentous development? - that Raymond Reddington's been captured in Hong Kong. The reports all dutifully recite his backstory, with the infamous Christmas Eve disappearance. Cooper and the team conclude the CIA has him, because he's suddenly off the radar. Ressler thinks it's deliberate, that Red wanted to be caught. Cooper doesn't care. The CIA is not playing nicely with the FBI's asset, and he wants a rescue.

Red's being dragged around a seabound facility in the middle of the Bering Sea, offering a guard $50,000 to make a call for him. He also wants to see the warden. Aram's found he's at a place called The Factory, though it lacks any Andy Warhol connection. Samar looks ill, as it's "a slaughterhouse for spies." Cooper can only conclude that Red wants someone in the place.

Guards are torturing visiting guest-star villain of the week, Ron Perlman, who because of his star power must be who Red is after. Red doesn't fight the uninteresting, and if ratings are at stake, he doesn't fight the non-famous. Because he's Ron Perlman, villain LUTHER Braxton can't be subdued by ordinary torture. And because he's Ron Perlman, he will be a Mad Villain of Greatness.

Agent Blondie of the CIA Clandestine Service comes to meet with Cooper. She wants to know how Red knows Braxton. While the Clandestine Service decides to contact Red, Braxton is hotwiring his own cell. He fries a guard who tries to open his cell door, and the Factory goes into lockdown. This means nothing to Braxton, who ignites and shoots guards. Yes, Ron Perlman is officially kicking ass.

Choppers are coming in, containing Samar, Ressler, and Liz. Red wants the helicopters turned around, but the warden refuses. The regular viewer knows this means that Red is right and that there will be plenty of mayhem because of it. Sure enough, Braxton has an entire inmate team with him, and they've taken control. The team's subdued and captured. And Red is still trying to convince the guard, Desmond, to save their necks for $50,000.

While Ressler (what is your purpose these days, agent?), Samar, and a dude with an abdominal wound stand with nooses around their necks -oh, where is Liz? -Braxton is informing the world that "I'm the man who just took over your gulag." Aram tells Cooper that the Factory has gone dark, while CS Agent Blondie's helper Agent Rosenberg tries to have dialogue with Braxton. Rosenberg's efforts are so successful that Braxton shoots the warden while chatting with Rosenberg.

But wait! Red's just found Liz! The Fulcrum is at question, it seems, and for everyone who wanted it to be a mysterious object, sorry, but it's a mysterious file full of blackmail material on everyone important in the universe, which means it's out of date if it contains no Kardashians. Braxton wants it. Liz wants Samar and Ressler rescued by Red. Red just wants all of them gone. Liz wants to know why Red didn't come to the task force to help him with his task. Say what? Even the most intermittent of viewers who didn't just come to the show know the task force could never manage this competently.

Red, Liz, and a group of hastily acquired henchmen sit with a diagram of the Factory and determine to overload the boilers to blow up the computer servers to render Braxton and his hastily acquired henchmen powerless. Now it's Red's turn to explode things. One of Red's henchmen asks what his job is. It's to die: it turns out that the guy belonged to the wrong cartel that crossed Red's path. Bye!

Braxton radios the warden's office. Why? He killed the warden, right? Red answers. "What, nothing? Say hello, Luther."

LUTHER announces that "After Belgrade, I became known as the man who bested the great Ray Reddington." Red sneers at LUTHER in that way only he can. (How does one not sneer at villains named Luther?) LUTHER lists a dozen things he hates about Red having to do with wine, Beethoven, and various other indications of having more culture than a stink bug, indicating that Red is effete, refuses to stain his cuffs -shirt cuffs, not handcuffs -and that he has no balls. After ten at night you can say that on network television, so LUTHER did, to prove his comparative lack of couth. This is why we root for Red; we want villains to have a pianist playing Rachmaninov while having tea and biscuits and planning elegant dinners with caviar. What's the point of villainy if it can't be sophisticated? And who wants to be the person who tells Raymond Reddington he has no balls? There is such a thing as living to regret what you said.

Braxton wants the prison's codes. Cooper doesn't want to give them. Agent Blondie doesn't want him to give them. Braxton threatens to hang Samar. Aram has a meltdown over Samar. Agent Blondie confesses that the codes will give Braxton access to the entire CIA intelligence database, because the Factory is really also a CIA intel facility. Braxton starts hanging Samar. Cooper melts down and gives the codes. The show has a meltdown and has a commercial.

Aram tells Cooper that if Braxton reboots the server with the codes, he'll control the system. Liz races through the Factory's vents to get inside the boiler room to let Red and his people in. Samar is un-hanged before she un-lives.

A group of the late Alan Fitch's old buddies, some with accents and some CIA, meet. They can see that Red doesn't have the fulcrum and might not be dangerous at all, even though Fitch said he was, and that if Braxton gets that file, he will be dangerous. Hey, the public doesn't know the prison exists, so no one will notice if they destroy it and everyone in it! No one will ever miss Red or Braxton!

Red's minion won't set off the boilers because he thinks the explosion will kill him, so naturally Lizzie says she and Red can do it themselves. The CIA Fitch ally tells Agent Blondie the Factory must go even though there are federal agents there. F-22 strike jets are launched from Wright-Patterson AFB. Aram and Cooper try to call off the strike while Red and Lizzie overload the boilers at the Factory.

Liz wants to know why Braxton can't have the file. Well, if he does, the affected cabal will know Red doesn't have it, and that could be bad for his health. Too bad the cabal's already gotten to that conclusion. Red also explains that if matters go any further, "what Braxton will discover is he can't get the fulcrum without you." What? A hint as to Red's purpose for Lizzie? Finally! Liz wants to know more, but the boiler explosion ends that chat.

The servers go down. Liz gets up. Red doesn't. He's out cold. Braxton's goons grab Lizzie. Who will find Red?

Cooper has it out with Blondie. Blondie blames Cooper for giving up the codes. Braxton questions Liz. She tells Braxton that Red's dead. Red, however, is loading the biggest, meanest guns in the Factory and he's taking a stroll while shooting his way along the walkways. While still in a white shirt and vest. Man's got style.

It's two minutes to BOOM when Red confronts Braxton, Liz with her own gun to Braxton's head. Braxton announces "I know about the house and the fire and the girl." Just as it dawns on him, courtesy of her long-neglected scar, that Lizzie is The Girl, and Red begs her to shoot Braxton, we see missiles in the window, coming in for impact, and the screen goes white. The effect is completely ruined by the commercial for Thursday's episode, which reveals that of course nobody dies and Liz is being drugged by someone to get her secret.

Will Liz reveal the secret she doesn't think she knows? Will Braxton live or die? Will Red get any closer to the fulcrum? Will the story lines get any more obvious? Send your thoughts to @MarakayBWW or comment below!

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