In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.
It's an episode about relationships this week, as the Keen marriage is veering dangerously close to the "or worse" portion of the "for better or worse" continuum. Lizzie's confronting Tom about the Big Box o' Spy Stuff that has his picture plastered all over it, and he's denying any involvement. So he tries the "Well, if you don't believe me, report me to the authorities" gambit, which is kind of a dumb move when your wife has the FBI on speed dial. Anyhow, that's why Tom spends most of the episode in custody.
That's just as well since Lizzie had better spend her time focusing on Gina Zanetakos, an assassin who bumps people off at the behest of her corporate clients. Also, according to Reddington at least, Gina is Tom Keen's lover. So, like, no pressure capturing her or anything, especially since Gina's clients would very much like to shut down the port of Houston and she's decided to carry out that assignment by setting off a dirty bomb that will contaminate the entire region. So there's another complication on top of that of whole "may be in cahoots with your husband" thing.
Gina Zanetakos's plot is foiled, largely by Ressler who calls on his two major skill sets: 1) shooting people and 2) driving cars rigged with dirty bombs into the sea. In the ensuing debriefing, we learn that not only does she have no idea who Tom Keen is, she's the one who gunned down that Russian mole at the behest of her other client—a man named Red Reddington. As you might imagine, this causes considerable strain in the Keen-Reddington relationship, in that Lizzie declares their partnership null and void. One imagines this is going to make for an awkward workplace environment in the FBI's black ops division.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!We begin this week deep in Germany’s Liepnitzee Forest, where a local rustic is hard at work rigging up an explosive into a sporty automobile. Friends, Hansel is done fucking around. But before he can go and settle that gingerbread house-living crone’s hash once and for all, a not unattractive lady shows up and demands to see his handiwork. You will not be shocked to learn that the car blows up real good. Not Unattractive Lady (to save you time and mystery, let’s just reveal now that she’s the Gina Zanetakos of this episode’s title) would like very much for the finished version of the bomb to be radioactive and that she needs it in 36 hours. Nobody admires German craftsmanship anymore.
Back on the home front with America’s Fun Couple, the Keens are still arguing over last week’s big reveal, i.e. that Lizzie knows about the box with the guns and the passports and that Tom knows that she knows and that she knows that Tom kno… you get where I’m going with this. Tom is maintaining his innocence and a bit put out that Lizzie didn’t think to tell him she suspected him of international terror and contract murder and hey, which one of us got sliced up by a half-mad Serbian, huh? And Lizzie’s, like, "Are you kidding me with this bullshit?" More angry words are spoken until Tom basically suggests that if his wife is so concerned about his possibly illegal side business, maybe she should make a federal case of it. This is a really dumb dare when your wife happens to work for the FBI, because it is long before a hooded Tom is being led into the FBI’s off-the-book warehouse for a little interrogation. Tom looks stunned that he’s not at the J. Edgar Hoover Building. “I don’t work at the FBI,” Lizzie says. It’s a shame—the tour there is a pip.
While Tom is led away for a little quality time with Agent Malik, Reddington is back at his lair admiring what is most likely not a reproduction of Rembrandt’s Storm on the Sea of Galilee. This is no exercise in art appreciation -- Reddington has procured it on behalf of a sinister client as a wedding gift. The artwork’s final shipping destination will ultimately be used to unravel this week’s mystery, but for now, let’s just say this scene was an excuse for Reddington’s henchman (looking good, Skinny Pete!) to inform the boss that the Keens are in hot water with the FBI. Just how hot? Deputy Director Cooper is in the process of telling Keen she’s on leave until they can find out if her husband is a no-good Russian defector-shooting varmint. Based on the early going of Malik’s interrogation, the Magic 8 ball is saying “Answer hazy, ask again later.”