The Blacklist recap: Red + Juliet
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Act I: In Fair Miami, Where We Lay Our Scene
Red (James Spader) is in Miami, speaking to Agnes (Sami Bray) on the phone and assuring her that he'll be back in time for her ballet recital. This obviously means he's going to be delayed, and I pity the person attempting to keep Pinky away from his favorite person. Red has been quite shoot-y lately; I wouldn't try him.
He's in the Sunshine State attempting to broker a peace between two families: the Montagues Montanos and Capulets Sandovals. As Dembe (Hisham Tawfiq) will later explain, the families own a valuable mine together. Years ago, a Sandoval made a mistake that killed a Montano. The Montanos responded by killing two Sandovals. Yada, yada, yada, generational blood feud.
Red is there to quash the feud and ensure his access to the mine's cobalt and aluminum. It's off to a bit of a rocky start, though, as it's clear that patriarchs Vincente Sandoval (Steven Bauer) and Raoul Montano (Nester Serrano) are having a hard time trusting the motives of the other.
Three members of each family sit with Red in Vincente's private dining room. Our loquacious mediator gets them through dinner as only he could, laughing at parables disguised as funny stories. By the time Vincente has a special bottle of champagne brought out to toast a Red-designed agreement, everything looks like it's going to be fine.
Which is, of course, the moment it isn't.
Vincente, who has a sulfite allergy, sips apple cider in lieu of the wine. Almost immediately, he begins to gasp. An epi pen is no help, and then brother Leon Sandoval (Robert J. Morgalo) goes down as well.
When Michael Montano (Manny Ureña) goes to call 9-1-1, Red pulls his gun to stop him. He recognizes what's happening. He's seen it before and warns that the room must be sealed in order to protect everyone. Whatever is happening is definitely not a normal poisoning.
Red calls the Task Force, and Dembe catches everyone up. The Blacklister is a newish killer nicknamed Wormwood who developed a poison that ramps up existing allergies into deadly mega-allergies. So, if you're allergic to pollen, the effects go from itchy eyes to dead eyes.
Will Hart/NBC James Spader
Step one is figuring out how they all got poisoned in the first place, so Herbie (Alex Brightman) is sent to Miami, despite his objections. "Going into a room with mortal enemies, two dead bodies, and three decades of recrimination? I'm good," he tries.
It doesn't work. Herbie is soon in a full hazmat suit in Miami. Red has to break up a fight between the last Montano and Raoul, which triggers Raoul's urticaria. This extremely rare allergy to human touch is normally unnoticeably mild, but the Wormwood poison has made it fatal.
Red invokes the Bard. "There's a pox on both your houses."
Intermission: A Villain in our Midst
While all this is happening, Jonathan Pritchard (Mackenzie Astin) celebrates his two-month sobriety chip with a proud Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff).
That victory is only temporary, though, because Congressperson Arthur Hudson (Toby Leonard Moore) has figured out Pritchard's connection to the Task Force he wants to take down. Over the episode, he convinces Pritchard that becoming his inside man will somehow protect Ressler from the upcoming fallout.
I have a lot of thoughts about this formerly upstanding congressperson using information from a criminal fixer to manipulate a man who is trying to sustain a hard-won sobriety, but to summarize: I bite my thumb at you, sir!
Will Hart/NBC Alex Brightman as Herbie Hambright, Harry Lennix as Harold Cooper, Hisham Tawfiq as Dembe Zuma, Diego Klattenhoff as Donald Ressler, Anya Banerjee as Siya Malik
Act II: Oh Sweet Apothecary, Your Drugs Are Quick!
Herbie, working in an adjoining room, analyzes the trace amounts of poison in the food and discovers that it's chemically built on the compound of a blood pressure medication. That's enough for the Task Force to work from.
He is interrupted by Gabriella Sandoval (Gabriela Torres), the daughter of the family, who is coming to check on the peace talks. He has to shut the door in her face and tell her that her father is dead, which he does so bluntly that it feels a little mean. Soften the blow a little bit, Herbie!
Gabriella watches through the French doors of the dining room. She's distraught, but in the wrong direction… and Red catches exactly who she's looking at.
That's right, she's our Juliet, and Michael Montano is our Romeo. But I'm sure it'll work out this time, right? *insert nervous Elizabethan laughter*
Meanwhile, Uncle David Montano (Robert M Jiménez) goes down as soon as he opens a window for fresh air. If you need a tally, at this point we're down to the two sons: Michael and Izan.
Red has seen enough, stepping over him to ask Michael why he wasn't on the original guest list. Michael explains his cousin Tito Sandoval (Brandon Espinoza) canceled, opening a seat that he filled at the last minute.
Red notes that he was surprised to see him. Glancing at Gabriella, who is still openly staring at Michael, he adds, "Apparently, I wasn't the only one."
The chemical compound is too popular to narrow down, so Ressler and Dembe interview the chef about the food. She tells them that she witnessed a fight between Vincente and Tito about the peace talks before the dinner, and further, she tasted all the food before it was served. She definitely could not be the poisoner.
But Tito has moved up the suspect list!
Red speaks to the last two standing. He urges them to make peace now. Izan suspects Red may be the cause of the poison, but he scoffs. "I intended to talk you all to death, not kill you."
Malik (Anya Banerjee) and Ressler burst into Tito's hotel room. He goes for a gun and Malik gets into a wrestling match. Hilariously, Dembe just watches, knowing she can handle herself. Which she does, the badass.
But in the interview, it's clear Tito is stunned to hear what's happened. We see the fight with Vincente from his perspective, and it includes slamming his hand on the counter for emphasis and cutting himself on a dish.
When he finishes telling his story, a skeptical Dembe starts to lead him from the room, but it's too late. Tito is the latest to go down from the Wormwood poison.
When Malik and Dembe call Red to let him know, they realize that the only common touch point between Tito and the dinner guests was the dishes. Which also explains why the waiters wore fancy white gloves to serve.
Herbie talks to a waiter, who is understandably freaked out to see someone in a hazmat suit just hanging out. She tells him who instructed them not to touch the dishes and Red goes to the French doors to talk to the culprit — Gabriella!
Will Hart/NBC Gabriela Torres as Gabriella Sandoval
Red is not here for her protestations. "I'm late for a very important engagement, so I'll cut right to it," he explains. "I'm not afraid to die. You, on the other hand, are terrified that Michael will."
He calmly calls out her plan: Gabriella didn't believe the families would ever truly make peace, so she poisoned everyone at the dinner to clear the way. Red being there was a bonus, since law enforcement would assume he was the target.
The one thing she didn't plan on was Michael stepping in at the last minute. Whoops!
She doesn't want to admit it, but when Red threatens to open the door and thereby risk Michael's life further, she gives up what she knows about Wormwood. "I am sorry," she says, and Red nods. "Some killers are."
Gabriella's bottle of poison leads Malik and Dembe to a pharmaceutical company. When Dembe describes the poison, the director reveals that it's close to a drug that was stopped in animal trials for being a catastrophic failure.
The trials were run by Dr. Harris (Dashiell Eaves). Who is he? The guy who is just across the room, frantically deleting computer files. He runs to the stairwell, but Dembe quickly corners him. They've got their Wormwood.
Back in the dining room — which, I need to point out, is positively littered with bodies — Red reveals all. Izan and Michael are both horrified to learn about Gabriella, for different reasons.
At the French Doors of Revelation, Michael confronts Gabriella. Bless her murderous heart, she thinks he'll still be with her after she killed four people, including his dad. Spoiler: He will not.
What he will do is make peace with Izan. It's like if Tybalt and Romeo became buddies while Juliet spends 25 to life in Verona Maximum Security Castle/Prison, sans balcony.
Dr. Harris is in interrogation, and he gives up pretty quickly when he finds out that scary criminal Raymond Reddington is part of the poisoned group. He admits that he's in it for the money.
That's less interesting than the cure; the poison is temporary, filtered out by the kidneys. All they have to do is wait for another seven hours or so in the dining room to avoid any potential allergens, and they'll be fine. Good news!
Except that Red has already left the room. So, bad news.
He's at the ballet, of course, beaming. He texts a picture to Cooper (Harry Lennix), who is frustrated enough to be waiting for Red at the bathhouse when he gets home.
Cooper is aghast Red risked his life for a dance recital, but Red is insistent that he wants to enjoy what is still beautiful in the world, things like Agnes in the ballet. It's worth the risk.
The Back-list:
This was Klattenhoff's directorial debut! Hats off to the director for handling a tricky episode (so much of it took place in a small, confined space) very well.
The latest Herbie revelation is that he belongs to a book club. They're reading Dune! He also has strong feelings about George Lucas stealing ideas from Frank Herbert.
Red is not the only one with a camera aimed at Agnes during the ballet. We don't see who it is, but it's creepy and I want answers.
Spader saying "peace in our time" made me guffaw. Ultron lives!
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