The Blacklist Episode 2.14 T. Earl King VI

The action begins two years ago, in an opulent mansion somewhere on Jekyll Island. Wearing formal attire, a glucose IV and a tracheotomy incision, eightysomething patriarch Earl King pilots his electric wheelchair into his office, where his adult sons Francis and Tyler wait. Ignoring them, Earl addresses Rene Valmont, asking for the tally, just as the clock strikes midnight. Loading one bullet into an antique Schofield revolver, Valmont reports that Tyler's bids total $67,800,000, while Francis has $67,400,000 - since a payment of $1.8 million didn't arrive before the midnight deadline. When Earl urges his boys to "get on with it," a fuming Francis swigs one last sip of fine scotch before putting the gun to his head and pulling the trigger. Lucky for him this unusual game of Russian roulette has spared his life... until the next round must be played.

Meanwhile, in the present, in a small, squalid apartment, Tom Keen meets with a tweedy gentleman whom we'll call Bud McCready. Tom needs a job, deep undercover, and he needs it now. McCready wants him to wait. Tom has class, finesse and looks that command top dollar. Anything else is a sinful waste. Nevertheless, Tom insists. He can play anything, go anywhere.

Liz is sitting on her bed, gazing quizzically at The Fulcrum when Red knocks, disgusted that she has yet to move into the apartment he bought for her. Of course, he has news to share: Madeline Pratt has been abducted, and her abductors, the King family, meet every requisite of The Blacklist, as they're invisible, powerful and depraved. Their forefathers trace back to the Mayflower, and they built their fortunes via thievery and on the backs of generations of indentured servants, a tradition that still continues today. Their capture would be a real coup for the FBI, especially since every one of the Kings' transactions has been meticulously recorded in the family ledger. Their auctions are never held in the same place twice and the guest list is constantly changing. It's a chance to solve 150 years of abductions and thefts. If the task force can find the people who kidnapped Madeline from the Port of Lisbon, they'll find the King family.

Liz bites, and in fairly short order she's briefing the task force on a missing Van Gogh and 22 pounds of stolen yellow cake uranium, which Reddington is sure will be featured at the Kings' next auction. Aram quickly gets a hit off a photograph of Madeline and her kidnappers and is able to ID Brazilian kidnapper Silvio Haratz. The D.O.J. has an active file on Haratz, but it's restricted, so Cooper calls his buddy Tom Connolly, who's currently being vetted for Attorney General and is thus "under a damn microscope." Nevertheless he offers a deal: if Cooper will warn Connolly's buddy, the CEO of a med-tech company, that he's about to be indicted for fraud by a grand jury, Connolly will release the Haratz file within the hour. File in hand, Liz calls Red with news that Haratz is holed up at a safe house called The Palace. Knowing the FBI will get made and blow the deal, Red rushes to The Palace with Dembe, where they find Haratz... with a fresh bullet in his head. Within moments, they're surrounded by gunmen, and Francis King steps out of the shadows with a bruised and beaten Madeline Pratt in tow. Red offers to pay for Madeline until she tasers Dembe and reveals the end game: Francis was after Red all along, with plans to auction him off to the highest bidder.

While the task force scrambles to find potential auction guests in hopes of tracking the auction's location, Red is imprisoned in a polycarbonate glass cell, where a silent tailor fits him for a tuxedo. After wheeling in a 12-year-old boy in an animal crate, Tyler stops to gloat over Red, who it seems has always rejected his invitations to participate in the King family's auctions. Red has a question: how have the Kings defied the trend of frittering away their fortune over multiple generations? Tyler explains their secret: winner takes all.Back at the Post Office, Aram has ID'd Russian oligarch and art collector Alexi Koskov, King family auction guest. Word is he's after the stolen Van Gogh, but since he's on the no-fly list, he's sent his acquisitions emissary, Josephine Sullivan, in his stead; she just checked into the Vanguard this morning. Within the hour, Liz and Samar are shaking down Josephine, who quickly tells all. Her instructions are to introduce herself to the concierge at the Harleston Read Hotel, owned by the King family, then ask for a room with a view of the Capitol. Liz persuades Cooper to let her go undercover in Josephine's place. Just then, Tom calls Liz to tell her he's going away on assignment - for a long time. When she mentions that she too is about to go undercover, Tom offers a piece of tradecraft: if Liz senses she's on shaky ground, she should just sneeze - it'll get her out of trouble.

Samar and Ressler watch the lobby while Liz checks in as Josephine Sullivan and receives a key card for room 1861. Ressler misses Liz's elevator, so he hops onto another one as the attendant in Liz's elevator collects her phone, purse and jewelry. Realizing Liz's elevator is going down while Ressler is going up, Samar runs for the stairs, unaware that Liz has landed in a parking garage, where a handler waits for her in a car in space 1861. He orders her to drink a cloudy liquid as the car drives off. Liz passes out as Tom returns to his shabby room with an envelope full of cash and a German ID bearing his photo and the name Christof Mannheim. After shaving his head, it's time for some racist SS tattoos. Meanwhile, at King Manor, Red is being groomed for his appearance on the auction block when Earl wheels into the room. Apparently, Red was in the vicinity when Earl lost the use of his legs. Earl allows that Red did warn him, but he had millions invested and couldn't just walk away. He's speculating on how much money Red's sale will bring to his coffers when Red asks about Tyler's "winner takes all" comment. What exactly does this mean? Earl wheels off to check on his newest guest - Liz - to whom he offers a choice of family jewels to wear to the auction.

That night, Liz is dressed to the nines when Earl welcomes his guests to the 30-minute viewing preceding the auction. She clocks the stolen Van Gogh and 12-year-old Vincent Peretti, whom Tyler explains, is wanted by several Serbians and Sicilians, since his father just turned state's evidence. Curious, Tyler questions Liz's Ivy League provenance, so she sneezes, allowing Red to interject, saving her ass. Liz pretends to recognize Red, then moves off, claiming he's too expensive just as Red's old buddy, African warlord Yaabari (remember when Red blew up his jungle compound in the Season 2 premiere?), arrives to inspect the merchandise. By this time, Ressler and Samar have dragged the man who drugged Liz back to the Post Office, but he claims to know nothing. Just then, Aram receives word that the real Josephine Sullivan called her lawyer while she was being transferred to the D.O.C. Little do they know, the auction is well underway, and Liz is bidding for Red against a very insistent Yaabari. She's holding her own until word comes through that she's an imposter. Seeing all the Kings' men on the move, Red starts bidding for himself, but ultimately, he is sold to a wickedly delighted Yaabari for $18 million.

Desperate, Cooper tells Ressler and Samar to leave him alone with the man who drugged Liz. After shutting off the security camera and placing his handgun on the table, Cooper explains that he has an inoperable tumor that's likely to take his life in a matter of weeks. It's clarified his priorities, and since he has literally nothing to lose, he needs to know - where is Elizabeth Keen? Well, she's in the basement of the mansion where the auction items and persons are being held. After knocking out a guard, Liz grabs Vincent, then rushes to Red's cell to start punching codes into the keypad lock. Remaining calm, Red orders her to take the boy and flee through the series of tunnels that brought him there. Grabbing a gun off the downed guard, Liz and Vincent hide in an alcove when Francis appears to unlock Red's cell and gloat. Red wonders, what's in all this for Francis? It's a matter of legacy and the King family fortune; Red could never understand. Before stalking off to find Liz, Francis hands the key to Red's cell to Yaabari, who explains there's a $40 million bounty on Red's head - and he means to sever his head so he can collect the money.

As the clock closes in on midnight, members of the King family sit in their trophy room bickering over who won the night - Francis is sure that he's the man. While Vincent scrambles to safety, Yaabari has Red on his knees in a tiled kill room with a gun to his head. Red says, "Lizzy... ," as the gun goes off. But it's Liz's gun, and her bullet goes straight through Yaabari's heart. Liz and Red take off just as Valmont names Francis the winner and hands the revolver loaded with a single bullet to Tyler. Just as he cocks the trigger, Red and Liz enter, guns drawn, and demand Tyler put down his revolver. Disgusted by this bizarre family ritual, Red picks up the revolver, aims at Earl's heart and pulls the trigger, giving a delighted chuckle when the bullet hits its mark. What are the odds? Sirens wail outside, so Red drops the revolver, offers a few tips on surviving prison life and leaves with the King family ledger. As the crime scene winds down, Liz climbs into the back of a car with Red, who purses his lips and tells her never to "do that" again. Liz takes this to mean that he disapproves of her saving his life - and wow, how damaged is Red? Is this why he can't be vulnerable, why he can't accept help - because he thinks he doesn't deserve it? When someone does something nice for someone, "thank you" is the appropriate response. Red thanks Liz, then reiterates that she is never to do it again.

Later that night, Cooper and Reven Wright toast the success of the operation. Wright mentions that she's been overseeing the build of a fraud case against a med-tech CEO - who just disappeared. It's almost like he was tipped off... Across the world, Tom enters a basement club catering to Dresden's finest skinheads, and sets his eye on the biggest, most dangerous looking guy in the room. It only takes a moment to spill a beer and start a fight. The big guy suffers a brutal beat down as something drives Tom's fists to connect over and over again with relentless precision. Finally, an older man we'll call Heinrich Gerst pulls Tom off his mark and asks his name. Christof Mannheim has a new friend...