The Blacklist Episode 2.06 The Mombasa Cartel

The action begins 29 years ago at a family farm in Koidu, Sierra Leone. A Range Rover careens to a halt, and six menacing armed men debark in search of patriarch Samwel Zuma. After ruthlessly slaughtering Zuma's large family, the men grab the only survivor, a six-year-old boy, and speed off.

Cut to the present day, a luxury hotel suite in Paris, France. American Peter Kincaid presents a room service cart to Joseph Batoula. With deft grace, Kincaid chokes Batoula into unconsciousness, then reaches under the cart past a kennel to grab a livestock tag applicator, which he uses to affix a tag to Batoula's ear. Cut to the barren coastline of Kamchatka, Russia, where days - or weeks? - later, an old man and a boy discover Batoula's flayed carcass on the beach.

Liz finds Red watching "Wild Kingdom," with a bee knocking around his bonnet for the Mombasa Cartel, no mere poachers but traffickers who have operated behind a veil of impenetrable secrecy since the 19th century. Liz thinks the FBI will be tough to convince until Red explains the Mombasa Cartel is responsible for billions in blood money - it's personal. So Liz goes to Cooper, explaining the Mombasa Cartel is killing its own leaders, starting with Joseph Batoula. Liz ducks out to take a call, then proceeds to a rusty ship where a man we'll call The Samoan is knocked out cold. Ezra emerges from Liz's secret door with an offer: "Do you want to tell Reddington? Or shall I?" Meanwhile, Ressler is trying and failing to get a refill on his meds, and the pain is kicking in. Oddly, we cut to the Igaluk Ranch in remote Alaska, where elderly Skye Kincaid congratulates Matthew, whom we note is unusually tall, even sitting down. He's created his most beautiful work to date, a perfect taxidermy of Joseph Batoula.

Red arranges for Liz to have a drink with billionaire Geoff Perl, CEO of Deckerd Capital. Red explains the connection: he and Perl share interests, including the protection of endangered animals, and Red bundles Perl's charities. Red tells Liz to dress down, but doesn't tell her the meet is taking place at a thrash club, and Perl, who looks remarkably like Peter Fonda, is the band's drummer. Perl claims his organization has set their sites on the Mombasa Cartel since day one, but they've never been able to crack it. He offers one lead, Lee Chung at Emerson-Concorde Imports. After Ressler offers to beat his ass if he doesn't cooperate, Chung admits to importing animal parts from endangered species, but swears he knows nothing about the Mombasa Cartel. That's when the FBI discovers another flayed corpse: Alejandro Gomez has washed up in Hokkaido. Having broken Chung, Samar offers a new theory: someone's poaching the poachers.

Liz calls Ezra to thank him for the 14-hour reprieve, then dons her binoculars to spy on his motel room, just across from hers. She didn't tell Red about what was behind her secret door, and Ezra has left her no choice. Liz watches as SWAT bursts into Ezra's room and arrests him. Back in Alaska, Peter Kincaid meets Skye, who informs that his father called; he's found another "friend" for Matthew. Peter is angry. He takes all the risks, performs all the abductions, while everyone else sits around. Skye bashes him upside the head to drive home her point: they're a family, and everyone does their part. Peter should be proud to take down the poachers his father identifies. In the blink of an eye, Skye softens, stroking Peter's cheek; he's her rock. Meanwhile, Red introduces himself to food truck owner Zoe - as Kenneth.

Aram and Samar have been busy analyzing currents and deducing both flayed corpses were dropped near Sitka, Alaska, former home of the Animal Underground Network - a militant animal rights group. In 1971, their leader Timothy Carlyle and six others were convicted of killing grizzly poachers, becoming known as The Sitka Seven. Cooper orders Ressler to go to Sitka and dumps Chung on the street.

Liz is in Red's living room when news of Ezra's arrest comes across the wires, featuring his connection to Red. Red insists Liz is hiding something - why else risk his capture? Back on the Igaluk Ranch, mommie Skye, helps her towering hairless baby Matthew out of the bathtub, just as Ressler show up in Sitka, in full cold turkey mode. Ressler breaks his thumb in a car door to get the drugs he needs, then takes a call from Liz to learn Chung has disappeared. She sends Ressler to the Igaluk Ranch, owned by Wendigo LLC, which may be connected to the poachers, while Aram looks for a connection in flight. Both flayed men must have been transported to Sitka while they were still alive - how? A prickly Skye answers Ressler's knock, claiming only she and Peter live on the property, just as Peter drives up. When Ressler peeks at the human cargo covered over in the back of Peter's quad, Peter knocks him out.

Aram finds a loose connection to Wendigo LLC, so Liz calls Red, since Ressler isn't answering... because he's just woken up in a kennel, facing Chung, both of them sporting animal tags on their ears. There's music blaring, and what they can't see is Peter is letting Matthew go "happy hunting." Suddenly the cage doors open, and Chung runs for it. Ressler succeeds in stopping him, then reaches for his meds, which have vanished. Chung immediately recognizes Ressler as a junkie, just before succumbing to Matthew's arrow. Matthew starts howling like a wolf, so Ressler runs, and Skye calls Perl, who's ready for Matthew to take the rap for everything. Protective mom Skye isn't having it and neither is Red, who's standing in the middle of Perl's Zen-like living room.

Liz and Samar arrive at the ranch with a SWAT team, unaware Matthew is tracking Ressler through the woods. It's dark by the time Ressler happens upon a campfire, populated by Matthew's human taxidermies, while Red confronts Perl, who claims he's merely after the world's worst poachers. Red has finally traced Wendigo LLC to the Mombasa Cartel. Even Red can't fathom Perl's moral journey... and Perl claims he's still the same conservationist he's always been - yet he's a businessman. He's just managing the situation to his own ends. Red offers a choice: either Perl dies now, or he offers a list of everyone connected with the Mombasa Cartel. Back in the Alaska woods, Matthew joins the campfire, where Ressler is masquerading as one of the dead. Noticing Ressler's shaking hand, Matthew attacks, pulling out his buck knife. After a fight where he's stabbed in the gut, Matthew runs into the woods. Mama Skye is already preparing his bath, as Liz, Samar and the SWAT team descend upon the family home. Dying, bleeding Matthew appears before Skye's bathtub, and her screams bring the SWAT team running. Liz makes it to the bathroom in time to see Skye knock a turntable into the bathtub, electrocuting her beloved son.

Red takes a thumb drive from Perl, then tells him the story of Dembe Zuma, whom he found at the age of 14, chained to the wall of a Nairobi brothel. Dembe tries to prevent Red from shooting Perl, but he can't controvert a father's pride. Red repairs to Zoe's food truck; Liz finds Ressler's missing meds, then finds him sobbing in the back of an ambulance. Somehow, Liz is immediately transported... it turns out she's been having The Samoan guard Tom in an abandoned ship all this time...