The Blacklist s02e18 Episode Script

Unh! What the hell? Just something to help you relax.
You really don't have any idea who I am, do you, Mr.
Salinger? Save your breath, sweetheart.
You're gonna need it.
It's me.
I'm back.
- How was Chicago? - Oh, God, you know.
All these conferences are such a waste of time.
You, how was your day? How was work? - Fine.
Except for Carlton.
- Again? He keeps leering at me.
Gives me the creeps.
Well, he's your boss.
Sooner or later you have to report him to HR.
I'm so glad you're back.
I have a surprise for you.
- You're giving me a drawer? - Only if you want it.
I mean, if it's too soon.
I just thought it might be nice.
What you're asking me to do I appreciate that you turned yourself in.
You came back for me.
Liz, I'm in danger.
I need the passports.
- I can't.
I just can't.
- Liz, please! Turning myself in to save you saved me.
And not because the judge let me go.
I've been running since I was 14.
It's all I've known.
When the judge let me go I thought, "Maybe there's a world where I don't have to run where I could just" These Germans want me dead.
My handler too.
So please, I need your help.
I need the passports.
They're not just passports.
You put them in a box under the floor in our home.
They represent everything I'm trying to forget.
- I wouldn't ask, but it's important.
- They're in evidence.
So they're still clean.
I'm not gonna walk into evidence and steal them.
- Why would I do that? - You want me gone? - Do this and you'll never see me again.
- You need to leave.
Go.
Now.
No.
Get out.
I was out, remember? You're the one who brought me back in.
Get out.
Perhaps I haven't made myself clear.
- I came home and Tom was here.
- He's back in your life.
- He is not in my life.
- I understand what it's like to be drawn to something that is unhealthy to a part of yourself that you are afraid of.
But I want you to remember what your life really was with him and imagine all that it could be without him.
I don't have to imagine.
Good.
Because I have a case.
Toshiro Osaka, a Japanese entrepreneur, indicted in 2009 and knifed to death by an aggrieved business partner.
Miles Chapman, he was gunned down in Algiers while avoiding extradition for insider trading.
Lester Charles Conway his Ponzi scheme was so massive, he's now serving up to 30 years.
Their crimes cost people their life savings pensions gone, homes in foreclosure, families torn apart.
Why would I feel bad for them? According to Reddington, they're innocent framed after months, sometimes years of planning by a woman with a deep hatred for the 1 percent.
She doesn't just take their money, she takes their reputations their freedom, sometimes their lives.
Her latest mark was Declan Salinger a flamboyant venture capitalist who specialized in biotech.
He was found last night in a hotel bathtub, needle on the floor dead from an apparent overdose.
His personal laptop was taken into evidence.
CSI uncovered corporate withdrawals in excess of 27 million.
Navabi, go see Salinger's wife.
Ressler, Keen, the man in prison, talk to him.
If he was framed, I want to know how.
We spoke to your attorneys, Mr.
Conway.
You claim to have been framed by a woman named Claudia Sanchez.
Or whatever her name really was.
- She made everything up.
- She make up the Ponzi scheme? The 128 million you stole from your clients to fund your lifestyle.
- The ranch, the private jets-- - I've told this story before.
We were sleeping together.
She had access to everything my phone, computer, passwords.
If you don't believe me-- We want to believe you.
We do.
Tell us what happened.
She was a seasonal worker at the ranch.
Undocumented, one of many.
My wife had no idea.
The affair lasted exactly six months.
Then one day, she just disappears.
Three days later, I'm arrested.
Well, they also found a packed bag in your car and your passport and a plane ticket to Beijing.
She planted it all.
That woman, she was diabolical.
From the fingerprints on the suitcase to the airline ticket she purchased using my computer she got into my life.
- Abby Issa.
- But that was nothing.
The way she moved the money, her knowledge of how it worked issuing false statements, creating shell companies.
I hired the best defense money could buy.
After they looked at the evidence they recommended I cop a plea.
Beretta 21A Bobcat.
Packs a nasty bite.
If I ever have to use it, that's exactly what I want it to do.
I pled guilty to a crime I didn't commit.
That's how good she was.
And the money she took, most of it belonged to my clients teachers, doctors, pension plans.
Over 278 people lost everything because of some ghost.
Never went to trial, but your lawyers you said that they gathered a lot of evidence.
We need to see it.
- Hello, Roger.
- The Director called for a vote.
- When? - Tomorrow.
I've been quietly lobbying on your behalf.
- I appreciate that.
- No, you don't.
You expect it.
- Where do things stand? - I've spoken to Mitchum.
He's with us.
That means Brazil and South Korea are as well.
That likely positions Jasper as the deciding vote.
If we can't secure his vote, the Director will have a majority to act against you.
- Then Jasper will have to be persuaded.
- These are powerful men.
- They don't respond to threats.
- No.
With powerful men, one must appeal to their vanity.
Listen to me, Red.
The Fulcrum, if you have it, if you can prove you have it, do it now.
- Your life depends on it.
- Set the meeting.
Mrs.
Salinger had a detective follow her husband and his mistresses for months.
Found nothing on this woman.
Partial prints, burner phones inconclusive selfies taken from the victim's phone.
Conway's lawyers did three months of discovery before the plea.
All they got were payroll records, fake green cards and social security numbers.
Lawyers interviewed the staff they could find but no one could or would positively ID the woman Conway alleges framed him.
Two different cases, two sets of investigators and this woman didn't leave a trace.
- Guys, check it out.
Detectives and lawyers didn't find anything conclusive on their own but if you put the photos they found together our ghost has a face.
Okay, so I have this friend, Osborne, in the forensics lab Freaking Osborne.
- Aram.
Right.
So I scanned over 40 partial prints Conway's investigators found at his ranch another 53 partials found by Mrs.
Salinger's private detective.
I fired them off to Osborne.
He is a wizard with whorls, loops and arches.
He managed to stitch together three partials into a gorgeous, crystal-clear left thumbprint.
Ran it through AFIS and bang.
Her name is Vanessa Anne Cruz.
36 years old.
Last known address, her mother's place in Edison, New Jersey.
Get there.
Now.
Abby? Drink it.
Ah Take off your clothes.
Abby? Abby! - Who the hell are you? - Andy, from the front desk.
She gave me 20 bucks and told me this key belongs to you.
Aida Hernandez? Special Agent Donald Ressler, Special Agent Keen.
We're trying to locate your daughter, Vanessa Cruz.
MY daughter? She's dead.
It's my fault.
Vanessa never really had a good male role model.
Her father was a creep, so I wasn't surprised when she married one.
- Wash, rinse, repeat.
- Excuse me? Some women make the same mistakes with men over and over again.
Hernando was a young broker, worked at a big firm.
Turns out, he was a real crook.
He was doing insider trading and when they caught him, he jumped off the George Washington bridge.
- And what happened to Vanessa? - Oh, she thought they set him up.
She adored him till the end.
Never questioned his innocence.
I tried to reason with her, but Take your time.
They found her folded clothing at Rockaway Beach.
They never found a body, but I know she was dead.
- She'd never abandon me.
- She looked after you? She was such a beautiful person.
Never a thought of herself, always of others.
- And since she's been gone? - She made sure I'd be well taken care of.
- How did she do that? - She had an insurance policy.
I kept up with the mortgage and made ends meet.
- Do you still have the policy? - I never saw the policy.
But I have a letter that came with the check.
I'm sure I can find that.
It turns out it's a fake.
- What is? - The entire company.
Minnetonka Bankers Health & Life was incorporated in 2006.
In nine years, the only policy it issued was to Cruz's mother.
- It's a shelf corporation.
- You mean shell corporation? No, shelf with an F.
Criminals file incorporation papers.
Pay all the fees.
It's totally legitimate.
Then they put them on the shelf for years, sometimes decades.
Pay the minimum corporate tax, build up a credit rating comply with filings to create an established creditworthy business that can launder all kinds of transactions.
- Including phony insurance payments.
- Guys.
This isn't the only way Vanessa Cruz has used shelf companies.
Six others were accused of funneling money through shelf corporations.
Samar, you said these corps are being sold to criminals.
If we find the person who sold them to Cruz Then we might find Cruz.
Put me in touch with someone - who brokers shelf corporations.
Good.
I need the Fulcrum.
Our ghost has a name, Vanessa Cruz.
If I can find who brokered her-- Agent Keen, I'm loathe to play tit for tat but unfortunately, due to present circumstances I must insist on the Fulcrum.
I'm afraid it's become an immediate matter of life and death.
- I know how much it means to you.
- I don't think you do.
And you know how much it means to me to know what part I play in this.
But you told me it's a blackmail file and I'm a federal agent.
I can't just hand over information to you that might give you leverage over people who run our government.
Those people launched a missile strike on the Factory to kill us to keep their secret a secret.
- This is about Tom, isn't it? No.
This is simply about me trying to survive.
I'm perfectly happy to put you in touch with someone who deals in shelf corporations, but I need the Fulcrum.
Think about it, Lizzy.
Sorry, man.
Sorry.
- Yeah? - It's me.
I need your help.
The case I'm on, our perp funneled money through a shelf corporation called Minnetonka Bankers Health & Life.
You must know people who provide these types of services to people like-- - To people like me? - Yes, to people like you.
Isn't Reddington your CI? Why isn't he here? Still upset about last night? I told you, if you help me with this case, I would get you those passports.
We're not discussing Reddington and me.
We need to talk about this case.
Now, these are two other shelf corps our unsub set up.
Andrusia Industries, Middle Leaf Properties.
Are these supposed to mean something to me? All three of those shelf corps are named after Minnesota lakes.
When investigating you, I found the shelf corp where you had the money Berlin paid you Owasso Inc.
, also a Minnesota lake.
I'll talk to my contact, see what I can find.
- No, I'll talk to your contact.
- How about we go together? What's so urgent? I wanted to talk to you about Raymond Reddington.
The vote's not until tomorrow.
Vote's all but taken.
Not officially but I've spent six hours speaking with the players.
- You're back channeling? - You're damn right.
If Reddington has the Fulcrum, his death triggers a protocol for release.
- We will be exposed.
- And why am I here? You're the swing vote, Kenneth.
The one that will make this decision.
You know I lean towards the Director.
- Why should I change that position now? - Because, Mr.
Jasper you strike me as a man who would prefer to pitch rather than catch.
- What the hell have you done? - Just hear him out.
That's all I ask.
Roger is quite right.
The Director's latest stratagem is hubris.
It has very little to do with me and everything to do with the consolidation of his power.
If he succeeds, you'll become nothing more than his trusted servant.
He needs to go.
He will go.
Tomorrow, after the meeting after you win this vote, with everything that your head and your heart tell you are true.
You're talking about assassination.
Yes, Mr.
Jasper.
Ambition's debt must be paid.
Julius Caesar? One of my favorites.
The play, not so much the man.
The man was a bit full of himself.
He did have a brilliant military mind, but he couldn't smell a plot to save his life.
- Intentional pun.
- And why is that? Pride.
The subtlest and yet most deadly of the seven sins.
Like the Director, he couldn't be saved.
And which part do you play in all this? - Cassius? - Oh, no.
I'm the Rubicon.
You simply need to determine which side of history you want to end up on.
Who are you, Mr.
Jasper? A subordinate who remained slavishly obedient to his master or the presumptive leader of an organization that will be far more powerful than it has ever been? Diamond Drive Properties.
Oh, my God.
- Heh.
Billy! Heh, heh.
- Hey.
- Come here, you.
- How you doing? - Ziggy, this is Liz.
Liz, this is Ziggy.
- What brings you two here? Big favor.
My friend here was a gull in a con game and she lost a lot of money.
- Oh, that's too bad, baby.
- Turns out she was hustled by one of your clients.
- You know better than this.
- I know.
But I need an address.
Look, the people we work for are serious.
If we don't get that money back - You his woman? - I'm more like his ball and chain.
Yeah.
So, what do you say? Can you help us? Please? Hey.
How about a thank you? Ressler, I've got a mailing address for Cruz.
- Clear.
- Clear.
Clear.
Agent Ressler? I've got dozens of files, photos, dossiers.
She went through the trash, hacked their networks.
Listen to this.
Copies of Declan Salinger's bank statements, medical records.
There's even surveillance photos.
Every book and video he's ordered for three years.
- Did you say dozens of files? This goes beyond the names Reddington gave us.
People she's framed, people she's thinking of framing.
Aram, you wouldn't believe this place.
Hair, threads, lint, bits of carpet, cigarette butts.
All collected, categorized and filed under each victim's name.
Trace evidence to be planted at crime scenes.
Drew Roberts.
He was one of Cruz's victims.
- He worked at Oakside Investments.
- And? That was the firm that employed Cruz's dead husband.
Aram, I might have an idea what this is all about.
I'm no worse than your buddy Reddington.
He's not my buddy.
And you are worse.
You don't get it.
Even after all this time, Reddington is dangerous and he is playing you.
He's more dangerous than you give him credit for.
But he has a moral code.
I don't like it, but at least I know what it is.
It does not include lying to me.
Whatever you say.
- You want to know what I'm gonna do? - No.
- I'm gonna buy a boat.
- A boat? Mm-hm.
A diving boat.
Gonna run it down to Micronesia, open up a charter business.
Ever hear of Chuuk Lagoon? An old Japanese naval base in the South Pacific.
February 7, 1944, sunk 12 warships, 32 support vessels and now they're just lying at the bottom of the ocean.
It's a diver's paradise.
- You don't even know how to swim.
- I know.
But I can learn.
- Hi.
- Hi.
Sorry I'm late.
- I did it.
I talked to an attorney.
- About Carlton? Yes.
And I think I have a case, that I should file a claim with HR for sexual harassment.
- You did the right thing.
- It only happened because you gave me the courage.
Thank you.
We're gonna celebrate.
I'll book a room at the Wolverton and we're just gonna order room service and watch movies all night.
I love you.
- Abby-- - No.
I mean it.
I know that we said we weren't gonna get super serious but I can't help it.
I love you.
What is it? I love you too.
Well, I'm assuming you don't want me to walk you to your door.
Thank you.
Hey, can I ask you something? Do you think it's possible for, uh someone like me to start over, to become something else? Isn't that what you do for a living? Yeah.
But, uh you know what I mean.
Can you be honest? You have to be honest.
Tom our entire marriage, everything that happened our fights, the baby your laugh It couldn't have all been pretend.
You're not that good an actor.
That's why I didn't see it because so much of it was real.
You are my greatest failure as a profiler.
You're my greatest success.
You made me feel for a moment like I had a life and that somebody cared.
So this is me being honest.
Can you be honest about the passports? - Passports? - They're real.
Government issue.
Where'd you get them? Berlin had a guy.
- I guess not.
- Wait, wait, wait.
I can't.
- Not about this.
- That's not how the truth works.
You don't get to pick and choose.
Not if you want to learn how to swim.
It's gonna be a nice boat.
What was that? That was goodbye.
That won't be necessary.
Mr.
Hobbs here is one of the good guys.
How are Faye and the boys? You know, I don't think I've seen them since Dylan's wedding.
They're fine.
Mark and his wife just had a baby girl.
Oh, grandfather.
Well, it suits you well.
Wisdom of the ages and all.
Where is everybody? I thought I was late.
The vote's already been taken.
Roger.
Roger, Roger, Roger.
I always treated you with respect.
We may not have seen eye to eye, but I always heard you out.
I don't know what he's told you-- I brought you in.
I was your sponsor.
Yes.
- Look, I told him that Reddington-- - Reddington did not make you.
We made you.
Have you forgotten what this organization has done for you? Government contracts? Silverstone? R&D grants? We put you in the game and you betray us? You betray me? I treated you like family.
I supported you.
- Then just hear me out.
- Shh-shh-shh.
There is a car waiting for you outside.
- You are going to the airport.
- Please.
Uh-uh.
You are leaving the country tonight.
You are not to call your family, and you are never coming back.
It's not about money.
It's about revenge.
Aram, can you put up all the files? Hernando Cruz jumped off that bridge after being accused of insider trading.
Purchased 10,000 shares in Rudman Pharmaceuticals one day before it got approval from the FDA to market a new cancer drug.
That stock doubled overnight.
Toshiro Osaka, our Japanese entrepreneur when Cruz made the trade Osaka was the CFO at Rudman Pharmaceuticals.
Miles Chapman, he was the regulator who approved the drug.
And Drew Roberts was Cruz's co-worker who oversaw all of the trades.
They were in on it with the husband? Maybe the husband wasn't in on it.
- Maybe they set him up.
- It makes sense.
Vanessa is a frame-up artist.
Maybe she got the idea from seeing them frame her husband.
- Wait.
The evidence you found in Cruz's loft suggests she targeted dozens of victims.
All one-percenters.
People who personify the same greed that cost her husband his life.
If she's going after everyone who framed her husband, the question is, who's left? I don't know.
But I do know someone who can tell us.
Before making a fortune in the private sector you worked for the division of corporate finance at the SEC.
So? Did you look at the research I gave you? - Tell us about Cruz.
- Did you find anything? Hernando Cruz.
He was a trader for Oakside Investments in 2008.
Killed himself when you were about to investigate him for insider trading.
- So? What does that have to do with? You were looking for the woman who set me up.
It was his wife who set you up, and now we know why.
Along with Toshiro Osaka, Miles Chapman and Drew Roberts.
Tell us about Hernando Cruz.
He didn't jump off that bridge, did he, Lester? Don't look so depressed.
Today's your lucky day.
We found out who framed you.
Cruz.
- It was his wife? - Maybe we can help you.
Maybe you can talk to us, and maybe we can make a deal.
It was 2007, before the crash height of subprime mortgages, bundling, things that really hurt people.
But this, it was a victimless crime.
We had every angle covered.
Trading floor, the regulatory agencies.
You made the SEC look the other way.
- I want a lawyer.
- No, no, no.
What you want is a deal and you'll only get that if you keep talking.
So talk.
Everyone was going to look the other way, except that kid, Cruz.
He found out, went to his boss.
We tried to keep him quiet, but he refused.
- Too idealistic.
- So you were a part of a conspiracy and when Cruz tried to go against you, he was murdered.
Thrown off a bridge to keep him from blowing the whistle.
That's when you framed him, which is why she framed you.
When I knew her, she was nobody, a ranch hand.
- How did she--? - If Cruz went to his boss why was it never reported? - Because his boss was in on it.
- What was his name? Mason Carlton, Thundridge Capital.
Cruz has taken revenge on everyone but this guy.
Find him, Aram.
I called Carlton's office, nobody's picking up.
His cell is going straight to voicemail.
But get this, I accessed his cell records and I found a ton of inappropriate messages with his assistant.
Her name is Abby Issa.
Either she's having an affair with her boss Or he's being catfished.
You said she was his assistant? So she has the keys to the kingdom.
Passwords, financials, credit cards.
There's a hit on Mason Carlton's AmEx.
He reserved a room for tonight at the Wolverton hotel.
Hello? Abby? How long have you been here? Hello, Mr.
Carlton.
Who the hell are you? Hernando Cruz.
Surely you remember him.
The young day trader you and your colleagues framed and murdered.
There were six of you pigs.
Too good to work, too refined and elegant to sweat.
So you and all the other useless, greedy pigs instead gorge yourselves grow fat on the sweat of the other 99 percent.
So little piggy I will tell you how this is gonna work.
You and Abby have been having an affair.
There's a digital paper trail of texts and pictures.
Your fingerprints and DNA are in her apartment.
You reserved this room.
The police will believe you've been to her apartment just like they'll believe Abby discovered you were embezzling from your firm and was gonna blackmail you unless you pay her to keep quiet.
They'll confirm she'd gone to a lawyer prepared a sexual-harassment lawsuit which she threatened you with, so you shot her with the gun she bought to protect herself before turning it on yourself.
Abby she has such a big heart.
She's so innocent, so unsuspecting.
Just like But this is the only way.
You have to pay for what you did.
Hey.
I'm here.
Sorry I'm late.
What is this? Hello, this is security calling.
I have a gentleman and a lady from the FBI who'd like to speak with Mr.
Carlton.
I'm sorry, Abby.
I'm so sorry.
Follow me, please.
Hands where I can see them.
Hands in the air! She said she made a mistake.
She said she made a horrible mistake.
Radio security! Have them lock down the hotel! And call an ambulance! Ressler! You wanted to see me? I thought you should know.
Mason Carlton's gonna be charged in the murder of Hernando Cruz.
We lost her.
Yes.
And we will find her.
What matters now is that the innocent people she framed are set free.
This here and you there? You have no idea how happy that makes me.
- I wonder what his angle is.
- Sir? - Reddington.
Why give us this case? - Thank you.
What's his interest in this Cruz woman? Mrs.
Cruz, my employer is a longtime admirer of yours.
- Who are you? - He knows your gambit has run its course.
The FBI knows what you're up to.
They're looking for you now.
You have one of two choices run and hide or accept his help.
What help? And who's this employer? I got your message.
- What is this place? - Reddington.
Tom, what are you still doing here? I've been thinking about what you said about needing to tell you the truth.
- So I'll tell you the truth.
- I don't understand.
The passports, the passports came from Reddington.
Liz, there's more.
It's me.
It's done.
- I'm listening.
- The vote went your way.
The Director wasn't very happy, but a vote's a vote.
- And Hobbs? - He wants to meet.
Yes, I'm quite sure he would have.
- But he can't, can he? - What do you mean? Hobbs was to contact me after the vote was cast.
He didn't.
Which means he's dead, which means you betrayed him, betrayed me.
That's not true.
He asked that the three of us should meet - so we can discuss the future.
- You need to run.
Run like the prairie wind, because I'm coming for you.
When I find you, I'll cut out that forked tongue of yours and deliver it to the Director myself.
It's time to go away, Dembe.
Agent Keen wants to meet regarding the Fulcrum.
- What's wrong? - I just spent the last 42 hours dealing with a man who is a lifelong habitual, pathological liar.
- Tom.
- Yes.
Tom.
- Lizzy-- - Don't give me advice.
This man, this liar he told me something.
Something that I need you to confirm.
Now, before I ask, I want you to understand that I expect you to give me the dignity of a yes or a no.
Do you understand? Yes.
I'm the one who hired Tom Keen to enter your life.
- Can I explain? - No.
No, you cannot explain.
Here.
This is all you wanted.
Now you have it.
Lizzy, when I hired Tom-- I said please do not attempt to explain why.
I don't care.
I just want this to stop.
I want it all to stop, right now.
- Take it! - Lizzy.
Lizzy.
- No! - Raymond! Dembe! Reddington!