Wanted fugitive Raymond Red Reddington (Spader) turns himself in to the FBI, and offers to help them find Ranko Zamani (Jamie Jackson), a terrorist, on the condition he talks only to new profiler Elizabeth Keen (Boone). After being informed that Zamani intends to kidnap the daughter of General Daniel Ryker (Chance Kelly), Elizabeth picks her up, only for her convoy to be ambushed and the girl taken. Furthermore, Zamani breaks into Elizabeth's house and stabs her husband Tom (Eggold). As he recovers, Red meets with Zamani, leading the FBI to him, where Zamani is killed by Agent Donald Ressler (Klattenhoff). Elizabeth realises that Zamani intends to detonate a chemical bomb strapped to Ryker's daughter. She finds her in a zoo and Red sends an associate to disarm the device. Red then reveals that he has intelligence to help the FBI find unknown threats he had gathered over the years. Later, as Elizabeth cleans her apartment, she finds a box with money, a gun and several fake passports, all with Tom's photograph.

Following a train derailment, Red believes this to be the work of an assassin known as The Freelancer, and later he and Elizabeth learn of the assassin's next target: Floriana Campo (Isabella Rossellini), a humanitarian working to end sex slavery by cartel gangs. The two attend one of Campo's charity events where Red identifies the Freelancer, who is apprehended by Ressler. The Freelancer confesses that Red hired him to poison Campo. It is revealed that Red knew Campo is a fraud; she is actually running her sex slavery ring and uses the charity to eliminate the competition. Meanwhile, as part of Red's immunity agreement, CIA agent Meera Malik (Nagra) is assigned as his security detail. Tom is released from hospital, and Elizabeth places his box back under the floorboards where she found it, and later views a recording of Tom speaking of his love for her during an adoption hearing.

High-profile Chinese criminal Wujing (Chin Han) asks Red for help in decrypting a message from a CIA agent who was murdered in Shanghai. Red appoints Elizabeth to go undercover as a master decrypter, and they arrive at Wujing's underground base in the States. With help from a CIA provided device, Elizabeth decrypts the message of Wujing's target, architect and CIA asset Henry Cho, who is currently located in Washington, D.C. As Red and Elizabeth join Wujing's gang to escape from the FBI, Ressler and Malik race to save Cho and his son from Wujing's assassins. Elizabeth plants her tracker on Wujing's car, leading to his arrest. Red reveals that he chose Elizabeth to work with him because of her father. Meanwhile, Elizabeth requests a ballistics report on the gun from Tom's box. The results are classified as it was involved with a high-profile homicide. An unknown party sets up surveillance in Elizabeth's house, characterized by their leader who eats an apple every time. Red opens the letter with the Chinese's payment - it's just a sheet with the number 042983 on it.

Elizabeth testifies against drug lord Hector Lorca (Clifton Collins, Jr.) when a vital witness is kidnapped. Red believes the witness was taken by The Stewmaker (Tom Noonan), a chemical expert who uses chemicals to dissolve his victims. He is also believed to have been responsible for countless disappearances. Elizabeth appeals to Lorca to help capture the Stewmaker, only to be captured by him. Red and Ressler are forced to work together, the latter of which poses as an inside man when they meet with Lorca to get him into contact with the Stewmaker, real name Stanley Cornish. Red finds Cornish's hideout, saves Elizabeth, and kills him by pushing him into a bath of his own chemicals, while stealing a photograph from the picture album of all his victims. Elizabeth tries to find out something about the homicide that was done with her husband's hidden weapon and finds out when and where it was - in Boston, while she was there with him because he said he had a job meeting.

A courier is scheduled to deliver a valuable shipment to an Iranian spy. Following a car chase, Elizabeth and Malik manage to arrest the courier, who tells her that he has imprisoned Seth Nelson, an NSA analyst. He is buried and only has a limited amount of air left. While the FBI search for him, the Courier escapes, but is eventually tracked by Malik and Ressler, who kill him. Elizabeth and Red meanwhile, find and save Seth. As an act of gratitude, Seth gives Red documents regarding the high-profile murder Elizabeth suspected Tom was involved in and Seth sends them to her. At the same time at home, Tom discovers the box and wants to talk to Elizabeth about it. Unknowingly, their house is bugged with cameras and more and they're watched.

After Tom confronts Liz about the box and she produces the photo of him in Boston where the murder took place, he claims he is innocent and insists that they turn it into the FBI so his name can be cleared. Elsewhere, Red informs Liz and the FBI that the next name on the Blacklist is a beautiful and deadly corporate terrorist, Gina Zanetakos (Margarita Levieva). Elsewhere, Tom maintains his innocence while being interrogated. Soon Liz realizes there is more than meets the eye when she discovers the passports containing Tom's face are forged and he's possibly been set up. When Zanetakos says Red was behind the Boston incident, Liz tells him the two of them are done. The men watching Liz and Tom don't know whether Tom is innocent or not, but they are sure he doesn't work for Reddington.

After a chemical attack on a subway, Liz and the FBI search for the man responsible. Liz reluctantly calls on Red for his help after she finds her search for the next person on the blacklist, brilliant scientist Frederick Barnes (guest star Robert Sean Leonard). He weaponized a deadly, but very rare disease in order to spread it such that the pharmaceutical industry would fund its research or that he could find someone immune to produce an antidote for his son. Meanwhile, Liz wants nothing to do with Red, outside of work, after he again implicates Tom. She tries to stop him intruding into her personal life. Red shows overreaching interest in a house which is for sale. He buys it, tells his bodyguards that he raised his family in it, and in order to forget what happened here, he blows it up in General Ludd

Liz uncovers an elaborate plot to destroy the country's financial system when a new name on the blacklist, General Ludd, is revealed by Red. Red demands access to the ViCAP database in return for his help. Meanwhile, Tom informs Liz that her adoptive father Sam's cancer has returned. Due to the terror caused by General Ludd's group, Liz is unable to fly to her adoptive father's hospital. Meanwhile, Red goes to the hospital and talks to Sam (William Sadler), who says he wants to tell Liz the truth about her family. Red tells Sam that Liz must never know the truth, and then smothers Sam with a pillow after the latter expresses the wish that he not die a slow death from his disease. General Ludd is able to steal a hard drive containing the blueprints for newly minted U.S. currency. However, Red is able to capture him and steal the hard drive before turning Ludd over to the FBI. Liz finds out that her father has died. Red uses his new access to ViCAP to look up the number the Chinese gave him (in episode 3), it's about a woman named Lucy Brooks. Red comforts Liz on her mourning.

Anslo Garrick (Ritchie Coster) initiates an attack in an effort to assassinate Red. During the raid, Donald is severely wounded from a shotgun blast to the leg. Red carries him to a bulletproof holding cell and the two remain locked inside, as Red attends to Donald's wound. Liz gets stuck in an elevator but frees herself. She works her way through the facility, taking out Garrick's men along the way, until one of them knocks her unconscious. A code is needed to free Red from the cell and without it, Garrick starts killing people. Harold is the only one who knows the code, but refuses to give it to Garrick. Red is forced to watch as Garrick kills Luli. He begs Harold to open the cell to no avail. With Garrick now with a gun to his head, Dembe tells Red that he's not afraid to die and that they'll meet again. The two say goodbye to each other by reciting a verse from the Quran. A gunshot is heard as the episode cuts to black.

Liz infiltrates the blacksite and disarms the signal jammers with Aram to call in backup but they are captured by Garrick. In an effort to save Liz, Red blackmails Ressler into giving up the password, and surrenders to Garrick. Liz escapes captivity during the getaway, and utilizing a contact Reddington named prior to her escape, a woman named Mr. Kaplan, Liz learns of an unidentified party providing surveillance on everyone in the task force. A discovery made by Aram leads Liz to the surveillance team stationed in the building across the street from her place. While in captivity, Red resists torture and is evasive with talking to a former colleague (special guest star Alan Alda), who hired Garrick to capture him. He later manages to kill Garrick with a pair of surgical scissors and escapes before an FBI rescue team led by Liz enters the scene. A hospitalized Ressler is visited by a former fiancée he alluded to in the previous episode, Audrey Bidwell; Reddington is wanted for capture by the task force; the Keens move to Red's safehouse. Red makes another phone call to Liz stating that he will be there for her when needed. Liz asks Red if he is her real father, but Red denies it, and gives another warning about Tom before disappearing.

Red remains missing and conducts his own investigation to hunt down those who betrayed him during the Anslo Garrick incident. The entire FBI team is under investigation as internal affairs tries to find the mole. Aram is initially suspected, but Red is able to prove he was set up. Meanwhile, a serial killer from Liz's past, The Good Samaritan (guest star Frank Whaley), strikes again. Liz is allowed to join the hunt for the killer, as Cooper knows Red will likely realize how much this unsolved case means to Liz and reach out to help her. Soon Liz discovers the victims are all linked through abusing a family member, and that the killer was likely an abuse victim himself. Though she kills the man responsible, she gives the man's final near-victim (guest star Frank Pando) a warning to treat his wife better or she'll make him regret hurting her. Red confronts a financier named Grey for betraying him and shoots him, forcing the wounded Grey to give up the name Newton Phillips. Red later confronts Phillips for leaking his location to Garrick and kills him via suffocation even though he asked him to make it look like an accident. Red then visits Liz to tell her that his house is clean now, but hers isn't, explaining that Philipps couldn't have pulled this off by himself and that there's another mole inside the unit.

Red informs the team that The Alchemist (guest star Ryan O'Nan), a man who relies upon science to transform a person's DNA and their appearance into someone else's, has been contracted to protect a well-known mob informant and his wife. As the team goes undercover to catch him, Liz finds herself on the hunt for an unlikely couple. Meanwhile Liz and Tom find themselves at another bump in their relationship and Ressler debates whether or not he should give his ex-girlfriend his blessing. Meanwhile, Red continued conducting more investigations of his own and discovers the identity of the FBI double agent: Meera. He later pays Meera a visit at her house with a loaded gun to interrogate her. Also, the woman Red was looking for in ViCAP is shown with files about Liz and Tom, and she infiltrates the Keen's babyshower party, introducing herself as Jolene, a substitute teacher. She flirts with Tom and in the end, they visit an art exhibit together because Liz is late from work.

After a recent spate of abductions of babies from their mothers, Red informs Liz that the Cyprus Agency is the illegal adoption organization responsible. More or less coincidentally, Liz and Tom contemplate adoption of their own which fuels Liz to track down the organization's CEO, Owen Mallory (Campbell Scott). Meanwhile, Meera willingly aids Red in his investigation for the mole. Covertly using Cooper's badge, Meera's intelligence leads Red to Diane Fowler as the ringleader of the leak, prompting him to kill Fowler in her own home. She tells him that she knows about that day, about what happened to his family. But Red still kills her, responding that he wants to know it more than anything in the world, but he'll find someone else who knows. He then calls Mr. Kaplan to clean up. In the end, Liz finds herself unable to adopt a child as long as her marriage to Tom continues to suffer emotional strain. She is shown frustrated at home sitting in between baby stuff, while Tom goes to see Jolene, the woman who was flirting with him.

Madeline Pratt (Jennifer Ehle), a former professional and personal interest of Red's, enlists Red's help in stealing a statue called the Effigy of Atargatis in the Syrian embassy. The statue secretly contains coordinates for Soviet nuclear detonation codes, which has the interest of the Russian Mob. Red enlists Liz's aid in the operation, only for the pair to be double-crossed by Pratt. Faking their capture, Red succeeds in getting the location of the Effigy and the coordinates from Pratt. The statue is secured and one of Pratt's allies is arrested. Pratt is able to free herself and steals a precious painting from Red. Meanwhile, Cooper's investigation into Diane Fowler's disappearance is effectively stonewalled by Special Agent Walter Gary Martin of the D.C. Bureau, who says the orders came from the top.

When a former Assistant U.S. Attorney is found bedraggled and walking the street after being missing for 12 years, Red suspects he was a victim of The Judge, a mysterious person that runs an underground operation dispensing eye for an eye justice on officials who have wrongly convicted people. Red gets Liz going on that case, then tackles his own agenda in finding out why a woman named Lucy Brooks has been following him. Lucy, as it turns out, is Jolene, the woman seducing Tom at a teacher conference in Orlando. As Liz works the case of The Judge (revealed to be a woman named Ruth Kipling, played by Dianne Wiest), a man named Alan Ray Rifkin is about to be executed for treason, and it is discovered that Cooper is the Federal agent who put him away. Cooper becomes The Judge's next target and is nearly electrocuted, until Red arrives with proof that Rifkin really did commit the crimes for which he was executed. Cooper is released, The Judge is apprehended, and later sent to prison. When Cooper suggests Red brought this case to gain leverage on him, Red replies that a war is coming, and he may need Cooper's help. Back in Orlando, Tom declines Jolene’s offer of an affair, proclaiming his love for Liz. Jolene/Lucy then gets Tom to admit that Liz isn't just his wife -- she's also his target.

Mako Tanida (Hoon Lee), escapes a Japanese prison and kills an FBI agent, claiming revenge for collateral damage caused by the FBI when they were after Red. After another FBI agent turns up dead in America, Ressler fears he may be next, as he was part of the team searching for Red back then. He grabs Audrey and attempts to take her somewhere safe, but his car is rammed by Mako's driver. In the ensuing melee, Mako shoots and kills Audrey. Ressler vows to take out Mako, despite warnings from Cooper and Red to let other agents take it from here. Collaborating with an old FBI buddy named Bobby Jonica, Ressler tracks down Mako, but later learns that Bobby is the mysterious Aiko -- the man who took over Mako's crime operation while the latter was in prison. Just then, Liz shows up and Ressler resists killing his old buddy, though Bobby commits suicide anyway, while Ressler later receives Tanida's decapitated head from Reddington. Meanwhile, Lucy/Jolene announces plans to move in next to Tom and Liz, but Tom later meets Lucy in a hideout and the two converse about mutual though possibly conflicting plans to get to Red. Tom assures Lucy he has done everything he could to maintain the ruse of his devotion to Liz, but complications arose when he was knifed by the men sent for Red, causing Liz to find his fake passports and cash. Later, the man named Cowboy, a bounty hunter hired by Red, tracks down Tom and Lucy, but he is captured and killed by Tom, moments after Tom had also killed Lucy.

A programmer for the N.S.A. is supposedly killed in a car crash, but further inspection has revealed that his car was hacked. When investigating the programmer's death, the task force learns that the N.S.A. was working on a prototype device called the Skeleton Key, capable of hacking into the entire American electronics infrastructure. Reddington initially believes an elusive Russian hacker named Ivan was responsible for the theft, but a personal meeting with him reveals that Ivan never had any problems with the United States, and instead is solely focused on the Russian government. Ivan claims that someone else has been masquerading as him. Further investigation into Ivan's claims leads the task force to high school student Harrison Lee, who was responsible for the theft of the Skeleton Key. Lee stole the key and used it for his own ends in order to enter a romantic relationship with the daughter of one of the Skeleton Key scientists. Meanwhile, Liz investigates the disappearance of Jolene/Lucy after being approached by Lucy's former parole officer. Liz discovers Tom's makeshift headquarters after Aram is able to trace the origin of Lucy's last voice message, but Tom has just torn down and burned all photos of Red and Liz. He performs a sneak-attack on Liz at the hideout, and flees before she can recognize him. During the aftermath of the Skeleton Key crisis, Liz receives an email containing gathered evidence from the parole officer. In a photo of some trash taken in Tom's hideout, she sees an educational toy that she had given to Tom the morning of the investigation. Finally understanding Red's repeated warnings about Tom and upset by the recent revelation, Liz turns to Red for emotional support.

A series of seemingly unconnected murder-suicides are attributed by Red to a life insurance claims adjuster named Milton Bobbit, who is able to convince terminally ill people to carry out the acts in exchange for financial rewards for their surviving family members. The targets of the murders are ultimately discovered to all be part of a clinical drug trial for Type 2 Diabetes that caused people to die, and Bobbit himself is found to be terminal. Liz, Ressler and the team must catch up with Bobbit before he himself takes out the next victim: the doctor who headed up the trial. Meanwhile, Tom proposes that he and Liz renew their marriage vows, given all they've been through, and has his brother Craig officiate the ceremony. Craig pulls Tom aside and says he's certain Liz knows the truth about him, but Tom isn't convinced. In their new safe house, Liz demands answers from Red regarding Tom as well as Red's interest in her, but all Red will say is that he's watched her closely ever since Tom came into her life. After Red gets some DNA results on Tom, he determines that Craig (real name Christopher) is not Tom's brother. Liz traps Chris in his hotel room and tries to get answers. Tom calls Chris while Liz, Red and Dembe are in the room, and mentions Berlin. Red demands to know what's in Berlin, but a frightened-looking Chris says he cannot say anything. After Red threatens that he'll find a way to make him talk, Chris hurls himself through the hotel room's window, falling to his death, after which Tom attempts to convince Liz that Craig had to fly home.

A woman named Xao Ping Li, involved in a chemical weapons project known as White Fog, is drugged at an immunization centre in China and whisked to Washington, D.C. The Pavlovich brothers specialize in abductions of high value targets, including General Ryker's daughter (see episode 1). According to Red, they are in town planning their next hit, which turns out to be Li. Meanwhile, Tom discovers that Liz knows his secret, and informs his people. While the team tries to locate the Pavlovich Brothers' target, Red makes a deal with the Brothers to abduct and deliver Tom to Liz. Liz tries to torture Tom into revealing his bosses, but he quickly turns the tables and corners her. After explaining his job never included hurting her, he claims to be one of the good guys and tells Liz that Red isn't at all who he seems to be. Before fleeing, Tom tells Liz about a safe deposit box. With Tom in their view, Red instructs Dembe not to capture him again, but rather follow his tail. The next day, Liz finds the deposit box and is shocked by what she discovers inside.

After a politician in Prague is framed for a murder, Red suspects it's the work of The Kingmaker (guest star Linus Roache) -- a strategist behind the rise of some of the world's most powerful politicians. Red is seen meeting with an ally about the Prague matter, and the man tells him that the recent news of a siege on Red's interests is causing several key people to start distancing themselves. Liz views the photos that Tom had led her to, which show Red at the hospital where her adoptive father Sam had died. She confronts Red about it, but he steers her toward the more urgent matter of The Kingmaker being in the U.S. Liz and the team are able to uncover a plot by The Kingmaker to run the car of a New York Congressman off a bridge, attempting to make him look like a hero by saving his family. This puts him in the best position to win a special election for a Senate seat, which The Kingmaker vacates by killing the Senator. Alarms go off in the home where the murder is committed, with Ressler and Liz entering the home. The Kingmaker attacks Liz and applies a choke hold, before being fatally shot by Ressler. Red meets with Fitch, telling him his businesses are under attack and suggesting it's a mutual problem. Fitch meets with members of his global alliance, then tells Red they have chosen to pull out of any association with him, despite Red's threats to expose them. Liz phones Red to inform him about The Kingmaker. Red says he wants 10 minutes with the man to find out who ordered the Prague incident, but Liz has to tell him that The Kingmaker is dead. Liz then visits Red about her adoptive father, with Red finally admitting he hastened Sam's death. Liz calls Red a monster, and says the two of them are through.

Liz tells Ressler, and then the FBI, her story about Tom. In the midst of a virus outbreak inside a bank, Liz refuses to work with Red and sends Cooper her resignation, informing him that Red killed her father. Red tries to explain to her that the outbreak is connected to Tom, and ask if her anger towards him (Red) is above putting lives at risk. Liz agrees to work the case, but declares it her last. Red is certain that the Cullen virus is part of a plan to kill him, as well as being capable of creating a widespread epidemic. Red and Liz meet with Dr. Sanders (John Glover), an expert on the virus, who is also a mental patient. The conversation gets loony when Dr. Sanders speaks of Space Agent UD-4126 and omens of the Cullen virus leading to the apocalypse. Liz storms out, accusing Red of using the visit as a diversion to change her mind about quitting. Meanwhile, Cooper is given an ultimatum by his superiors: if Liz walks, Red no longer has immunity and the task force is no more. Liz learns that Dr. Sanders had created an antidote for the virus and the team suspects that he was working with another doctor from outside the mental institution. Liz pays Dr. Sanders another visit and noticing the nurse's ID badge number, it turns out that UD-4126 leads to a Dr. Vogel. Once he's arrested, he refuses to talk to Liz, except with the warning of Berlin's coming. Liz had injected the virus he created into his drinking water, and uses the antidote to blackmail him into talking. Using Tom's code book--which Red had given to her earlier as an olive branch Liz discovers connections among several members of Red's Blacklist, deciphering that he knew someone was targeting his interests, but not specifically who it is. He's been using his relationship with the FBI task force to systematically eliminate his enemies. Dr. Vogel gives up the names of 5 people involved in a prison plane transport, all airport employees infected with Cullen. Liz begins to have a change of heart about leaving, but Cooper tells her it's too late. She finds Red and warns him about the FBI's pursuit and his immunity. She begs him to run, but he refuses, wanting to know about her sudden change of heart. Liz goes on to tell Red how much she wants to kill him for ruining her life, but that she also needs answers from him. He tells her that he needs things from her also, and that nothing is worse than losing her. It becomes apparent to both that they are stuck with each other. As Red surrenders himself, the prison transport plane files overhead and crashes. The war has begun.

It is revealed that some passengers on the plane were killed in the crash, some are in the hospital, and a few are at large. The members of the task force start being targeted. Agent Malik is killed, and Cooper is strangled and placed into a coma. A guard (Peter Stormare) that was severely injured on the crash is questioned and tells a story of a man in prison whose enemy sends him parts of his dead daughter, one by one, until he managed to escape. Liz and Red continue to try to hunt down Berlin. Red encounters a man believed to be Berlin and tortures him for information. Tom, who was revealed to be working for Berlin, drags Liz into the room with a gun pointed to her head, imploring Red to give himself up. Red kills Berlin and inches closer to Tom. Tom shoots Red in the shoulder, prompting Liz to break free. Liz and Tom scuffle and he is shot by her. With his dying breath, Tom whispers something to Liz. Red says that he realized the man he had just tortured and killed is not Berlin, who is instead revealed to be the injured guard the FBI questioned in the hospital. As Cooper recovers under Ressler's watch, Liz and Ressler discover that Berlin escaped his room and is at large. When agents investigate the room where the bodies of Tom and the fake Berlin should be, Tom's body is gone. Liz meets with Red and says that Tom told her that her father is alive. Red assures Liz that he saw her father perish in a fire, and that he is deceased. Berlin walks the streets carrying a pocket watch with the picture of a little girl, and we see that Red has the same picture (the same picture taken from the Stewmaker). The season ends with Red removing his shirt to treat his bullet wound, revealing scars on his back, presumably from being burned.

While continuing his battle with Berlin, Red receives intelligence from a Cameroonian warlord that a person named "Lord Baltimore", an information broker, hired a Bounty Hunter to kill him. Meanwhile, Liz goes through the process of annulling her marriage with Tom, and is unknowingly under surveillance by an unknown party. During the investigation behind Lord Baltimore, the Task Force questions Rowan Mills (Krysten Ritter), a supposed victim of Lord Baltimore. Further investigation into Mills reveals that she is actually Rowan's twin sister, Nora Mills, a covert operative who suffers from an engineered dissociative identity disorder, and is also revealed to be the actual Lord Baltimore. Red learns during his brief captivity by a Mossad agent, Samar Navabi (Mozhan Marnò), that Baltimore's intended target is his ex-wife, Naomi Hyland (special guest star Mary-Louise Parker). Liz attempts to evacuate Naomi, but her team is ambushed by a kidnapping group led by Mills. While Liz successfully captures Mills, Red attempts to rescue Naomi at a designated apartment only to find a locket instead. Red later receives a package with a cell phone provided by Berlin, and is taunted that Naomi would be sent to Red "piece by piece", making true to his word when Red finds a finger in the package. Harold Cooper returns to his role as the Task Force's acting director after a visit from Reddington.

The FBI is alerted to a robbery at the Monarch Douglas Bank in Warsaw, Poland, since its U.S. headquarters are under FBI jursidiction. Although nothing seems to have been stolen, the FBI believes the records of criminal transactions must have been the robbers' target, though upon arrival they soon discover it was the kidnapping of employee Kaja Tomczak. Liz and Ressler locate Kaja, who reveals that all of the bank's transaction records are stored in her head via her photographic memory. A tactical team is sent out after them by the bank, whose leader works with Berlin, and after escaping, hear something about a bank account number from Kaja. Red arrives and dispatches Kaja to his plane, now in possession of Berlin's money. Meeting Berlin for the first time at a pier, Red blackmails him with his money in exchange for the safe return of Naomi. Liz later learns that Kaja has frozen the escrow accounts in which Berlin's money is parked, whose codes Red trades with Berlin for Naomi during a meeting he refuses to call off. The next day, Cooper meets Samar in a park to review her file on Reddington, facilitating her recruitment into the task force.

Dr. James Covington is a disgraced surgeon running an illegal organ transplant business to extort criminals. With the aid of a recruited Samar, the Task Force starts investigating one of Covington's recent victims, Paul Wyatt. The investigation into Wyatt leads the Task Force to a medical examiner who supplies Covington with recently harvested organs. With the aid of the medical examiner, Liz and Ressler attempt to tail a courier responsible for transporting a heart transplant, only for the courier to die during the pursuit. Liz and Ressler come across an underground hospital utilized by Covington, attempting to arrest him. Liz and Ressler delay their arrest after being persuaded by Covington to finish a surgery on a young boy. Meanwhile, Reddington meets with business contacts involved with international shipping in order to outmaneuver Berlin. One of the contacts, Niko, attempts to double-cross Reddington in order to serve under Berlin's employment. Unbeknownst to Niko, a double agent (Paul Reubens) secretly working for Reddington, exposes Niko during the course of an attempted betrayal, prompting Reddington to kill Niko. During the aftermath, Liz has a brief conversation with Samar about her mistrust. Samar validates Liz's claims, and is later warned that her recruitment is part of Reddington's machinations. Meanwhile, Reddington and Dembe drive to a remote cabin where Naomi is staying, only for Naomi to slap Reddington.

Reddington asks Naomi for information about Jennifer and makes preparations to relocate Naomi and her husband, Frank. After being rebuffed by Naomi, Reddington uses his double agent Mr. Vargas to steal a dog from Frank's mistress, and blackmails Frank into starting his life over with Naomi. Meanwhile, the Task Force is directed by Reddington into investigating a bank shooting in Reston. During the spike of apparent "random violent crimes," all of the listed suspects were civilians with no prior criminal records, having been manipulated to violently act out at their breaking point. Cooper directs the Task Force into investigating black operations budgets funding mind-control projects. Utilizing a code-breaker suggested by Samar, Reddington and Liz bring a heavily redacted report given by Senator Sheridan for decoding. The decoding of the documents leads the Task Force into identifying social psychologist Dr. Linus Creel (David Costabile). Creel had been engineering the violent acts in order to publish his research regarding genetic screening, going far enough to martyr himself. The Task Force apprehends a college student attempting to kill Creel, only for Liz to be held hostage by Creel. During the stand-off, a sniper in Reddington's employment kills Creel, having been revealed as Liz's motel neighbor in the previous episode. Liz heads to the remote cabin where Naomi is staying, and attempts to question her about her past with Reddington to no avail. Before leaving, Naomi reveals privately to Reddington that Jennifer left on her own accord. The episode ends in what appears to be an old warehouse with Liz contemplating a locked door with a ring of keys in her hand.

Maddox Beck, an eco-terrorist, steals an ancient clay painting from his wife to map out the location of a dormant pneumonic plague virus. Beck successfully recovers the virus and weaponizes it to inoculate his followers and create a world-wide epidemic. The Task Force contains most of the followers, but Samar and Elizabeth are infected by one of them at Dulles International Airport. With Aram's help, Reddington learns Beck's location and steals a supply of synthesized vaccine, as well as a necklace and a key, before leaving Beck to commit suicide. The vaccine is delivered to the Task Force for distribution to infected agents and civilians. Meanwhile, Reddington, now knowing who is believed to be Jennifer (Scottie Thompson)'s whereabouts and identity, covertly watches her from a distance. Having failed to convince Reddington to remove the guard he assigned to her, Elizabeth pays a look-alike to distract the guard while she secretly visits a basement at an undisclosed location.

In the mid-1980s, a young African boy witnesses his family get massacred by a group of human traffickers before getting kidnapped by the same group in Sierra Leone. In the present day, one of the human traffickers gets kidnapped and sedated. His skinned body is stranded at a remote location in Kamchatka, Russia. Reddington identifies the group of human traffickers as the Mombasa Cartel, responsible for a large number of poachings of endangered wildlife. After getting a lead from a technology-based businessman, the Task Force arrests one of the Mombasa Cartel's business partners for further information to no avail. When attempted surveillance on the business partner has failed, a drug-addicted Ressler heads to a remote cabin in Anchorage, Alaska after getting a lead from the Task Force, only for him to be held prisoner by a small family responsible for kidnapping and preserving the bodies of the Mombasa Cartel members. While Liz and Samar lead a Hostage Rescue Team to rescue Ressler and apprehend the suspects, Reddington confronts the mastermind, Geoff Perl (Peter Fonda), in a remote hotel. Reddington reveals that the young boy was Dembe and recovers the full list of the Mombasa Cartel members before killing the mastermind. During the aftermath, Reddington makes an interaction with Jennifer, and it is revealed that Liz had held Tom prisoner in a remote cell for an undisclosed amount of time.

After Agent Navabi kills a top Iranian nuclear scientist on a Mossad mission in Dubai, the Iranian government plans retaliation by sending The Scimitar, an Iranian agent who is apparently responsible for the death of Navabi's brother, to kidnap American scientists involved in a nuclear weapons program. While the Task Force foils the kidnapping, Navabi, with the aid of Reddington interrogates the Scimitar by herself, and is told that her brother is also in league with him. Not believing the Scimitar's claims, Navabi executes him and allows his body to be found by the Task Force. Meanwhile, Liz uses the intel received from Tom to help Red get a meeting with Berlin. Kidnapping Zoe, he brings her to Berlin and reveals that she is actually his long-believed-dead daughter.

Zoe reveals to Reddington that a man called The Decembrist was responsible for facilitating her disappearance during the 1991 Kursk bombing. The Task Force investigates the bombing and learns that the person to benefit the most was an ex-KGB agent who is currently a high-ranking Russian official. Reddington and Berlin head to Moscow to interrogate them and learn that Alan Fitch himself was the Decembrist. Meanwhile, Liz maintains her attempts to interrogate Tom for intelligence on Berlin, only to run into complications with a harbormaster killed by Tom. Reddington's attempts to warn Fitch fall on deaf ears, only for Berlin to kidnap Fitch. Left with no other option, Liz releases Tom from captivity after learning the address of Fitch's whereabouts. A Hostage Rescue Team extracts a bomb-laden Fitch to the Post Office while Reddington uses Zoe to make contact with Berlin in order to find a means of disarming the bomb. Fitch tells a bomb technician to stop working on the bomb after realizing that it cannot be disarmed. Fitch attempts to tell Reddington of a safe in St. Petersburg but only manages to give the combination number before the bomb's detonation. During the aftermath, Reddington sends Mr. Kaplan to erase evidence of the harbormaster's death. He also fatally shoots Berlin after the two share a bottle of vodka. Reddington facilitates Tom's disappearance and warns him to stay away from Liz. Tom assures Reddington that he kept their professional connections a secret from Liz during his captivity.

Reddington is apprehended in Hong Kong by military forces, who place him in a fortified U.S. prison in the middle of the Bering Sea. Reddington pays a $50,000 bribe for his release, since known criminal Luther Braxton (Ron Perlman) is attempting to eliminate him and obtain "The Fulcrum". Liz, Ressler and Samar are dispatched to extract Reddington but the latter two are captured by Braxton's men. Red confides in Liz that he's never had The Fulcrum, but the fact that many think he does has kept him alive. The NCS director (David Strathairn) meets with some members of Fitch's group to discuss the same thing, and they decide it's now okay to kill Red. Liz and Reddington work with some of Reddington's inmate friends to move through the prison and locate Braxton. Back at the FBI headquarters, Cooper negotiates with the NCS over Reddington's whereabouts, and the director ends up ordering a missile strike on the prison. Liz and Reddington successfully capture Braxton, who goes on to reveal his knowledge of Reddington and Liz's history and the house fire. Reddington urges Liz to shoot Braxton, but the missiles hit the prison.

Following the missile blast at the prison, Reddington, Ressler and Samar escape safely. Braxton captures Liz, taking her to a hospital in Alaska to be tortured for information on the Fulcrum. Braxton kidnaps the child of one Dr. Selma Orchard (Gloria Reuben) to coerce her into performing a "memory recovery operation" on Liz while she is sedated. While Liz experiences multiple memory cycles, Reddington captures Braxton and arrives with the other agents to recover Liz. Liz has learned that Reddington was there at her home to recover the Fulcrum, and rescued her from the fire while her parents died in the chaos. She angrily tells Reddington that his fatherly concern for her is an act he needs to drop. Reddington later meets with the NCS director next to Braxton's hanged corpse, claiming to have custody of the Fulcrum. The director calls Reddington's bluff and states that he isn't afraid of Reddington. At her apartment, Liz goes through her personal effects and finds a strange device inside her childhood stuffed rabbit. Dr. Orchard later meets with Liz, telling her the events she recalled in the memory recovery are likely correct, but the roles of the people involved may not be.

Reddington, Liz and Ressler travel to Uzbekistan to investigate criminal Ruslan Denisov (Faran Tahir), who is holding multiple American hostages captive. Denisov, an old associate of Red's, is targeting members of a company that is refusing to replace a pipeline, whose leaking water is poisoning civilians. After unsuccessful attempts to negotiate with Denisov, Reddington works with him to capture a former Russian business associate (Olek Krupa) and use the company's history to blackmail them into repairing the pipeline. The CIA, however, have one of their agents in Denisov's custody and attempt to employ an Uzbek general (Shaun Toub) to eliminate Denisov. Cooper confronts the CIA handler and the mission is called off. Reddington captures the general and assures Denisov that he has helped his country, and despite potential consequences he will emerge a hero. Meanwhile, a Metro PD detective Wilcox begins investigating the murder of the harbormaster Tom killed in "The Decembrist". He finds the Samoan (the bodyguard hired by Liz to hold Tom captive) and begins investigating him. The Samoan leads him to the body and talks about Liz. Elsewhere, Liz asks Aram to determine the nature of the strange item she found in the stuffed rabbit. Aram later says he can only identify it as some kind of recording device.

Reddington and the FBI team investigate a family of polygamous cultist criminals known as "The Kenyon Family" which also doubles as a storage facility for military weapons, as a way of making their fortune to afford expensive lawyers to hold off the law. However, the cult is attacked by an unseen enemy, killing all of the members and stealing the weapons, while also kidnapping Justin Kenyon, the cult's leader, who they later kill. Afterwards, a series of vans, filled with explosives, appear near Washington D.C., being manned by children, which grants Liz and the task force a warrant to raid the Kenyon private property. However, Liz and Ressler are kidnapped by the same people who attacked the cult, who turn out to be boys that Justin had thrown into the wilderness because of his belief that there were too many boys, who have banded together under the leadership of David Keynon, Justin's son. Liz and Ressler are later saved by the FBI, who have managed to track them, resulting in the death of David. Cooper receives a job offer to become a director of the FBI, but turns it down because of health issues and focuses on trying to get in on a trial for his illness, which he is denied. Reddington teams up with a reluctant Glen (a DMV contact) to track down the contents of Alan Fitch's safe in St. Petersburg. The pair arrive to find a card with a unknown telephone number, which Red tries to trace to no avail. Returning back to the Post Office, he surprises Liz with a key to her brand new apartment, which annoys her. Cooper finds out that he has been accepted as an 'extra' for the trial, thanks to his friend Thomas Connolly, who has powerful connections. After the Kenyon compound threat is neutralized by the FBI, Red goes back there to a secret bunker which houses what appears as a old '60's-'70's Lincoln Continental Presidential vehicle perfectly preserved. Red opens the trunk and takes out a silver briefcase. Red then calls the telephone number, which is answered by a mysterious man.

The FBI team tracks down a serial killer nicknamed "The Deer Hunter", who has been on a killing spree for nearly twelve years. Detective Wilcox continues to question The Samoan about the harbormaster's murder, who agrees to testify if he gets immunity. The mysterious caller sets up a meeting with Reddington, telling him that they need to discuss something in person. Red then meets with Elizabeth and inquires about the Fulcrum, which she unsuccessfully lies about. They agree to a deal that he will help bring down The Deer Hunter in exchange for the Fulcurm. The Deer Hunter turns out to be the murdered husband of Tracy Solobotkin (Amanda Plummer), who is an employee in an organization that helps battered women. Kidnapping Liz, she reveals that she killed her husband in self-defense and decided to continue his legacy in the form of killing men who hurt other women. Liz manages to choke her into unconsciousness, just as Ressler and the task force arrive. Reddington finds out about The Samoan's deal with Wilcox and bribes him to lie to the District Attorney. As this falls on the same exact time as the intended meeting with the mystery caller, he sends Dembe instead, which angers the mystery caller who hangs up during the phone call. Red later manages to trace the Mystery man's location, but only finds the cell phone he was using and blood on the floor. He meets with Elizabeth to inform her of his deal with The Samoan. However, she refuses to hand him The Fulcrum. Reddington calls her out for being afraid that he would lose all interest in her if she gave it to him.

Reddington reveals the next blacklister to be the infamous King family, who, for 200 years, have been under the guise of being investors and businessmen; their real business, however, was running underground auctions where the products sold ranged from stolen paintings to high profile kidnapping victims. When they kidnap Reddington using Madeline Pratt as bait, Elizabeth uses the identity of a proxy from an infamous Russian art collector with an interest in stolen paintings, and infiltrates the auction to retrieve Reddington and shut down the Kings' business. Meanwhile, Tom realizes that he has been missing Elizabeth, and calls her before taking an undercover job in Germany as a neo-Nazi named Christof Mannheim.

Liz is accused of the murder of the harbormaster killed by Liz's ex-husband Tom, so Reddington tasks a search party to find him. Meanwhile, Tom goes undercover in Germany. Under oath, Liz tells the judge what has happened for the last year, but he does not believe her.

Following the last episode, Judge Denner finds that Liz was lying about the murder after police find the bullet that matched her gun and was used to shoot Samuel Alecko. In light of the evidence, the judge pushes forward an indictment for murder and perjury for Liz. In order to reach Tom, Reddington and Ressler sabotage an arms deal and kill Tom's assigned group, telling him to confess to his murder of the harbormaster. Meanwhile, Cooper, who confides to Liz about the perjury, has a seizure and is rushed to the hospital. Liz later finds out from Cooper's wife that he has a brain tumor and has at most a year to live. Tom comes to the courtroom and confesses to the murder, attempting to make a deal for Liz to be free from prosecution. However, Tom Connolly, in line to become the next Attorney General, intervenes, forcing the judge to drop the charges in exchange for avoiding arrest for exceeding his authority. Later, Tom Keen calls Liz and asks her if she is okay.

After a state trooper is shot and killed when he stops a truck revealed to have several experimented-on human corpses in it, Reddington reveals the next blacklister to be Roger Hobbs. Hobbs is a billionaire tech mogul whose fascination with immortality led him to develop and fund a research team for just that purpose. Leading the research is Dr. Julian Powell, a scientist who has been injecting the cells of an extremely unique jellyfish species into humans in order to hopefully force their cells to regenerate. While Liz and Reddington go after Powell, The Major decides Tom's love for Liz has clouded his judgment and made him a liability, and he plans to have Tom executed. Before this comes to fruition, however, the Germans that Tom had been trying to infiltrate now intervene and capture them both for interrogation. As both are being tortured, Tom says they will never talk. One of the Germans then pulls a photo of Liz out of Tom's wallet and threatens to harm her instead. But when Tom says Liz is FBI, the leader of the German group decides that attracting the attention of the FBI would be a greater risk than letting Tom go. Having nowhere to go, Tom heads to Liz's home.

Vanessa Cruz, a vengeful widow of a broker turned whistleblower, has been attacking businessmen by committing crimes and framing them for it under the guise of "corporate wrongdoing." Meanwhile, Reddington attempts to sow seeds of dissent within the cabal's ranks in order to depose The Director. Tom asks Liz for help for recovering his passports, but is initially rebuffed. Running into an obstacle in the investigation of Cruz, Liz turns to Tom for help in finding Cruz in exchange for the return of his passports. While the Task Force manages to foil Cruz's initial assassination attempt, Cruz escapes, and is approached by Mr. Kaplan for recruitment into Reddington's fold. During the aftermath, Tom discloses to Liz the truth behind his relationship with Reddington. A disgusted Liz approaches Reddington with the fulcrum, attempting to cut her ties with him, only for an unknown sniper to wound Reddington.

Liz and Dembe spring into action to save a lung-shot Red and immediately take him to an enclosed location to treat him. Red regains consciousness and tells Liz to talk to Leonard Caul and might have an idea about the Fulcrum. Liz finds Caul and it is revealed that the Fulcrum is a collection of information regarding political assassinations and terrorism for which the cabal is responsible. Liz narrowly stops the Director's assassination mission on Reddington by blackmailing him with the Fulcrum. In the aftermath, Tom Connolly ends up having a seat within the Director's cabal, after having leaked information about Reddington's whereabouts to the cabal. Liz, frustrated with Reddington's scheming which put Tom Keen in her life, asks Tom about what he knows about Reddington.

The team investigate a Blacklister named Quon Zhang, a criminal known for taking dead corpses into "Art." Tom and Liz are forced to work together on the case and grow closer. Liz seeks into Reddington to find answers about her past and her mother.

The task force investigates a Blacklister named "Karakurt" who is targeting a U.S. Senator using a deadly biochemical weapon by transferring face to face contact. Later on, Liz and Ressler rescue the Senator but it later revealed that Liz is being set up because it is revealed that Liz's mother was a Russian spy and that she has the disease in her thinking that she was the one going to kill the Senator. Elsewhere, Tom tries to mend things with Liz.

Elizabeth is framed for the assassination of a U.S. Senator and is now on the run with Red's help. The Attorney General, Tom Connolly, forces Cooper on administrative leave for keeping Keen from being questioned. Liz is captured for questioning, but later escapes with the help of Reddington and Cooper. Angered at Reddington for refusing to tell the truth about her mother, Elizabeth seeks Tom's assistance, and the two eventually give in to their romantic feelings for each other. Meanwhile, Red brings together the world's leading investigative journalists and reveals the Fulcrum's contents to publicly expose the Cabal. Through Elizabeth, Cooper discovers that his disease was a hoax orchestrated by the Cabal through Connolly, and angrily confronts him together with Elizabeth. Connolly defensively threatens them both, which eventually causes Elizabeth to fatally shoot him. The shooting triggers her memory of the night of the fire: she shot and killed her abusive father in order to protect her mother. Elizabeth escapes police capture with Reddington's help, and confesses to having regained her memory, as well as her full understanding of Reddington's desire to protect her. They both escape, while Tom leaves in his boat. Reven Wright appoints Ressler as the new director of the task force, while Cooper hands in his badge and is questioned for Connolly's murder. Elizabeth's name is put next to Reddington's on the FBI Ten Most Wanted list.

With Liz and Reddington on the run, Red reaches out to his contacts to help flee the city, however his contact known as the Troll Farmer is unable to help them until a full week later than planned, which results in Red and Liz hiding at a bar that houses a secret compartment beneath. Ressler interrogates Cooper about Liz's last known whereabouts and also does everything to find them as the new Director of the task force. Tipped off about Red and Liz's location, Ressler attempts to capture them but fails. Forcing the Troll Farmer to help them ahead of time, Red manages to escape the city, but Liz gets separated from him and is forced to go to the Russian Embassy, claiming to be a spy for the KGB. Meanwhile, an associate of the NCS Director, Solomon, kidnaps Dembe's infant granddaughter to attract his attention, blackmailing him to inhale an unspecified drug in exchange for her life.

After Liz turns herself in to the Russian Embassy, the Cabal uses this opportunity as a means to kill her. Reddington warns Ressler of Liz's impending doom and has him stop that convoy, which gives Liz a chance to escape. Later, Liz and Reddington reunite at a diner which later turns into an improvised hostage situation when Ressler and his team show up. Reddington demands the release of fellow Blacklister Marvin Gerard (Fisher Stevens) a former top defense lawyer, who Red wants to help decode the Fulcrum and expose the Cabal. The hostage situation is later revealed to be a jailbreak for Gerard, as the diner turns out to be a smuggling location, which allows them to flee the scene. Elsewhere, Cooper is forced to take a leave of absence while his involvement in the assassination is being reviewed. Meanwhile, Dembe is tortured for information by Solomon on Red's whereabouts and Tom reappears to Ressler, offering help.

On the run in Iowa, Red and Liz seek to gain leverage over the Cabal by thwarting the plans of an officer of an agribusiness firm that launders money for it. Eli Hatchett leads a group that steals company secrets; he develops a virus to kill the crops grown from the company's seeds. Meanwhile, Cooper turns to Tom Keen for help. Dembe resists physical torture during his interrogation, causing Solomon to bring in Mr. Vargas as another one of his prisoners

Reddington and Liz continue their quest into clearing Liz's name. Meanwhile, Reddington seeks help from the task force into catching Blacklister named "The Djinn" a criminal who helps fulfill revenge fantasies and who could lead them to the Cabal. Tom accepts Cooper's undercover assignment to pursue Karakurt, and looks to infiltrate a crime ring that may be protecting Karakurt. Meanwhile, Dembe successfully escapes, but is betrayed and shot by Mr. Vargas when he learns how to locate Reddington.

After an attempt on Liz's life, she and Reddington search for a blacklister named Arioch Cain, who has placed a bounty on Liz to avenge the OREA bombing and the assassination of a senator, both committed by Karakurt and believed in the media to have been committed by Liz. Meanwhile, Ressler testifies before a Presidential commission which orders the FBI task force to partner with Director Peter Kotsiopulous (David Strathairn) and the CIA. Tom continues his undercover mission for Cooper, befriending a rich socialite being extorted by Russian gangsters as he gets closer to finding Karakurt, and ends up killing one of his thugs. Reddington and Liz are betrayed by Mr. Vargas and handed over to Solomon. As Solomon proceeds to kill Liz in front of Reddington, Dembe intervenes and kills Solomon's henchmen while Reddington kills Mr. Vargas, but Solomon manages to escape. Reddington stages Liz's death to bring out the real identity of the person that placed the bounty, learning that Arioch Cain was the daughter of a CIA agent killed in the OREA bombing.

Ressler adjusts to working with the Director, who has forced the FBI to cooperate with the CIA in tracking Reddington and Keen. The two fugitives learn that an advisor with connections to the Director has gone missing, which leads them to Sir Crispin Crandall, a reclusive billionaire who has kidnapped some of the smartest people in the world in a bid to save the human race from a supposed mass extinction. They track Crandall to his lab, a perpetually airborne aircraft that Reddington forces to land, and take the advisor's thumbs to open a lock, which contains money that the Director had been stealing from the Cabal, as an escape plan. Tom ends up in a fight club in order to find and capture Karakurt. He kills Asher Sutton after being forced to fight him to the death, but succeeds in finding Karakurt and dragging him back to DC to exonerate Liz.

The task force looks for a Blacklister named Zal Bin Hasaan, an Iranian terrorist responsible for the murder of numerous Mossad agents, including those Samar worked with, and the capture of several scientists working on Israel's missile defense system. In doing so, Samar is reunited with her brother, thought to have been killed in a bombing years ago. It turns out that her brother is Zal, and in the end, she gives her brother to Reddington to provide him with the leverage he needs to set up an important meeting. Meanwhile, Tom delivers Karakurt to Cooper, and they force Karakurt to agree to confess to framing Liz. Ressler becomes upset that Cooper went behind his back to work with Tom. After an emotional day, Ressler and Samar end up sleeping together.

While waiting for Dembe to retrieve an important item for their plan to clear Liz, Reddington is kidnapped by the "Kings of the Highway," a common gang that aims to steal money and possessions from unsuspecting travelers. Stranded by Reddington's abduction, Liz calls Samar to locate him, but Ressler fires her from the task force after he finds out she used his laptop to track him. Liz tracks the gang down by taking one of their members hostage to trade for Reddington. The exchange, which also involves the item Dembe had retrieved, is interrupted by the FBI, and Ressler arrests Liz after a lengthy chase, while Reddington escapes. Cooper and Tom find themselves being pursued by Solomon's men, and must protect Karakurt from being killed and prevented from confessing to the OREA bombing. The hunt for Solomon takes Reven Wright to Laurel Hitchin, who helped Solomon when he worked for the CIA. Hitchin then kills Wright to cover up her involvement with Solomon and the Cabal.

Ressler puts Liz in the box at the post office to protect her until the U.S. Marshals can transport her to her arraignment. The Director and Hitchin, hoping to prevent her from testifying, arrange to remove Liz from the box before the Marshals arrive. Aram, determined to protect Liz from the Director, changes the door code to the box to keep the Director from taking Liz. The Director resorts to flooding the box with nitrogen, suffocating Liz, to force Aram to give up the door code. Meanwhile, Tom and Cooper take Karakurt to an empty cabin belonging to a neighbor with whom Cooper's wife Charlene was having an affair. With Ressler's help, they fend off an assault by Solomon and his men, who have tracked them to the cabin, and arrest Solomon in the process. Ressler returns to the post office quickly enough to prevent the Director from taking Liz, and warn Hitchin that he knows that she killed Wright. Reddington and Samar manage to retrieve the case the FBI took. The case, containing state-of-the-art printing plates for money, created from the software upgrades General Ludd stole from the U.S. Treasury, is Reddington's leverage to get Venezuela to agree to help him and Liz and help take down the Cabal.

Reddington secretly meets with the task force while Ressler brings Liz to the federal courthouse and protects her there. Through an elaborate ruse, Reddington and the task force kidnap the Director and bring him to the Venezuelan authorities, who intend to charge an American official with war crimes. The threat of war crimes prosecution is leverage that allows Reddington to strike a deal with Laurel Hitchin through Marvin Gerard, his attorney who helped him to design the plan to prove Liz's innocence. Thanks to Tom delivering Karakurt to the federal courthouse, Gerard is able to get the U.S. government to drop all the charges against Liz except an involuntary manslaughter charge from the killing of Attorney General Tom Connolly. The plea deal prevents Liz from going to jail but also prevents her from returning to the FBI, unless as an asset to the task force. With Liz finally set free, Ressler steps down as head of the task force, giving authority back to Cooper, and Reddington, on Hitchin's permission, kills the Director to rid the Cabal of a liability. Reddington and Hitchin meet afterwards to discuss involving him in the Cabal.

Liz, though exonerated, finds adjusting to normal life difficult without being an FBI agent. She is stripped of her concealed carry permit, has difficulties finding a new apartment and passersby look at her with suspicion. Marcus Caligiuri, an international criminal, kills Mr. Kaplan's team of cleaners as a warning to Reddington that he knows about his connection to the FBI, endangering his criminal empire. In response, Reddington has the task force look into a gathering of criminals which includes Caligiuri, and their hunt leads them to a man who claims to be Raymond Reddington. In the box at the post office, the impostor warns the task force that Caligiuri plans to kidnap an FBI executive to expose Reddington as an informant. The kidnapping succeeds, which forces the task force to offer the impostor immunity in exchange for infiltrating the criminal gathering. The real Reddington, however, joins the meeting first, and the late-arriving impostor is then falsely presented as the FBI asset hired by Caligiuri to betray the gathering of criminals. Both are then killed by Reddington, restoring his reputation among his fellow criminals. Beyond suspicion once again, Reddington tells Liz the impostor was his friend, Gregory Devry, a con man dying of cancer who sacrificed himself to help Reddington. Meanwhile, Tom proposes to Liz again, a prospect that Reddington explicitly forbids. Liz is assaulted in the street, and during her recovery in the hospital, she finds out that she is pregnant.

Tensions within the post office begin to endanger the relationships within the task force, as Cooper is sleeping in his office after separating from Charlene, and Ressler and Navabi are partnered together on their next case. A series of grisly murders, including the murder of one of Reddington's associates, prompts the task force to track down the Vehm, a group of religious fanatics who hunt and kill pedophiles. Reddington, not convinced that his associate was a pedophile, suspects that someone involved in money laundering is controlling them to also eliminate the competition. The investigation leads Reddington to a priest who has been using the Vehm to target money launderers under the pretense of murdering pedophiles. Reddington then turns the Vehm on the priest by convincing them they were tricked. The priest is killed, and the Vehm become allied with Reddington. Meanwhile, Liz ponders whether to keep the baby she is about to have or put the baby up for adoption. Tom is eager to start a new life with Liz, but his plans to take Liz with him are sabotaged when Reddington interferes by cutting off his career opportunities and placing Liz under his protection and surveillance.

The task force pursues Alastair Pitt, the head of an organization called the Promnestria, which brokers arrangements between criminal empires for profit. Pitt is brokering a merger between two warring crime families by arranging a marriage between their children. The groom-to-be is already engaged, so Pitt has his fiancee killed and blames it on the other family. To stop the violence, the two children agree to get married. Reddington infiltrates the wedding party to stop it by exposing the truth about the fiancee's murder, forcing Pitt to reveal himself before the FBI swoops in. They arrest everyone except Pitt, who is taken by Reddington to France, where years ago, Pitt arranged a similar marriage between a woman Reddington loved and a man who eventually beat her into a catatonic state. Reddington then kills Pitt in revenge. Tom, seeking money to take Liz away from Reddington, seeks out Gina Zanetakos, who brings him in on an elaborate but successful jewelry heist. Liz works with an adoption agency for her baby, but while a couple has agreed to take the baby, they insist on a closed adoption that would prevent Liz from seeing her child. Samar has to handle the news that Levi, her former Mossad partner and ex-lover, is engaged to someone else.

Reddington brings Liz a case involving a series of abductions of children who have special needs. One of the abducted children is found, leading the task force to investigate the child's parents and an employee of an adoption agency who takes children unwanted by one of their parents to Lady Ambrosia. In turn, Lady Ambrosia and her son, who also has special needs, take care of the children and, when they turn twelve, euthanize them in a magical spectacle for the other children. Reddington abducts their accomplice from the adoption agency and tortures him to reveal the location of Lady Ambrosia's school of children. He takes one of the girls and leaves Lady Ambrosia to be killed by her son, who then commits suicide, while the other children are taken to safety by the task force. The girl Reddington rescued is returned to her mother, who returns the favor by giving him a file with information on Katarina Rostova, Liz's mother. Liz finally finds a couple who will take her child in an open adoption, but needs Tom's consent to complete the adoption. Unbeknownst to Liz, Tom is betrayed by Gina, who has him shot and left for dead. He survives long enough to be found and taken to a hospital.

Drexel is a serial killer whose murders double as performance art, and his latest murder of a co-founder of a start-up financial firm is investigated by the task force. The murder is posted by an underground publication before the police investigate, and the task force concludes that Drexel has been using stolen NSA technology to hack into personal computers and access their webcams. The task force reveals that the murder was meant to lead them to an illegal business that sold access to webcam feeds of unsuspecting people. Reddington uses the investigation to track down Drexel, who, according to the file he received, has been working on a painting commissioned by Katarina Rostova, depicting Liz standing over his grave. Liz finds Tom recovering in the hospital thanks to Nik, a doctor and Liz's ex-boyfriend, now under Reddington's employ after taking his money for saving his life. With his and Reddington's help, Tom escapes the police's investigation of the jewelry heist he participated in. The entire ordeal leads Liz to change her mind about giving her child up for adoption.

When a US state government official is killed by the Chinese as retaliation against a murder of a Chinese official in USA by a Chinese American and US forces. The contract of this killing, which puts the blame of the killing to the US government is protected by The Caretaker. Reddington then introduces Keen to this case who then, via the FBI, interrogates the Chinese-American to reveal his method of communication with the Caretaker. After getting to know that underground pipes by US post are used, Reddington, Keen and Dembe pay a visit to one of Reddingtons's clients of which The Caretaker is also a client. Simultaneously, Tom confronts Gina Zanetakos on the intent of peace which leads to a fight between the two. Reddington provides the location of The Caretaker to Ressler and Navabi who hunt down The Caretaker, who is digging up a canister from a corpse in the cemetery. Upon interrogation, he says that he was releasing the canister to a group which had abducted his daughter. This canister involved a contract between an airline and the Germans. Upon further investigation, it is found out that the group of terrorists that orchestrated an attack on the airline has acquired a metric ton of C4 which via Reddington is located, however that truck contains a bomb made of that C4, which was triggered after Ressler shot the person holding the button. With the bomb squad 12 minutes away and the bomb exploding in 2, the duo enlists Aram's help via phone on defusing the bomb, which is completed in remaining 9 seconds. At the same time, the duo of Ressler and Navabi infiltrate the place where The Caretaker's daughter is held and shoot one of the guards. It is later revealed that the guards are former marines and that the daughter had staged her own abduction in order to get away from The Caretaker, as he had kidnapped her when she was a baby. Keen also finds out the truth about her mother via a retired Russian agent. However, at the end Reddington burns a piece of information that he recovered by using The Caretaker's ledger that potentially would have proven Keen's current knowledge about Katarina Rostova to be incorrect.

Mr. Solomon is broken out of federal custody by an unknown patron. Liz and Tom decide to get married immediately, despite Reddington's objections. Liz asks Cooper to officiate at the wedding and invites the other members of the task force to attend. Gina Zanetakos and the Major prepare to kill Tom, but at the last minute Zanetakos kills the Major instead and leaves. Tom confesses what happened to Liz, fearing she will change her mind about marrying him, but she reaffirms her love for him. The task force learns that Solomon is attempting to steal a tactical nuclear weapon. They capture one of Solomon's accomplices, who tips them off about his plans, but it turns out to be a dead end. Reddington realizes that the accomplice allowed herself to be captured and the plot to steal the nuclear weapon was intended to divert the FBI's attention from Solomon's real target: Liz. He arrives at the church where Liz and Tom are about to be married just before Solomon surrounds it with his men and demands that Liz come out. A massive firefight breaks out, with Reddington, Dembe, Tom, Cooper, and Navabi holding off Solomon's men until Ressler arrives to help. Liz and Tom escape.

Solomon continues his relentless pursuit of Liz and Tom, using satellite and data surveillance to track them. Liz is injured in a car accident. Mr. Kaplan takes her to a secure location where Nick, Liz's physician ex, performs an emergency Caesarian section to save her baby. Mr. Kaplan rebukes Reddington for endangering Liz and her baby. The C-section is successful, but Liz refuses to let Reddington see her child, whom she names Agnes after her adoptive grandmother. Shortly afterward, Liz has a life-threatening reaction. Just before Nick puts Liz into a medically induced coma, she forgives Reddington. Reddington has Liz taken to a hospital, sending out an empty ambulance as a decoy, but Solomon's men still find and stop the real ambulance with Liz inside. The FBI arrives and kills Solomon's men, but Solomon escapes. Ressler finds that Liz has died despite Nick and Reddington's efforts. The task force grieves, and a devastated Reddington goes to see Tom and Agnes.

A distraught and broken Reddington travels to Cape May, New Jersey, where he saves a woman from drowning herself and it is revealed that he has a connection with her. Reddington tells her his feelings about Liz, her death, and the future of her child Agnes. Later on, she reveals that there are people after her to kill her. She and Reddington team up to take them down. Afterwards, she again tries to drown herself and Reddington is unable to save her this time. It is then revealed that this woman was a ghost who existed only in Reddington's mind: his memory of Katarina Rostova.

The task force mourn Elizabeth Keen's death and seek revenge on her killers. They discover Solomon's employers were using a defunct satellite network, the Artax Network, to track Liz at every step. The investigation uncovers a mysterious, unidentified woman who may be the mastermind behind Liz's death. Meanwhile, Reddington is in hiding, trying to make amends with Liz's maternal grandfather, Dom. Eventually he returns to the task force, ready to help find Liz's killers.

The task force continues to mourn the loss of Liz. Reddington comes out of hiding and tells the task force to search for a powerful woman who was assigned to kidnap Liz named Susan "Scottie" Hargrave (Famke Janssen). After being drawn out and wounded, Hargrave reveals to Reddington that the person who is responsible for Liz's death is a man named Alexander Kirk.

Reddington informs the task force to search for Alexander Kirk, the man responsible for the death of Elizabeth Keen. It is revealed that Kirk is after Liz's daughter Agnes and Tom, Solomon and Hargrave must team up to protect her. To draw Kirk out, the team reluctantly co-operates with Solomon and his crew to pull off a heist for Kirk's money. Everything runs smoothly until Solomon makes a remark about Elizabeth, causing Tom to shoot him, although he escapes soon after. Despite this hurdle, the heist is successful. After the team splits paths, Tom returns to the hospital only to find Agnes missing. He meets with Hargrave with the intention of killing her, but finds that she moved Agnes to save her from Kirk. Tom also discovers that Hargrave is his mother.

The task force is closing in on Alexander Kirk. Meanwhile, Reddington reveals that he wants to leave the task force following Liz's death because he has no use left for them. Mr. Kaplan keeps an eye on Tom and Agnes as Kirk's men track them. Tom eludes his security detail and flees to a villa in Cuba with his daughter to go into hiding. When Red discovers this, he learns that Mr. Kaplan helped Tom flee the country, which makes Reddington furious, as Kirk has also tracked Tom and Agnes to Cuba. Mr. Kaplan reveals to Reddington that Elizabeth Keen is actually alive and that she arranged to fake Liz's death in order to protect her from Reddington. Reddington travels to Cuba only to find the empty villa and signs of a struggle. A captive Elizabeth is met by Alexander Kirk, who reveals himself to be her father, Konstantin Rostov.

Held captive by Alexander Kirk, Liz refuses to believe his insistence that he is her father. She attempts escape several times but fails to get away. Raymond Reddington sets out to rescue Liz after being betrayed by Mr. Kaplan, who he reluctantly allows to help him. Meanwhile, Tom and Agnes are captured by Kirk's men; while Tom manages to escape, he is separated from Agnes. The task force reels with shock from the truth of Liz being alive and her apparent betrayal, which Samar takes the hardest of everyone. Red makes contact with a 'blacklister' known as Esteban, who is working with the CIA, and strikes a deal for Liz's location in Cuba, but he arrives too late to save her. Red manages to take back Agnes, but a bounty hunter named 'Mato' hired by Kirk smashes a car into Red's and knocks out the passengers. Mato takes Agnes and disappears.

Kirk takes a still-captive Liz to Nova Scotia which he claims to be her childhood home. During her stay at the house, Liz has a remembrance of her mother Katarina Rostova. Meanwhile, Reddington tracks down Mato with Mr. Kaplan's help and uncovers Liz's current location before killing him. Red informs Ressler and the Task Force, who lead an FBI team to the house and rescue Liz, but discover that Kirk has escaped and that Agnes is still missing. With Liz now safe, Reddington takes Mr. Kaplan to a remote forest and shoots her for her betrayal. However, as Red leaves, he fails to see Mr. Kaplan's hand moving, leaving her fate unknown.

Red says "criminal incubator" Miles McGrath is the key to finding Alexander Kirk and Agnes. Liz apologizes to the Task Force for not telling them about her faking her own death. Samar says she is requesting a transfer. Tom and Liz work together to get info from the FBI on what they have on Alexander. Liz gets her mother's journal, which describes her affair with Red. Katarina was assigned to insinuate herself into Red's life to seduce and betray him. Kirk wants a sample of the Roboski virus, which will help him treat the rare blood disease he suffers from. Red enlists Tom to work undercover with McGrath's mercenaries to hijack a train carrying samples of Class A substances that include the Roboski virus from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in the hopes that they can get to McGrath. The hijacking succeeds but the Task Force arrests McGrath and his mercenaries after they complete the job. Red takes the Roboski virus sample. Kirk explains to Liz that a stem cell donation from her will allow him to live. Mr. Kaplan is alive and a hunter finds her.

Red tasks Liz and the FBI team with hunting down an eco-terrorist named "Gaia" as a way to find Kirk. Kirk establishes a video feed so Liz and Tom can see Agnes. Tom thinks he can get Agnes back and calls in a friend to track the video feed. Kirk has already predicted this move and Tom fails, causing Kirk to end the feed. Liz is furious with Tom for going behind her back and not trusting her judgment. The Task Force realizes that Gaia wants to cause an explosion at a nuclear plant as retaliation for the radiation poisoning that he suffered during his military service that subsequently affected his child. Aram hesitates at shutting off Gaia's helicopter, which would kill the eco-terrorist but stop the attack. Harold pushes the button, causing the copter to crash and killing Gaia. Samar insists she is leaving and fights with Aram. Kirk knows he is dying from his blood disease but is hesitant to use Agnes to help himself because it might kill her. Gaia's son has the same doctor as Kirk and Red captures Dr. Reifler to get to Kirk. Mr. Kaplan is being nursed back to health by the hunter but discovers she is chained up.

The Lindquist Concern is employed by corporations to prevent revolutionary technology from reaching the market and damaging their businesses. Tom asks for Ressler's help in getting info on Alexander Kirk. Silas Gouldsberry, who works for the patent office also secretly works for the Lindquist Concern, kills inventors and takes their discoveries but is discovered by the Task Force. Red uses Dr. Reifler to track down Kirk. Tom blackmails a Russian intelligence operative to obtain info on Kirk's whereabouts and discovers that Kirk has set a trap for Red. Tom gives Liz a DNA test that identifies Alexander as her father and tips off Liz about the trap. The Task Force eventually corners Gouldsberry at his office, where he plans to release all the information on the inventions he's stolen. Samar stops Gouldsberry and prevents the release. Red extracts information about a patent by Sonia Bloom from the data. Red tries to capture Kirk's car using Dr. Reifler's connection but the car blows up and only Liz's timely call saves Red's life. Liz confronts Red about his lies.

The Task Force discovers that a financier to the world's criminals named Rene LeBron is bankrolling Kirk's operations. They capture LeBron, but during his transfer, he is assassinated by unknown gunmen. Red summons the members of Task Force to a secure location and reveals that their communications are being monitored by Kirk. As the Task Force tries to find Kirk, who Liz believes in her father, she is torn between trusting him and Reddington. Red questions the validity of the DNA test that Liz has. Aram deduces that the penetration of their network could only have been done by someone with his access. The Task Force zeroes in on one of Kirk's hacking groups known as "The Thrushes" that specialize in hacking the most secure networks. Suspicion falls on Aram's new girlfriend Elise and the Task Force creates a trap to locate the Thrushes and stop the penetration. Elise discovers the ruse and nearly beats up Aram before she is captured by the Task Force. Liz leads Kirk into a trap and rescues Agnes and captures Kirk. Mr. Kaplan confronts the hunter who rescued her and struggles to convince him to let her leave.

Alexander Kirk is supposed to be transferred but after he collapses, he is taken to the hospital. Unless a compatible donor donates stem cells to him, Kirk will die. Red uses the Task Force to lure out The Coroner, who establishes new identities for criminals, in order to find Sonia Bloom, a research scientist specializing in blood. She is now called Dr. Adrian Shaw and is on the run because her partner was murdered by the Lindquist Concern. Her work with blood connects her to Kirk. Liz decides to be Kirk's donor, but Tom is opposed and tries to convince her not to help him. The Task Force locates Shaw and boards the ship where her clandestine laboratory is based, but Shaw is nowhere to be found. Red has taken Shaw to his own laboratory and enlists her help. Liz discovers she's not Kirk's daughter and informs Kirk. Red tells Liz that Kirk has men coming to get him out of the hospital.

Alexander Kirk's men break him out of the hospital and capture Liz after a firefight. Tom pursues them but is unable to help Liz and is nearly captured before Ressler arrives to save him. Mr. Kaplan continues to be helped by the hunter. Mr. Kaplan escapes her shackles, but the hunter has already decided to let her go. Red has Dr. Shaw identify patient zero, Lucille Bockes, whose life was saved by Adrian's treatment, which means Red has the cure for Kirk. Kirk's own people confirm that Liz is not his daughter. Red offers to trade himself for Elizabeth and he is taken to Kirk. Liz is supposed to be released, but Kirk's assistant Odette tries to kill Liz, who escapes. Kirk tortures Red and asks if Red is Liz's father. Red says he is. Dr. Reifler and Lucille Bockes arrive to show Kirk that treatment is possible, but Kirk refuses to take the cure. He prepares to kill Red, but Red whispers a secret to him that stops Kirk from killing him. Kirk disappears and Red returns to see Liz and Agnes.

A seafood processing plant, which is being used as a secret smuggling operation by a member of the New Martyrs Brigade, is attacked and technology is stolen. Red puts the Task Force on the New Martyrs Brigade and the attack. Aram attends a deposition regarding his former girlfriend Elise who hacked the FBI and is cleared as a person of interest. The New Martyrs Brigade send Farook al-Thani from Libya to finish the project and find out who attacked them. A high-ranking member of Blackthorn Kincaid, an American business, is supplying the New Martyrs with the classified technology, a timing chip. The Task Force is given a possible suspect, James Maddox by Mr. Deavers , an executive of Blackthorn Kincaid, but Maddox is being set up. It is revealed that Samar was working with the Mossad and her ex-lover Levi Shur and she led the raid. Samar is captured by al-Thani, but Mossad and the FBI team up to stop the terrorists and rescue Samar. Aram rescinds his dinner date with Samar, citing issues of trust. Red calls in a favor with president-elect Senator Robert Diaz and gets Liz pardoned. Liz is returned to Special Agent status.

The Task Force takes on a case involving a young girl, Maggie Driscoll, who has premonitions of crimes that have yet to be committed. It is revealed that Maggie's hearing aid picks up a criminal's murder plans that are used to affect companies' stock prices. Red plays off two businessmen, Iniko and Keino, against each other, pretending to work with the other. After Iniko kills his employee, Red reveals that Iniko killed one of his friends two months ago. Red kills Iniko and hires Iniko's cleaners. The plotters realize that Maggie knows their plans and try to kill her. Ressler stops them from harming Maggie and manages to kill the murderer Ben Charnquist, but Chris Farnsworth, the stock trader and criminal behind the plots, gets away. Dembe, worried about Red's actions, seeks out Liz hoping she can reach him. He reveals that Red killed Mr. Kaplan. Tom tries to get into living a normal life, but he reveals to Liz that he has reservations that he can leave his former life behind.

On the advice of Red, Liz infiltrates a heist group composed entirely of women to retrieve a list of individuals in witness protection. One of the group, a former British agent named Emma Knightly, had ties with Red but has gone silent. Emma wants to get out of the game and warns Liz not to remain involved with Red. Emma protects Liz from coercion by the group's leader, Margot Rochet. Emma betrays the group during the heist and escapes with the list. One of the group is killed and Liz narrowly escapes. Emma gives Red the list and he agrees to get her out of the life of crime. Liz tips off the authorities to Margot's whereabouts and she is captured. Liz confronts Red about Mr. Kaplan's death. Red reveals that he went after the list because Mr. Kaplan's sister is on it and he wanted to protect her. One of Red's main accountants turns up dead and Red suspects that someone is attacking his organization.

In flashback, it is revealed that a woman afflicted with a deadly, highly infectious disease killed Red's accountant. Red asks the Task Force to find out who did it and why. The Task Force looks at similar deaths and identifies the woman as Natalie Luca, who is in the employ of Isabella Stone. Natalie has been targeting people with money in order to finance the research that her boyfriend Malik Roumain is conducting to replicate her immunity from the disease so they can be together. Unfortunately, Hawthorne Biologics is after her so they can use her as a biological weapon. Red recruits Tom to draw out his rival Baldur Magnusson to see if he's the one attacking Red's organization, but Baldur says he isn't after Red. Natalie and Malik plan one last job, but the Task Force intervenes and while fleeing, Malik is killed by Hawthorne agents. Natalie and Malik get one last kiss before he dies. Aram voluntarily takes a pay cut so Samar can make as much money as he does. Tom and Liz talk about loving each other and staying together.

Isabella Stone conducts covert campaigns to destroy the public image of the people she is hired to attack. Isabella and her crew continue to go after the members of Red's organization. They frame Red's ally Stratos Sarantos for the murder of his wife and get him thrown in a Monaco jail. Red and Dembe try to rescue Saranatos from prison, but Sarantos is mortally wounded during the escape. Sarantos insists that Red and Dembe leave him behind. The Task Force tracks down Isabella, who is scheming to plant evidence that Dr. Justin Sperry, a paraplegic philanthropist whose foundation had received donations from Red, is secretly smuggling money for Red. The Task Force captures Isabella, but she refuses to reveal her employer. She is placed on a prison transport, but Red's operatives intercept the transport and take Isabella. Meanwhile, Tom searches through his past after learning his father was killed in an airplane crash.

Red discovers that Isabella Stone was hired by funds coming from his own accounts. Harold is incensed after discovering that Red kidnapped the Task Force's prisoner and insists that Red provide information on a blacklister. Aram is ordered to go undercover at a hacker convention to track down the Architect, a man who plans and executes perfect crimes. Aram quickly locates the convention, where he encounters his ex-girlfriend Janet, who has been hired by the NSA to go after the Architect. After demonstrating his hacking skills, Aram is captured by the Architect so he can help him free Lonnie Perkins, a white supremacist, from prison. The plan to attack the prison proceeds with Aram's help, but Aram secretly signals the Task Force and Ressler and Samar arrive just in time to stop Perkins from escaping. The Architect flees but Aram blows up his vehicle with a rocket. Tom discovers that the man who said he killed Tom as a child, Christopher Hargraves, was given a script by his "mother" to admit it. She doesn't know who sent the payments or why.

Red awakens in a hospital bed and discovers that he has been poisoned and may only have hours to live. Dembe is nowhere to be found. Red believes that one of his 11 closest associates betrayed him. Red believes that the Apothecary is the only person who could have concocted the lethal agent and he asks the Task Force for their help finding him. Liz and Ressler try to find the Apothecary while Red retraces his steps alone, trying to reconstruct the events of the previous night. Red is fading in and out of consciousness but he learns that his attorney Marvin Gerard did not appear at the meeting of his associates and that Marvin was leaving the country. A wine bottle sent by Marvin appears to be the method of poisoning. The Task Force finds the Apothecary and convinces him to provide the antidote to spare him the death penalty. Red is cured but the Apothecary doesn't know who hired him. Liz reveals that the laboratory testing showed that the poison was not in the wine, but in his scotch. Dembe is now the prime suspect.

Reddington continues to search for the person responsible for trying to take down his criminal empire. Aram has resumed his relationship with Janet. Dembe kidnaps Aram to help him find out who really poisoned Red. Aram and Dembe work together to identify the attacker and eventually come up with a name: Kathryn Nemec, who Dembe knows as Mr. Kaplan. The Task Forces tries to arrest him, but Dembe flees with Aram's help. Liz and Red find Dembe through his family and a former associate of Red's. Dembe goes to the site of Mr. Kaplan's shooting and discovers that she is still alive. The hunter who saved Mr. Kaplan then shoots Dembe, but Red arrives to save him. Red tries to get the hunter to give up Kate, but the hunter blows his place up and Red narrowly escapes death. Meanwhile, Samar continues to struggle with her feelings for Aram when she discovers that he is back with his spy girlfriend.

Mr. Kaplan crosses the country collecting all the bodies she had cleaned up for Red in order to expose his crimes and destroy him. In flashbacks to the 1960s, '70s, '80s, a young Mr. Kaplan, known as Kathryn Nemec, is hired by Liz's mother Katarina Rostova to be Liz's caretaker. Kate learns about Katarina's relationship with Red and that he believes that Liz is his child. After a fire breaks out, Katarina is forced to run, and Kate is given instructions to give Liz to Sam Milhoan to raise. Kate disappears to Texas, where she falls in love with Annie Kaplan, a woman who works at a bail bonds agency. One night at Annie's workplace, an angry customer kills Annie and shoots Kate (whom the customer calls "Mr. Kaplan"). Kate survives but is left with a metal plate installed in her head. After she recovers, Red asks Kate to work for him and help protect Liz. She says that she will always pick Liz if the choice is between the two. In the present, Reddington calls Mr. Kaplan to arrange a meeting. Mr. Kaplan refuses, vowing instead to get revenge on him and bring him down.

Mr. Kaplan publicly reveals the 86 bodies that she has unearthed, triggering an investigation into the Task Force's relationship with Red led by FBI Agent Julian Gale. Julian and Ressler formerly worked together on a task force assigned to capture Red, so Julian asks Ressler for his help with the investigation. Julian states his belief that Red had someone on the inside and that Liz is the inside person. Julian begins identifying the bodies and accurately re-constructs the murder of Diane Fowler. Mr. Kaplan meets with Liz and reveals that she cared for her as a child and that the authorities have incriminating information on Red, trying to drive a wedge between Liz and Red, but Liz won't disavow Red. It is revealed that Mr. Kaplan has hired Philomena, a bounty hunter, to track down and capture Red's associates, including Marvin Gerard. Philomena captures Marvin but he will not betray Red, so Mr. Kaplan turns him over to the police with information about his connections to Red. Julian finds a fingerprint on a piece of evidence that has been overlooked, but Ressler is unable to tie the evidence to Red, leaving Julian suspicious. Red apologizes to a recovering Dembe, but Dembe refuses to leave. Philomena reveals where Mr. Kaplan is headed.

Red gets wind that Mr. Kaplan is going after Dr. Bogdan Krilov, the man who manipulated Liz's memories years ago. The Task Force tries to find Krilov while Red searches for Mr. Kaplan in Vienna. Ressler gets a call about a witness in the Reven Wright murder case, only to be ambushed by Bogdan and his accomplices on Mr. Kaplan's orders. Liz and Samar find and seize Krilov's mind-manipulating equipment. Mr. Kaplan directs Krilov to steal the equipment of Dr. Orchard, who restored Liz's memories. Ressler confronts Laurel Hitchin, believing that she has kidnapped the only witness to her involvement in Reven's death, but Liz shows up just in time to reveal to him that he was being manipulated by Krilov. Ressler doesn't shoot Hitchin, but he is arrested. In Vienna, Mr. Kaplan reveals to one of Red's associates Red's involvement in his son's death. Red reluctantly kills his associate with the help of another loyal associate. Red and Dembe manage to escape, trying to keep up with Mr. Kaplan. Liz discovers that Krilov has manipulated her memories again very recently at Red's behest. Meanwhile, Liz is forced to meet with Julian, who has discovered the truth about Red's crimes.

The Task Force discovers that a mercenary called The Debt Collector has been hired to capture Liz. Reddington asks Mr. Kaplan to put their differences aside when trying to prevent Liz from being kidnapped. Mr. Kaplan agrees to examine a body from a suspected previous killing by The Debt Collector to look for clues. Julian continues his investigation into the 86 bodies and Cooper orders Ressler to work with Julian. Mr. Kaplan finds evidence that suggests that a criminal from Liz's past put out the job on her. The Debt Collector captures Liz before the Task Force can protect her. Red resolves to finish his war with Mr. Kaplan regardless of the cost. Mr. Kaplan discovers Liz's location and appears with her hired guns. Red turns up and kills The Debt Collector and reveals that he hired him to kidnap Liz to trap Mr. Kaplan. Red offers Mr. Kaplan a truce but she refuses. The FBI appears and a three-way standoff occurs. Julian follows Ressler to the standoff and shoots at Red but misses. Mr. Kaplan escapes during the confusion.

Red's associates are leaving him as Mr. Kaplan cleans out his accounts of the funds that pay them. Aram is called in to testify about his involvement with Red and the Task Force. He is granted immunity and cannot refuse to testify. Julian tells Ressler he knows about Red. Mario Dixon was hired by Mr. Kaplan to get documents on Red that illustrate his signed immunity deal with the Department of Justice. Red captures Mario, but Mario makes a deal with Red to give him Mr. Kaplan. Red gets the info on Mr. Kaplan and then kills Mario. Red visit Dom, Liz's grandfather, to retrieve an item and reveals that Liz is alive. Red goes to Mario's meeting with Mr. Kaplan to offer her a chance to live by going into exile on a paradise island. She refuses and Julian shows up to capture Red, who escapes. Mr. Kaplan accepts capture and tells Julian she will testify in open court.

Mr. Kaplan reveals the details surrounding the 86 bodies. Red wants to find Henry Prescott, who has Reven Wright's body. Aram testifies without revealing Red's crimes, saying he is proud of the work done with Red, which gets him thrown in jail. Samar finds out that Aram's girlfriend Janet testified for the grand jury and gave them Aram's name. Cooper submits Red's DNA sample to find out if he is Liz's father. Red and Ressler find Reven's body in Prescott's custody. Despite knowing that Laurel Hitchin killed Reven, they use the incriminating bullet from Reven's body to force Hitchin to derail the grand jury inquiry by claiming national security concerns. Meanwhile, Liz, not knowing the grand jury has ended, contacts Mr. Kaplan to get her to stop. The two go on a drive to get the answers, but before Mr. Kaplan can reveal the truth about Red, Red's men show up. Mr. Kaplan kills herself so her contingency plan will activate and the truth about why Red revealed himself to Liz will be revealed. Ressler accidentally kills Hitchin when meeting her to get his FBI credentials back. Liz reveals she already tested Red's DNA two weeks after he showed up but was too afraid to look at the result. Aram gets out of jail and Janet confesses she revealed his name, causing him to leave Janet and confess his feelings for Samar. Liz finds out that Red is her father and confronts him. Tom gets a suitcase containing a skeleton. Red tells Dembe that they need to find the suitcase before Liz finds out anything.

Following Mr. Kaplan's death, Reddington's criminal empire is in ruins and he has set up his new base of operations in a budget hotel. He enlists newly discovered daughter Liz Keen to help him rebuild his empire, claiming that he can only be of use to the FBI if he's in a position of power and influence. He wants to capture the next blacklister, alleged embezzler and circus hand Smokey Putnum and bring him in for trial and collect the bounty. It is revealed that Putnum has been stealing money from a neo-Nazi drug cartel who is now trying to kill him. Red and Liz manage to avoid the killers and deliver Putnum. Red also frees his accuser and accomplice Heddie Hawkins, thus ensuring Putnum's freedom. Red offers both positions in his rebuilt organization and they accept. Meanwhile, Ressler is in an awkward position following Hitchin's death, as his fixer Henry Prescott is now blackmailing him. Aram and Samar's romance escalates. Also, Tom Keen returns with a mysterious briefcase with a skeleton in it. He resolves to identify the remains, whatever the cost.

Reddington enlists Liz and the Task Force to track down a blacklister named Greyson Blaise, a self-made billionaire who moonlights as a high-end thief, to help Reddington with his crumbled empire. Red piques Blaise's interest with a fake missing Rembrandt painting and "borrows" a villa in Italy to stage an elaborate party for Blaise's benefit. Red gifts the phony painting to Blaise, who is subsequently arrested by Italian authorities after leaving the villa with the painting. Red then goes to Blaise's home while he's in custody and convinces the staff that he's an ally, while stealing several valuable items from the house. Meanwhile, Tom convinces Liz's former flame Nik to help him with the roadblocks he encounters when trying to identify the remains in the suitcase without Liz or Reddington finding out. Tom witnesses Red murdering of one of Mr. Kaplan's henchmen after Red finds him and demands information about the suitcase.

Reddington enlists Tom to help with his plan to help rebuild his criminal empire. Meanwhile, the Task Force investigates a series of suspicious police shootings involving people with checkered pasts owed large monetary settlements. The Task Force questions the police officers involved and conclude that the shootings are dirty. Red discovers that a revolutionary named Rivera and his men are trying to obtain guns promised by Red, who doesn't have them. Red convinces Glen to loan him the money to buy the guns. Liz and the Task Force discover that Rebecca Thrall is simultaneously buying life insurance policies on the victims while also loaning money to desperate police officers to ensure that the insurance must pay off. They deduce the next officer and her target and narrowly prevent his murder. The Task Force lures Thrall into a meeting with the officer and capture her. Red and his new lieutenants fake a police raid to capture Rivera when he appears to accept his guns and Red takes the guns, money and Rivera's plane and repays Glen.

Liz and the Task Force investigate a female blacklister who appears to be trying to destroy world treasures to create unique priceless items. The Task Force thinks that they have her next target, a Montenegrin princess who is the only heir of her line. When the woman kidnaps the assistant of the princess instead, they realize that her true goal is to capture enough "Golden Blood" carriers (donors suitable for very rare blood types) to save her ailing son. Meanwhile, Reddington seeks an opportunity to regain revenue for his criminal empire and finds one in creating an Airbnb for criminals after encountering a theft ring run by Anthony Pagliaro that uses postal vacation notices. Red and Liz find the woman Nirah Ahmad before she can start the operation, which would be fatal to the other donors. Red offers an alternative and Nik is called in to perform a heart transplant. Nirah commits suicide to provide the heart. Red expresses gratitude but Nik says that he never wants to be contacted again by either Red or Liz. Tom surreptitiously uses Liz's FBI ID card to facilitate the search for the identity of the remains. When Nik goes to get the DNA test results from Pete, he is killed by an unknown person and the suitcase with the remains is taken.

Liz and the Task Force are tracking down a blacklister and international terrorist named Ilyas Surkov, a man who Red insists died 15 months ago. Liz is shocked to discover Nik's murder and asks Red for help finding his killer. The Task Force finds a lead on Surkov in Belgrade and send Samar undercover to meet with the contact. Unfortunately, both Samar and the contact are scooped up by a mysterious van. The Task Force finds the van and confronts the team leader named Tobias Reuther, who claims that they are part of a CIA team tracking Surkov. Cooper finds out from the CIA Director of Operations that the team identifying themselves as CIA are imposters. The two teams have a shootout but Reuther escapes. The Task Force discovers that "Surkov"'s next target is a Navy ship in Norfolk, VA. When they arrive, Reuther is there but claims that the bombing is a CIA operation that he wants to stop. Liz captures Reuther but the bomb goes off. Cooper confronts the CIA Director of Operations, who claims that bombing destroyed a compromised communication system. Cooper intends to report his conduct to his supervisors. Meanwhile, Reddington and Heddie find a new pet business venture. Tom investigates Nik's murder and finds Pete's girlfriend Lena, who refuses to help. Tom finds a key and cell phone on Nik's remains. Aram requests operational training from Cooper. Reddington traces a connection with the suitcase to Tom.

Red informs the Task Force that a murder for hire is about to be committed by a blacklister called The Travel Agency, which had been inactive for the last 12 years. Cooper takes temporary leave to take care of a personal matter. Ressler is made Acting Director and leads the task force to the murder target, whose death they are unable to prevent. Tom continues his quest to identify the remains in the suitcase, but runs into Red who knows he has it. The Task Force identifies the known employees of The Travel Agency, who have all been killed except one. Cooper, Red and Dembe aid a young man known to Cooper who has been hiding from a corrupt police officer trying to kill him. The Task Force saves the last Agency employee, who informs the agents about the identity of the assassin, Calvin Dawson. The Task Force goes to the Dawson home and discover that Dawson has anterograde amnesia and his wife Eleanor has been using his condition and her knowledge of The Travel Agency's protocols to manipulate Dawson into killing his former employers and associates. After the couple is cornered by the Task Force, Eleanor kills them both in a murder-suicide to atone for their many crimes, including the loss of their daughters. Tom convinces Lena to help, but a man threatens Lena and insists she drop the investigation. After closing an emotional case, Liz decides that she wants to marry Tom and they rush to the courthouse.

After dozens of immigrants die off the Carolina coast, Reddington and the Task Force investigate a human smuggling operation. Dembe poses as a Nigerian immigrant and identifies the smugglers as Colin and Arthur Kilgannon. When Red confronts the elder Kilgannon Arthur about the deaths and the conditions on the smuggling ship, Arthur in turn questions his son Colin, but the resulting clash is fatal for Arthur. In an effort to build a case against the Kilgannons, Dembe joins dozens of other refugees hoping to be smuggled into Germany. Tom and Lena locate Pete, who Tom believes killed Nik, but they are captured by armed men interested in the secret of the suitcase. The Kilgannon smuggling base is raided by local authorities, but several trucks including Dembe's have already left the facility and been abandoned in remote locations. Red tracks down Colin and forces him to help locate the trucks before killing him. Red finds Dembe's truck in time to save him from carbon dioxide poisoning. Pete and Lena are executed by Ian Garvey and Tom's life is at risk as Garvey reveals that its secret is important to Reddington and a means to control him.

Now that he possesses the suitcase, Garvey wants Tom to set up a meeting with Red. Liz realizes that Tom is in trouble when he stops answering her calls and the Task Force searches for him. Tom tricks Garvey into leaving for a phony meeting location and Tom escapes with the suitcase. Red and Dembe pick up Tom and the three get into a shootout with Garvey and his men and only narrowly escape. Tom steals the contents of the suitcase and eludes Red. Tom reads the DNA report and discovers Red's secret. He arranges to meet Liz, but both are captured by Garvey and his men. Garvey brutally stabs Tom multiple times and takes back the suitcase. He then orders Navarro and his men to dispose of Liz and Tom, but Red and Dembe intervene just in time. After being in a coma for 10 months, Liz wakes up while Reddington is reading to her, and when asked, he informs her that Tom has died from his injuries.

Liz is living in a remote cabin in Alaska under an alias to mourn Tom's death. She leaves Agnes in the care of an exonerated Scottie Hargrave and asks Red not to follow or monitor her. During an ice storm, she finds a critically injured man in the woods and soon after four other men arrive, claiming they were friends of the wounded man and victims of a plane crash. Instantly sensing trouble but without a working weapon, Liz is forced into a cat-and-mouse game to survive and save the injured man, who turns out to be a federally protected witness being hunted by the other four men. After killing the four men with carefully laid traps and a flare gun, Liz returns home, leaving no traces of her identity in Alaska. She opens the case files on Tom and begins to try to find his killers. She meets with Red and tells him she wants revenge for Tom's death.

A terrorist attack kills 57 people in a Toronto nightclub and the U. S. Treasury is preparing to freeze the assets of the group claiming responsibility. Red believes that a blacklister called the Informant is going to ransom the accounts to their holders. The Task Force locates the suspect, but a judge he claims he was having an affair with provides an alibi. Red goes to the Cayman Islands to identify the account holders. The Task Force follows the Informant but Henry Prescott insists that Ressler stop the pursuit since the Informant is a client. Ressler arrests the Informant anyway and Prescott threatens to reveal Ressler's culpability in Laurel Hitchin's death and manufactures evidence of Ressler's involvement in another murder. Red joins forces with Ressler and the two obtain Prescott's true identity after confronting the judge. Red and Ressler locate Prescott and Ressler considers killing him but arrests him instead. Ressler submits his resignation to Cooper, who rejects the resignation. Red murders Prescott during transport. Liz comes out of hiding to continue her quest to find Tom’s killers and identifies Navarro as one of Garvey's men. Liz learns more about Nik and Tom from Navarro and kills him after a brutal fight.

Reddington is robbed of the antique penny he took from Greyson Blaise by an unknown assailant. Red maneuvers Task Force into tracking down his assailant by identifying him as a blacklister looking for a secret cache of millions of dollars in Federal Reserve Notes hidden by his father. Red believes that the penny is one of four that are key to locating the Notes. Meanwhile, Liz sanitizes the scene of Navarro's death but leaves a bloody rag behind that is seized by police. Liz disposes of the body using the Stewmaker's methods and discovers a high tech glass eye, but Detective Singleton is now on her trail. The Task Force locates the final penny in a museum and Metro police impounds it before blacklister Abraham Stern can steal it. Liz breaks into the Metro police evidence room with Glen's help and gives the penny to Red, who trades it to Stern for a share of the Notes. Stern has a plan for them to break into the U. S. Mint in Denver where the Notes are hidden but he betrays Red and attempts to take the treasure for himself. However, Red anticipated Stern's treachery and steals the notes from Stern and traps him in the Mint for the FBI. Liz admits to Red that she offered to help so she could take the bloody rag from the Navarro case along with the penny to derail the murder investigation.

Red notifies the Task Force about a blacklister who murders by arson. The Task Force enlists imprisoned arsonist Earl Fagen's help with their investigation and he discovers hidden religious messages left at a crime scene. Aram locates the arsonist's home and Ressler and Samar try to question him, but he escapes. The Task Force identifies the arsonist as a priest of an obscure religious order. Ressler and Samar question the head of the order, who reveals that the priest had been expelled after admitting to having sexual desires for women he knew and fantasizing about burning them to death. The Task Force identifies his next intended victim and manage to prevent her death. The arsonist self-immolates after being confronted by the FBI. Liz continues to search for clues in Tom’s death while avoiding Garvey and his men. With Reddington’s help, she is able to use the glass eye's GPS tracking mechanism to locate a safe house filled with technology. Red says that he needs to keep the suitcase contents secret from her, but Liz vows to discover the truth.

Reddington nudges the Task Force into finding a blacklister group named “The Invisible Hand,” which targets people who have committed acts that are legal but morally wrong and leave their bodies buried near a town named Brenford that has been abandoned due to the dumping of toxic waste. Ressler and Samar go to the site and discover a possible suspect. Meanwhile, the Hand picks its next target Anna Hopkins, whom they hold responsible for the deaths in Brenford. Meanwhile, Reddington lends a hand to his associate Anthony after a drug dealer threatens to kill him. Singleton confronts Liz with his suspicions about Navarro's death after discovering the evidence is gone. In Tom's effects, Liz finds a key to a safe with a journal and a reference to the name Oleander, a suspected Russian spy. Liz goes to talk to Oleander, who is revealed to be Dominic, the father of Katarina Rostova and Liz's grandfather. The Task Force identifies Anna as the next victim of The Invisible Hand and show up just as the Hand is loading her into their vehicle. In the ensuing firefight, several members are shot and one is captured. She reveals that the Hand is taking Anna to Brenford to bury her alive for her actions. The Task Force prevent Anna's death and arrest the last surviving members. Red finds the eye's maker and discovers that the man who asked him to build it was a law enforcement officer. Liz, believing that official sanction is necessary to find Tom's killer, requests reinstatement to the Task Force.

Reddington steers the Task Force into targeting a blacklister called The Alibi who helps clients get away with murder by tricking witnesses into providing rock solid alibis. Aram figures out that the witnesses are in fact seeing near-perfect doubles. Meanwhile, Liz begins to see therapist Dr. Sharon Fulton following Tom’s death in order to get reinstated as an FBI agent. Dr. Fulton insists upon speaking to Red, who reluctantly complies. The Task Force identifies one of the doubles, a homeless man named Kahil Shula who has disappeared. Red finds Shula's friend, who identifies the man who recruited him as Raleigh Sinclair III. Ressler and Samar locate Sinclair's workshop and evidence of his next target and they manage to stop him from killing his ex-wife. Red warns Sinclair that the FBI is now looking for him and trades Sinclair's freedom for the evidence of his involvement in many murders, which is given to the Task Force. Liz takes Detective Singleton into her confidence and takes him to the Post Office to explain her involvement with Reddington.

The Task Force investigates an outbreak of a virulent pathogen at a Manhattan diner at Red's behest and Aram identifies the culprit as a blacklister named Patricia Sue Edwards, a biochemist formerly with the U. S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases. Pattie Sue was widowed after her Navy SEAL husband was killed in Syria by another SEAL while allegedly smuggling opium. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quarantines the area, but their lead scientist discovers that their network has been brought down by a computer virus introduced by the pathogen. Aram determines that the intrusion enabled Pattie Sue to access the Department of Defense computers to find her husband's killer. Liz and Detective Singleton formulate a plan to draw out Tom's killer. Singleton identifies Garvey, but Garvey threatens Singleton's family and kidnaps him. Pattie Sue uses a biochemical weapon to infect the SEAL responsible for the death of her husband, but he subsequently infects her and inadvertently destroys the cure she's carrying. Ressler intercepts the pair while they're trying to get more of the cure and forces the SEAL to admit his involvement with the smuggling and exonerate Pattie Sue's husband. Meanwhile, Reddington deals with the threat of an Internal Revenue Service audit of his money laundering empire and he employs Earl Fagen to burn down the IRS building with the problematic records. Singleton is found murdered and Liz recognizes Tom's killer Ian Garvey at the crime scene.

The discovery of a ritualistic killing crime scene causes FBI Agent Brandon Graves to request Liz's assistance with the investigation due to her profiling experience. Liz, Samar and Graves interview the family of the deceased and discover that he was the Capricorn Killer, killed by a copycat in the same manner as his original crimes. The Task Force tracks down a possible address for the killer and find the partially dismembered Tristate Butcher, also killed according to his own modus operandi. Dr. Fulton questions Liz about her investigations of serial killers and Liz states her theory that the killer is an FBI profiler. The Task Force finds a witness to the murder of Detective Singleton and take him into protective custody, where he identifies Garvey as the killer. Reddington confronts Garvey about the contents of the suitcase, but they're at a stalemate, both wanting to keep the truth hidden for now. Garvey insists that the witness not testify. Red vows that he will kill Garvey when he retrieves the bones. Aram leads the convoy transporting the witness, but the witness is taken by unknown gunmen. Liz identifies former Agent Hollins as a suspect and tracks him to a remote cabin, but Hollins captures Liz and Dr. Fulton reveals her involvement with the deaths of the two serial killers. She offers Liz the chance to kill her first profile, the Sandman Killer. Liz considers it but Ressler and Samar burst in and kill Hollins. Dr. Fulton flees and Liz finds her but lets her go. Dr. Fulton reinstates Liz as an agent and Liz lets Dr. Fulton know that she may call upon her later, following Red's example.

Jerry Jawal, a smuggler working for Ian Garvey and the Nash Syndicate, is murdered during an apparent robbery, so Red puts Liz and the Task Force on the case in order to recover a missing ledger, crucial evidence implicating Garvey. Ressler and Samar investigate and discover that Jawal’s wife is a teenage child bride. Aram scans her computer and discovers that she has been in contact with other child brides, some of whom were freed from their marriages by an unknown killer. Liz and Aram figure out that the men who took their witness work for Red. Liz confronts Red, who insists that he must keep his secret. Liz and Aram get a tip about where the witness is located, but it’s a trap and they barely escape Garvey’s men. Samar and Ressler identify the killer’s next target and manage to save him. The assassin is revealed to be Anna-Gracia Duerte, another child bride victim. Samar finds her and convinces her to turn herself in. Red and Liz locate the ledger with Anna-Gracia’s help and Samar gets her a reduced sentence. Meanwhile, Aram considers a step forward in his relationship with Samar.

A young man is kidnapped on a Paris street. Red has identified Zarak Mosadek as Ian Garvey’s supplier from the ledger and the Task Force determines that the young man is Mosadek’s son and Mosadek will be in Paris to negotiate his release. In an attempt to apply pressure to Garvey, Red and the Task Force head to Paris and capture Mosadek with an elaborate ruse. Distrustful of Red’s agenda, Liz goes after Garvey on her own. She and Aram waylay the head of Internal Affairs to steal files from an investigation into Garvey to look for clues. They follow Garvey to a bar in Baltimore and observe him meeting a woman named Lillian Roth. Red bargains with Mosadek to cut off Garvey’s supply in exchange for his help getting his son back unharmed. Mosadek agrees and goes to exchange diamonds for his son but he is taken by the kidnappers. Red and the Task Force chase them down and rescue Mosadek and his son. Red instructs Mosadek to set up a meeting with Garvey. Liz meets with Lillian and reveals the details of her investigation to get Lillian to turn against Garvey. Roth reveals that her real name is Jennifer Reddington and she is the daughter of Raymond Reddington.

Red gets Zarak Mosadesk to stop supplying drugs to Garvey until he turns over the bones. However, Mosadek and Garvey have already secretly agreed to kill Reddington once he shows up at the meeting. Liz tries to get Lillian to betray Garvey, but she refuses. Liz surreptitiously plants a listening device on Lillian before she leaves. Liz meets with Red, who reveals his intention to get the bones and again tells Liz that the bones are none of her business. Aram learns from the listening device about the plan to betray Red. Red summons Raleigh Sinclair III to create another double as part of his plan. Red goes to the meet and Garvey pulls a gun and kills Mosadek instead of Red and quickly flees. Garvey wakes up in Red’s captivity and learns that Red kidnapped him long before the meet and that Sinclair had arranged for Tony Pagliaro to double for Garvey at the meet. Garvey reluctantly agrees to lead Red and Dembe to the bones but he crashes their car and escapes. Garvey, Liz and Red all converge on Lillian’s bar, where a shootout leaves Garvey near death and Red seriously wounded. Liz and Lillian accompany Garvey to the hospital, but he expires without revealing the truth. Meanwhile, Aram and Samar are near a breakup.

Liz visits Red during his recovery from being shot and sees him apparently hiding a news item. The Task Force begins to investigate the discovery of a young girl found alone in a forest. The girl is suffering from leukemia but shows no signs of any treatment by modern medicine. Liz and Samar interview the girl, who insists that everyone from the outside of her town is infected by a deadly pathogen. The girl is kidnapped from the hospital by a fake orderly and when Samar tries to stop it, she is knocked out and captured. The Task Force connects the girl to a Nicholas T. Moore, the writer of the post-apocalyptic novel “The Age of Contagion”, who also lived in the area. Red uses the diversion created by the investigation to interview Garvey’s henchman Judson and determine that the bones were transported to Costa Rica. Red defends his actions to Lillian, who reveals that her mother has passed away. At his compound New Haven, Moore orders the girl to be fatally purified by fire. The Task Force appears in time to save the girl, but the inhabitants of New Haven retreat indoors. Aram, desperate to find Samar, risks his life to show the inhabitants the novel and tells them that their isolation is based on a work of fiction. Some inhabitants try to leave and Moore turns violent. The Task Force captures him, but Samar is nowhere to be found.

Samar has been captured by Nicholas T. Moore’s fixer and killer for hire and her life is in danger. Aram bargains with Moore about the identity of the fixer and gives him his personal Bible for the name of his intermediary, Julius Hannelore. Moore commits suicide with a cyanide pill hidden in the book. Red meets Hannelore and extorts him into providing the name of the fixer, Lawrence Dean Devlin. Devlin is preparing to dispose of Samar, but she manages to injure Devlin and cause the van transporting them both to crash, trapping them in the van with serious injuries. Red and Smokey’s search for the duffel bag lead them to an underground auction in Costa Rica, but they find that Garvey has already given them to Sutton Ross, an old enemy of Red’s whom Red believed to be dead. Devlin escapes the van, but is killed by a bear and the van rolls into a river with water streaming in. The Task Force finds Devlin’s hideaway, but not Samar. Aram frantically searches for her and manages to rescue her from the now-underwater van, but she’s comatose. Liz follows Red to Costa Rica and learns about the bag transfer. Liz tells Red that she also knows who has the bones and vows to recover them before Red does.

Sutton Ross stages a daring robbery to get information about a revolutionary robotics discovery by noted scientist Ravi Desai. Aram determines that Desai himself is necessary to utilizing the data, so the Task Force immediately sets about keeping Desai out of Ross’ hands. Red tracks down Ross through his tailor. Unfortunately, they’re both too late and Ross captures Desai. Liz and Red both give chase, but Liz crashes her car and Red stops the pursuit to help her. The Task Force deduces Ross’ sales contact and Ressler shows up in his stead. The Task Force takes down Ross and his men after getting Desai to safety. During the interrogation, Liz and Ross talk about the bag while Red threatens to end his cooperation with the Task Force if Cooper doesn’t help him get the bones. Ross takes Liz hostage and flees the Post Office. Ross demands that Red surrender in exchange for Liz’s freedom and Red agrees. Ross captures Red and tries to force him to reveal the truth about the bones while torturing Liz. The Task Force busts in, captures everyone and frees Liz. Red takes the bag and kills Ross on his way out. He destroys the bones to hide the truth, but Liz is revealed to have been working with Ross and Jennifer Reddington all along to learn the truth about the bones: they belong to the real Raymond Reddington. The person known as Raymond Reddington is in fact an imposter. Samar awakes from her coma and accepts Aram's proposal.