Cape May

"Cape May"
Season 3, Episode 19
Episode Information
Air date	April 21, 2016
Directed by	Michael Watkins
Written by	Daniel Knauf
Episode Chronology
Previous	“[[Mr. Solomon: Conclusion ]]”
Next	“[[The Artax Network ]]”

"Cape May" is the nineteenth episode of Season 3 of The Blacklist and the sixty-third episode overall.   

Press Release

A mysterious beauty on the run from unknown assailants accidentally crosses paths with Reddington and enlists his help to fight back against her attackers.

Synopsis

Raymond Reddington is lying in an opium house under the influence. The owner wakes him up and asks him to go but he refuses and demands more opium, which she refuses to give him. He decides to leave and calls a taxi to take him to Cape May, but the taxi driver says that it is too far. Raymond gives him enough money to convince him to go all the way. When they arrive in Cape May, Raymond asks if he can buy taxi from the driver and starts handing over stacks of money until the driver eventually stops him, saying it is enough money. Reddington calls Marvin Gerard and tells him that he is on an indefinite leave and that all his debts are to be paid. He then goes to a cafe and notices some suspicious activity, a woman hiding from a man who is clearly looking for her. Reddington then goes to an empty beach hotel, which is closed for the off-season, and breaks in to the hotel. He takes a chair out to the beach and is preparing to sit there when he sees the woman from the cafe trying to commit suicide by walking into the sea and saves her. After some sleep, Raymond wakes up and finds the woman looking out the window for an intruder. Ray investigates but does not find anyone. The woman prepares a meal. Raymond says it's superb but points out that she's not eating by herself and then the woman points out they both lack any appetite and Raymond acknowledges it and tells her the events of "Mr. Solomon: Conclusion" and Liz's death in a ambiguous manner. He asks for her name but she says he already knows it. A police officer arrives alerted by neighbors who noticed light in the hotel. Red uses a fake ID and makes him believe that he is a friend of the owners. While the woman is taking a bath, they hear noises. An intruder has entered the house, fights with Ray, and is killed by the woman. They clean up and wrap the body in plastic before putting it into a car. Afterwards the woman asks him to leave because more pursuers will be coming but Red refuses. He tells her a story of a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv and how the bomber made a perfect circle of death around him and links it to how the people around us who are affected by a suicide. She tells him that she has no other choice. They both then kill another wave of assassins using booby traps. In the morning, while Red is preparing to leave and looking for the woman, he sees her going into the water again from a window. He runs outside but cannot find her. When he asks a beachcomber nearby about her, the man tells him that he's only person he has seen in the area in the past 2 weeks and at that point Red realizes that it was all his memories of Katarina Rostova. The comber digs up a locket, which Red buys from him for much more than it’s worth. After washing the piece off, Red sees the Russian inscription "To Katarina, love papa" and realizes it was Katarina's locket. He then departs saying that "There's someone I need to see".

Number on The Blacklist

• None, N/A

Unanswered Questions

1. Raymond Reddington
   1. Red’s dream and/or hallucination indicates that he is losing contact with reality. Is this a sign of further emotional and/or mental stability problems?
      1. A: Most likely, yes. In later episodes he behaves irrationally and almost with disregard for his own safety.
   2. How is Red an actuary?
      1. A: Red replies that he is an actuary, "in a way" because he is constantly making decisions which hinge on the risk, damage, and cost analyses of the situation.
   3. Why did Red leave his handgun at the opium den?
      1. A: He was quite high and either aware that he should not be handling a gun or simply too out of it to care and/or notice that he was leaving it.
   4. What are Red’s outstanding debts?
   5. Why had Red not repaid his debts earlier?
   6. Why did Red tell Marvin Gerard to pay all his debts?
      1. A: He did not want to deal with any business, having no debts means nobody seeks repayment. It is also possible, though highly unlikely, that he was planning on dying in Cape May.
   7. Why did Red buy the taxi cab?
   8. Why did Red take a large amount of money with him on the trip?
      1. A: Red went "off the grid", so he brought enough cash to satisfy all/any of his needs for an extended period of time.
   9. How much money did Red spend? I am referring to the banknotes we saw such as the taxi cab and the beach find.
   10. Why did Red take so long to find the "correct" fake identity card?
       1. A: He needed the correct US state.
   11. What did Red do to Nik Korpal?
       1. A: It is revealed in “Greyson Blaise” that Reddington almost killed him.
   12. In the piano conversation, who is the woman Red is talking about? Elizabeth Keen or Katarina Rostova?
       1. A: It was intentionally unclear, as it was applicable to both. The episode was focused on Red's confusion, so it is possible Red didn't know which one he was talking about. The scene was written to apply to both women.
       2. A: In the first part of the speech, he is talking about Katarina: "There was a woman I loved. She was my life. My heart. And she died". The rest is talking about a little girl she, the first woman on the speech, Katarina, left behind, and this little girl is/was Liz, and/or Agnes to make it totally unclear.
2. Katarina Rostova
   1. Are the assassins in the “Cape May“ flashbacks from the Osterman Umbrella Company?
      1. A: They were more likely KGB. Katarina fled the KGB and Cabal.
   2. Is Rostova dead? The series has been offering contradictory clues.
      1. A: The dream/hallucination could just be how Red was interpreting things in his confusion. Sort of like the Katarina Red knew died that day, and a new Katarina was born. There is still the letter and photo from Anton which indicated Katarina was alive after her drowning.
      2. A: The dream/hallucination served as a pseudo-flashback to just before Katarina fled into the water and came back.
      3. A: The dream/hallucination seems to represent Katarina Rostova's death.
      4. A: It's confirmed by Constantin Rostov that Katarina is alive. Her whereabouts are unknown for the moment.
      5. A: It's confirmed that Katarina is alive in “Robert Diaz”.
   3. What happened to Rostova? Red’s dream and/or hallucination imply that he was present at her death.
      1. A: Red did not see Rostova die. When she first walked into the water, he pulled her out. At the end of the episode, he saw from the hotel her heading back out, but before he could get out there she either disappeared or he came out of his hallucination. All along when he's said she died walking into the sea.
3. Dream and/or hallucination
   1. When did the actual events take place? The payphone and the rotary dial imply the 1980’s.
      1. A: It occurred around 1991 according to “Rassvet”.
   2. Why was the water left running during the attack?
      1. A: It was used to electrocute any of the attackers.
   3. How much was real? The police officer seemed a real world event.
      1. A: Everything was a real event, but the opium resulted in Red blurring the past and present together.
      2. Q: What events happened in the past and what events happened in the present?
   4. Why did Red not consider calling for help? He would have kept his mobile phone with him. Rostova could have mentioned the option.
      1. A: Since he was reliving memories, if he didn't call for help the first time he wasn't going to do it this time.
   5. Why did the dream Rostova state that Officer Duncan “knew”?
   6. How long was Red at the hotel? It seemed to be 2 days.
      1. A: The beach scavenger said that Red had been there for 2 weeks.
      2. A: The man said that Red was the only living person he saw within the last 2 weeks. He never stated when he saw Red the first time.
4. Hotel
   1. Why did nobody find the necklace/jewelry before Red arrived? It had been buried for several years and there would have been multiple people searching the beach with metal detectors.
   2. Does Red own the hotel or was it abandoned?
      1. A: The hotel was abandoned. Red broke in, but told the local police that he had been friends with the owners, who had let him have the place for the week.
   3. Why did the neighbors call the police about the lights in the hotel?
      1. A: The neighbors most likely knew that the owner was gone, and they didn't know who was in the hotel.
   4. Why did the hotel have faulty electricity?
      1. A: The hotel was rundown since 1 of the owners died.
   5. Why was there a lack of people at Cape May?
      1. A: It was the "off season". Similiar to "The Shining", it was not tourist season. That would explain why Red went there.

Trivia

• This is the first episode where Megan Boone, Diego Klattenhoff, and Harry Lennix are absent.

Cast

Main star

• James Spader as Raymond Reddington
• Megan Boone as Elizabeth Keen (credit only)
• Diego Klattenhoff as Donald Ressler (credit only)
• Ryan Eggold as Tom Keen
• Amir Arison as Aram Mojtabai (credit only)
• Mozhan Marnò as Samar Navabi (credit only)
• Hisham Tawfiq as Dembe Zuma (credit only)
• Harry Lennix as Harold Cooper (credit only)

Guest star

• Lotte Verbeek as Katarina Rostova
• Piter Marek as Dr. Nik Korpal
• Reathel Bean as Officer Duncan
• George Bartenieff as Man on the Beach

Co-star

• Evander Duck Jr. as Cab Driver
• Norma Chu as Mama Lu Chang
• Kay Walbye as Ida Albright
• Nicholas Tucci as Flannel

Gallery

  

External Links

• NBC.com
• NBC.com
• NBC.com