Earl Fagen is an arsonist that does jobs for Reddington.
Background[]
Earl Fagen is a pyromaniac former arson investigator and arsonist that managed to avoid authorities for years. Sometime in the past, Earl crossed paths with Raymond Reddington, which led to a fire in Fritzles. As an arson investigator, Earl was called to investigate dozens of his own fires and was even labeled a hero for his work investigating his own crimes. He was only caught when he decided to come forward and confess his crimes, no longer being capable of living the lie. Earl was sentenced to a 14 year prison term.
“The Cook”[]
11 years after his sentence was handed down, Fagen helps the Task Force investigate a series of arsons in exchange for them speaking favorable at his parole hearing at Reddington’s direction. Fagen enters the latest house the arsonist struck being escorted by Donald Ressler and Samar Navabi. Fagen determines the arsonist wanted to watch his work and found a message the arsonist left behind on a barely burned wall only visible through the use of a black light. They manage to find four other fires with similar messages because of this and find a car he drove based on the assessment he like to watch his fires.
After the arsonist manages to escape, they bring Fagen to his workshop, where he restores a receipt the arsonist had while Fagen tells Navabi about his life as an arsonist. They eventually find out the arsonist is an ex-priest named Thomas Owen Wattles thanks to the receipt. After Wattles committed suicide by burning himself alive, Ressler spoke favorably at Fagen’s hearing and was unanimously paroled. Reddington meets Fagen outside the prison to tell Fagen that he works for him now, not allowing Fagen to set any fire unless Reddington says otherwise.
“Pattie Sue Edwards”[]
Fagen tells Reddington that he doesn’t want to set anymore fires, but Reddington refuses to accept this and tells him Fagen owes him a fire in exchange for his freedom. Fagen complains about Red tempting him but a Reddington says he doesn’t care and tells him to burn down his business, being audited by the IRS: Critter Cabin. Fagen does as he is told and sets Critter Cabin to go up in flames, but is stopped when Reddington supposedly got the IRS to back off.
Reddington then rehires Fagen after the bribe he secured didn’t stop the audit and Fagen enthusiastically tells Reddington he has everything ready. But instead of burning down Critter Cabin, Fagen burned down the IRS field office, destroying all of the IRS’s records. Reddington later meets with Fagen and gives him a book called “Embrace the Struggle”, advising Fagen to read it so he could better control his urges and pays him a retainer for services not yet rendered.
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