Gina Zanetakos

"Gina Zanetakos"
Season 1, Episode 6
Episode Information
Air date	October 28, 2013
Directed by	Adam Arkin
Written by	Wendy West
Guest Stars	Margarita Levieva as Gina Zanetakos Dikran Tulaine as Max Ruddiger Hisham Tawfiq as Dembe Charles Baker as Grey
Episode Chronology
Previous	“[[The Courier ]]”
Next	“[[Frederick Barnes ]]”

For The character of the same name, see Gina Zanetakos (Character).

"Gina Zanetakos" is the sixth episode of Season 1 of The Blacklist and the sixth episode overall. It first aired on October 28, 2013 on NBC.

Synopsis

Two people watch a car being blown up, and the man says to the woman that "The car is the bomb", she says that it is great and will do fine. She then asks for a new version of the bomb that uses caesium-137. He states it will take 48 hours to build. She needs the car bomb in 36 hours.

Tom and Liz are arguing about the box and what it means. Tom eventually says that Liz should call it in, and she does so. Tom is brought to The Post Office with a hood over his head, and Liz explains that this is where she works, and that it is technically a black site. As Tom is lead away for interrogation, Donald Ressler tells Liz to worry about herself, not Tom.

Raymond Reddington is negotiating a deal with a Middle Eastern client when Grey receives a call updating them on the situation with Tom.

Harold Cooper has a meeting with Liz about the situation and tells her that she is on leave until the matter is resolved.

Meera Malik starts interrogating Tom, while Liz has a meeting with Red in front of the White House, where he talks about corporate terrorism. He mentions an incident where a drug company's stock price suffered a severe drop after several people died from poisoned shipments. He tells her about Gina Zanetakos, a corporate terrorist who is the best in the business. Red then goes to meet with Cooper, and threatens him with reminiscences about an incident in Kuwait. Tom tells Meera about his interview and that he had a meeting with Walter Burrows, the headmaster of a school at the hotel.

Red, through Liz, tells the FBI about Gina, and gives them her alias, Shubie Hartwell. Using this information the FBI trace her to a hotel. At the hotel, Gina and a man are making out when he gives her some papers, and she then kills him by injecting poison into his neck.

Meera goes to meet with William Burrows, the school headmaster and shows him a picture of Tom.

Gina removes her blonde wig and positions the body to look like a suicide by drug overdose. She leaves the room just before Ressler and Liz arrive, and hides in a corner while they enter the room. While Liz searches the room, Ressler heads downstairs in the elevator/lift. Unknown to him, Gina is also in the elevator concealed behind a group of innocent guests. When they are alone in the elevator Gina attacks Ressler, eventually knocking him out, but loses her cell phone in the process.

The phone contains many calls from the Hanar Group and a call regarding cobalt-60, which Ressler identifies as a component in a dirty bomb. Liz meets with Red and briefs him on the situation. Red, however is only interested in the situation regarding Tom. Liz tells him that her husband is innocent and leaves.

Meera returns from her meeting and shows Tom a picture of Burrows, who he fails to recognize, and says he did not meet him. Liz is watching the interrogation and realizes that Tom is being set up. When he mentions the picture Liz rushes to check the picture and spots Gina also in photo.

When the FBI search Gina's apartment Liz finds a box, similar to one she found in her own house, containing pictures of Viktor Fokin and several passports in the name Shubie Hartwell. They also find a picture of Tom by her bed.

Liz meets with Red, to talk about her feelings, she tells him she does not know who to trust, he tells her she can trust him.

Cooper has another meeting with Liz and Ressler where he tells her that normally she would not be involved in this case, but because they traced money wired by Gina to Max Ruddiger, they need her to ask Red to find Max.

Liz goes to meet with Red, when she arrives Red is still negotiating his deal and complaining that the payment has gone to New Orleans and not to Houston. She asks Red to find Max Ruddiger.

Red flies to Germany with Dembe and convinces Max to reveal Gina's plan in exchange for a Syrian contract. Red discovers that the bomb is a sedan car. He also gets Max to call Gina so the FBI can arrest her.

The FBI find Gina in a park, and Liz corners her in the women's restroom where they fight. Just before Gina stabs Liz, Ressler shoots her in the right shoulder.

At a meeting with Cooper and Ressler, Liz learns that the Hanar Group's main business is shipping and port management. They also tell her that their stock price has fallen to a record low. She calls Red and asks him about his diverted payment, he tells her that an associate of his is advising clients not to use the port of Houston. She realizes that the target is the port of Houston, as that would result in the Hanar Group's investment in the port in New Orleans soaring to record highs.

After a short but useless search of the general port area, Liz realizes that Gina needed help to get the car into the port without an inspection. She has the port officials find any cargo that arrived under Turkish diplomatic seal, so they check for those items and find the car. The bomb squad can do nothing, but if the car was submerged the radiation could be contained. The car is removed from the ship it is on, and Ressler drives it into an empty dock, jumping out just before the car plunges into the water.

Because the radiation was contained, Gina is offered a plea bargain for her full cooperation. She admits to killing Viktor Fokin, because he knew about an arms smuggling route used by Chechen guerrillas, and the man who hired her was making millions smuggling. She names Red as the one who hired her. Liz shows Gina a picture of Tom and she says that she has never seen him before.

As Tom is being released he spots a picture of Grey and identifies him as the man who interviewed him for the job in Boston.

Liz storms into Red's current abode and tells him that they are through, she tells him that Gina confessed and she does not understand why he set Tom up. She leaves after telling him to "Go to hell".

At Liz's house the watchers are still watching, and they cannot decide if Tom is innocent, but they decide that he does not work for Red, and wonder who he does work for.

Press Release

After Tom confronts Liz about the box – he claims he’s 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 beautiful and deadly corporate terrorist, Gina Zanetakos.

Number on The Blacklist

• 152

Unanswered Questions

1. What is the incident in Kuwait that Harold Cooper does not want made public? Reddington's threat implies that the FBI does not know what happened.
2. What would Raymond Reddington have done if the Kuwait incident was not availiable for blackmail leverage? Would Cooper have given in since he needed Red's help? In "Frederick Barnes" Red only aided Liz after Liz admitted that she needed the help and had failed by herself.
   1. A: In "The Judge" it is shown that Cooper has at least one other incident in his career that Red could have used in place of "Kuwait".
   2. A: If Red had no leverage on Cooper,  he would have surrendered to a different senior agent upon whom he did have leverage.
3. What is Red's plan for Elizabeth Keen? Cooper's and Ressler's behavior made it clear that her career has fallen under suspicion. Is Reddington looking for a protege?
4. How many of Red's crimes will be given immunity? Diane Fowler will certainly attempt to prosecute Red after learning of his Chechnya operation.
   1. A: If the Chechnya operation did not involve the death of American citizens, it is unlikely that any US court would accept jurisdiction.
   2. Q: The fact that Red is supplying weapons to the politically unstable Chechnya area is motivation to imprison Red. Fowler would not want Red sustaining and increasing other regional conflicts that can threaten American interests.
   3. A: There are 2 sides or more in every conflict. It was never explicitly stated which side(s) Red was supplying.
5. How many of the Hanar Group investors will be arrested?
   1. A: Probably none, Gina would have been hired through an offshore agent.
   2. Q: The FBI can trace the agent. Gina agreed to confess in exchange for a plea bargain. That will give the FBI enough evidence to trace the attack to the Hanar Group directors.
6. Will the Hanar Group go bankrupt? Cooper stated that they hired Gina since their stocks had fallen to a record low price. A terrorism trial will destroy what public confidence is left.
7. Why did Gina attack Ressler in the elevator/lift? Ressler was ignoring her.
8. How many of Gina Zanetakos's other clients will be arrested?
9. What will be the environmental impact of the explosion? The bomb was designed to paralyze the port with sustained radiation.
   1. A: As the port is tidal, the radiation would be dispersed within one or two days. The main danger with a nuclear weapon is that the radioactive particles remain in one place and irradiate the surrounding area. If the radioactive particles are dispersed quickly they would not significantly raise the local background radiation level.
10. What is the history between Red and Max Ruddiger?
11. Will Red provide Ruddiger with a new contract to prove his credibility, since Ruddiger told Red about Gina's plan? It would be easy to arrange.
    1. A: At the begining of "Anslo Garrick" Red is celebrating a business deal with Max.
12. Was Gina Zanetakos's confession real? Or was she ordered to falsely confess and label Red as her employer?
13. Is the adversary Raymond Reddington spoke of responsible for the monitoring of the Keen house?
14. Is Tom Keen innocent? His blaming of Grey for the false interview could be a lie.
    1. A: More probable now that Grey has been revealed to be working against Red.
15. Was Raymond Reddington's shipment of the painting real? After Elizabeth Keen figures out plan to bomb the Port of Houston, based on Red's earlier telephone call, Red says “That’s my girl”. Combined with his ordered attack on Tom Keen, by Ranko Zamani, how much is Red manipulating the FBI? In “The Freelancer", he told Floriana Campo that the FBI was working for him.

Slanders on the FBI

1. Why did Donald Ressler shoot Zanetakos in the shoulder? He could have shot her in the arm.
   1. A: Contrary to popular TV procedure, handguns when used in a pressure situation are not highly accurate. By shooting her in the shoulder, he ensured that she would be both disabled and survive.
2. Why did the FBI SWAT team use long barrelled weapons when raiding Gina's apartment? A shorter barrelled weapon would be more effective in close quarters.
3. Why did Ressler have to drive the sedan off the dock? They could have used the crane to drop the sedan into the water.
   1. A: The shockwave from the blast could have damaged the vessel the car was on and the radiation could have contaminated the that vessel (if it did not sink) and any others nearby. By driving the car into an empty dock there was plenty of room for the blast wave and radiation to disperse.
4. Both Zanetakos and the FBI showed a lack of regard for fingerprint evidence in the hotel room. Zanetakos left her fingerprints on the pill bottle and Keen made no attempt to preserve them.
   1. A: Gina knew that her fingerprints were not in the system, and as she was travelling on a fake American passport, provided she was not caught and fingerprinted, she would remain anonymous.
   2. Q: Zanetakos is a professional, and professionals do not leave evidence behind. Once her fingerprints were in the system, from the bottle, any future fingerprint evidence would alert the police/FBI that the same person was linked to different crimes.
   3. A: She must have used the same drug for the injection as the pills, to ensure no suspicion. The murder took place in an hotel room, and she was making out with him before killing him, so would have left fingerprints elsewhere in the room and DNA on his body. Also she was recorded on the hotel security cameras, both in the lobby and the elevator/lift.
   4. A: She was wearing a disguise when she first entered the hotel. The light blond wig and I think she had a different coat on. Sure her face would look the same on camera but they wouldn't have been looking for someone with curly golden blond hair with brown undertones.

Gallery

External Links

• NBC.com