Sutton Ross

"Sutton Ross"
Season 5, Episode 22
Episode Information
Air date	May 22, 2018
Directed by	Bill Roe
Written by	John Eisendrath Jon Bokenkamp Lukas Reiter
Episode Chronology
Previous	“Lawrence Dane Devlin”
Next	“Dr. Hans Koehler”

“Sutton Ross” is the twenty-second episode of Season 5 of The Blacklist and the hundred and eleventh episode overall.

Press Release

Liz and Red face off in a climactic race to find a Blacklister in possession of the duffel bag of bones, forcing the truth about the bones to finally come to light.

Number on The Blacklist

• 17

Unanswered Questions

1. Elizabeth Keen
   1. Keen's personality has completely shifted. In “Tom Connolly” and “Tom Keen” she showed remorse for her actions. In “The Capricorn Killer” she aided Sharon Fulton's escape and in “Sutton Ross” she engineered a hostage situation for her personal gain.
   2. Why did Keen take the risk of trusting Ross?
      1. A: Ross wanted Liz to know the truth of Red's death.
   3. Why did Keen believe Red would kill Jennifer Reddington?
      1. A: Liz was convinced the imposter posing as Red suspected Jennifer knew the truth of her father's death and told her to run.
   4. Why did Liz recruit Jennifer to help her and Ross?
      1. A: She was recruited by Ross since Ian Garvey wanted her to know the truth, not Keen.
      2. A: She needed all the help she could locate.
   5. Why did Liz use a deception method to make it look like Ross is holding her hostage?
      1. A: She needed to force a confrontation.
   6. What would Keen have done if Ressler had trapped them and Aram had not surrendered the door code?
   7. What would Keen have done if the FBI had not located the warehouse? Would she have arrested Ross?
   8. What will Liz do now that she knows Reddington is really dead?
      1. A: She told Tom's hallucination that she will hunt down the imposter and expose him.
      2. Q: What good can exposing the imposter do for Keen? The imposter is effectively Reddington as far as the FBI and the black market are concerned.
   9. How can Keen identify the imposter? He has convinced the entire world that he is Raymond Reddington.
      1. A: Before he was killed by the imposter, Ross left Liz the DNA test confirming Red's death to her.
      2. Q: The DNA test identifies Reddington, not the imposter.
2. Raymond Reddington
   1. What is the true identity of the man who has been posing as Raymond Reddington?
      1. A: In “Rassvet” it is revealed that his true name is Ilya Koslov.
      2. A: The likely candidates are a naval officer who knew Red from the United States Naval Academy or an espionage/intelligence agent.
      3. A: He could be a criminal who needed to vanish. By taking Reddington’s identity he was able to obtain a fearsome reputation and a position of power.
      4. A: He could have been part of the operation where Ross stole the Grayscape Seventeen plans.
      5. A: He could be a KGB agent who was supposed to infiltrate the United States Navy. However, he abandoned his assignment after learning about the Cabal. That would also explain why he vanished as he could not deceive the family of the real Reddington. It provides an explanation why he kidnapped Liz and had a vicious argument with Katarina Rostova and knew Dominic Wilkinson.
      6. A: That agent could be “Seaduke” whom Reddington was shadowing while working for counter-intelligence. Seaduke “made” Reddington, had team of Spetznaz abduct him and tortured him for 10 days before a FBI-Seal joint task force showed up and rescued “Reddington”.
      7. A: He could be a CIA agent who killed the real Reddington for being a Cabal loyalist and was forced to adopt the identity after the Cabal began hunting for him. He abandoned the real Reddington’s family to protect them from reprisals.
      8. A: He could be an FBI agent who was betrayed by his superiors and forced to continue his undercover mission.
      9. A: He could be an FBI agent who was forgotten by his superiors and forced to continue his undercover mission.
      10. A: He could be an FBI agent who deserted his undercover mission.
      11. A: He could be a colleague of Reddington's from US Naval Intelligence who continued Red's mission to take down the Cabal. Maybe the real Red found out about them and before his disappearance, stole the Fulcrum in secret and gave it to Katarina in the hopes of using it against the Cabal one day.
   2. The imposter must have known Reddington personally for years to impersonate him so convincingly.
   3. When did the imposter replace Reddington? Was it before Reddington disappeared in 1990 or after? And if it was before, could imposter still be Liz's (and possibly even Jennifer's) father? When Cooper ran an DNA test, he used blood from a shirt that was “sealed in evidence locker for over three decades” from the time when “Seaduke” abducted Reddington.
      1. A: In “Rassvet” it is revealed that Ilya Koslov replaced the real Red after the beach house fire.
      2. A: This was probably after Reddington disappeared in 1990. Maybe a colleague from US Naval Intelligence has continued helping to finish Red's fight to take down the Cabal.
   4. What happened to the real Reddington? Was he murdered or did somebody take his identity after an accidental death?
      1. A: Red was possibly killed by the Cabal and the colleague took his identity in order to finish the fight.
      2. A: In “Rassvet” it is revealed that the man shot and killed by Liz as a child in “Tom Connolly” was the real Reddington.
   5. Why did Red kill Ross’s driver?
   6. How did Red locate Ross and Ravi Desai at the Kittredge Theatre?
   7. Did Red intend to keep the Veritable Robotics plans for himself?
   8. If the imposter is not Liz's father, why does he love and protect her so?
      1. A: Maybe the imposter found out that before Red was killed, he had an affair with Katarina that lead to Liz's birth. He knew how much Red loves her the same way he did with Jennifer and asked him to protect Liz.
      2. Q: Why did the imposter pose as Red to protect Liz in secret?
      3. A: Red asked him to do so on his behalf should anything bad happen to him that resulted in his death, he would know the imposter would keep her safe.
3. Sutton Ross
   1. The alias of DuQuesne is a reference to Marc “Blackie” DuQuesne of the Skylark series.
   2. Why did Ross want 2 CZ 75 handguns? What was wrong with the FBI’s guns?
   3. Why did China allow the FBI to arrest Ross? He could testify that China ordered the theft of the Grayscape Seventeen plans.
   4. Why did the tailor say that Ross was a powerful man in a fearful tone of voice?
   5. Why did Sutton not have an FBI badge or an affidavit at Veritable Robotics?
   6. How did Ross locate Ravi Desai at the Kittredge Theatre?
      1. A: Desai posted his plans on Instagram.
   7. Why did Ross offer the truth to Keen? The truth was meant for Jennifer.
      1. A: He felt they both deserved the truth.
   8. Why was Ross reluctant to harm Keen?
      1. A: He was not a violent man and never intended Keen any harm.
      2. Q: He was willing to kidnap Ravi Desai and his family.
4. Donald Ressler
   1. Why did Ressler not consider the need to manually search the dead zones?
5. Harold Cooper
   1. How will Cooper explain Ross’s death?
      1. A: Cooper will state that Ross died in the firefight.
6. Kathryn Nemec
   1. Why did the imposter entrust the skeleton to Kathryn Nemec instead of dropping it into the ocean?
      1. A: The imposter knew that Nemec could be used to his advantage and entrusted her with the bones of the real Reddington.
      2. Q: The skeleton could have been given to Nemec by Katarina Rostova.
   2. Why did Nemec work with the imposter?
      1. A: To protect Liz.
7. Jennifer Reddington
   1. What will she and Liz do now that Red is really dead?
      1. A: She joins Liz in their quest to get justice for their father and expose the imposter.
8. Tom Keen
   1. Why did Tom tell Liz to be careful against the imposter?
      1. A: He has survived for 30 years in the black market.
9. AXG Robotics
   1. Why did AXG Robotics need the Rafferty Project from Veritable Robotics?

1. A: AXG Robotics was a rival to Veritable Robotics, and in the field of research given their attempts to both hire the same expert-specialist; the Rafferty Project’s mechanical suit design would have been a very financially-lucrative product, which - if they could produce the first model to procure trademarks and patents - would generate a great deal of money, even if the product were to used as an environmental suit solely, let alone any other potential applications or future generations for the design-concept. AXG may have also been politically motivated, being an extra-national company, meaning that AXG might have intended to corner the market for mechanical suits for their company/nation: giving them a potential tactical in warfare should they adapt the design for military use, should they alone be able to make and deploy them; and-or allowing them to prevent the manufacturing/purchase of such suits by other countries, or at least charging an inflated rate to do so.

1. 1. Will the AXG Robotics employees be arrested or deported?

Slanders on the FBI

1. Why did the FBI not track the liquor van?
2. Why did Aram not void Charlie Schay’s badge?
   1. A: There was not enough time.
3. Why did the Post Office not have more security teams?

Cast

Main star

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

Guest star

• Brian Dennehy as Dominic Wilkinson
• Julian Sands as Sutton Ross
• John Waters as John Waters
• Fiona Dourif as Jennifer Reddington
• Jordan Gelber as Holt Campbell
• Teddy Coluca as Teddy Brimley
• Stuart Zagnit as The Haberdasher
• Gameela Wright as ICU Nurse

Co-star

• Genson Blimline as Morgan
• Jason Liebman as Walter Reardon
• Rock Kohli as Ravi Desai
• Will Bowden as Hurley
• Allan Greenberg as Jordan Virgil
• Matt Leisy as Driver
• Alexandra Zorn as Receptionist
• Orease Bowers as SWAT Commander
• Gregory James Cohan as SWAT #2
• Lara Raj as Sara
• Anthony Bells as Samir

Gallery

External Links

• NBC.com
• NBC.com