The Russian Knot

"The Russian Knot"
Season 8, Episode 15
Episode Information
Air date	April 30, 2021
Directed by	Juan Avella
Written by	Katie Bockes
Episode Chronology
Previous	“Misere”
Next	“Nicholas Obenrader”

“The Russian Knot” is the Fifteenth episode of season 8 of The Blacklist and the hundred and sixty-seventh overall.

Press Release

The Task Force hatches a plan to steal a Soviet-era cipher machine needed to decrypt coded messages. Townsend puts Liz’s loyalty to the test. Red and Dembe are called to an unexpected meeting.

Number on The Blacklist

• N/A

Unanswered Questions

1. Why is the Task Force acting as though they have the moral superiority?
2. Elizabeth Keen
   1. Keen’s decoy plan was from “The Thomas Crown Affair”.
   2. Where did Keen hire the decoys?
   3. How did Keen evade Neville’s security?
   4. Why is Keen so lackluster in the martial arts?
   5. Keen’s failed theft will allow Cooper to avoid a political backlash. Cooper can blame Red for the FBI’s imitation cipher machine.
   6. What is SCDA?
   7. Keen’s alliance with Neville is similar to her alliance with Red.
3. Neville Townsend
   1. Who was Neville murdering?
   2. Where is Townsend’s office/residence located? Where is the tower located?
      1. A: Park Avenue in Manhattan (“Ivan Stepanov“)
   3. What is Townsend suffering from that causes such violent mood swings?
   4. Neville’s tactics are backlashing. He motivated Keen to be just as fearsome and dreadful as him.
   5. How did Neville know that Keen had Red at gunpoint?
4. Raymond Reddington
   1. The cipher machine seemed to be inspired by the Fialka.
   2. How many ”Russian Knot“ cipher machines exist? There are 3 known, the Minsk machine in FBI possession, the machine used by Red, the machine used by his SVR contact.
   3. What operation is Red commencing?
   4. Was Red telling the truth about the Paul Cezanne painting?
   5. What is the job offer for Paula?
   6. Will the daughter take the 3,000,000 dollar “inheritance”?
   7. Red’s alias translates to “far (away from) well (and) smith (unknown)” and/or “farwell (farewell) (and) smith (unknown)”.
   8. Was Red referring to himself or Neville when he said the “fugitive” would suffer?
5. Harold Cooper
   1. What will Cooper do with the cipher machine?
   2. What did Cooper seek to gain by arresting Keen?
   3. Cooper has destroyed his trust with Ressler.
   4. If Keen had not attempted to steal the cipher machine, then Cooper would have had nobody to blame for the theft. How was he planning to avoid a political backlash?
   5. What will be the political fallout of the Minsk operation?
   6. How did the FBI get authorization to enter Minsk? The United States government has sanctioned the nation-state.
6. Alina Park
   1. Alina‘s reluctance to steal the cipher machine is a double standard. She had/has justified her violent behavior.
7. Donald Ressler
   1. Ressler is being motivated to side with Keen as he knows Cooper is being duped by Red.
8. Aram Mojtabai
   1. Aram‘s number for the Russian Knot totals 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 ((1,000,000,000,000 (trillion)) (1,000,000,000,000 (trillion)) (1,000,000,000,000 (trillion))).

Cast

Main star

• James Spader as Raymond Reddington
• Megan Boone as Elizabeth Keen
• Diego Klattenhoff as Donald Ressler
• Amir Arison as Aram Mojtabai
• Hisham Tawfiq as Dembe Zuma
• Harry Lennix as Harold Cooper
• Laura Sohn as Alina Park

Guest star

• Reg Rogers as Neville Townsend
• Kecia Lewis as Esi Jackson
• Dikran Tulaine as Max Ruddiger
• David E. Harrison as Ivan Stepanov
• Marylouise Burke as Paula Carter
• Folami Williams as Emma Foster
• Peter von Berg as Professor Belsky

Co-star

• Chloe Freeman as Jax
• Clinton Brandhagen as Rocco
• Kineta Kunutu as Blake Brown

External Links

• NBC.com
• NBC.com