Zal Bin Hasaan

"Zal Bin Hasaan"

Season 3, Episode 7

Episode Information

Air date

November 12, 2015

Directed by

Michael Watkins

Written by

Brandon Sonnier
Brandon Margolis

Guest Stars

Aiden Eyrick (young) and Sammy Sheik as Shahin Navabi
Adriane Lenox as Reven Wright
Christine Lahti as Laurel Hitchin
David Strathairn as Peter Kotsiopulos
Edi Gathegi as Matias Solomon
Andrew Divoff as Karakurt

Episode Chronology

Previous	Next
“Sir Crispin Crandall”	“Kings of the Highway”

“Zal Bin Hasaan” is the seventh episode of Season 3 of The Blacklist and the fifty-first episode overall.

Synopsis[]

Press Release[]

A family tragedy in Samar's past resurfaces when the Task Force hunt for an elusive international terrorist. The FBI and the Cabal gain significant ground in their search for Liz and Red. Meanwhile, Tom encounters complications in his plan to exonerate Liz.

Number on The Blacklist[]

31

Unanswered Questions[]

Raymond Reddington
1. Who did Red give Shahin Navabi to? Salvador Gallego was the middle-man.
2. Who does Red want to meet with?
3. How did Red know where Shahin Navabi was going for his escape?
  1. A: Red and Liz interrogated Farzin, who brought Shahin into the country.
Shahin Navabi
1. Part of Zal Bin Hasaan’s name was a reference to Zal.
2. Why did Hasaan want the list? Mossad would have assigned a new team.
  1. A: So he could kill them. The list also contained the names of informants.
  2. Q: Mossad would create a new team and use the deaths of the old team for motivation.
3. Why did Shahin Navabi say that the parents were traitors?
  1. A: Because they spoke out against the regime in Iran, according to Samar.
4. Why did Shahin Navabi fear Red more than the FBI?
  1. A: Shahin probably had some idea of what happened to him if the FBI caught him, but he has no idea of what Red has planned for him.
  2. A: It is possible Shahin thought Red was working with whoever Red was delivering him to.
Samar Navabi
1. Why did Navabi turn Shahin Navabi over to Red?
  1. A: Samar was betrayed by her brother for his involvement in the terrorist acts in both Iran and in the United States. So she gave him up to Red so he can deal with Shahin himself.
  2. Q: What was the difference between Red and the FBI?
  3. A: Red told Samar that he was going to use Shahin to clear Liz's name. Otherwise he would just die in prison. Red promised death with a purpose.
2. Why were Samar's parents targeted for assassination?
  1. A: They believed in free speech.
  2. Q: What was wrong with a show trial and imprisonment?
  3. A: Show trials create rally symbols. The Cabal does not want a victim for the conspiracy factions to rally to.
3. Was the assassination of Samar's parents ordered by the Iranian government or an official who saw show trials as counterproductive?
4. Why did the assassin leave Samar and Shahin Navabi alive?
  1. A: He was probably only paid to kill their parents.
Donald Ressler
1. Ressler raided the Wing Yee restaurant to capture Solomon. He did not make an effort to capture Elizabeth Keen or Tom Keen.
  1. A: His main goal was Solomon because he believed that he was connected to Kotsiopulos and that he may be key to convince Hitchin to have Kotsiopulous removed from the Task Force.
  2. A: Ressler went to Wing Yee to find Liz and Tom, but instead found Solomon. Ressler took advantage of the situation and arrested Solomon. By bringing in Solomon, Ressler hoped to expose the Cabal and exonerate Liz.
  3. A: By raiding the restaurant so publicly he also showed that Peter Kotsiopulos had broken Laurel Hitchin's rules of cooperation, and have him and his team removed from the Post Office.
2. Ressler is applying a double standard. He was enraged that Harold Cooper was working with Tom, but approved of Samar giving Shahin Navabi to Red.
  1. A: Ressler was enraged when he found out that Cooper recruited Tom against his wishes to help capture Karakurt with the belief he was betraying his trust. However, he was more sympathetic to Samar due to a similar incident he went through when his friend, Jonica, betrayed him that lead to Audrey Bidwell's death back in “Mako Tanida”. Therefore, he can relate to her in terms of being betrayed by the people they trusted.
Reven Wright
1. Has Reven’s position been undermined? Hitchin did not show approval to anyone involved.
Laurel Hitchin
1. Laurel’s opinion of Ressler and Kotsiopulos seemed shaken as neither shared information. While she removed Kotsiopulos from the task force, she may take action against Ressler.
2. Why did Laurel overlook Kotsiopulos’s use of torture?
  1. A: The CIA has used torture for years and the government has turned a blind eye to it.
  2. A: She might have wanted to see how it played out. She wanted to see if Kotsiopulos had loyalty to Solomon.
Peter Kotsiopulos
1. How much leverage and/or credibility has Kotsiopulos lost?
2. How did Kotsiopulos locate Tom’s phone? Tom was using a prepaid mobile phone burner.
  1. A: Solomon got the phone number from the waitress at Wing Yee.
3. Why did Kotsiopulos and Solomon not show mutual anger at the end? They both suffered and can use the incident to undermine the other.
  1. A: Kotsiopolus suffered for his own failures. Solomon suffered for the good of the Cabal.
Matias Solomon
1. Why was Solomon not deported?
  1. Diplomatic Immunity
2. How did Solomon find the Wing Yee restaurant?
  1. A: He trailed Tom to Wing Yee with the belief he is working with the Task Force to take down the Cabal.
3. Why did the German security contractor job give Solomon diplomatic immunity?
  1. A: He was supposedly hired by the German government. In “Sir Crispin Crandall” it was revealed that influential members of the Cabal operate from Bonn, which is the seat of many parts of the German government. It is plausible that Solomon was actually hired by a Cabal member of the German government.
4. Why did Kotsiopulos and Solomon not show mutual anger at the end? They both suffered and can use the incident to undermine the other.
Karakurt
1. Why did Karakurt try to commit suicide?
  1. A: Death before dishonor. In “Burn Notice”, “Honor Harrington”, and “James Bond”; several characters commit suicide and/or panic when confronted with the option of being arrested or failure. They fear a show trial, their families will be killed as an example, and/or their clients will seek to assassinate them before they can testify in court.
2. If Karakurt confesses, will it make a difference? The torture will undermine the confession’s reliabilty and the Cabal will still blame Keen for the crime.
  1. A: He could leave the fact that he was tortured and unlawfully detained out of his confession.
3. How will Karakurt's confession help with Connolly's murder? Karakurt is guilty of the OREA bombing and Andropov was guilty of the Senator Hawkins assassination.
  1. A: Red and Liz have proven themselves enemies of the Cabal. The Cabal and/or its remnants will insist on their deaths to silence them or take revenge.
4. Where did Tom take Karakurt? Cooper would have insisted that Karakurt be taken elsewhere.
Mossad
1. Why did the Mossad office have a list of the agents hunting Zal Bin Hasaan?
  1. A: Probably in case he had to contact them if he found a lead.
2. Why did Levi Shur's Mossad team have a SIMON breach grenade?
  1. A: It is currently being used by the United States and Israel.
  2. Q: The Mossad team was officially there for intellligence reasons.
Why did the car alarm turn off? Car alarms do not turn off until the owner deactivates the alarm.
1. A: All car alarms turn off automatically after a few seconds, otherwise the alarm would drain the battery.
2. Q: That varies by model.

Slanders on the FBI[]

In both of the buildings the FBI raided, Hasaan and the decoy escaped. Why did the lockdowns fail?
1. A: The first building's lockdown didn't fail. The FBI and Mossad killed the hostage takers, none of them escaped. Hasaan and his men were taken out of the building because they were posing as hostages.
2. Q: Hasaan gave the appearance of escape by using a secondary explosion to distract the FBI.
Why did Ressler not order a lockdown on the ports?
Why did the FBI not have a SIMON breach grenade? They had other breaching equipment.
1. A: The SIMON breach grenade is primarily used by the U.S. military, not the FBI.
2. Q: Many police departments have been buying surplus ex-military equipment. FBI SWAT teams should be better equipped.
Why were the released hostages not searched?
1. A: It was a fast search. Something was missed.