The Blacklist Episode 2.09 Luther Braxton

Breaking news: Reddington has been apprehended in Hong Kong in full view of the public - and in a tuxedo. After being transferred into the custody of U.S. Marines and hooded, Red is loaded into a Blackhawk and transported to a black-site prison somewhere in the middle of the Bering Sea. The hood comes off at The Factory, designed to drain intel from detainees who have been trained to withstand torture - a veritable slaughterhouse where spies disappear forever. Red sets his site on a guard named Desmond, offering him $50,000 cash in exchange for a word with the warden.

Back in Washington, Cooper's worried. No one seems to know Red's location, and the CIA won't talk. Ressler figures Red wanted to get captured, and Samar theorizes he wanted to be in proximity to something. It takes a while for Ressler to get confirmation that Red is being held at The Factory, which makes Cooper think Red is after a specific prisoner being held there... which he is. Having gained an audience with warden Ramsey Mills, Red inquires after Luther Braxton, who will break out of his solitary cell within 12 hours to steal a classified intelligence packet vital to national security. If Mills doesn't move fast, he and all his guards will die. In fact, Braxton is currently in interrogation, being shocked with more electricity than most humans can withstand. When the lead guard orders Braxton be taken back to his cell, another guard sticks a wire in Braxton's mouth. Braxton sucks the wire down, then swallows.

Cooper finds the Director of Clandestine Services, known henceforth as The Director, and his number two, Kat Goodson, in his office. The Clandestine Service knows all about the relationship between Red and Cooper's task force, and Mills has cabled Red's warning about Braxton. So what's their relationship? It's not long before Liz is presenting the file on Braxton, a meticulous thief wanted by Interpol, who has been sent to The Factory for extraction of secrets stolen from the Chinese and Iranians. Goodson gives the task force authorization to infiltrate The Factory to find Red, just as Braxton uses his regurgitated wire to electrocute the guard bringing his dinner. Klaxons summon The Factory's Extreme Reaction Force (ERF) to Braxton's cell, but he's ready for them, and poof! They're dead. Mills berates Red - how did he know this would happen?! - and offers the latest update: Red is to be evacuated by an incoming team. Red demands Mills radio the chopper with orders to turn around. But the warden is pulled away as Braxton releases his 13 team members from various cells, gathers weaponry and heads to The Nest, the ops center at the heart of The Factory. After taking out most of The Nest's video feeds, Braxton and his men don gas masks, lob tear gas bombs... and moments later, they're in control of The Factory.

A prison employee tries to wave Ressler, Liz and Samar away just as their chopper touches down, and one of Braxton's men, Yousef, starts popping off shots, hitting Samar in the ankle. Ressler and Samar are taken, leaving Liz entirely on her own. Inside, Desmond is still doing his job, transferring Red to a more secure cell. Red promises that his $50K is still on the table - all Desmond has to do is help Red help him stay alive. That's when Braxton's tech Carl invokes The Factory's emergency lockdown sequence: banks of lights blink off as doors automatically lock - only The Nest is still alive. When the call comes in for authentication, Braxton demands to speak to "someone who matters." Meanwhile, Yousef has rigged up Ressler, Samar and some other guards in one of The Factory's torture chambers. They're chained by the neck to the ceiling, with their feet barely touching blocks made slippery by their own blood. With her injured ankle, Samar can barely keep her footing and is thus slowly strangling to death. Back in D.C., a worried Aram tells Cooper they've lost contact with the team, just as Goodson patches a call from Braxton over to her hotshot hostage negotiator Phillip Rosenberg. Braxton has no desire to "dialogue." So when Rosenberg insists on talking to Warden Mills, Braxton quickly obliges, since he's already tied to a nearby chair. But then he shoots Mills dead, and demands to speak with someone of real authority. Once Cooper is on the line, Braxton explains that from here on out, he gets what he needs, or somebody dies. Braxton is the warden now.

Liz is skulking along a darkened hallway when she's apprehended by Red. Getting right to the point, Red claims Braxton is after The Fulcrum, a blackmail file full of proof of the existence of a powerful clandestine organization. If the file's contents were to be made public, some of the most powerful people in the world would be unseated, thus chaos. Red believes information crucial to locating the Fulcrum is at The Factory, which is why both he and Braxton are there. Liz wants to know why Red didn't mention any of this before, but he's only interested in getting her out of there. Of course, Liz won't leave without Ressler and Samar, so Red jogs off to see if any of his "old friends" are among The Factory's prisoners. Before long, Red, Liz, Khan, Quintano and Gernert are sitting in the warden's office, drinking his scotch and hatching a plan. If Braxton is looking for The Factory's archive of secret intel, it would be located in the server room. Since the boiler room is next door, Gernert suggests reprogramming the boiler to overload and explode, taking the server room with it - if they're lucky. The only way into the boiler room is a single, narrow air duct, thus Liz elects herself tunnel rat. But before she can get started, the phone rings. Braxton knows they're there, and he quickly falls into chatting with Red about old times in Belgrade, when besting Red made him a criminal to be reckoned with. Clearly, there's no love lost here. Red promises Braxton he won't get The Fulcrum, but Braxton doubts Red has the balls to stop him.

With Cooper on the line, Braxton moves to the room where Yousef has Samar and Ressler hanging from the ceiling. Braxton explains that since the prison went into lockdown, all the codes that once ran it are no longer valid. The mainframe has generated a master code granting the CIA all access, and this is what Braxton wants. He shoots another guard in the head to underline how bad he wants it. Cooper has 10 minutes to get the master code if he wants to save Samar. Goodson tells Cooper that he can't turn over the code, which they already have, because Braxton doesn't want to use it to break out of the prison. He wants the keys to their entire intelligence network. Cooper gets back on the phone to learn that even if he does hand over the code, Braxton will give him no assurances whatsoever. Indeed, Braxton starts choking the life out of Samar, so Cooper gives over the code and Braxton hangs up. Meanwhile, Aram tells Cooper that there's literally no way to keep Braxton out of the deepest recesses of the country's most secret intelligence network.

Back at the Factory, Khan guides Liz through the ducts to the boiler room, just as Braxton's tech guy Carl uses the master code to access the server room to start rebooting the prison's computer network. Meanwhile, The Director meets with an Egyptian, an Indian, a German and a Chinese person at an undisclosed private club to discuss Braxton's pursuit of The Fulcrum - which proves Reddington doesn't have it. Braxton is a liability, and Red, who's stayed alive all this time by bluffing about The Fulcrum, needs to be eliminated, too. So, the German wonders, would the American public notice if The Factory were to disappear altogether? After the meeting, The Director explains to Goodson the reason why Braxton must be stopped. It's more than just a death toll of thousands. With the keys to the kingdom, Braxton will own every single asset in the free world. Goodson begs for more time, but The Director insists she order the air strike. Now.

Once Liz lets Red and his friends into the boiler room, Gernert discovers a big problem: redundant computerized safeguards. Someone will have to manually override the system and reset the pressure relief valve until the boiler hits 700 PSI. Then whoever mans the controls will have 10 to 20 seconds to bail out before the boiler explodes. Red's pals want out, but Liz is determined that the two of them can handle it. Back in D.C., Aram receives confirmation that two F-22s are headed to The Factory with an ETA of 24 minutes. Cooper orders Aram to get Goodson on the phone as Carl begins extracting The Factory's data, and Liz and Red start driving up the boiler pressure. This is when Liz decides to press Red: why can't he allow Braxton to get his hands on The Fulcrum? Red explains that the secret power cabal believes that he has The Fulcrum; it's the reason he's still alive. So is all this about self-protection? Explaining that he was once reasonably normal, Red relates a parable to indicate that he's become hideous through the evolution of surviving. The only thing he knows right now is that he didn't want Liz to follow him to The Factory - and if he doesn't stop Braxton, he'll discover he can't get The Fulcrum without Liz. Just then, Braxton's men start shooting through the door. Liz and Red are returning fire when the boiler explodes. Liz emerges unscathed, but Red is unconscious and trapped under a door. Since The Factory's computer systems have been knocked out, Liz knows it's only moments before Braxton's men descend... and descend they do, taking her captive.