The Blacklist - The Good Samaritan Killer

With the entire operation under investigation each member of the team forced to answer questions posed by an interrogator (Eisa Davis) charged with finding the leak that led Anslo Garrick (Ritchie Coster) to the black site, Agent Keen (Megan Boone) asks for Ressler's (Diego Klattenhoff) help in hunting a serial killer (Frank Whaley) she has tracked for years (after one of his victims died in her arms) who has just claimed his latest victim (Kate Nowlin).

After discovering the Good Samaritan Killer took great pains to deliver the exact wounds to his latest victim that the she had caused her young son over the years through abuse, Keen and her team begin looking into the man's previous victims for similar motives. Finding a connection between all victims and the nurse who helped treat them leads Keen and Ressler to find the Samaritan torturing his latest victim as an object lesson in front of the captive audience of the woman (Patricia Squire) whose continued abuse caused him to grow into the tortured soul he is today.


Meanwhile Reddington (James Spader) performs his own investigation into recent events while searching for the man responsible for funding (Victor Slezak) the attack on the black site and the mole (Charles Baker) who provided the information which led to Luli's (Deborah S. Craig) death. Although the evidence leads both the FBI and Reddington to suspect Aram Mojtabai (Amir Arison) is the mole, a little time alone with the man convinces the criminal that Aram is nothing more than a patsy.

Whaley works fine in the role of the killer but his complicated motive and actions, along with the addition of his mother forced to watch him work, was all a bit much. Reddington's subplot, which we only catch glimpses of, is far more interesting (if ultimately also somewhat unsatisfying) as he quickly sees through the lies he's been fed about Aram to find the real mole and complete his vengeance (or at least as close as he can get at this time). The episode also gives us a little more information about Alan Alda's character, including an interesting twist of the man's role as Diane Fowler's (Jane Alexander) superior in Washington with complicated motives concerning his old friend Red.