The Blacklist - The SPK

Following the two-part premiere, "The SPK" offers the first Blacklister of the week with the team now back in place once more. SPK isn't a person, but a cult obsessed with stealing and destroying religious artifacts (unaware its leader is a con man actually selling them on the black market for a tidy profit). Stacy Keach returns to reprise his role as the con artist Robert Vesco. Vesco, however, has lost control of his cult who are embracing a more destructive, and bloody, method of teaching the world a lesson.

There's really no need for the callback  for Vesco other than to set-up the epilogue of Dembe (Hisham Tawfiq) choosing his loyalty towards the FBI over his long friendship with Raymond Reddington (James Spader). Still, the stakes are relatively small here and no real harm is done to Reddingon (other than not being able to collect on a debt). Will Dembe make the same choice if Reddington's safety is in danger? In other team business, Aram (Amir Arison) makes an important decision about his future and Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff) is further painted as the black sheep of the team as Alina (Laura Sohn) calls him out on his drug addiction.