The Blacklist - Tenth Season

I told you to stop calling me.

I know what you're about to do.

You're headed to the D.A.'s office, right?

Turn around. You're making a mistake.

No, I'm doing what's right.

I'll be fine. I've secured another position.

The one at DuPont?

Two short phone calls, three max--

I can make that offer go away.

Do what you want. Nothing will change my mind.

Let's play this out.

You take whatever it is you think you have to the D.A.

And then I call Ron, who's a personal friend,

and tell him this case is not worth his time.

Who do you think he listens to in this scenario?

Me. Because I did him a favor a while back.

A favor that saved his marriage.

You wouldn't be on the phone right now if it were that easy.

How is your dear little Maggie, by the way?

Peanut allergy, right?

Gosh, those things are so tough.

Mistakes must happen all the time.

I heard she went into anaphylaxis in 2019.

That must have been terrifying.

I guess you just have to hope her little body

would survive something like that again.

You're a sick, sick woman.

Put your family first.

This crusade is not your passion-- they are.

You stay away from my family.

Looks like he's leaving.

I've done everything I can.

You need to get those documents.

What exactly are you asking me to do?

Whatever needs to be done.

He spotted me. He's trying to lose me.

Well, go after him.

What's going on? The dude crashed.

I don't care. We need those papers.

Figure it out.

Negative. Cops are on site.

I'm not taking that kind of heat.

This is what you're hired for.

We need those papers. I'm sorry.

I'm out of here.

Senator Panabaker, Director Cooper,

this is Representative Hudson.

How do you do?

I appreciate you both

being able to meet on such short notice.

Look, Clayton, I have time for formalities

like I have time for long walks on the beach.

You got us here. What's this about?

Well, Arthur and I have some questions

about your FBI task force,

and no one seems to be able to answer.

I mean, we had a heck of a time even getting your name,

Director Cooper. That's intentional.

The nature of our work is highly classified.

Oh, I understand that, really.

And from what little information I've been able to glean,

it seems that you've helped close

some of Main Justice's biggest cases.

That's impressive.

However, it doesn't explain your exorbitant budget.

$282.7 million last year alone, to be exact.

That's still less than 3% of the FBI's overall budget.

It's an awful lot for a single task force.

How is your budget being allocated,

and what is it exactly that you do?

We work with gathered intelligence to detain

and apprehend criminal suspects around the world--

criminals that wouldn't otherwise be

on the FBI's radar.

We've thwarted terrorist attacks,

stopped assassinations,

disbanded global conspiracies,

exposed human-trafficking rings

domestically and overseas.

Specifics. We want specifics.

You must have internal case files that break it all down.

Of course.

I'm just not at liberty to divulge those.

Says who?

Alright, Congress and the American people

deserve to know where their tax dollars are going.

Give me a break, Clayton.

It's a nice sales pitch,

but we both know too much government oversight

can be harmful to the FBI's ability to work covertly.

You don't just get to operate in the blind, Cynthia.

Harold's task force

does incredibly important work.

The funding is being well spent.

You have my word.

Well, we'll see how your word holds up in front of a judge.

Now, unless one of you is willing to elaborate,

I think we're done here.

I appreciate you defending us in there.

It means a lot, which makes this harder to say.

Our case files have been compromised.

What the hell does that mean?

When Reddington was alone in the post office

during the Wujing incident,

he gained access to our computer network

and removed any mention of himself

from our permanent records.

He wh-- What?

How could you keep this from me?

Cynthia, I apologize.

But at the time, omitting this information

and carrying on with our casework

seemed like the right thing... I defended you.

I always defend you.

If a judge allows them to subpoena those files

and they've clearly been tampered with,

both of our careers will be on the line.

Not to mention the fact that you've barely

had any convictions this year, just a bunch of prison breaks

and dead bodies splayed out on the floor.

That's a bit of an exaggeration.

Is it? You fix this.

I don't know how, but you fix it.

Harold, why so glum?

Oh, I don't know.

Maybe because I've got a senator

and congressmen breathing down my neck

trying to get access to our files.

Files that have been significantly compromised

because of you.

Well, we've found ourselves under siege before.

Perhaps it's time yet again to hunker down,

take a moment, and let it blow over.

Actually, it's not going to blow over.

They've secured a hearing before a judge for today.

Then we let the wheels of justice

grind at their characteristic snail's pace

and be fine about it.

Are you hearing anything I'm saying?

The future of this task force is on the line.

I need you to start giving us substantial cases again.

Cases that can demonstrate

to the Justice Department and Congress

that we get results and can justify

our significant expenditures.

We've always had a "we scratch your back,

you scratch ours" arrangement.

But now I'm not so sure.

Well, perk up.

I have a few new ideas to discuss

that will scratch everyone's back.

First, I need you to look into this container ship.

It's scheduled to arrive at the port of Baltimore.

This is the hull number.

In the meantime,

I have another case of the utmost priority.

Blair Foster, Washington, D.C.'s

most infamous fixer.

If corruption is what Dorf and Hudson are looking for,

then let's shine a light under every rock in town

and show them what real corruption looks like.

Ms. Foster has a legitimate law practice,

but her real stock-in-trade

is her off-the-books private services.

She's stealthy, discreet,

has a way of burying scandals

before the corpses are even cold.

I know of Ms. Foster.

Her reputation certainly proceeds her.

Bureau's been trying to build a case against her

for years to no avail.

Well, one of her biggest clients

is corporate giant Moder & Sons.

There have been whispers in recent years

of carcinogenic materials

in some of their consumer products.

And I believe the only reason

no lawsuit has ever come to fruition is Foster.

She runs a legitimate boutique law firm employing lawyers,

legal aides, clerks, and investigators,

but they rarely file cases--

strange given the power and influence they wield.

And when they do, the cases almost always settle or go away.

She employs a disproportionate number of investigators

for a firm this size.

So it's her work as a fixer that keeps the lights on?

It appears so.

Most recently, Reddington believes that Foster

is responsible for the car accident

of a mid-level employee at the Moder & Sons corporation.

Why would she care about mid-level employees?

Reddington suspects it was her effort to silence him

on some internal matter at Moder & Sons.

Luckily, the man, Lawrence Whitaker,

survived the accident.

Siya: This may be just what we need.

If the scandals Foster buried are as explosive

as Reddington claims and we unearth them,

then Hudson and Dorf and all the rest of D.C.

will have bigger fish to fry than us.