The Blacklist

Hey! Hey, pal! What's going on?

Everything okay?

You all right?

You a little turned around?

If you're headed for Harrisburg, you're going the wrong way.

You hear me?

What have you got there?

Assistant U.S. Attorney?

He hasn't spoken.

The doctors say he experienced severe trauma.

Where did you find him?

Oh, on a highway outside of Harrisburg.

We're still piecing it together.

We think he may have been hitchhiking.

Ma'am, are you okay?

It's just... It's been 12 years.

Mark?

Mark?

It's me.

It's Donna.

Where have you been? It's been 12 years.

What is this, a '78?

You got a picture?

My father loved Cadillacs.

She's alive?

She's calling herself Jolene Parker.

I'll notify you when I find her.

You don't have all the information.

I've all I need. No.

Do I tell you how to do your job?

No, I don't.

So don't tell me how to do mine.

If I was able to find you hiding on that sheep farm outside of Dingle,

I can find this girl.

Don't you worry how.

I love hats, but that...

Honestly, that takes a certain kind of man.

What size are you? Seven-and-a-quarter?

I'm a seven-and-a-half.

I'll find the girl.

I don't want you to find her, I know where she is.

I want you to tell me where she's been.

Cities, safe houses, aliases.

She's already faked her death to elude me.

Now she's back.

I want you to tell me everything you can about where she's been,

what she's been up to.

I mean, I thought this was a teacher conference, not a book burning.

There's nothing wrong with a little editing. They're children.

Kids shouldn't be reading Lolita.

Why not? I mean, the heart goes where it wants to go.

Mr. Whitney's heart sent him right into an affair with Timmy Logan's mom.

Are you saying that's okay?

Nah, I... I don't think books are anything to be afraid of.

I mean, I think that people have affairs

because they're miserable in their marriages.

And I don't think you should judge them for that,

and I certainly don't think you can blame a book.

What do you think, Tom?

Um...

I think Mr. Whitney should thank his lucky stars

because Timmy Logan's mom is way out of his league.

Well, call me provincial,

but I for one think it's inappropriate.

I mean, how old is he anyway?

Lizzy!

Have you seen the paper?

What about it?

Mark Hastings. The U.S. Attorney from Maryland.

Twelve years ago he indicted the head of the Reynoso Cartel.

A week later he went missing.

I remember. The Bureau assumed it was a retribution killing.

Yeah, well, two days ago, he was found wandering on a road in Pennsylvania.

Nobody knows where he's been.

Was he in hiding?

I believe he was held captive,

but not by the Reynoso Cartel.

It's all quite a mystery.

They say he's too traumatized to speak.

But if what I believe about Hastings is true,

if he has been held captive all these years,

then it would confirm that the myth is true.

The Judge is real.

The Judge?

Every culture has a justice myth,

an avenging angel who exacts retribution for the weak and innocent.

Golem for the Jews.

Tu Po for the Chinese.

The ancient Greeks had Adrasteia, the goddess of revenge.

We have The Judge.

Think of him as a prisoner's Court of Last Resort.

When your legal appeals have all been exhausted

and there is no hope left,

you can make one last plea to The Judge.

What kind of plea?

Prisoners can state their case,

argue their innocence, explain why they were convicted unfairly

and who is responsible.

A prosecutor, a corrupt detective,

maybe an incompetent public defender.

This demand for justice, where does it go?

Supposedly, it's passed among inmates

until it finally reaches some book depository

at the federal penitentiary in Monroe, Virginia.

And then? Nobody knows for sure.

Nobody's ever met him.

Somehow, the appeals make their way to The Judge.

He reviews the case, and if he thinks you're innocent,

he evens the score.

If freedom or life were taken unfairly,

he demands the same in return.

An eye for an eye.

Reddington says Mark Hastings was held captive?

Yes, but not by Reynoso.

He thinks it might've been payback

for a different case Hastings prosecuted 12 years ago.

Aram.

Leonard Debs. Sentenced to 14 years for armed robbery

when he was 28.

According to this so-called Judge, this guy is innocent?

A witness allegedly came forward at the time

saying Debs wasn't at the scene.

Hastings never told the defense.

Debs got out two months ago.

He served 12 years of his 14-year sentence.

Hastings went missing 12 years ago.

Hastings took 12 years away from Leonard Debs,

so The Judge evened the score.

And Reddington says there have been others.

A New York homicide detective,

an appellate court judge, two prosecutors.

All missing and presumed dead.

All involved in cases in which some impropriety was alleged

which made them targets for The Judge.

An underground criminal court of appeals.

We believe the appeals are being processed

through a book depository run by a prison literacy project.

We pulled the files of everyone who worked at the depository,

and I think we found something.

Frank Gordon. A civilian now, but he's a convicted killer.

He now works for a prison literacy project

at their book depository in Monroe, Virginia.

He takes the letters from the returned books,

screens them for The Judge.

Find him. And see if you can get anything out of him.

Frank's been with us for almost six years now,

ever since the court reversed his conviction.

Does his job require he interact with prisoners?

Well, not directly. But he does respond to their requests.

Our program is one of the many

that provides inmates with reading materials.

Frank?

Who else knows Frank stays here?

Is he in some kinda trouble?

What's back there?

I... I really feel we should wait for Frank to come back.

It's his space. It's...

Stay here.

Hello?

Mr. Gordon, FBI. We'd like to talk to you.

Great.

What is it?

Stay where you are.

Ressler!

Are you okay?

Ressler!

He was just there. Agent Keen, she fired.

Tried to stop him, but it happened too fast.

He got away.

I set up checkpoints at all major roads and highways.

Sent Frank Gordon's photo to state, federal.

You're not gonna believe this.

Pleas from inmates, all handwritten,

from prisons all over the country.

ADX, Marion, Pelican Bay.

And look at this.

"Alan Ray Rifkin."

It's a case folder. Research, evidence.

Frank was reviewing trial transcripts for The Judge.

Alan Ray Rifkin. American college student.

Dropped out, joined the Army.

Deployed to Afghanistan.

In 2003, he was tried and convicted as an enemy combatant.

Fought alongside the Taliban.

He's scheduled for execution tomorrow.

According to the charges, Rifkin and a few dozen Taliban fighters

raided an Afghan village, killing dozens of civilians.

At trial, Rifkin's lawyers claimed it was friendly fire,

that the American military destroyed the village from the air,

mistaking it for a Taliban outpost.

The military denied it.

So, Judge thinks Rifkin is innocent.

Guys, that Rifkin case you were asking about?

The investigating officer was the senior FBI agent in Afghanistan at the time.

Harold Cooper.

You think this is a coincidence?

Reddington feeds you The Judge

and I'm next on that lunatic's hit list?

We need to take it seriously.

No, we don't. The federal prosecutor on the case is Tom Connolly.