The Blacklist Declassified

Brief (Where we’re at):

Red and Weecha broke into to the office of Reginald Cole, the ex-cop who blackmailed Cooper and was gunned down on the street after the task force caught him but couldn’t hold him. In Cole’s office, they found the key to a vault in the super-secret security site Mount Bastion in Pennsylvania. Red turned to Helen Maghi (Blacklister #172), designer of Mount Bastion, who assisted them in accessing the facility and vault. Inside the large room, they found a single item: a box of computer disks with instructions for Liz left by Red on how to run his criminal empire. Red had set it up so only he and Liz had access to the files which were supposedly being kept it a safe a world away in Tivat, Montenegro.

With Red’s help, Cooper was able to pay the bail for crimes he committed in his search for his blackmailer, who turned out to be Reginald Cole (witness tampering, unlawful imprisonment, failing to report a murder, etc). Cooper has one month to continue working with the task force to try to figure out who was the mastermind behind Cole, and believed to have hired Vandyke to murder Liz. However, Cooper is returning only as an agent, not as the person in charge of the task force. That will be Aram, which is unfortunate, because Red and Aram are already clashing because of their conflicting moral codes. Red believes in moral relativism (“the greater good”) whereas Aram believes “right is right.” Red went to Cooper to say he couldn’t work with Aram, that his inability to compromise would cost lives. Cooper told him to give Aram another chance.

Unresolved from earlier episodes:

1) Red’s business is under attack. Illiquid after his two-year hiatus following Liz Keen’s murder, Red had incorporated on an underground stock exchange called the night market. Someone organized a group of investors to attempt a hostile takeover – and Red can’t figure out who.
2) In an effort to be more open with her husband Peter about the nature of her work, Park appeared ready to divulge that it has to do with Raymond Reddington. This is of course very tightly-held classified information.
3) Ressler has reached a two-month milestone in his treatment for drug addiction and the task force celebrated with him, but he remains somewhat paranoid and uncharacteristically emotional. Cooper still doesn’t know Ressler cheated on his drug test to get reinstated into the FBI.
4) Cooper began to tell Agnes ‘her story’ in a way which seemed to imply Red might be her grandfather. How much did Cooper tell Agnes? How much does Cooper even know?
5) What was in the box Red gave to Dembe?
6) What did the letter from Katarina to Liz say about Red’s true identity?
7) And what did happen in Brasilia, anyway?

 
For S9 Episode 9:17 El Conejo: 🎯 EW Recap ¤ 🌅 Photo Gallery ¤ 🎹 Music Videos ¤ 📒 Script link: https://wp.me/pDKwi-drp [ “you are here” ]

 
[ Day after day, in a house on the side of a lake near Tivat, Montenegro, a middle-aged man gets up at 6:00am ] [ Alarm clock beeping🔅🔅🔅] [ He turns off the alarm ] [ Beeping stops ]
[ The man brushes his teeth ~ eats breakfast ~ brings in groceries ~ works in the yard ~ has dinner ]
[ Day after day after day after day until — One day is different ]
[ On that day, the man wakes up to the sight of Raymond “Red” Reddington standing at the foot of his bed ]
Red: What was the protocol, Kosta?
Kosta: Raymond? How? The last time I saw you, you said you were going to meet your fate.
Red: You may very well be about to meet yours.
Kosta: I don’t understand.
Red: Neither do I. Which is why I’m here. The plan. I want to hear from your lips how the plan was supposed to work.
[ Kosta sits up on the bed ]
Kosta: To begin with? You were supposed to die. Then Elizabeth would be given specific instructions on how to make her way here. I would be waiting.
Red: Elizabeth is dead. For several years now. You didn’t think something was wrong when she never showed up?
Kosta: Well, you never told me how long to wait. So I kept the lanterns burning.
Red: Mm. The noble lighthouse keeper at the end of the world. It would be poetic, if you hadn’t betrayed my trust.
Kosta: I would never —
Red: The recordings for Elizabeth. You saw me put them inside the safe.
Kosta: Yes. In the screening room. No one has been in there since.
[ Red takes out the computer disks he found in Reginald Cole’s locked in Mount Bastion in Pennsylvania ]
Red: Then why did I find these on the other side of the world?
Kosta: But how?
[ Mr Brimley, Red’s maistro of excruciation, enters, pulling his oxygen cart ] [ Wheels squeaking ]
Brimley: Bocce balls. I figure when in Rome.
Red: We’re in Montenegro.
Brimley: Sciatica’s acting up. Haven’t been in this much pain since I threw out my back dancing at a sock hop in 1974.
Kosta: Who is that?
Red: That’s your fate. He and his bocce balls are here to find out what really happened. I hope you slept well, Kosta. It’s going to be a long day.

 
[ Aram stands in front of a mirror practicing introducing himself ]
Aram: Good morning, Director. ⋘⋙ Good morning, Director, sir. ⋘⋙ Um– I’m Agent Mojtabai. I’m- I’m Mr. Mojta- No. ⋘⋙ Okay. I’m Aram. [ Sighs ] How did I forget how to do this?

[ Flashback: ]
Nick: I was shocked to see your name on my phone sheet. How’ve you been?
Aram: Um– I’ve been better.
Nick: I forgot. You actually do honesty.
Aram: Well, the last couple months haven’t been the best. Things didn’t quite work out at the Bureau.
Nick: Oh, I’m sorry to hear it.
Aram: The task force I was on got shut down because of the death of a colleague, and, um– I just couldn’t find my passion in it anymore.
Nick: I meant I’m sorry to hear you say it to me. You may not remember, but commiseration’s not my strong suit. I mean, if we’re being honest.
Aram: Oh, I remember. In fact, Nick, uh, that- that’s why I’m here. Because what I remember is that you are completely selfish. And this–
[ Aram holds up a flash drive ]
Aram: This is a million-dollar idea.
Nick: Okay. I’m interested.
Aram: So, you know how most security systems are defensive, right? They detect a threat and shut it down. Well, this software- this software is offensive. When it detects an intrusion, it activates its own built-in Trojan rootkit to attack the intruder. It then throws out colossal floods of junk traffic to clog them up while it eviscerates their operating system in the process.
Nick: That is not a million-dollar idea. It’s a billion-dollar one. This won’t just protect people. It will actively discourage black hats. It’ll revolutionize tech security.
Aram: Right? That is what I was going for, but I have no idea how to turn my idea into a business, which is why I’m here. Of course, um, if, uh- if you’re too busy or, you know, need, um, some time to think it over–
Nick: I am too busy, and I’ve already thought about it. I’m in.

[ Aram calls his mother ]
Naamah: You’ve reached Naamah Mojtabai. Leave a message and have a blessed day.
[ Beep🔅]
Aram: Hey. Uh, it’s me. Um, I could- I could really use, um- I could use a Mom Talk right about now. Um, well, I have my first, uh, briefing with the Director of National Intelligence this morning, and I am low-key freaking out. Um, if you get this, like, in the next 10 minutes and you can call me back or so, that would be super, um, super.
[ The door handle starts moving ] [ Rattling ]
Aram: So–
[ A man wearing a black mask bursts in and jumps on him ]
Aram: Yo! Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
[ Another masked man hits Aram on the side of the head with a metal rod ]
Masked man: Greetings from El Conejo.

 
[ Red walks with Weecha into the screening room of the house in Montenegro ]
Red: I thought I’d thought of everything. A villa that no one knew I owned. A place of peace and quiet. A place where Elizabeth could [ Sighs ] listen and prepare.
[ Man moans, bocce balls clacking ]
Red: She was to retrieve the box, sit right here– And learn the business.
Weecha: From you.
Red: I put all of it into these recordings. Every bit of it. I knew I wouldn’t be there to help her, but I thought perhaps my words could, that they would provide whatever might be needed.
Weecha: And Kosta’s job was to wait for her.
Red: And to bring her here when she arrived.
[ They walk over to the safe in the wall ]
Red: So she could open the safe. The safe is one-of-a-kind. I had it constructed in Switzerland to my specifications. Two thumbprints in the world could open it. Mine and/or Elizabeth’s.
Weecha: And you put this box inside of it.
Red: Yes. And a few days ago, I found it in a dead cop’s vault 5,000 miles away from here.
Weecha: The safe looks untouched. How do you think they got inside it?
Red: I haven’t a clue. Hence the bocce balls.
[ Bocce balls clacking ]

 
[ Cooper’s office ]
Cooper: We’ve been over it and over it.
Ressler: So we just go over it again.
Cooper: And expect a different result? You do know that’s the definition of insanity.
Ressler: Panabaker gave you a month to identify who killed Doug Koster before all those charges against you are reimposed. Now, it would be insane of us not to do everything that we can to prevent that from happening.
Cooper: I feel like I’m living in purgatory. Worse, it feels like Charlene and Agnes are living there with me.
[ Park and Dembe enter ]
Park: Hey, anyone seen Aram today?
Cooper: He’s not in yet?
Park: Haven’t seen him, sir.
Cooper: I think you can drop the “sir.” To be honest, I never liked it much. I prefer “Harold.”
Park: Well, Harold, it’s not like Aram to be late.
Dembe: No, but he had his first meeting with National Intelligence today. Maybe he had to run home after and change his shirt.
Ressler: Hm. Or his shorts.
Cooper: I know we’re on the clock with the investigation, but if he needs a pep talk about what his new responsibilities are, I think I’m the one who should give it.

 
[ Cooper opens the door of Aram’s apartment, startling his mother Naamah ]
Cooper: Mrs. Mojtabai.
Naamah Mojtabai: [ Gasps ] Oh.
Cooper: Are you alright? What happened?
Naamah: I don’t know. He called me. He said he wanted to have a mom talk.
Cooper: You said he called. What else did he say?
Naamah: We didn’t talk. He left a message. Please find him.

 
[ Aram is in the trunk of a car ] [ Vehicle door opens ] [ Vehicle door closes ]
[ Trunk opens ] [ A sign says “Supremo Avocados” ]
Aram: Okay.
[ Two men grab Aram and bring him before an authoritative-looking man ]
[ Don Marquez is speaking Spanish on the phone (indistinctly). He sees Aram ]
Don Marquez: Ah. [ Laughs ] My package has arrived.
[ Spanish from subtitles is italicized) ]
Don Marquez: Thank you, ladies.
[ Two women leave ]
Don Marquez: I thought there’d be more to you.
Aram: Who are you? What am I doing here?
Don Marquez: I am Don Francisco Luis Marquez. El Conejo to my best friends and worst enemies. I know who you are, Special Agent Mojtabai. And you stole from me. Now you’re going to pay me back with your life.

 
[ The task force is in the Post Office war room; Red is on the phone with them from Montenegro. They are listening to the message Aram left from his mother ]

[ Recording of the call: ]
Aram: If you get this, like, in the next 10 minutes and you can call me back or so, that would be super, um, super.
[ Rattling ]
Aram: Yo! Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
[ Clattering ]
Man’s voice:: Greetings from El Conejo.

[ Key clacks ]
Cooper: That came from Aram’s mother. The entire abduction was recorded.
Park: Who’s El Conejo, and what’s he want with Aram?
Red: [ On phone ] As to the what, I haven’t the foggiest. The who I can help you with. Dembe and I once chased “The Rabbit” along an underground river in the jungle in Quintana Roo.
Dembe: El Conejo is Don Marquez?
Cooper: The Marquez Cartel. The cocaine traffickers.
Red: Cocaine was their business. Now they traffic in a different cash crop.
⋘⋙
[ Don Marquez picks an avocado from a bin ]
Don Marquez: You know what it takes to grow one of these? I never used to interest myself in such things. I’m more of an import/export man.
[ Don Marquez tosses the avocado to Aram ]
⋘⋙
Red: Avocados are a multibillion-dollar industry run by family farming operations. Or it was, before the cartels took over through kidnapping, torture, and murder. Think about that the next time you order a Cobb salad.
⋘⋙
Aram: I-I gotta say, I-I’m still, uh, wondering why I’m here.
Don Marquez: [ Chuckles ] You know why, you magician, you. You made an entire tractor trailer of my product disappear into thin air on its way over the border.
Aram: I did?
Don Marquez: Now I’m out half a million, and my competitors think I’m soft.
Aram: Sir, I have no idea where your truck is. If I did, I would tell you. Uh, this is- Uh, this is terrifying.
Don Marquez: I put in military-grade firewalls, elliptic curve cryptography – all of it state-of-the-art – to protect my supply chains and travel lines. What’s terrifying is that a piece of malware chewed through it like a – Like a termite through balsa wood.
⋘⋙
Red: Marquez runs his whole cartel through a notoriously sophisticated server system. If there’s a connection to Aram, you have to assume that’s it.
Ressler: That’s not much of a lead.
Red: No, but this is. The Scripps Brothers. They built the server.
Ressler: How do you know that?
Red: Because Marquez wanted my guy to do it, but my guy’s exclusive to me and has a curfew – And a very stern mother. So he recommended the Scripps Brothers. I’d pay them a visit myself, but I’m unavailable at the moment. But I’ll get you an address for the Scripps. They’re the best place to start.
⋘⋙
Aram: You’ve got the wrong guy. Oh, I-I’ve worked on a lot of programs, but I’ve never designed anything in my life to hurt someone or- or cause—
Don Marquez: Armando.
Aram: So–
[ They bring Aram a laptop ]
Don Marquez: It took my team half the day to find it buried in the malware.
[ Keys clacking ]
Don Marquez: Maybe you acted alone.
[ Don Marquez shows where Aram’s name is embedded in the software code ]
Don Marquez: Maybe you did it for the FBI. I don’t particularly care. But this has your name all over it. Impressive stuff. If I didn’t have to kill you, I’d hire you.
[ Knife 🔪clicks⚡️open ] [ A gangster named Machado holds the knife to Aram’s throat ]
Aram: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Stop, stop! Please, please. Stop, stop, stop. Before you do whatever you’re planning to do, can I please – can I please take a look at that?
Don Marquez: [ Laughing ] You want me to hand you my computer? After everything you’ve done?
Aram: Sir, I have no idea where your shipment is. I do not know what that program is. But if you give me that laptop, maybe – Maybe I can help you figure this out.

 
[ Montenegro ] [ Brimley enters ]
Red: So, Teddy, who did it?
Brimley: I don’t know, ’cause he doesn’t know.
Red: Go back in there.
Brimley: Did I mention my sciatica?
Red: Teddy.
Brimley: Like getting poked in the tenderloin by a narwhal!
[ Bocce balls clacking ]
Weecha: Want me to go in?
Red: It won’t matter. If Teddy says Kosta doesn’t know who broke into the safe, he doesn’t know. We’ll have to find the answer some other way.
Weecha: Maybe you know the answers.
Red: Me?
Weecha: Not you. You. [ She looks at the computer disks Red made for Liz ]

 
[ Dembe and Ressler are interrogating the Scripps brothers, who set up the servers used by the Marquez cartel ]
Dembe: The two of you have been arrested by the NSA seven times each?
Ritchie: Eight for me.
Braxton: Shut up.
Dembe: And, Ritchie, you can’t even touch a computer in Norway without the threat of immediate arrest.
Ressler: How did you piss off Norway that bad?
Braxton: Lawyer. Lawyer. Lawyer.
Ressler: Look, geek squad, we don’t care about how many gigabytes you move around in your mother’s basement. An FBI agent is missing and the clock’s ticking on his life. Okay. Suit yourself. But you’re not gonna like what comes next.
Braxton.Okay, cop.
[ Agent Alina Park wheels in a cart with computer equipment on it ]
Ritchie: Hey, that’s all our stuff.
Dembe: And seeing how it was used to help build a drսg cartel’s firewall, the FBI will be impounding all of it.
Braxton: But you can’t do that.
Ressler: We just did.
Park: Don’t worry, though. You’ll get it all back. Eventually.
[ Park pushes a computer monitor on the floor ] [⚡️Crashing⚡️]
Ritchie: That was a $5,000 8K monitor!
Park: We’re real clumsy around here. Let me get you a receipt for that.
Braxton: No, no, no, no.
[⚡️Crashing⚡️]
Ressler: We can do this all day long. Now, you wanna help us out, fellas, and maybe we’ll give you this cart of crap back in one piece.
Park: Some of it, anyway.
Braxton: Okay, okay. Just don’t bust anything else. What do you need?

 
Aram: Bad code is- is like a bad recipe. A pinch of this, a dash of that. To reverse engineer it, though, you- You’re working without a cookbook.
[ A young man enters. It’s Antonio Marquez, Don Marquez’s son ]
Antonio Marquez: You’re in the States? No one told me you were coming.
Don Marquez: It’s not a good time, Antonio.
Antonio: It never is. For Samuel, yes. Never for me.
Don Marquez: We’ll talk about it later.
Antonio: No. I want to talk about it now. You’re three hours from my university. and you can’t even call to tell me you’re here. I hear it from my brother–
Don Marquez: I’m here on business. Samuel works in the business. You go to college. There. We talked. Now go.
Antonio: No.
Don Marquez: What happens here, I don’t want you to be a part of it.
Antonio: What about what I want? I-I see you, what? Twice a year? Great. Sic the goons on me. Drop me a postcard next time you’re around. Or don’t. I don’t care
[ Antonio leaves ]
Don Marquez: [ Muttering ] I send him to the university, a better future than me.
Aram: Um, Mr. Marquez, I found something.
Don Marquez: [ Sighs ]
Aram: Okay, uh, this here, this building block is part of a longer code I wrote for a program called Greylock. That is why I signed my name to it like that. As a joke.
Don Marquez: So this was all you?
Aram: No. No, this – the rest of this isn’t me. Somebody stole my work.

 
[ The interrogation room. Braxton is pulling code up on the computer ]
Braxton Scripps: So this is the Marquez network.
Park: You get in and out just like that?
Braxton We built a back door. Sue us. So what do you want to know?
Dembe: Anything that tells us where Marquez took our agent.
[ Key clacks ]
Ritchie: Don’t even have to look that hard. The guy you’re missing’s some kind of tech wizard, yeah?
Ressler: How do you know that?
Ritchie: There’s a user in the network now poking around at everything. It’s some serious bandwidth.
Dembe: Can you get us a location?
⋘⋙
Aram: I wrote some of this, but someone weaponized the rest. The rootkit I wrote to attack intruders was used to gut your firewall and gain access to your shipping lines. There is somebody out there who targeted you and they used my work to do it.
Don Marquez: Wait a minute. What?
Aram: Someone built an apex predator. You could use it to rob banks, to disrupt utility services, take down power grids.
Don Marquez: Right now, I just want the shipment back.
[ Cellphone rings✨]
Don Marquez: Who is this? How the hell did you get this number?
Distorted Voice: I have your missing product. Half a million. Cash. I’ll call in one hour with delivery instructions.
Don Marquez: [ To his men ] Get Samuel. And lock up the agent. I’ll deal with him later.

 
[ Red watches the video he made for Liz to watch after he died. He sips wine ]

Red: Hello, Elizabeth. I hope you’re comfortable, sitting down with something good to drink. There’s always plenty to eat in the larder. So please feel free at any time to shut me up and help yourself. If you’re watching this, I must be dead and the business must be yours. I’m relieved. And excited for you. And worried, as you might expect.

It’s strange. Even with all the gunfire and killers in my life, I’ve never really worried about myself. I’ve been much too busy worrying about you. Oh, my God, what a pain in the ass I’ve been.

[ Sighs ] Anyway. What lies ahead is a glorious, treacherous, and, I hope, rewarding journey. If you’ll permit me, I’d like to share with you some things that I’ve learned over a lifetime of bad deeds and good intentions. So let’s take a walk together one last time.

 
[ Aram is tied and sitting on the floor in a room, alone ]

[ Flashback: ]
[ Nick pours champaign ]
Nick: Congratulations, you genius son-of-a- We did it. You know what this means? It means we can start planning to sell this thing.
Aram: I, uh- I still think we should tinker. There are some diagnostics I want to take another look at–
Nick: Aram, you’re killing me.
Aram: Well, it’s not ready till it’s ready.
Nick: When? The next epoch? We have the VitasNow report. They gave us a clean bill of health. We paid a third party for their assessment – To find flaws, problems, data gaps, things we could’ve missed, right?
Aram: They’re only one company.
Nick: Who double-checked everything. Our I’s are dotted, T’s are crossed. I read it. You read it. Relax. It’s time to celebrate.
Aram: Yeah, but they did, uh, point out a few glitches with peripherals–
Nick: Oh, please, no jargon. You know I don’t speak circuit board. They didn’t spot anything that couldn’t be patched up easily. Bottom line – they were happy for us. And I’m happy for us, ’cause we’re gonna be stinking rich.
Aram: [ Chuckles ]
Nick: You know what we need now? More champagne and a strip club.
Aram: Oh, I-I can’t. Uh, I, uh- I actually have dinner plans with my parents tonight.
Nick: Aram, seriously. You’re killing me.

[ Aram’s reverie is ended by sounds outside ]
— FBI!
— Go, go, go!
[ Gunfire 💥💥💥 ]
— FBI!
— Hands! Hands!
[ Gunfire continues 💥💥💥 💥💥💥, indistinct shouting ]
[ Door opens. It’s Ressler ]
Ressler: Hey, bud. How’s your morning going?
Aram: How’d you find me?
Dembe: HRT is clearing the space. No sign of Marquez.
Aram: Uh, he got a ransom call about avocados. Apparently guacamole is the new angel dust.
[ They run out ]
⋘⋙
[ Outside, Machado is being arrested and led away ]
Dembe: We managed to bag this one. Let’s hope he knows something.
[ Radio chatter ]

 
[ Red continues watching the video ]

Red: There’s a lot to the shipping. But the most crucial part of shipping–

[ Click: Fast Forward ]
Red: Sun Tzu wrote, “The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.” I would agree. If you want to make your enemy your friend, create a problem for them and then solve it. It’s that simple.

[ Click: Fast Forward ]
Red: You’ll want to take notes now. The following is a list of 12 wines that pair with everything.

[ Click: Fast Forward ]
Red: I’ve said a lot about the mechanics of how to operate my – uh, your – empire. But much more important than that is managing the emotional reality of running this enterprise. And to do that, you must understand one concept above all else. You have thousands of talented people who work for and with you, thousands of people who you are responsible for. But at the end of the day, you’re alone.

 
[ The Post Office war room ]
[ A medic swabs Aram’s forehead as he makes a phone call ]
Aram: Nick. Uh, me again. We need to talk. Uh, you have my number. Uh, thank you.
Park: You should go to a hospital.
Ressler: No, I got a better idea – Us figuring out why you were kidnapped by a bloodthirsty avocado cartel.
Aram: Uh, the why is easy – Marquez thinks I hacked into his system, accessed his delivery routes, and stole his product, but it wasn’t me.
Dembe: But he found your digital signature in his system.
Aram: Yes. Uh, which means my Greylock source code was stolen by our avocado thief.
Cooper: Who had access to it, besides you?
Aram: Uh, my former business partner, Nick, but he doesn’t know HTML from hieroglyphics, and, for like a second, this third-party risk assessment firm we hired to spotlight any glitches. I-It was early on, but they definitely had a copy of unlocked source code.
Cooper: Can I make a suggestion?
Aram: Of course.
Cooper: Well, we have two avenues here. Someone set up Aram. We need to know who. We also need to track Marquez. A man like that is never in the States long. This may be our one shot at getting a cartel leader. So we divide and conquer. Aram follows up with the third-party company. Someone’s in charge there. Bring them in, get to the bottom of this.
[ Elevator door opens ] [ Two agents escort Machado to interrogation ]
Cooper: The rest of you should focus on getting whatever information you can out of our new guest. What do you think?
Cooper: Let’s do it.
Aram: Thank you for that.
Cooper: Anytime, boss.

 
[ Don Marquez, who escaped the FBI raid, arrives at a safe house only to discover his son Antonio is there ]
Don Marquez: Antonio? What are you doing here?
Man: Grab the money. Move.
Antonio: It was a long drive back to Princeton. I knew the place was empty–
Don Marquez: This is a safe house, not a crash pad. Get out of here.
Antonio: What is it? What’s going on?
Samuel: The FBI raided the downtown warehouse. They grabbed Machado. They took back their agent.
Antonio: Agent? Th-Th-That was an agent you had captive?
Don Marquez: Why do you think I wanted you out of there? For your own good.
Antonio: So then you’re leaving the country?
Don Marquez: Not, not yet. I have something to do. A business matter.
Antonio: A business matter. The FBI–
Samuel: Yeah, it is dangerous. That’s why you need to let us handle it.

 
[ Red continues listening to his own counsel, as he expressed it to Liz on the video he left for her. He sips scotch, gets up and walks around. He listens ]

Red: You should never be deceived into believing that you can really trust anyone. My experience is that even my most intimate partners, advisers, and friends have had occasion to betray me. You must always be mentally prepared to separate yourself from anyone and anything in your life. Because people will turn. You know what I’m talking about. You witnessed it with Mr. Kaplan. Hell, you’ve done it yourself.

I’m sorry if I made it sound all doom and gloom. Lonely. It’s not. There’s a freedom in your new role. Freedom from convention. From being a follower. The pack takes its cue from the alpha wolf. And when that wolf is wise and mindful, the whole pack prospers.

That said, you will have one blind spot, one weakness that can’t be willed out of you. And that’s Agnes. I have no advice for you there. All I can tell you is, uh, do your best, and hold on to that, like it’s the last thing in your heart.

[ At this point, Red bows his head to his chest ]

 
[ Aram meets with Walter Sykes, a representative from VitasNow, the firm that did the analysis of Greylock, the software Aram designed ]
Walter Sykes: My company is highly respected in the industry. I don’t know what you think happened with your source code–
Aram: You turned my software into a weapon. You took something meant to help and protect people and stripped it for parts until it was dangerous.
Sykes: Agent Mojtabai, I’ve reviewed your file. Based on what I saw, nothing you’ve said here surprises me, except that you blame us for a problem of your own making.
Aram: What are you talking about?
Sykes: You hired us to do an independent review of your source code. Our conclusions were clear. Perhaps you’ve forgotten how clear. You must not have read our report. I brought you another copy.
[ Walter Sykes places a copy of the report on the table ]
Aram: I read it cover-to-cover. My business partner, Nick, read it, too.
Sykes: Then you didn’t read it thoroughly. See for yourself.
Aram: Aside from a few minor glitches, you gave us a clean bill of health.
[ Aram opens the folder ]
Aram: What are these sections? Implementations Vulnerabilities? I’ve never seen any of these. [ Under his breath ] Dammit, Nick.
Sykes: See, no one needed to turn your software into a weapon.
Aram: Because I built a weapon from the start.

 
[ Nick Faria’s office ]
Nick: What time do Conroy and the others get here tomorrow?
Chloe: 3:15, and the buyers should arrive shortly after that.
[ Aram appears at the door ]
Aram: You knew this whole time.
Chloe: Sorry, you’re not supposed to be in here.
Nick: It’s okay, Chloe. This is the godfather of Greylock. The man who invented us. Everything we’ve accomplished is because of him.
[ Aram walks up to Nick’s desk. Nick notices Aram’s abraisions ]
Nick: What happened to you? You fall off your bike?
[ Aram puts the VitasNow report on Nick’s desk ]
Aram: Remember this? I had a little chat with Walter Sykes from VitasNow, and this is their full report, with all those sections you didn’t bother to show me.
[ Nick gets up )
Aram: You know, the ones that said there’s vulnerability in the Greylock source code?!
Nick: I don’t know if you took a look around on the way in, but we’re way past source code. Remember Conroy? All that financing? That was just the beginning. We’re pitching buyers tomorrow. Sky’s the limit.
Aram: You lied to me. I sat right there and you lied to my face.
Nick: I omitted. I held a few things back. What did this company know that you and I didn’t? If something was really wrong, you would’ve fixed it.
Aram: You know I was too close to the project. I couldn’t see it. That is why we hired them. Do you know how dangerous this could be? If the wrong person with the right know-how got access to Greylock, they could strip it down to its most dangerous parts and use it to cripple systems.
Nick: Systems have flaws. So do people. And I won’t destroy this company because a bad guy might misuse what we made. They make baseball bats, Aram. Even though someone might use it to crack somebody over the head-
Aram: You can’t keep selling this.
Nick: I can as long as clients want to buy it. There might be a few bad eggs. It happens. I want this program out there so the rest of our customers can use it for the good you intended.
Aram: No. You want it out there so you can be rich.
Nick: Chloe was right. You shouldn’t be in here. You should leave.

 
[ Park and Ressler interrogate Machado, the Marquez cartel member apprehended in the raid ]
Park: It’s too soon for Marquez to have gotten out of the country. Where’s he hiding? In the city? Nearby?
Machado: I don’t know where he is. But I know where he’s gonna be.
Ressler: How would you know that?
Machado: I overheard El Conejo get the second phone call about his missing shipment. I know the time and the place for the exchange. I’ll share it, for a trade.
Park: What trade?
Machado: I want to be sent back to Mexico for trial.
Ressler: Oh, let me guess – Because you’ve got a friend in the Fiscalia General’s office? There’s not gonna be any trial, will there?
Machado: You wanna worry about a little fish like me? Or go after the big fish like Marquez?

 
Antonio: You kidnapped an FBI agent? You threatened him over a truckload of, what, vegetables?
Samuel: Avocados are a fruit, imbecile.
Antonio: You’re sick. The both of you. This whole thing– is out of control.
[ Don Marquez grabs Antonio by the lapels ]
Don Marquez: Since the day you were born, I knew you were weak. You were built to sit behind a desk or a library. I saw it, and I let you stay soft – to keep you safe. [ Fiercely ] But if you ever question my judgment or my control again, so help me, boy, you will learn a lesson in what a real man of power can do.
[ Don Marquez places his hands on the sides of Antonio’s neck ]
Don Marquez: Now, you wait here, until we’re long gone. Do you understand?
[ Don Marquez turns to his crew ]
Don Marquez: Let’s go.

 
[ Red’s video continues ]

Red: There will come a time, Elizabeth, when you are completely stumped, a time when you will have factored in every variable and you still won’t see the answer. But it’ll be there. Somewhere. The answer is- is always there. And when you can’t see it, it’s because some assumption that you’ve made, something you’ve taken for granted is false.

You think you’re in a hospital in France. It may not be France or a hospital. It may be New York and a warehouse. The magician doesn’t trick you. The magician helps you trick yourself.

[ Weecha is giving Brimley a heavy-duty massage ]
Brimley: [ Grunting ]
[ Red walks by ]
Red: That looks fun.
Brimley: Cheecha’s a god-send. I’m pain free and looser than a kangaroo’s tummy.
[ Red walks briskly by in the other direction, with a hammer ]
Red: I think it’s a trick, an illusion.
Weecha: He figured it out.
Brimley: Ooh. Yeah. Oh, baby! Aah!

 
[ In the room with the safe, Red hits the wall around it with the hammer ] [ Banging ✽! ✽! ✽! ]
[ Weecha enters ]
Red: I wanted to know who got into my safe. I should’ve been asking whether this is my safe. [ Banging ✽! ]
[ Red batters away the plaster to reveal the bricks in the wall. But instead a one color of bricks, the bricks close to the safe are red compared to the original grey colored bricks ]
Red: They tore mine out. You can see exactly where there. And they replaced it with a perfect replica. Then they were free to take the original safe somewhere and drill for days if they needed to.
Weecha: How did Kosta not know?
Red: [ Chuckling ] Oh. An afternoon away. An evening at the opera. Doesn’t matter. That was then. The now is in Zurich. And his name is Heinrich Zimmerstahl.

 
[ Don Marquez shows up with his crew to meet the person demanding ransom for the truck of avocados. The driver is still in the truck’s cab ]
[ Don Marquez and his men get out. He drops the duffel bag of money on the ground ]
Don Marquez: [ Shouting ] I brought your ransom. But we both know you’re never gonna touch a dollar. Because you’re not leaving. This place is now your graveyard. I bury you here.
Samuel: What are you doing? We don’t have the shipment yet.
Don Marquez: Look around. His only way out of here is through us, and he won’t even get that far.
[ Antonio gets out of the truck ]
Antonio: What if I want to get caught?
Don Marquez: Antonio? What in God’s name are you doing?
Antonio: Do I still seem weak to you? Like I belong behind a desk?
Samuel: You gotta be joking.
Antonio: How many years of it do you think I could stand it, Dad?
Don Marquez: Of what?
Antonio: Of not being allowed to know about the family business. Of not getting a phone call when my own father is just a few hours away.
Don Marquez: You’re not strong enough.
Antonio: You mean not Samuel enough.
Don Marquez: It has nothing to do with Samuel. I always wanted the best for you. Always!
Antonio: You wanted me gone. The college boy in America. I outsmarted you. I took your truck. I ransomed it back right under your nose. What do you say to that?
[🚨Sirens wailing🚨]
Antonio: Am I strong enough now?
— Get down!
— FBI!
— Get down!
Don Marquez: You think you’re so smart, huh?
— Don’t move!
— Down!
Don Marquez: You led the FBI right to us.
Antonio: Me? How about you and your ego? Kidnapping. Calling attention to yourself. Like a fool.
[ The FBI team, including Aram and Dembe, approaches, guns drawn ]
Aram: It was you? This whole time?
Antonio: I did what I had to do. Look. He’s paying attention now.
Don Marquez: You want my attention? You want to be part of this business? Okay.
Aram: Okay, how about we de-escalate?
Don Marquez: There’s a cost to this business!
Aram: You can talk about it in family therapy tomorrow.
Don Marquez: And this is what happens when you cross El Conejo.
[ Don Marquez goes for his gun ]
— Gun!
Woman: Drop it!
[ The female agent jumps Don Marquez as his gun goes off 💥 ]
Man: I got it.
Antonio: Ah!
[ Ressler and another agent grab Don Marquez ] [ Grunting ]
Dembe: You’re okay.
Aram: He needs an ambulance.
Dembe: Do you?
Aram: I’m fine. But I’m never touching an avocado again.

 
[ Antonio Marquez sits in a holding cell, his arm in a sling ]
[ Aram presses a button to unlock the door ] [ Beeps🔅]
Aram: I almost died today because of you, kid. Twice.
Antonio: I didn’t think it would go that far. I didn’t think he would– How are you even involved in this?
Aram: It was my code you used to hack your dad’s business.
Antonio: Really? Th-That’s cool.
Aram: Cool? How did you even get ahold of it to begin with?
Antonio: Uh, my roommate at Princeton. He’s a computer science major. He saw a beta test version of the- Of your software in his programming class. He made some minor tweaks, took the rootkit, made it offensive, saw how dangerous and adaptable it was, and said he needed to test it out. I had the perfect target – my father.
Aram: Your roommate weaponized my code in a dorm room?
Antonio: He said it was the perfect weapon. You should know. You built it.

 
[ Red and Kosta sit on the veranda of the house in Montenegro ]
Red: I’m sorry, Kosta.
Kosta: I would never betray you, Raymond, but I did fail. You left this house safe with me, and somehow, I let the enemy slip inside. I walked by that safe hundreds of times, and I had no idea.
Red: You wouldn’t have. I didn’t see it. It was just a good guess. When this is over, the house and everything in it are yours. Keep it, sell it. I don’t care. It’s all yours.
Kosta: You’ll forgive me if I let you see yourself out.
⋘⋙
[ Weecha enters ]
Weecha: Mr. Zimmerstahl has arrived.
[ Heinrich Zimmerstahl is a lank, elderly man ]
Zimmerstahl: Raymond. It’s been years. I was telling your associate here about the first time we met.
Red: The St. Moritz Snow Polo World Cup, 2005.
Zimmerstahl: I haven’t gone near a drop of peppermint schnapps since.
Red: Come with me. When I came to see you all those years ago, I told you I needed a particularly secure safe. I told you that safe needed to be one-of-a-kind. Do you remember?
Zimmerstahl: I do.

 
[ Aram sits at a worstation near Park ] [ Keys clacking ]
Park: You’re really going through with it, huh?
Aram: I can think of a thousand terrible things the wrong person could do if the Greylock code went wide, but what scares me most are the things I cannot think of. I have to stop this before Nick gets more funding.
Park: You’re doing the right thing.

 
Red: Watch your step.
[ Zimmerstahl sees the safe with the wall torn up around it ]
Zimmerstahl: Oh, dear. What happened? Ah. That box was one of the finest I’d ever constructed.
Red: I couldn’t agree more. One of the finest. The problem — that’s not my safe. My safe is gone, and the one in its place is identical. One person is capable of that kind of craftsmanship. You. You built a second safe, didn’t you?
Zimmerstahl: Well, of course I did.
Red: Excuse me?
Zimmerstahl: I made a second. Identical.
Red: For whom?
Zimmerstahl: Raymond, I made it for you.

 
[ Nick Faria’s office ] [ Keys clacking ]
[ Aram enters ]
Aram: Having problems with your source code, Nick?
Nick: Is this you? Did you do this? Nothing in Greylock will respond.
Aram: And you didn’t even start the space camp program for those kids.
Nick: What?
Aram: It’s over, Nick. I went into the servers. I undid the architecture, framework, databases–
Nick: Aram, I have a buyers’ presentation in 10 minutes. Conroy’s in there. Three other angels. What am I supposed to tell them?
Aram: Tell them the truth.
Nick: Dude. It’s not too late. You can fix it.
Aram: I could, but – I won’t. And it would take the best IT team in the world months to undo what I did.
Nick: [ Exhales ] Oh.
Aram: Do you have any idea what’s already been done with our software? A couple of idiot kids in a dorm room used it to hack a drսg cartel. What about the next person who gets their hands on it and knows how to modify the rootkit?
Nick: I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.
Aram: And I don’t think you ever did. My code was never safe with you. You know what you tell them in the other room? You tell them that your ex-business partner did what he set out to do. He tried to make the world a little safer.

 
Cooper: [ Beep🔅] Can you come in a minute?
[ Knock on door ✽ ] [ Ressler enters ]
Cooper: Reggie Cole is dead. The trail on the gunman went cold, but there is one lead left to follow.
[ Cooper slides a photo over to Ressler ]
Ressler: The lawyer. What was his name?
Cooper: Lacroix. The man must’ve had associates, a legal practice, a family. Let’s find out everything we can about him.
Ressler: Sure. What do we have to lose?
Cooper: I have everything to lose, but that’s not gonna stop me.

 
Zimmerstahl: I’m so sorry, Raymond. I had no idea you were going to be robbed.
Red: You say you made the duplicate for me?
Zimmerstahl: Well, no. Not you directly.
Red: Then who?
Zimmerstahl: A woman. She came to me and she said she was your representative. She knew everything about you. She knew everything about the safe. She was clear she wanted it made to the same specifications as the original. She paid with the same bank accounts The only thing different was using uncoded ready-to-set biometric panels for the thumb scan. So anyone could open the new one. At the time, I assumed you’d simply set it later.
Red: Tell me everything that you can remember about the woman.
Zimmerstahl: Oof. It was so long ago. I remember glasses. She wasn’t very tall. I do remember one other thing.
Red: Go on.
Zimmerstahl: It happened several times. She called me “deary.”
Red: Deary?
Zimmerstahl: And she called herself “Mister.”
Red: Kaplan?!
Zimmerstahl: Yes, Raymond. Mr. Kaplan.

 
⬆ go to top

 
❌❌❌ 9:3 End El Conejo

 
For S9 Episode 9:17 El Conejo: 🎯 EW Recap ¤ 🌅 Photo Gallery ¤ 🎹 Music Videos ¤ 📒 Script link: https://wp.me/pDKwi-drp [ “you are here” ]

🔴 Episode Songs

 
♫ ⋙ Check Tunefind for any music for this episode

No ♫ Songs ♫ for this Episode

🔴 General

 
⭕ Script 9:17 El Conejo https://wp.me/pDKwi-drp Status: FINAL @NBCBlacklist #TheBlacklist My site: BlacklistDCd.com https://twitter.com/BlacklistDCd/status/1518310600916582401?s=20/photo/1

⭕ Easy-Search Scripts updated thru Episode 9:17 El Conejo https://wp.me/pDKwi-c3J#conejo #TheBlacklist @NBCBlacklist My site: BlacklistDCd.com https://twitter.com/BlacklistDCd/status/1518384509036765185?s=20/photo/1

🔴 Episode Photos

 
⭕ Gallery Photos

 
⬆ go to top