Since the recent cancellation of this series by NBC, it’s only fitting to catch up on what happened and see what Tom Keen had in store for him as a double agent in covert spy company Halcyon Aegis and what went down when his parents, Howard Hargrave and Susan “Scottie” Hargrave, went face to face. That being said, with the series being canceled, some of the plot intended for Redemption may be sent over to The Blacklist. Let’s recap what occurred in “Leland Bray”, which we previously covered.

But first, a look at this series as a whole. The Blacklist: Redemption stars ex-operative Tom Keen, husband of Elizabeth Keen, Father of their daughter, Agnes, and Tom is played by Ryan Eggold. The show centers around Susan “Scottie” Hargrave (Famke Janssen) and her operatives, notably Matias Solomon (Edi Gathegi). These three all have some things in common. They have experience in this twisted criminal underworld, all three have spy experience, and all three were part of Raymond “Red” Reddington’s blacklist in the original series: Tom Keen (No.07), Susan Hargrave (No.18), and Matias Solomon (No.32).

Last we saw, Red worked out a deal with Scottie and her group worked with the FBI for a little while, Hargrave offers Tom a job, which he refuses. Tom learns later on that Hargrave is his mother and Red instructs Tom not to tell her who he really is. The last time we saw Mr. Solomon, Tom had shot him and left him for dead. Solomon also had shot up Liz and Tom’s wedding.

What exactly happened in The Blacklist: Redemption season one, episode one: “Leland Bray”?

Episode 1- “Leland Bray”

We see Hargrave interrogating a man, she repeats the phrase “rubber baby buggy bumpers” over and over. She threatens to send the man overboard (note that they are in a plane…) and he finally caves and gives her the information she wants before she reveals to him that it was just a simulation, fans turn off and Scottie walks away.

Tom heads to something for his dad after his death… except his dad is not dead. He actually confronts Tom in a park and tells him that Tom he needs to work for his mother as an operative and that his mother tries to have him killed.

Tom’s dad leaves but comes back later, showing Tom a room where he has been searching for his son for years.
Leland Bray.

Solomon and Tom head to an area and kidnap a girl, cutting the bottom of the pool out from underneath her.

It appears as though Tom and Solomon botch the job and the girl gets away, but rather this was part of the plan, as the girl leads them right to Bray.

Using the tunnels around Bray’s compound, Tom. Solomon and another operative slip inside and rescue a woman and her son. Bray is later killed attempting to escape with the boy as a hostage.

The mother tries to kill the operatives later on in an attempt to find her son. Tom and Solomon do surgery to disarm a bomb Bray placed inside of the mother.

Tom goes to a funeral for his dad, Scottie speaks about how much she loved him and so on and Tom later decides to accept a formal position in Halcyon (his parent’s company). The only stipulation: his mother can not know that he is her son.

As Tom continues to work for Halcyon and his mother, he gets further down the rabbit hole with his dad, learning about a project his mother had hidden away called “Whitehall”. Tom eventually gets Nez in on the whole thing, telling her that Howard is alive. As the season progressed, we learned that Nez was looked after well by Howard and he helped her overcome her addiction to drugs. Tom actually started looking after Nez in that same way, looking at her almost like a sister because of their connection and mutual bond with Howard. This makes the team divided, it’s Nez, Tom, and Howard vs Scottie, Solomon, and Dumont.

Eventually, Scottie learns the truth about Tom, that he is her son and after a cat and mouse game, Scottie is arrested and Tom and Howard figure out the truth of Whitehall. Whitehall is not a project or a place, it’s a person. At the end of the episode, it is revealed that Howard and Whitehall are actually in cahoots. Tom, not knowing this, decided to go back home to Liz and Agnes, saying Howard should meet her. Tom is later brought up in The Blacklist “Mr. Kaplan” Conclusion (No. 04) when he calls Liz and tells her that he is coming back and picks up a suitcase and the contents of which are still a mystery. Were you happy with The Blacklist Redemption or are you happy Tom is back on The Blacklist?