Raymond Reddington (The Blacklist episode)

Dembe Zuma (Tawfiq) receives a call from Raymond Reddington (Spader) at the mosque. In the call, Reddington tells him off for making a warning call to him at the end of previous episode, and asks for "no more favors" toward him. The call is traced by the FBI and Reddington's former task force located at the Post Office headquarters and tied to a Nissan Leaf by agent Jordan Nixon (Derrick Williams). The landmarks of the car are transmitted to field officers; by that time, Reddington, his bodyguard Chuck (Jonathan Holtzman), and his external services spread out identical cars with doppelgängers in them. Reddington ditches his car and visits his friend Paula (Marylouise Burke). At her house, he makes up his backup plan and delivers a farewell to Paula, and then leaves before Dembe and his fellow agent Siya Malik (Anya Banerjee) burst in there. A worried Paula gives the destination Reddington was making his way, a house beyond the FBI barricades, and Dembe and Siya follow her prompt. When they arrive, the house has already been put on fire by Reddington's affiliate. Reddington and Chuck, now moving in a fire lorry, bypass the block posts before Dembe realizes the aim behind the staging and gives respective orders. Reddington switches the fire engine to a taxi, recalls Chuck and his crew, and makes his way to the closest port.

At the Post Office, congressman Hudson (Moore) supervises the task force in firm belief that they would help Reddington at chance, his eyes focused on Zuma. He constantly blames its members for any failure they have. Donald Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff), angry over Hudson causing his friend's death, breaks down and punches Hudson. Harold Cooper (Harry Lennix) defuses the situation and calls a meeting with Ressler, Zuma, and other principal members of the group. He encourages his squad by telling them about a possible tribunal on themselves if not Reddington. Meanwhile, Hudson and Nixon determine the warning call to Reddington was made from the phone of Agent Ishwood (Jake Silbermann) and then confront and interrogate him. Looking at Reddington's movement over the past hours, Dembe suggests he might be heading to the port and leaves to examine possibilities with Nixon. Hudson fiercely points on Ishwood for aiding Reddington until Cooper offers to look through camera recordings at the moment the call was made. The video shows Dembe sneaking Ishwood's phone to call Reddington. Fuming over the proven betrayal, Hudson orders the team to arrest Dembe and transfer him to federal prison due to a lack of trust in the Post Office. He, Ishwood, and Ressler join Dembe and Nixon and form a convoy.

Reddington escapes further pursuit by sea and reunites with a distressed Weecha (Diany Rodriguez) who tells him about Dembe's arrest. Thus, Reddington decides to save Dembe from prosecution. Together with Chuck and his forces, he overthrows the convoy while moving. Nixon and Ishwood are incapacitated while Dembe gets help from Reddington but refuses to leave with him, and Hudson awakens and takes Nixon's shotgun. Afraid and hesitating, he points it on Dembe. Ressler also gets out of the car and points his gun on Chuck. Dembe tries to mediate the situation but a dissuaded Hudson would not listen. A sudden voice from the background makes Hudson shoot, and the bullet goes into Dembe's neck. Reddington shoots Hudson dead and fusillades the remaining bullets into Ressler's flak jacket to incapacitate him while not causing serious injury or death. He takes a wounded Dembe and rushes away in sight of the awakened Ishwood.

Reddington, Chuck, and his crew search for a hospital across the area but are too far away. Therefore, they deliver a heavily injured Dembe to the closest nursing home. Reddington recklessly commands its staff to transfuse his blood to Dembe to save him from blood loss. Although his blood was compatible to Dembe's, the impact on Reddington's own health was untraceable, and Reddington did not take it into account. Meanwhile at the crossfire scene, Cooper joins agent Ishwood, an insignificantly injured Ressler, and a fierce Nixon to discuss their next steps to locate Reddington and Dembe. Nixon accuses Ressler of pandering Reddington as his former ally and being responsible for Hudson's death. As a witness, Ishwood testifies and assures Ressler was on his side. Nixon unleashes his anger on Ressler, Dembe, and mostly Reddington, threatening to murder Reddington in cold blood. At the Post Office headquarters, Reddington's associate working for the Task Force Herbie Hambright (Alex Brightman) determines the nursing home where Dembe was. Cooper and the others follow the lead to find an unconscious Dembe but no sign of Reddington. Meanwhile, Herbie pulls himself together and leaves Post Office after finding himself unable to go against Reddington. Siya Malik looks into the departures from nearby airports while Cooper chooses to visit the Bathhouse, Reddington's shelter in New York, to see whether he had taken something with him. They seemingly find everything on its places, except the skull of Islero, a bull notable for goring Manolete; the skull itself appeared in multiple episodes of the season. Having listened to one of Reddington's monologues before, Siya concludes he was going to the Miura ranch in Andalusia to bury it.

In a remote village near Seville, Reddington wakes up in a mansion belonging to his affiliate Angela (Paulina Gálvez) who now served as his caretaker. His health was deteriorating, up to hemoptysis. He has a recreational walk to the town where he orders a delivery of a watermelon to the mansion. Meanwhile, Dembe comes round and directs Cooper to the mansion. Ressler is sent there immediately, and Cooper later pays Dembe a visit. Surprisingly for both, Reddington makes a call to them. After a friendly conversation, he puts down and gets through to Cooper's foster daughter Agnes (Sami Bray). They have a small talk. Meanwhile, Ressler is already at the mansion, and he asks Angela to search for Reddington. He is then assured that the place is empty and sent to the village to ask the locals. After he leaves, Angela informs Reddington, who rested at the rear house, about the agent. He quickly identifies Ressler. At the nursing home, Cooper visits Dembe once again to deliver the decision of the attorney general to relieve him of duty without charges. Dembe positively accepts the news and then tearfully narrates a monologue about Reddington. He is described as a person who thinks death is insignificant as inevitable but who would "rage against the dying of the light", multiply referring to the villanelle by Dylan Thomas, joyful and committed.

Still in poor physical condition, Reddington considers himself capable of reaching the Miura ranch by foot and sets off for a long and gruelling walk, leaving Angela, Islero's skull, and any protection weapon. Ressler gets ahold of the rear extension of Reddington's mansion talking to the watermelon delivery woman. He rushes to find a distracted Angela who spills Reddington's next destination. Reddington reaches the now abandoned ranch, out of water and breath, and turns back to see a scruffy bull observing him. The bull then starts to move toward him in slow motion while Reddington stands still. When Ressler, taking a helicopter, locates Reddington from above and lands, there is nothing to be done. Ressler looks at Reddington's distorted body, then at the bull, dials Cooper, and says: "I've got him." He then picks up and dusts off Reddington’s brown fedora and places it on his body as the camera zooms out from the sky, ending the series.

The two episodes received generally negative reviews from critics. Of particular interest was mostly the second part, while the first was unanimously described as "a cat-and-mouse game".[14][15] The lack of answers for the questions surrounding the series, such as the fate of the task force after Reddington's death, his real identity, and the reason for his relationship with Elizabeth Keen, Megan Boone's character who departed after season 8, was among the discussed drawbacks.[14][15] Also notable was the poor performance by Banerjee and Brightman compared to previous task force members, Amir Arison and Mozhan Marnò.[16] The ending itself was criticized as "undignified" and "random".[14][15] Brian Lowry of CNN Entertainment who has been reviewing the show since the second season praised Spader's performers and considered the ending "worthy" despite his opinion that the series as a whole "did not know when to quit" and "should have left Reddington years ago".[14] James Croot, a reviewer for New Zealand magazine Stuff, accompanied Lowry about the length of the series, saying the season has been released on Netflix to "virtually no fanfare".[16][lower-alpha 1] He also slated the series' dialogues, which he said were "once so wittily and wilfully obtuse, now felt tired", calling it "dreadful" and "torturing".[16] Denis Kimathi of TV Fanatic admitted the series had received "new lease on life" but was "run over" closer to the end, and considered the poor ending was the result of combining two major storylines in one season.[15]

In its original broadcast, the first part was viewed by approximately 2.81 million viewers and became the season's most viewed episode, also receiving 0.3 18–49 rating. The second part averaged a total of 2.64 million viewers and was only behind the first part and "The Hat Trick" in terms of viewership, and received a 0.22 rating.[18]