The Blacklist: Redemption: Tom Just Made a Huge Mistake

Scottie Hargrave almost lost her son for a second time on Thursday's episode of The Blacklist: Redemption.

After a German immigration official kills 64 refugees by releasing nerve gas into a room where they're waiting to gain asylum, Halcyon intervenes. Tom (Ryan Eggold) and Solomon (Edi Gathegi) are tasked with posing as flight attendants in order to stop a plane from being hijacked and therefore prevent more nerve gas from ending up in the hands of terrorists.

The operation is a success, but not before Tom nearly dies in a plane crash and Solomon impromptu sky-dives to stop one of the hijackers. Just a typical day at the office for these two! Scottie (Famke Janssen) welcomes Tom back with a warm embrace, saying she was worried she'd lost him (heh).

The Blacklist: Redemption: Famke Janssen previews Howard and Scottie coming face to face

But back at the ranch, Tom has a potentially even more dangerous mission: Howard (Terry O'Quinn) has asked him to break into Scottie's safe and steal a file folder, so that Howard can get the "keyword" he needs to help him decrypt a message he intercepted from Scottie's communications. Tom, skeptical about the tale Howard's spun about Scottie, agrees to do it, but says if this doesn't prove that Scottie is who Howard says she is, he's going to come clean about being Scottie's son.

Tom does as he's told, but in addition to finding the file in Scottie's safe, he also finds a clay handprint with "Christopher" scrawled on it in crayon, which ignites all the feels. When he brings the file to Howard, Howard immediately sets about trying to decrypt the message, using a "key book" which turns out to be... a comic book. While Tom's looking like he's realized he may have just purchased a one-way ticket to Crazy Town, Howard realizes that the "decryption" isn't working and tells Tom he must have gotten the keyword wrong. Tom leaves Howard's apartment in disgust, saying he's going to fess up to Scottie.

Earlier in the episode, we see Scottie in bed with Trevor (Dan Amboyer), explaining that she's the one who found a mysterious line item called Whitehall in the company budget, and it was when she started asking Howard about it that he started acting paranoid and unstable -- which eventually prompted her to remove him from the board. (Later, Scottie, via Kat, makes Trevor sign a non-disclosure agreement and agree to start carrying around a burner phone.)

When Tom pokes his head into Scottie's office, he overhears her on the phone giving someone the OK to move in on a target. He starts to come clean, saying that "someone" had told him not to trust her and as a result he hasn't been totally honest with her. But then his eyes are drawn to a comic book on Scottie's desk -- a different issue than the one Howard had, sure, but an odd addition among Scottie's paperwork. He quickly plays off his prior awkwardness like he's having marriage difficulties with Liz and hightails it out of there.

Tom purchases the comic issue at a store and uses it to decrypt the message, and this time it works, translating to the address of a ground floor apartment. Tom races to the intersection in question... just in time to see Howard getting escorted into a van by Solomon.

We're guessing Scottie is much less excited about reuniting with her supposedly dead husband than she would be with her supposedly dead son.

The Blacklist: Redemption airs Thursdays at 10/9c on NBC.