The Blacklist premiere opened not long after the events of the first season finale in which Tom’s body had disappeared and Berlin was still at large.

The Blacklist Recap

Raymond Reddington (James Spader) is now in Cameroon, heading down a dirt road to meet with a warlord who has connections to Berlin, having provided him with hitmen to track down Red. In order to learn who the men are that are coming after him, Red offers the warlord three hellfire missiles and $3 million cash – the first of which seals the deal.

Stateside at the Post Office, the Deputy Attorney General expresses a lack of confidence in the special task force with Agent Cooper (Harry Lennix) out recovering from his recent injuries and Agent Gary Martin (Jason Butler Harner) filling his shoes for the time being. The Dep. Attorney General also wants to speak to Red, but Ressler quickly steps in to tell her that Red only speaks to Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone).

Elizabeth, at the moment, is more or less off the grid, holed up in a dingy hotel room. She’s lying on the hotel bed staring up at the ceiling, which she’s decorated with cut out newspaper clippings, as well as pictures and notes. Interrupting her ceiling study, Red informs Elizabeth that he’s learned that cyber-tracker Lord Baltimore is after him at Berlin’s behest. In order to track down Berlin, they’ll need to get to Lord Baltimore before Lord Baltimore eliminates Red.

Who Is Lord Baltimore?

Aram (Amir Arison) briefs the Post Office team on Lord Baltimore, revealing that he mines data from people’s Internet presence for his clients, which helps them find whomever they’re looking for. From what Aram gathers, data firm researcher Rowan Mills (Krysten Ritter) is a red flag. When they meet with her, she has no idea how the extra $250,000 ended up in her IRA. Shortly after Liz and Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff) end the visit, Rowan receives a warning voicemail.

Instead of keeping the voicemail secret, Rowan gives it to the FBI and Aram ultimately traces it to an apartment that has Rowan’s name on the lease, as well as items that appear to be hers, like personal pictures. A neighbor of the property phones Berlin (Peter Sormare) to ask for more money for Lord Baltimore as the FBI is jeopardizing the scheme. Instead of more money, he gets a bloodied head.

Rowan's Twin Sister

As for Rowan’s mysterious apartment, she believes it could be the doing of her twin sister Nora, who had been presumed dead, but whose body was never found. The team visits with Nora and Rowan’s mother, who explains that Nora joined a dangerous security firm to escape her childhood, which included getting molested by her uncle. The mother, like Rowan, believes it’s possible she survived the I.E.D. attack in Mosul.

While Red is trying to figure out why Lord Baltimore is after him, Aram is becoming convinced that Lord Baltimore isn’t after him at all, as Red doesn’t have much of an online presence to track. As it turns out, Lord Baltimore is actually after Red’s ex-wife-Naomi Hyland (Mary-Louise Parker). Upon realizing this, the FBI drops into Naomi's dinner party. She's been in the witness protection program for 20 years, but they inform her she's going to need another new identity.

Berlin Gets Naomi

Meanwhile, Rowan gets a visit from Marcus, who seems to know her somewhat intimately, even playing her favorite song on the record player. At first Rowan looks duly scared, but then she looks menacing. At the same time, Ressler is digging through Rowan's mother's trailer and comes across a freezer in which she finds a body that is clearly one of the twins. Rowan is already on the move, however, with Marcus and a number of others in tow. When they arrive at Naomi's home, they take out a number of FBI agents and take Naomi to meet with Berlin.

Rowan doesn't make it out of the house with Naomi and her helpers and is taken into custody. During questioning of both Rowan and Marcus, they learn that Rowan is really Nora and that she has dissociative personality disorder. Though the team has Rowan/Nora, she's already succeeded in delivering Naomi to Berlin, who has some sinister plans in store for Red's wife. While back at his hotel room, Red gets a delivery that includes a phone with a message from Berlin that he's going to send him his wife piece by piece. Making it plain that he intends to make good on the threat, Berlin also sent Red a severed finger.

The Blacklist airs Mondays on NBC at 10/9c.