'The Blacklist' Season 3 Spoilers: What Happened In Episode 16? 'The Caretaker' Recap

Secrets play a major role on NBC’s “The Blacklist” Season 3. Red (James Spader) has been keeping something from Liz (Megan Boone) about her mother, but Liz is getting closer to answers. As the two searched for a man with a safety-deposit box of information on criminals, Liz discovered a secret that Red has been hiding from her in episode 16, titled “The Caretaker.”

When the episode begins, Tom (Ryan Eggold) is still recovering from his wounds, but Liz finally gives him an answer to his marriage proposal and says she wants to marry him. As they talk Red calls looking to meet up with her.

Liz tells Red she’s keeping the baby and that she agreed to marry Tom, which he isn’t too thrilled about. He tells Liz about their next blacklister, a man known as The Caretaker (Reg E. Cathey). A State Department official was killed in Beijing and it’s because of the Caretaker, who has a safety deposit box containing secrets of criminals around the world.

Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff) and Samar (Mozhan Marnò) find out The Caretaker is getting information and recordings from an underground tube system. The task force can’t figure out a way to untangle which one The Caretaker uses, but Red says he might have a way.

Red is able to get information from a friend that leads Ressler and Samar to a cemetery, where they find The Caretaker in a dug up grave. They learn that The Caretaker uses the bodies in the cemetery to hide his secrets. When Ressler and Samar question The Caretaker, he reveals that he purposely let out the secret that lead to the death of the State Department official because someone has kidnapped his daughter. If he doesn’t do what they say they said they’ll kill her.

The Caretaker was ordered to release another secret by midnight, one which involved the German government covering up a terrorist attack. The team only has a few hours to find his daughter or they might have to release the secret to keep her alive.

Liz goes to see Velov, who is a man who knows something about her mother. However, he doesn’t tell Liz anything and instead asks her to use her FBI sources to track down his daughter who won’t speak with him because of his past. Red knows the woman taking care of the man and she calls him when Liz leaves to say that the old man didn’t tell Liz anything.

Time runs out and Cooper (Harry Lennix) orders the team to release the documents about the Germans, even though Red told him he shouldn’t. Red watches the footage of The Caretaker’s daughter getting kidnapped and recognizes special work done to the inside of the van the kidnappers used. He’s able to trace it back to an old friend with a car shop and he gets the address of the kidnappers.

The White House comes down on Cooper because two terrorists were able to make their way into the country, where they stole explosives and a cargo truck. Red agrees to help the team find the terrorists, but Cooper will owe him a favor.

The task force raids the location of the kidnappers and are able to save The Caretaker’s daughter after Ressler shoots and kills one of them. The kidnappers end up being former marines and one is the brother of The Caretaker’s daughter.

Ressler and Samar go to get more answers out of The Caretaker’s daughter, when Cooper interrupts them. He says they tracked down the terrorists and the two leave to go stop them. On a New Jersey Interstate, Ressler and Samar take down the terrorists in their cargo truck, but not before they can activate the bomb in the truck. Aram (Amir Arison) is able to walk Ressler through how to disarm the bomb before it explodes.

It’s then revealed that The Caretaker’s daughter kidnapped herself to try to expose her father because he is not really her father. The Caretaker saw her getting mistreated by her real father when she was a little girl and he took her away from him. She then tracked down her real brother and instead of going to the police, she wanted to get all of his secrets out. His secrets will now lay in the hands of the FBI.

When Liz takes the letter to Velov’s daughter, she says her and her father aren’t estranged and that the letter is for Liz. Liz reads the letter and learns her mother is alive, meaning Red lied to her. Velov was trying to find her mother and traced her to a hotel in Prague where he found an empty room with Liz’s picture.

Red borrows The Caretaker’s log from Cooper and digs up the secret on himself. If something were to happen to him it was supposed to go Liz, but instead her burns the envelope because he doesn’t ever want her to know what’s inside it.

Other Major Moments From Episode 16:

• After healing up, Tom goes to settle unfinished business with ex-girlfriend Gina Zanetakos (Margarita Levieva) after she left him for dead and took the money promised to him from their jewelry heist. After the two get into a fight, Tom is able to get an edge over her and tells her he won’t come after her if she doesn’t come after him. She agrees she’ll try.
• At the end of the episode, Gina is shown on the phone with someone, asking what to do next because Tom came to see her, just like the person she was on the phone with knew he would.