The Blacklist s10e14 Episode Script

The Nowhere Bride

[PEOPLE CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY]
- Hi. Bless you.
- Same to you. Bless you.
[CELLPHONE RINGS]
Can you take over for a second?
Oh, of course, honey.
[CHUCKLES] You miss me already?
[LAUGHS] Am I that obvious?
- [LAUGHS] I don't mind.
- Good.
'Cause I am cooking dinner
for you tonight.
Roasted chicken,
baby carrots with honey,
oh, and rice.
I know it's not much,
but it's what I know how to cook best.
I'm just happy I found
a husband who can cook.
Well, you deserve a special night.
I feel guilty that we haven't been
able to take our honeymoon yet.
You couldn't make me any
happier than I am right now.
I'm here for another half an hour,
- and then I'm all yours.
- Oh! Um
I am going to need
a little more time than that.
Um, can you make a stop
on your way home?
I picked up a bottle of white,
but I think a nice bottle of
red would be much better.
Can't wait.
Bye.
Hello. I'm home.
[CHUCKLES]
I, uh, maybe splurged a bit
on a Petit Verdot.
But you did say it was a special night.
Kel?
[CHUCKLES] What are you up to?
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING]
Come on, Kel, pick up.
[AUTOMATED VOICE]
You've reached a number
that has been disconnected
and is no longer in service.
What the hell is happening?
Oh, my gosh. That coffee smells good.
I didn't sleep a wink.
Every inch of this city
is under construction.
It's like jackhammers
are at my headboard.
I slept better in my car
than at the hotel.
There's something in the New York air
that makes sleep useless,
so said Simone de Beauvoir.
Agree to disagree, Simone.
So where are we off to today?
Bavaria for a meeting
with the Illuminati?
Treasure hunt in Cairo?
I'm off to a meeting.
You should enjoy your coffee.
No, no, no. Sit, sit, relax.
I was told to keep an eye on you.
I'm willing to offer a compromise.
My burner phone.
Write the number down and call it
whenever you want to check up on me.
I promise I'll answer.
What am I supposed to do
the rest of the time?
Well, perhaps you'd prefer
to spend the day
pursuing your own personal matters.
You're referring to the check
from the garage sale?
Did you step through that door?
Not yet.
Oh, well.
Why don't you just tell me
what Kathleen Sutton has to do
with my mother's past?
Because, Agent Malik,
some stories can't
just be told.
They have to be discovered.
Call whenever you like.
Hmm. Morning.
After 30 years of marriage,
I can finally tell the difference
between your sexy squint
and your tortured gaze.
And what are my eyes telling you now?
That I'm not getting lucky tonight.
[CHUCKLES] What's going on with you?
Uh, the task force.
We're under a high level of scrutiny.
If we're gonna survive,
we have to prove our worth.
But we're in a holding pattern.
- Reddington?
- Our team relies on
the Blacklist cases that he brings us,
but he's been acting erratically,
more so than usual.
Anything I can do?
Sure.
Find us a case to work on.
There's this young woman
I volunteer with
at the meal center,
brand-new to the country,
happiest newlywed in the world,
until her husband vanished
from the apartment.
- Charlene, I was joking.
- Right in the middle of cooking dinner.
Poor thing, she couldn't even
get through her shift yesterday
without crying.
I'm very sorry to hear that, but, uh,
it's not exactly the kind
of case is gonna help us.
Oh, so
the goal of your team
is to help yourselves.
And all this time I thought it
was to help people in trouble.
My mistake.
[COOPER] Okello Okoro.
It's been four days
since his wife, Duni,
came home to find him gone
and their apartment ransacked.
She filed a missing persons report,
but so far, Montgomery County
police have come up empty.
A missing husband. Really?
I mean, what's Reddington's angle here?
This case didn't come from Reddington.
[DEMBE] Who did it come from?
Charlene.
Who's Charlene?
- His wife.
- Ooh.
If you got a stronger case,
I'm all ears.
We're hanging by a thread here.
Senator Panabaker called me
at home last night
to inform me that Congressman Hudson
has recruited Senator Dorf to his cause.
The head of the Intelligence Committee.
Congressman Hudson won't
give up until he finds out
who we are and what we do,
and with Dorf on his side,
Hudson could subpoena our
case files and read everything.
There's nothing to read.
Raymond removed all traces
of himself from those files.
Exactly.
We're a task force
built around an invisible
and thoroughly unreliable asset.
If this team's gonna get shut down,
I'd just as soon use our final days
to do some good for somebody.
[RESSLER] Dembe and I
will go talk to the wife,
get the full story.
What's her name again?
Duni.
You dig into the husband. Okoro.
If he was kidnapped, let's find out why.
This is Agent Ressler and Agent Zuma.
They're good men.
And if anyone can help you, they can.
- I can't thank you enough.
- You're welcome, dear.
I've never felt so scared.
Why don't you start by telling
us more about your husband?
Charlene tells us you're newlyweds.
- How'd you two meet?
- Um, on a dating app.
Um, I was living in Kenya at the time.
I think the distance
made us feel safer to open up.
So we started messaging and
[SNIFFLES]
The beautiful messages he wrote.
Before we knew it, we were in love.
So you moved here for him?
Kel offered to come to Kenya,
but he has a good job here,
and I've always wanted
to live in America.
So I got here four weeks ago.
We got married right away.
[DEMBE] I know you think
your husband was taken,
but is there any chance
he left on his own?
Many men get cold feet.
No, not Kel.
We're in love.
[RESSLER] Now, are you aware of anything
he might be running from? Any debts?
[DUNI] Not that I know of.
Like I said, he has a stable career.
Why are you asking me these questions?
We checked your husband's financials.
His bank account was emptied
the same day he vanished.
Whoever abducted Kel must have
known about my parents' money.
Your parents' money?
The dowry.
They transferred it into
Kel's account just this week.
Seventy-five thousand dollars.
It was all my family had.
If Kel's account is empty,
then whoever took him
must have taken the dowry, too.
[DOOR OPENS]
Dowries? I didn't realize
that was still a thing.
In some African and Asian countries,
they continue to be given,
but they're largely illegal.
I imagine that would make them
pretty appealing for a criminal.
"I can't stop it.
I can't stop it any more than
I can stop a wind from blowing
or a wave from crashing.
I want to be with you.
I want to be with you now.
I'm tired of living this charade.
The me that others know has died.
I need to shed myself
of this dry, scratchy skin
and be reborn in you. In us."
[ISHAAN] Jemma!
- What?
- What is it?
I just received an alert from the bank.
The transfer came through.
[LAUGHS]
[LINE RINGING]
I just received the dowry.
Another job well done.
You ready for another target?
Hell yeah. Whatever you need,
I'm your guy.
I'm just working on
a new woman from Senegal
who is almost ready
to make real contact.
I'll send you your new
ID packet this weekend.
First, I just need
to wrap out another case.
[DOOR OPENS]
Good morning, beautiful.
[LAUGHS] Morning.
I'm excited for today.
I cannot wait to make you my wife.
[WOMAN GIGGLES]
Hello?
- Mrs. Sutton?
- Mm-hmm.
We didn't get a chance to meet,
but I was at a garage sale
you went to a few days ago.
Oh, dear.
Please tell me that nice man in the hat
isn't asking for his stamp back.
No, nothing like that.
Special Agent Siya Malik with the FBI.
I was wondering if I could
ask you some questions.
[DOOR CLOSES]
Here. Please take a seat.
I'm not sure how much help I'll be.
My Nigel worked for the Foreign Office,
but he couldn't get
into specifics of what he did.
I'm looking for information
about a woman,
a CIA agent who I guess
was a liaison to your husband
about 25 years ago.
Does that ring any bells?
[CHUCKLES] Oh, I don't know.
Nigel was stationed overseas
most of his career,
and I lived stateside.
That's why we wrote so many letters.
And closer to his
Closer to the end,
he was reassigned to London.
I met a few of his coworkers
before he died in the line of duty.
But, uh, the period
is such a blur for me.
I'm sorry for your loss.
I appreciate that.
Well, actually,
I do remember one colleague
who I met at Nigel's service.
- A woman?
- Yes.
She gave me her business card,
and she said if I ever needed
any help to reach out.
What was her name? Was it Meera Malik?
Hmm. No, that's not her.
Ah, what was her name?
It was, uh
Regina. That was it.
Regina Saint.
- Are you sure?
- [CHUCKLES] I am.
I remember thinking it was a lovely name
at a dreadful time.
[HERBIE] According to her file,
Regina Saint worked for the CIA
for 23 years.
She was your mother's
case officer at one point,
and she's now retired
in St. Augustine, Florida.
All right, I'm sending you
all the information I have
on Regina Saint right now.
[CELLPHONE DINGS]
Got it. Thanks so much for your help.
Yeah, no problem.
So how are things going with Reddington?
Oh, he lives in a decrepit bath house
and makes great coffee.
Not much else to report.
Uh, I gotta run. Duty calls.
Where are we with the missing husband?
Uh, well, based on what I found,
"missing" is a relative term.
Security footage from Okoro's bank
the day he was kidnapped.
If there's any question,
what you're looking at
is Okello Okoro
Say that three times fast.
Draining his account dry.
If his hand's being forced,
he doesn't look under duress to me.
Check out the timestamp.
That's an hour before
his heartbroken bride called 911.
Missing husband or thieving bastard?
You make the call.
[RESSLER] After we talked to the wife,
Dembe and I did some digging.
This guy's entire identity
is fabricated.
Okello Okoro's Social Security
number belonged to an infant
that died in childhood in 1982.
His birth certificate lists a
hospital that has no records of him,
and his marriage certificate is a fake.
So he's a con man.
[RESSLER] Well,
that suggests an individual.
Now, given the intricacies of his scam,
we believe Okoro is part
of a larger operation.
Okay. There may be
other victims out there.
We need to find Okoro's real identity.
I want all of you
to head to Duni's apartment.
Armed with this new information,
maybe we can find something
local PD missed.
- [DOOR OPENS]
- [WOMAN LAUGHING]
- Voila!
- [LAUGHS]
You're going to hurt yourself.
What do you mean?
I've been secretly working out
in preparation for this very moment.
So you think I'm heavy?
You're perfect.
I'm going to call my parents
to tell them the good news.
No! Uh, stay.
I mean, they're probably
fast asleep anyways.
You clearly have never met my parents.
They're up and waiting. I guarantee it.
Plus, I want them to send over my dowry
so we can get out of this man cave,
find a respectable place
to start our lives together.
All right, fair enough.
But as soon as they send the money,
we're gonna get you a ring
and a proper honeymoon.
I want to do this right.
You should have everything
you've ever wanted.
I do. I have you.
How could I have been so naive?
I really thought we were in love.
Kel was so sweet and emotional.
You should read the messages
he wrote me.
He spoke straight to my heart.
We need to figure out
who your husband really is.
The police didn't find
any of his fingerprints here.
He wiped the place down clean
before he left.
Have you seen any of his
personal items that could help us?
No.
These things still have
the price tags left on them.
This entire apartment
is staged for your benefit.
Just like they staged his kidnapping.
Now, we suspect that he had accomplices.
Did you ever meet any of his friends?
No, never.
God, I feel like such a fool.
How am I going to tell my
family that I lost all of their money?
They'll disown me.
[DEMBE] You were victimized by a thief.
Your family will come around.
Ah-ha! The man you know as Kel
did a fine job
of cleaning his wayward hairs
and dead skin cells,
but nobody can remember everything.
- I just pulled a clean print.
- From where?
- The toilet.
- He didn't clean the toilet?
He cleaned most of the toilet.
But lucky for us, Kel is a stand-up guy.
As in he stands to pee,
which means he has to lift the seat.
[DEMBE] You found his fingerprint
underneath the toilet seat?
Gross.
Have you changed a diaper recently?
Okay, let's run that print, get the ID.
I confess, I'm usually
the one avoiding meetings,
not requesting them.
Well, I've been following your
employer's operations,
ventures in Brazil and Uruguay.
And now he's set his sights on the US.
Santoro is almost as hungry
as I was at his age.
Mr. Reddington,
my employer will consider that
the highest compliment coming from you.
Then why isn't he here?
Why did he send you?
All of Mr. Santoro's
business matters go through me.
So, what are we here to discuss?
Why don't we start with the bribing
of Florida's Regional
Environmental Officer?
There's currently
a multibillion-dollar contract
up for grabs to reinforce
the Gulf coastline.
Mr. Santoro is a businessman.
He had every right
to make a bid for that.
[CHUCKLES] Santoro is a crook.
He couldn't care less about
the effects of climate change.
He's gonna fill those jobs
with all his underworld connections
and rake in the kickbacks.
Stop me when I'm wrong.
My employer grew up
in the favelas of Sao Paolo.
Being a criminal was how he survived.
[CHUCKLES] But the past is the past.
This project represents a new chapter,
for his organization.
So we're playing pretend now.
Okay, I'll play along.
Getting the contract
is just the first step.
If Santoro wants to milk this heifer,
he'll need to make and maintain
the right connections,
line the right pockets,
pay out entities.
It's overwhelming.
Lucky for you,
I'm here to offer my assistance.
Mr. Santoro has nothing but
respect for you, Mr. Reddington.
But we already have
a full complement of partners
on the project.
Erosion is a sneaky sort.
It happens slowly over time.
Before you know it,
something that once was thriving
no longer exists.
Is that a threat?
Just a tip.
That one's free.
You can see yourself out.
[CELL PHONE DIALING]
[LINE RINGING]
Yes, Secretary Kyle's office, please.
Please sit down.
So, how can I help you?
Well, we just pulled a print
from a fraud case
we've been working,
and it belongs to one of your parolees.
He was operating
under the alias Okello Okoro.
But his real name is Kel Ammons.
Kel? [SIGHS] That's too bad.
I was hoping Kel would turn a corner.
I mean, he's not
the sharpest tool in the shed,
but he's handsome, he's charming.
I thought he might find a way
to cash in on that.
He did, by stealing the dowry
of an African woman.
We need to find him.
I did an apartment check last week.
Nothing out of the ordinary.
That address should be current.
That's a different address than the
apartment
he's sharing with his wife.
[RESSLER] We'll look into this.
We'll get back to you.
Thanks for your help.
Who were the stiffs?
FBI agents looking into Kel Ammons.
Something about a love scam.
[REDDINGTON] Mr. Secretary, welcome.
Please have a seat.
We haven't caught up for some time.
How are those gray wolves
of yours doing?
[KYLE] You want to hear something great?
Their population grew by 3.5%
over the last 12 months alone.
And, hey, we even spotted a new den.
It's near Glacier National Park.
That's what I love about you, Eddie.
You truly care about the puppies.
Puts a smile on my face.
It also gave
the Department of the Interior
a win to take back to the President.
But we're not here to talk
about wolves, now, are we?
We are not. I've run into some trouble
with a coastal protection
project in Florida.
The contract is about to go to
a new erosion control company.
What you don't know is that
the company is backed
by a Brazilian entrepreneur
named Adolfo Santoro,
who also has ties
with certain crime syndicates.
No biggie, but they include one
particularly ghastly drug cartel
that's been terrorizing the Yucatan.
It's a sensitive matter
that only you can help me with.
How long do you need?
Long enough for you
and I to push a few pieces
around the game board.
- You screwed up.
- [KEL] No, I didn't.
Duni has no idea who I am.
I scrubbed the apartment
like I always do,
and I closed the bank account.
It was seamless.
Well, you must have
screwed up somewhere.
- The FBI knows your real identity.
- The FBI?
Yeah, they were just here
questioning my boss.
You're burned,
and now we're both at risk.
Jemma, what do I do?
I can't go back to jail.
First, you go to your apartment.
Get rid of anything
that connects you to me.
And then you need to disappear,
somewhere no one knows who you are.
Go now.
Hey, I'll be back soon.
I need to run a personal errand.
I'll be on my cell, yeah?
Ugh. It's astonishing how much
work and preparation
went into this terrible con.
Well, imagine what they
could have accomplished
if they just applied themselves
to something constructive.
Wait. Isn't that our guy?
Kel Ammons. FBI.
Keep your hands where I can see them.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING]
Kel Ammons, you're under arrest.
[CELLPHONE RINGS]
Jemma, I'm glad you're calling.
Listen, I want to talk
to you about something.
Yeah, where are you? Are you alone?
Yeah. Mey's at the cafe on the corner,
grabbing us something to eat.
What's going on?
We're moving up the timeline.
I need you to withdraw
Mey's dowry today.
Actually, that's what I want
to talk to you about.
The FBI is onto us.
One of my husbands got made.
I'm shutting down the operation.
I'm not sure how long. Maybe for good.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa. The Feds?
- Don't worry.
They don't have any idea you exist,
and I'm going to keep it that way,
you have my word.
But for now,
I need Mey's dowry in my account today.
Look, Jemma, I can't do it.
I can't rob Mey.
Why not?
I
I love her.
Mey did not fall in love with you.
I'm the one who seduced her online. Me.
She fell in love
with my words, my passion.
What are you going to do
when she figures out
you have nothing meaningful to say?
Look, I'm not stealing her money.
More than half of that dowry
belongs to me,
and it may be my last one.
There's no way in hell
I'm giving that up.
Jemma, don't call again.
- Don't you
- [LINE DISCONNECTS]
Ugh.
- Thanks.
- Bye-bye.
Excuse me. Are you Mey Chen?
I am. I'm sorry. Do I know you?
No, but I-I just witnessed
a terrible accident
on Dale and Fifth.
A pedestrian was hit by a motorcycle.
He said his name was Aang, Aang Chen.
- Do you know him?
- He's my husband.
Well, uh, he was pretty banged up.
I don't know how badly,
but when the paramedics
put him in the ambulance,
he asked me to come find you.
He said that he didn't have his phone
and that you were new to the country.
You'd have no way
of getting a hold of him.
Thank you.
Wait, uh, what hospital was he taken to?
Uh, Overbrook General.
You know where that is?
I don't know where anything is yet.
Well, I could drop you off.
The hospital's right on my way.
- It'd be no problem.
- Thank you.
Yes. I really appreciate it.
[JEMMA] Okay.
[SIYA] You staying out of trouble?
For the moment,
but things could take a turn.
The day's not over. How about you?
I've got a lead on my mother's
former case officer with the CIA.
- Wonderful.
- Not wonderful.
The woman's retired
in St. Augustine, Florida.
I left her a voicemail,
but I think I'm gonna have to wait
until I can take some
personal time to fly down there.
Nonsense. I'll take you there
first thing tomorrow on the jet.
Really?
Are you planning to fly tomorrow?
I'm planning to fly you
to St. Augustine tomorrow.
Oldest city in America.
I've never been. I'd love to go.
[LINE RINGING]
- [JEMMA] Hello?
- Mey!
Why haven't you been picking up?
I've been calling for the past hour.
Where are you? You okay?
I'm afraid Mey's unable to
come to the phone at the moment.
Jemma. What did you do?
If you hurt Mey,
I swear that I'm gonna
Before you swear to anything
you might regret,
I want you to understand
that I am the one in control.
And if you don't bring me
Mey's dowry in the next 24 hours,
you will never see your wife again.
[CELL PHONE RINGING]
Sorry.
Hello.
Mr. Reddington, this is Tomas Vicente.
I just learned of
an interesting development
in the Gulf coastline bid.
Florida's Regional Environmental Officer
has just resigned,
completely out of the blue.
And Mr. Santoro's government
contract is now delayed.
I'm confused. Why are you calling me?
I already offered my help
and you declined.
Please.
Mr. Santoro would very
much like a face-to-face.
Can you get to Cuba in six hours?
Maybe. Text me the address and I'll see.
I'm afraid we have a detour.
Detour? Detour to where?
To Cuba. Have you been?
What about St. Augustine?
Don't you worry one bit.
We will definitely get you there, too.
What a whirlwind.
How was your first night back in a cell?
You ready to talk now?
[SIGHS]
It was Jemma Parikh.
Who's Jemma Parikh?
She works in my parole office.
The woman with the coffee.
[KEL] That's where we met.
Jemma noticed how I was
struggling to find a job.
She promised the con would be
a good way to make a living.
She was right.
So Parikh runs the operation?
She's the one you're looking for.
How's her operation work?
Jemma looks for
I don't know.
Good-looking ex-cons,
I guess. [CHUCKLES]
Ethnic types.
She creates an ID for them
and then uses their profiles
to phish online.
That's where she finds her marks.
From countries where families
still pay dowries.
I take it Duni wasn't your first victim.
That's right.
Once Jemma got a woman on the hook,
she'd coach me
on whatever I needed to know.
Then I'd swoop in and do what I do best.
Don't flatter yourself, Romeo.
[DEMBE] So you split
the dowries with Parikh?
She took 70%, but she keeps me working.
Well, how many husbands
does she have working?
I don't know.
Jemma's a pro. She
She keeps us all separate.
What about the brides?
The other women she's still conning?
We need their names.
I don't have any.
It looks like we're done here.
[KEL] Wait! Please don't go.
I want to help you!
I-I just can't tell you
what I don't know!
Jemma Parikh, born in Ahmedabad, India.
She emigrated to America in her 20s.
Currently, Parikh works
as a local office manager
for the US Parole Commission.
I called her boss,
but she ditched work this afternoon.
Nobody's heard from her since.
Because she knows we're on to her.
I searched the state
of Maryland's police records
and found 12 foreign brides
who reported their husbands
missing in the last five years.
All of those cases are still active.
It's a smart con.
Without proof of foul play,
missing persons cases aren't
a high priority.
Even less so when
it involves immigrants.
They're a priority now.
This is no longer a case
about one woman's stolen dowry.
I suspect Parikh has been running
an international fraud ring for years.
We need to find Parikh before she
skips town. Do we have any leads?
I do. I looked into Parikh's
offshore account
where Duni's husband
transferred his dowry.
I traced monthly payments
from that account
to a leased sedan here in DC.
It's a BMW registered under the
same false ID on the bank account.
Contact the manufacturer.
Let's see if we can get
a GPS location on that vehicle.
I already did.
BMW is currently in a parking lot
outside of a bank on Hamilton and 13th.
Agents Ressler and Zuma, get there now.
Let's end this once and for all.
FBI. Keep your hands
where we can see them.
Please, you can't arrest me.
She'll kill her.
Who are you talking about?
Who's gonna kill who?
Jemma Parikh. The woman I work for.
If I don't get Jemma this money today,
she's going to kill my wife.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING]
Siya, I'm not exactly sure
how this is going to go.
Would you be a dear
and stand by me and look tough?
How tough we talking?
Like you shot a man in Reno
just to watch him die.
I always hoped we would meet,
just not under these circumstances.
I made promises to my friends
in the States
that I won't be able to
keep now because of you.
[CHUCKLES] I learned the hard way
to avoid promises.
Stick to probabilities, likelihoods.
You'll find the collateral
damage is much less.
You screwed me over in Florida.
No, I leaned into resources
that I told your associate about.
Nothing more, nothing less.
You, on the other hand,
decided to play in my sandbox
without inviting me
to make castles with you.
You have my attention now.
I'm reminded of a time at the
Hipodromo Independencia in Rosario.
There was a young colt, perfectly bred,
aggressive, energetic.
Everyone knew he was a sure thing.
I'm embarrassed to say
I bought into the hype
and bet a whole lot of money on him,
and he lost
to a horse who had seen better days
but had the heart and soul of a winner.
And that night he made sure
everyone knew it.
I'm giving you one last chance
to accept the offer of my services.
I'm not alone on the Florida project.
I have partners,
and before I can sign off on anything,
I need to reach out
and consult with them first.
I have a few minutes. I'll wait.
Would you be so kind
as to give us a minute, Siya?
I'll see myself out.
You look the same.
You too.
I wish you had come back.
I've been busy with work.
I'm not surprised, what with you
being such a tough guy and all.
But I'm getting too old
to search the jungle for you.
You're saying Santoro
caught your attention.
But I know you don't care about him
or his business.
That's not why you're here, is it?
I missed you.
Miss you.
I miss you, too.
But I gotta get back to work.
My partners agreed.
They look forward to working with you.
Excellent news.
Now, if you'll excuse me,
I have somewhere else to be.
Thank you for agreeing
to meet with me, Miss Saint.
Oh, please, call me Regina.
Meera Malik's daughter. My goodness.
I never expected to see you again.
Wait. Uh, we've met before?
I-I'm sorry. I don't remember.
Oh, of course you don't.
You were still in a crib, dear.
And now you work for the FBI.
Following in your mother's footsteps?
Something like that.
I didn't work with Meera long.
Just the one case.
But I considered her a friend.
I was sorry to hear of her passing.
Well, I'm here because of
the case you just mentioned.
I was hoping you could
tell me more about it.
I remember it well.
You always do when you lose an agent,
even one working for a different team.
Nigel Sutton.
Yes. Your mother's partner.
What happened?
There's only so much
I'm authorized to say.
Most of the information surrounding
that case is still classified.
What I can tell you is an inquiry
into cause of death was opened,
but your mother bore no
responsibility in Nigel's death.
He simply died in the line of duty.
There was an inquiry?
Inquiries are protocol.
But Nigel was just at the wrong
place at the wrong time.
In fact, Meera took it the hardest.
They were close, you know,
ever since that first case
they worked together in Kolkata.
I didn't know any of this.
There's a lot I'm still
learning about my mother.
Hello? I'm here.
I have your money.
[JEMMA] Ah,
I'm glad you came to your senses.
The money, please.
Not until I know Mey is unharmed.
Mey. Thank God you're not hurt.
Don't even think about it.
If Mey loves you like you believe,
then she'll forgive you.
A happy ending will be waiting
on the other side.
The money, now.
[CRYING]
Hey, don't worry. You're safe now.
I got you.
[AGENT] FBI!
Show me your hands!
Turn around.
All right, move in.
Jemma Parikh, you're under arrest.
[DEMBE] We ran your background.
Do you know what we found?
A criminal complaint
you filed in your 20s,
after you arrived
in the States from India
to marry an American.
But he disappeared after
your parents paid the dowry.
In my country,
I'm what's called a nowhere bride.
So you were a victim and now
you are victimizing other women.
How does that happen?
When my husband vanished, I had nothing.
I tried to go back home,
but my family was too ashamed
to take me back.
I was heartbroken and on
my own in a foreign land.
So it was done to you,
so you thought, why not do it to others?
This is the land of opportunity.
Haven't you heard?
Sounds like a convenient way
to justify robbery.
No, no, you are wrong. I steal dowries.
They're antiquated.
They are patriarchal.
They maintain gender inequality,
prevent women from going to school,
and keep them
from economic independence.
Not to mention the violence
that surrounds them.
You're right. Dowries are dehumanizing.
But you could have
really helped those brides.
Instead, you preyed on them.
At the end of the day, you're no better
than a run-of-the-mill thief.
Just like the man who stole from you.
[GATE CLOSES]
I did what you asked me to do.
Please, you have to let me see Mey.
Come on. You know that's not possible.
I need to explain everything.
I need her to know
I was telling her the truth.
- I really do love her.
- Yeah?
Sure have a funny way of showing it.
[SIGHS]
Do you think he's telling the truth?
Does it matter?
[CRYING] I guess not.
He's not the person
I left my home and family for.
What am I going to do
in this country now?
He's the only person I
thought I knew here.
Well, it just so happens
I know a young woman from Kenya
who I think you might
really hit it off with.
Come on. Let's get out of here.
[COOPER] Parikh kept a ledger,
so we were able to arrest
her ring of conmen
and get some of the stolen dowries back.
The money will be disbursed
to all the women
who were defrauded by her operation.
Thank you.
I would have never known what
really happened without your help.
So, what's next?
I have a lot to think about,
but I want to take some time for myself.
Maybe try a college course.
- Thank you again.
- You're so welcome.
I don't know if this case
is high-profile enough
to get the DOJ off our backs,
but I'm happy we were able
to help someone.
Me too, honey. Thank you.
Mmm.
How was your chat with Regina Saint?
Have you discovered something?
Nigel Sutton and my mother
began working together in Kolkata,
where my birth certificate and
adoption papers were forged.
Less than two years later,
Nigel was killed during an operation,
and Meera was investigated.
There's just too many coincidences
too close together.
I think it's all connected,
but I don't know how.
Not every answer is worth knowing.
To me, this one is.
[SIGHS]
Would you just
Please, tell me what you know?
Kolkata.
In 1997, Meera was
a young intelligence officer
working in operation in one
of the deepest, darkest holes
that humanity has to offer,
guns and drugs,
sexual slavery.
One night she met the head
of a trafficking ring
in Bowbazar, a red-light district
that's said to employ
almost 12,000 prostitutes.
While Meera was trying
to work the asset,
she noticed the crying baby
alone in the corner.
At that moment,
members of a rival gang came in
and the place
turned into a free-for-all.
As the chaos ensued around her,
Meera suddenly just scooped up
that baby girl and ran.
She ran all the way to London
and never let go.
Uh
The parents. Who were my parents?
I don't know.
You had been abandoned.
What about Officer Sutton?
What happened to him?
Before Kolkata, there was no baby.
And afterwards there was you.
Meera had fabricated
your birth and adoption.
And Officer Sutton,
being her close colleague,
knew the truth and tried to
use that against your mother,
extorting her and putting you in danger.
Meera wasn't going to let anything
bad happen to her new family.
I know how far a parent will go
to protect their child.
Well, she didn't kill him.
She didn't precipitate or participate.
She let him die.
Meera gave you a chance at life.
And from what I've seen,
your mother would be very proud.
Thank you.
Why don't I get us something to drink?
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