One step closer turned into another dead end.

Harold had to come clean with everybody on The Blacklist Season 9 Episode 15.

Unfortunately, that only happened after he discovered the enormity of the situation.

That realization only came about because Red's investigation into the tracker intersected with Harold's predicament at Andrew Kennison.

Up until now, everyone just had a tiny piece of the puzzle. Harold had more than most but was so concerned about his situation that he never asked the critical question of why.

Cooper found out why he hid a grad student at his blackmailer's command. He just made this discovery way too late, and he was completely in over his head as a result.

That wouldn't have happened if it weren't for Raymond's parallel, obsessive search into Liz's death.

Van Dyke's cell phone led to the tracker in Liz's body. Recovering that helped Reddington get the name of the man who created it.

Only, as Kennison's roommate revealed, he had vanished several weeks earlier under mysterious circumstances.

That's why it's convenient to have a crack team of investigators at your beck and call. Why not turn Kennison into a blacklister and have Cooper's team do all the heavy lifting?

Harold was already too late trying to catch his blackmailer by himself (or, as he kept parenthetically mentioning, with Lew's help).

Still, this was when he needed to read-in everybody, both Red and the Task Force. Instead, he kept everyone chasing their tails when time was at a premium.

No, Ressler and Dembe had to run around doing a couple of more interviews only to find out that Cooper had known all along where Kennison was being held.

Everyone had to wait for Harold to have his epiphany that Liz's death, his frameup, and Andrew's being disappeared were all connected.

Where was this big-picture thinking weeks ago? And with all Cooper has done for others, why didn't he reach out for help sooner?

That beats the alternative of getting in so deep that there's little chance of salvaging his life, let alone his career. That just goes to prove that smart people do dumb things sometimes.

So, when he couldn't put it off any longer, Harold spilled his guts, first to Raymond. Why he bothered trying to protect Kennison by not telling Reddington where he was is beyond me since Red proved that it was no challenge for him to find out elsewhere.

Poor Aram looked like he had just discovered there was no Santa when he overheard the conversation between Cooper and Raymond.

But his squad attempted to come through for him, despite his keeping them in the dark all these months.

Aram sort of undid the modifications done to the blackmailer's scrambled voice, coming up with six possible voices for him.

Not as simple as Reddington intimidating Kennison into giving up the name of the person to whom he had given the tracker. But you work with what you've been given.

Shockingly, Aram's scattershot investigative technique worked as someone identified the disgraced detective Reggie Cole, sometime after Red had gained the same intel from Kennison.

Proving that Cole was hardly the brains of the operation, he got a warning call from someone and began running. Not too far, mind you. But being captured by the feds had to be the lesser of two evils for him.

After all, the feds have to have actual evidence in order to charge Cole, not just so many guesses. So his stay was likely to be brief for that reason. The intelligent people behind him had covered their tracks.

Poor Panabaker found herself in a difficult position. Because of Harold's need to treat her as his confessor, she knew way too much, which she had to, in turn, report to her superiors.

The result was that the Task Force needed a big win if they were to stay in business. This quandary meant they couldn't charge Cole and ultimately had to let him walk after his lawyer mysteriously showed up.

That also meant that she couldn't use Red's interrogating methods which she used to save her daughter-in-law on The Blacklist Season 9 Episode 14.

That's too bad, as Teddy would have been much more expedient. But the evidence wouldn't have been admissible in court, which she needed this week. Mind up your mind, Cynthia!

The fact that Cole's slimy lawyer was aware of this FBI black site should have been noticed enough that somebody high up was involved with Liz's death and the resultant coverup.

Since the powers that be were cleaning up loose ends, why didn't the smarmy lawyer realize that would be him and Cole as well?

But instead, they went prancing out of the Post Office, only to be mowed down in the street. Reddington was correct in his assessment that they needed to be snatched up, but his team moved a little too slowly.

So this leaves the Task Force with no leads to follow and no leader.

Likewise, Red has nowhere to go, with this mystery to solve over the remaining seven episodes of the season.

To follow Red's investigation, watch The Blacklist online.

Even for a minute, did you think that Cole was the brains of this conspiracy?

Is Andrew safe now or still a target?

How can Harold be saved?

Comment below.

Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on X.