The Blacklist Season 9 Episode 1 Recap: The Skinner

It's two years after Elizabeth Keen's death. Dembe and his FBI partner are making an undercover deal at the docks. The deal goes bad thanks to the suspicious buyer and his partner is killed. Dembe runs down and shoots at the truck filled with computer chips, and it blows up. The FBI task force has broken up. Aram and his partner are meeting with an investor. Ressler is working at an auto garage. Harold stops by to see the hospitalized Dembe. Dembe suggests he get in touch with Reddington, who went underground after Liz's death. Harold goes to Havana to see Red.The bartender sedates him. He is taken to Raymond when he wakes up. Red tels Cooper the symbol on the hands of Dembe's assailants belong to a 700-year-old pirate. The Skinner, the leader of the brutal hijackers, seeks to abduct the maker of those chips. Parks is running assault scenarios for the FBI. Harold comes to recruit her. Cooper's call interrupts Aram's presentation and the investor bolts. Reddington visits Dembe. Ressler refuses Harold's advances. Cooper's mission is to find the current Skinner. Red and his shamans show up at Harold's house. He offers the name of the previous Skinner, Vincent Duke. The trio stages an accident to separate Duke from his security. Raymond picks him up. Red convinces him to give up the name of his successor. Reddington watches Agnes from a distance. Ressler joins them on the flight to New York, replacing Aram. Aram crashes the investor's party to convince him. Cooper calls Aram to identify the man being followed, The Skinner's gang snatches the family. Red informs Harold that if he stays, it would wreck his newfound serenity. The team goes to visit Dembe. Ressler argues with Reddington to help them.