‘The Blacklist’: Red Takes Over Bank Robbery in Epic Opening Scene

The Blacklist marked the return of Raymond “Red” Reddington for another season with an epic opening scene involving a bank robbery.

Before diving into the season’s big mystery, coming off the reveal in the Season 5 finale that Red (James Spader) is actually an impostor who has been impersonating the real Reddington for decades, the NBC crime procedural reminded fans of the main character’s smarts when he stopped and took over the crime.

When bank robbers enter a bank and start to hold the employees and customers hostage, Red stands up claiming to be disappointed by their planning. He admits that he was at the bank doing recon for his own bank heist which was supposed to happen a few days later, but his plan had to be accelerated because of their interruption.

When the police arrive and the robbers find themselves stuck with massive amounts of cash and no way out, Red convinces them to follow his lead for 50 percent of their profits. Before they escape, he asks one of the tellers for a safety deposit box and he takes it with him and the robbers through a secret tunnel that leads to a nearby bar.

Red then drives a getaway truck with the criminals and their bag of money in the back. Red then purposefully hits a speed bump, leading the bag to fall and money flies out, piping the police off of their escape.

The criminals begin to shoot the police who are chasing the truck, and Red takes the opportunity to lower the truck bed and drop the criminals to the street so they can be arrested as he drives away.

Later, Red returns to the bank and gives the box he took to the teller, and opens it revealing it to be a previously stolen Van Gogh painting that had been believed to be lost for many years.

He returns the painting to the bank telling them to give it back to the arts community as an anonymous donation. When the teller asks him why he is returning what he stole, Red reveals that he is close to celebrating his 60th birthday and wanted to make sure he still “got it” by stealing it.

He then tells the teller that he believes that the next year will be a great one.

Season 6 of The Blacklist will see Liz Keen (Megan Boone) continuing to work with Red, despite her knowledge that he is an impostor and not really her father. Fans will have to wait and see before they find out how Red will react to his biggest secret yet being out in the open.

The Blacklist season premiere event will continue with its new timeslot debut airing Friday at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.