Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Season 4 continues the fight over Elizabeth Keen after Alexander Kirk abducts her and claims to be her father. Red and the FBI task force race to reach Liz, while she weighs Kirk's story and the family history he offers. The danger shifts when Liz returns to the team: Kirk's illness gives him a desperate reason to seek a cure, and Red's actions make clear that he will use the Blacklist and his criminal contacts to stop Kirk from taking Liz away.
Away from the family dispute, Tom investigates the gaps in his own childhood, while Red's organization comes under pressure from an enemy who knows its weak points. Mr. Kaplan, Red's longtime cleaner, breaks with him over the way he endangers Liz and Agnes. She survives the gunshot Red fires at her, then builds a campaign against his empire, dismantling accounts and helping investigator Julian Gale pursue the task force. Ressler's effort to contain Gale also exposes the cost of the team's secret arrangement with Red.
In the two-part finale, Red blocks Kaplan's attempt to hand evidence to Gale and uses proof that Laurel Hitchin murdered Reven Wright to stop the investigation. Cornered by Red and the police on a bridge, Kaplan urges him to tell Liz the truth about a suitcase she found, then jumps into the water; the episode presents this as her suicide. Cooper gives Liz a DNA result based on Red's old evidence sample, and it identifies Red as her father. That test appears to settle the question in this season, while the suitcase contains human bones whose identity remains unknown. Tom retrieves it under Kaplan’s instructions.