The Blacklist Season 2 will see regular appearances of Mary-Louise Parker, who is better known for her leading role in Weeds. Krysten Ritter will join Parker on the show.
According to TV Fanatic, Parker will play Naomi Hyland, a "beautiful and strong woman who has been hiding a dark secret from her husband." Ritter is coming onboard as a disturbed analyst working for a data security company.
This news was confirmed last week at the San Diego Comic-Con during the official Blacklist panel. Blacklist producer Jon Bokenkamp vaguely hinted that the character Hyland will have ties to protagonist Raymond "Red" Reddington (James Spader).
Reddington is a former government agent who was at one point on the FBI's most wanted list. He surrenders to the authorities after compiling a long list of global criminals -- most of whom are secret even to the FBI.
As a condition for his cooperation, Red will only work with novice FBI profiler Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone). His intentions remain a mystery throughout the first season, and may be explored in upcoming episodes.
During Comic-Con, Entertainment Weekly confirmed that the show will start immediately after the so-called Berlin plotline.
In the second to last episode of Season 1, it is revealed that Elizabeth's husband Tom actually works for the spymaster named "Berlin". Elizabeth shoots and kills Tom during a scuffle in the Season Finale. Just before he dies, Tom tells Elizabeth that her father is still alive.
Red does not believe this, insisting that Elizabeth's father died in a fire. Raymond was apparently responsible for her father's death. Berlin is later shown possessing a pocket watch with the picture of a little girl. It turns out that Red has the same picture too, implying a prior connection with Berlin.
Season 2 of The Blacklist will premiere on Monday, Sept. 22 at 10pm on NBC.
