A new promo for "The Blacklist: Redemption" spin-off may have revealed the real reason why Tom Keen (Ryan Eggold) left Elizabeth's (Megan Boone) world. It has something to do with his biological father, Howard (Terry O'Quinn).

James Spader's Red will not be the one pulling the strings in the spin-off, though he certainly has a vital presence in the upcoming series. The spin-off brings together the criminals in Red's infamous list as they try to redeem themselves by establishing an elite mercenary team.

Tom chooses to be part of the group led by Susan "Scottie" Hargrave (Famke Janssen), who turns out to be his biological mother. The team also involves Tom's archenemy, the deadly assassin Matias Solomon (Edi Gathegi). Tom's first case under Scottie's leadership involves a kidnapped CIA agent, TV Fanatic reported.

Howard is said to have died in a plane crash, but the new "The Blacklist: Redemption" promo revealed that he is alive and well and he has a job for his son. Howard begs Tom to enlist himself in Scottie's team so he can keep an eye on her for him.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Tom's double agent status in Scottie's company might mean that she made an attempt on Howard's life decades ago, thus the false plane crash death. Howard will use his own son to get to the bottom of things.

However, the real question in this is whether Tom can trust his parents or not. Tom was kidnapped from his parents when he was just three years old, but there might be something more to that story. Red, on the other hand, wants Tom to stay away from Scottie because of his wife and child. But this could also mean that Red knows something about Scottie that he wants to keep from Tom.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Janssen said that Scottie is "a woman with a lot of layers" and those will be unraveled as time goes by. Scottie treats her son's disappearance as "the biggest mystery in her life" and that event defined her in so many ways.

Photos from the pilot episode showed Tom getting a mysterious phone call, prompting him to leave his baby daughter, Agnes, to a sitter. He was shown talking to someone on a payphone, suggesting that the whole thing is a sensitive manner and is unsafe to talk about on a cell phone. Check out the images over on TV Fanatic.

"The Blacklist: Redemption" also stars Tawny Cypress and Adrian Martinez. The spin-off airs on Thursday, Feb. 23 on NBC at 10/9c.

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Topics Ryan Eggold, James Spader, NBC