The Blacklist: What Are We Supposed To Believe?
Is that what we’re doing after 8 strong seasons of The Blacklist? For years, fans have sought the real identity of Raymond Reddington and now that the time has come for the truth to be told, the writers are painting a picture of Katarina Rostova as Red. Needless to say, fans are not happy.
While I’m not a huge fan of this possible reveal, it does make sense.
The clues have been there but to finally hear the story being told, puts everything under the spotlight. One example is Liz always asking if Reddington is her father, and his response never really provides a clear answer. Well, technically, he is and he’s not. The name is her father’s but the body could be her mother. Then you have the matching blood from Red’s shirt that could have traces of Katarina or Red’s blood.
But what really made me believe that she could be Reddington is his health. Fans just figured maybe it was old age. But now, it may be due to the medication from the sex change and other medical procedures. It’s a stretch but it does help connect the dots after “Nachalo”.
For years, Dembe has been trying to convince Reddington to tell Liz the truth and we never thought why it was so easy for Dembe to say that. Like if Red tells, wouldn’t that destroy it all? But what Dembe was saying was that Red should just say that he’s actually Katarina. That would ease the pain that Liz was carrying around.
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What about The Beach House in Cape May? In the flashback scene, Reddington went back to a house he was never seen at or talked about. But Katarina was there. Maybe those were her memories Red was having that episode not his. He saw Katarina on the beach but that was her reliving those moments.
Now we take into account the deaths.
Katarina or Red, whoever we’re talking about killed people that were close to exposing the secret. Some of the deaths made sense but the one that stung the most was Mr. Kaplan’s. But did Mr. Kaplan know the truth or did she just know most of the dark secrets but not the identity? When she was ready to expose it, Red/Katarina had no choice but to put a bullet in her head.
It was the same with Tom. He was getting too close and set to tell Liz so he also has to die. Everything was done to protect Liz and all that makes sense to a higher degree now.
A mother protecting her child is nothing new but this was a genius move by Katarina. Yes, fans will hate the fact of the whole sex change storyline but it does go to show there is no end as to what a parent will do to make sure their child is protected. By any means necessary is a term thrown around when speaking of love and protection but Katarina has done the ultimate.
With Liz leaving the show as a regular after this season, all this must be wrapped up. And to be fair, the reveal is not as bad as most are making it out to be. For me, I wanted a bit more. I wanted Red to be the real Red, not a medical procedure.
Katarina did what she had to do for her daughter. Fans will just have to get over it.
Mark has been covering Sports and Entertainment for the past six years. His work has been featured on Bleacher Report, ESPN, Fox Sports, Teen Vogue, and many other websites.
