[Warning: This post contains spoilers for Wednesday’s episode of “The Blacklist.”]
“The Blacklist” returned with a new episode this week, an hour that revealed almost the entire backstory of Raymond “Red” Reddington [James Spader] and Elizabeth Keene’s [Megan Boone] relationship. We say almost, because the installment, titled “Nachalo,” ends before Liz can get the answer to exactly who Red is — though it’s pretty much guaranteed that reveal will come on next week’s Season 8 finale.
The big truths we do have by the end of the hour are that Liz’s mother, Katarina Rostova, is still alive — because the now-dead woman Liz thought was Katarina Rostova [played by Laila Robins] is not Katarina Rostova. And we’re left with some big clues as to who Red really is, though not an outright answer.
During Wednesday’s “The Blacklist,” Red, who revealed to Liz in the previous episode that he is in fact N-13, the elusive spy she’s been hunting this entire season, brings Liz inside the “epicenter” of his operation in Latvia and begins to tell her the story, the true story, of her life and how he came into it.
Through black-and-white scenes featuring multiple “Blacklist” characters we know and love telling us the story, Liz is given a detailed explanation of how her then-married mother, Katarina Rostova [Lotte Verbeek], became a spy and struck up a relationship with her father, the real Raymond Reddington, to gather intelligence on the U.S. operative at the request of Dom, Katarina’s father, and the KGB.
She became pregnant with Liz [real name Masha Rostova] and let her husband, Constantine Rostov, believe the child was his, while continuing on with her relationship with Raymond, who was also married and had another child. Eventually, Raymond realized Katarina was spying on him while he was also spying on her. Things took a dark turn on the night of the infamous, yet mysterious fire, during which a very young Liz shot and killed her father, who was in a fight with Katarina, as she had come to take Liz.
It’s revealed that the woman we believed to be the present-day, now-deceased Katarina Rostova [played by Laila Robins], is actually a woman named Tatiana Petrova, the person who was tasked by Ilya Koslov and Dom with taking over her identity so the real Katarina could go into hiding to keep herself and Liz safe, sending the little girl off to live with Sam, who becomes her adoptive father.
But the real Katarina knew that Sam wouldn’t be able to protect Liz forever on his own, so she “created” and “constructed” a new Raymond Reddington, because the U.S. government — and the rest of the world — never found out he had died, and this version of Red was one Katarina could control would be able to watch over Liz.
“What does that mean, constructed?” Liz asks the storyteller version of her mother, who says, “It meant a complete transformation,” as a scene of a surgery is shown, while James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s World” plays.
Then this new version of Red is seen picking up 13 packets of classified KGB intelligence from Ivan Stepanov, part of the plan that would allow him to pose as the real Raymond Reddington, a man who was known for having extensive secret intelligence, and expand his intelligence network — a.k.a. the Blacklist — as a way to secure Liz’s safety.
Meanwhile, Tatiana was trying to figure out where the real Katarina was in order to get her own life back, and she tried to get close to Liz and told her she was her mother Katarina, in a long con to get the location of the real Katarina out of Red. This instead got Tatiana dead at Red’s hand.
Liz says to the imaginary black-and-white version of her mother telling the story, “Now we have the why, now I want the who. Who is he? Who became Reddington? And where have you gone? You are my mother, but you let someone else watch over me, let me believe you were dead, but you are living. Where are you?”
As Liz is demanding these answers, the black-and-white story is receding as shouts and shots ring out in the real location they have been this whole time, Red’s “epicenter,” which is being stormed by Neville Townsend. Liz loses her mother’s face in her mind as she hears Red’s voice shouting at her while she keeps demanding to know who he really is. The scene is done in such a way that it strongly implies Katarina is the one who became Raymond Reddington.
Then, Liz gets shot.
Red and Dembe take Liz down into a bunker and block the hatch to protect them all from Townsend, who says Liz tipped him off to their location in order to gain her freedom by allowing him to kill Red as revenge for what Red did to Townsend’s family. The episode ends with Red pressing a button that puts the entire epicenter of his intelligence up in flames, both killing Townsend and destroying his decades of collected intelligence.
But we still don’t have confirmation of who Red is, even though Katarina becoming Red is a definite possibility at this point, so it’s likely that piece of the puzzle will be revealed on next week’s Season 8 finale.
As TheWrap previously reported, that episode is expected to feature the conclusion of Liz’s storyline and will be the last to feature Boone, who is exiting “The Blacklist,” as a series regular. The show has already been renewed for Season 9.
The Season 8 finale of “The Blacklist” airs next Wednesday at 10/9c on NBC.
Thus far in the show’s sophomore season, each name on The Blacklist has been more intrinsically linked to Liz and Red than the name that preceded it.
And on Monday’s fall finale, that pattern came to a head as Red and the FBI task force hunted down No. 12 on the list — “The Decembrist” — who also happened to be the man responsible for Red’s longstanding conflict with Berlin.
The NBC drama’s latest installment — its last until Super Bowl Sunday — answered a whole slew of questions that have remained open-ended since May. But what would The Blacklist be without a few new cliffhangers? Before we get your thoughts on the episode, let’s briefly recap the queries that were solved throughout Monday’s pivotal hour.
WHO’S RESPONSIBLE FOR BERLIN’S VENDETTA AGAINST RED? | That would be Alan Fitch, Red’s superior and assistant director of national intelligence [whose portrayer, Alan Alda, seems contractually obligated to appear in only these anxiety-inducing finale episodes]. At the start of the episode — which picks up with last week’s Red/Berlin/Zoe standoff — Red learns that Berlin’s life was threatened during a bombing in Kursk, Russia, many years ago. A bombing that killed 15 of Berlin’s associates, no less. The man who ordered the explosion — known as The Decembrist — was also responsible for faking the death of Berlin’s daughter, a feat that Berlin has attributed to Red for all these years.
Red and Berlin initially track down Russia’s finance minister, believing him to be The Decembrist, but the man quickly informs them [before suffering a fatal gunshot wound] that it was an American who ordered the bombing in Kursk. That American? None other than Fitch, who Berlin vows to track down and kill. And that he does! Berlin’s men kidnap Fitch and fashion a high-tech collar around his neck that’s housing a sensitive bomb. And although the task force is able to locate Fitch — more on that in a minute — and attempt to deactivate the bomb around his neck, Fitch realizes it’s a lost cause and requests that all attempts to save his life are ceased. Even Red is unable to get the deactivation method out of Berlin. So, just as Fitch begins telling Red of an important safe he’s got in Saint Petersburg, the bomb detonates and Fitch’s cranium goes ka-boom! as Red somberly watches.
WHAT BECOMES OF BERLIN? | Though Red and Berlin flip-flop between being allies and enemies all night, it seems Red’s use for Berlin expires following Fitch’s death. Not only does Red ensure Zoe a one-way ticket out of town, but Red ultimately decides to off Berlin altogether. The two conclude their day with vodka shot after vodka shot, and just as Berlin gets sentimental about his childhood, Red takes out his pistol and puts four fatal bullet holes in his adversary’s chest. And that’s the end of that.
WHO IS THE GIRL IN BERLIN’S LOCKET? | Ever since the FBI took down the Stewmaker last season, we’ve been left wondering about the correlation between his photo of a young girl, and the same photo placed in a locket in Berlin’s possession. As Red describes to Fitch midway through the episode, the girl came to the Stewmaker many years prior, saying she was in trouble and needed to “disappear.” The Stewmaker took her photo, placed it in a locket and sent the memento to Berlin, who went on for years believing his daughter — the girl in the photograph — was dead. Mystery: solved! [Well, as much as mysteries can be on this show.]
WHAT HAPPENS TO TOM? | In a series of flashbacks at the start of the episode, we see that Liz was unable to go through with killing Tom four months ago, instead choosing to get him off-the-record medical help and shackle him onto the boat. But the associate guarding Liz’s boat is becoming increasingly wary of the prisoner on board — even moreso after the port’s harbormaster finds Tom chained to the wall and complicates an already-messy situation. Ultimately, Liz decides to let Tom go if he clues her in to Fitch’s whereabouts. He does, and walks off a free man — but not before he and Ressler can exchange threatening words that not-so-subtly hint at a mutual affection for Liz. “What are you, her boyfriend?” Tom spits at the agent, which earns him a half-hearted shove from Ressler. Shall we move this to the wrestling ring and advertise it on Pay-Per-View, gentlemen?
Unfortunately, there’s no time for that. Tom walks out of Liz’s life for good after offering up that last bit of intel — but we see him once more, at the end of the episode, sitting across a table from none other than Red. Tom eagerly accepts a thick envelope full of cash and before he exits, Red reinforces, “You are never to see her again.” [Which, as a TV viewer, I translate to mean, “You won’t see Ryan Eggold for a while after this episode, audience members.” Say it ain’t so!] And just before he leaves, Tom looks Red squarely in the eye and says, “For what it’s worth, I was tied up for four months on that ship, and I never told her about us. Not one word.”
So… how many days until Super Bowl Sunday?! [NFL fans, I’m counting on you for the answer to this one.]
Parting thoughts:
* Despite his sliminess, did you not feel a twinge of sympathy for Berlin as he confessed to Zoe, “I don’t know how to talk to someone like you. I know you have your life, but I just want you to stay a little longer”?
* Do you feel weirdly empty now that Berlin’s arc is essentially finished?
* Do you prefer hipster-bearded Tom or lightly stubbled Tom?
* Where was Samar Navabi this whole time?
OK, your turn. What did you think of the fall finale? Grade the episode via our poll below, then hit the comments to back up your choice!
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