just for “fun”, which blacklist ending do you think is most likely: a) lizzington happens but bc it’s written by the same dudebros who gave us k2 it’s completely toxic b) lizzington happens and it’s great for two seconds but then red dies c) red and liz both die d) liz gets with ressler and red either dies or gets dad-zoned again, or e) ryan comes back for the final episode so tim can get the happily ever after he never deserved
god I wish I knew. By now I have literally zero expectations for anything and I just want it to be over. Please let season 8 be the last so we can all. move. the fuck. on. However, I want to comment on some possibilities and topics you touched on.
Lizzington:
First of all I don’t like defending Lizzington by claiming it’s a “non-toxic” ship (in general or even in comparison to others). Frankly, I hate that kind of language that’s been used for shipping lately where there’s this moral component added and a ship is only allowed to exist/happen if it’s 100% soft uwu healthy. We’re talking about the mastermind of the criminal underworld and a woman who burns people alive and dissolved someone’s corpse in acid. Like??? These two fictional characters are both completely fucked up and in my fantasy world where they are a romantic couple it is clear that they are both psychological trainwrecks. But trainwrecks that are good for each other, you know? That’s what I had hoped for when the show started and they baited the shit out of us with Lizzington - a dark romance where Liz was eventually giving in to her “dark impulses” and actually sides with Red (and not with Katarina “mother of the year” Rostova wtf???) and together they’d repair some of each others’ damaged selves while still being, you know... partners in crime. So basically what happened after Liz shot Tom Connolly and they went on the run together. THAT’S what I had expected from the show and what I wanted from this ship! But I have very little hope they will be able to turn the show around to give us that in the end. They’d have to rebuild Liz’s character from the ground first and there just ain’t no time (or competence) left for that.
K2:
The problem I had with K2 wasn’t the fact that Tom was a bad guy - I actually enjoyed the role he played in season 1 - but rather how the writers decided over night that he shall be redeemed now and we should all move on and collectively forget that he’s a wife beater and a murderer. See, there are a SHIT TON of parallels between Red and Tom and that could actually be really interesting to analyse through Lizzington goggles. So yeah... I don’t really know how to express this better other than saying: I don’t consider K2 a “toxic” ship because that’s anti rhetoric and I hate it and try not to think in that way. I don’t give a fuck about “toxic” ships. But I give a fuck when they are badly written. And K2 and Tim Koon’s character were terribly written after season 1 and his presence ultimately ruined the entire show in my opinion.
Red dying:
I am dead certain that Red will die. I have suspected this to be his destiny in the end for a loooong time, even way before he got that illness. I was more on the line of “he’ll get tragically gunned down in the street and die in Lizzy’s arms” but mystery illness seems to be the route tptb are going with now. (Also if they want to ~suBvErT eXPecTAtioNs~ by not making Raymond Reddington the no.1 on the blacklist then they are idiots who should never be allowed a job in television ever again!)
Liz dying:
nah, I don’t think that’s a likely outcome at all. it just doesn’t make sense for her character arc (if you can even call it that) and I think tptb know that.
Keenler:
*sigh* Lord give me strength! You know... if they had spent any reasonable amount of time during the past seven years to give Donald “proud member of the NRA” Ressler an ounce of character development and actually built that ship up in a meaningful way then I might be able to be cool with that potential outcome even if I don’t ship them. But I simply cannot ignore that for two and a half years Lizzington ticked off every romantic trope in the book; that both Red and Liz canonically love each other (one way or another). And Keenler had.... what? One chinese take out dinner on Liz’s birthday? I don’t care if people ship it, don’t get me wrong. To each their own. But if that’s what tptb decide to go with in season 8 then it will have no foundation whatsoever in the seven seasons prior, especially not compared to how big they made Lizzington out to be in the beginning. However, as already established: tptb are idiots so I wouldn’t be surprised if they actually go with Keenler.
Dad-zone:
Yeah, probably. The writers and media outlets just cannot stop referring to Red as a “parental figure” and it is so boring and annoying and stupid. But I fear tptb made up their mind on that in season 4 when they realised that Spader really isn’t getting younger. Unless they go FULL daddy kink (which they won’t) then Red will end up being stuck with the “father figure” label whether he wants it or not and it’ll make zero sense for his character and his relationship to Lizzy but they will paint it like it was always meant to be that way [fast cut to Lizzy’s sex dream and Red’s sex voice vibrating in our collective lap “What do you really want, Agent Keen?”].
Tim Tim the Koon coming back from the dead:
No fucking way. Honestly. No. That bitch is dead and done with and even a show as ridiculously inconsistend as TBL couldn’t find a way to bring that fucker back to life. NO!
So.... I don’t know how much “fun” that was to read, anon lol but there you go. Those are my nightmares thoughts and it actually felt good to get that rant out of my system.
