#impostor red

[chaos-doodles-shit]

Can’t believe I never posted this but here’s the design I’ve been using for all of my Imp!Red and Imp!Blue fanfics and doodles 🥹

[julirette]

Angel & Demon✨ Early Halloween fanart~

[miss-musings]

Impostor!Red and Katarina Rostova

At this point, I am 100% sure that the bones in the suitcase are the real Raymond Reddington and that our Red is an impostor. It would explain a lot, including why Ian Garvey believes he has power over Red with the bones and made the remark that “Reddington’s power is legendary.”

I’m less sure of the “Our Red was once the Rostov’s chauffeur” theory, but it does make a lot of sense. Our Red knew of Constantin’s comings and goings, had worked with Katarina based on their teamwork in Cape May, and was familiar to Kate (Mr Kaplan).

After rewatching the scene where Kirk tortures Red in 4x08... before Kirk kills him, Red asks Kirk to tell him about Katarina bc he’s forgotten who she really was over the years. After doing so, Kirk goes in to kill Red and then Red whispers something to him that makes him stop.

With the Impostor Red theory going around, I figured he said something like, “I’m not the real Raymond Reddington.” And I think he did, to some degree, but I also think Red probably told Kirk who he REALLY is (or was), because then Kirk would recognize him and know that it was true. A “Hey, I’m actually John Smith, your old chauffeur; I’m not the real RR,” would explain 1) why Kirk stops and 2) why he gives Red such a dumbfounded look. After 30 years and plastic surgery, he probably wouldn’t recognize Red as his old chauffeur or whatever, but now, he does! And that’s why he stops, because he can SEE the truth of Red’s illusion for himself.

Also, another thing I wondered about after rewatching these scenes from 4x08, was whether Red once had a platonic relationship with Katarina the way he now does with Dembe.

He drove Katarina around, became a trusted friend and ally in a fight, had her back, etc. We know from Cape May and Liz’s memory in 2x10 that Red and Katarina had done ops together before, although it’s hard to say how often. The way Red talks about Katarina... it’s obvious he knew her personally, and cared about her, but he likely didn’t see her romantically. Red was happily married with a kid of his own, as far as we know, and we know that Red values loyalty above all else. Maybe he found Katarina intriguing and alluring after working around her so much and so closely, but I don’t think he was in love with her. She was probably just a good friend and ally, and also an assignment for him, as he was definitely in Naval intelligence (or something similar), along with the REAL Raymond Reddington.

Thought I’d just throw that out there. Thoughts?

[miss-musings]

Because I’m pro-Lizzington, and pro-Impostor!Red, and I’m not letting this whole “Daddy!Red” ~relevation~ thing go.

[miss-musings]

The Impostor!Red Theory is basically confirmed

All props to @eaglechica19 for her original theory. Go check it out. (PS - don’t open this up on mobile; it will crash the app.)

Along with @reddybear56, I too believe in the Impostor!Red theory more than ever, thanks to last night’s finale. This is the only way to reconcile the inconsistencies that Raymond Reddington is Liz’s dad but our Red is not, and has never lied to her. I think more stuff in S4 only further confirmed this.

(To clarify, when I say ‘Raymond Reddington,’ I mean Liz’s biological father who died the Night of the Fire; and ‘our Red’ means James Spader’s character who was introduced to us in the pilot episode.) 

Operating under the assumptions (as TPTB said multiple times) that Red never lies to Liz and that the Liz-Paternity question was answered in last night’s episode, this can only mean that our Red is an impostor.

Unless the DNA test was tampered with, or the sample from the shirt belonged to someone else, that’s the only way both of the aforementioned ‘assumptions,’ which TPTB have confirmed, can be true.

If I may, @eaglechica19, summarize your original theory just so I can write it out, streamlined, in front of me. Perhaps this will help other people too. Really, I think a lot of confirmation for the theory came from S4c.

(Again: Raymond Reddington = character before the Night of the Fire; and our Red = James Spader’s character)

According to Kaplan’s memories and Katarina’s diary, Katarina had an affair with an American named Raymond Reddington

In Kaplan’s flashbacks, we see Katarina having sex with Raymond Reddington in a car (or at least, that’s who she tells us it is), and we get a quick glimpse of him; he appears to be played by a different actor and not James Spader. However, when Kaplan meets “Raymond Reddington” later in the shadows – which, chronologically, was maybe a year after the Night of the Fire – he IS played by James Spader 

Again, in Kaplan’s flashbacks, we find out that Raymond Reddington believes Liz/Masha is his kid and abducts her, forcing Katarina to follow him to America, leading to the famous Night of the Fire

In Liz’s flashbacks in 2x10, we hear her mother arguing with “Raymond” about Liz/Masha and the Fulcrum

Thanks to Liz’s memories and Red’s scars, we know that our Red was there the Night of the Fire; Red’s conversation with Ghost!Katarina confirms that he chose to save Masha rather than Katarina, confirming that, at the very least, he was in their lives at this point in time

In the S2 finale, Liz remembers shooting and killing her father when he and her mother argued the Night of the Fire; Red confirms that her father is dead and, per TPTB, Red does not lie to Liz

Based on all this evidence, we know FOR SURE of four people who were there the night of the fire: Liz’s biological father, who is Raymond Reddington according to the DNA test; Katarina; Liz/Masha; and our Red. Liz’s father died from the gunshot wound and his body was likely still in the house when it burned down.

Kirk is like super-convinced that “Raymond Reddington” had a thing with/for Katarina; once Kirk finds out he himself is not Liz’s/Masha’s father, he automatically wonders whether “Raymond Reddington” is

The real Raymond Reddington being Liz/Masha’s dead father, yet our Red being alive only makes sense under the Impostor!Red theory

Again, all props to @eaglechica19 for her very hard work on this theory, and all the additions she’s made in these past few episodes.

Unless the writers have lied to us, or have changed their minds, this is the only thing that makes sense.

[analog-machine]

More contributions;

For those of you into Among Us, I’ve decided that I’m going to start on a series (titled “Impostor Red”) based within the universe (loosely, since there’s not much lore there that I can see).  While I will post chapterly update links (and I will be continuing fiddling with Brave Arms, for those of you who are into the Ace Combat series, no worries), you’ll need to keep an eye open for links to my AO3, because I’m not posting the actual chapters here solely for organization purposes.