#jon eisendrath

[forevermytom]

Season 1 featurette, The Blacklist

[alyblacklist]

'The Blacklist' bosses on those surprise returns and happy reunions in the season 6 finale

'The Blacklist' bosses discuss season finale's surprise returns and shocking twists.

Excerpts:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Let’s start with Katarina. Why bring her back into the story in the flesh and what is it going to be like after everything’s she been through? That was quite the introduction! JON BOKENKAMP: Katarina is a character that is very much part of the DNA of the show. We met her a number of other times, played by Lotte Verbeek, as this very crafty, sort of dangerous spy and we have also been talking about her a lot this season. We’ve sort of been platforming this moment, building to it. Liz wanting to know what really happened to her mother. Hearing Dom’s story about how Katarina walked out of the water and did not die at Cape May as we had previously believed. And so, we’ve been talking about Katarina a lot this season. The characters have been sort of circling her, they’ve all been in her orbit and it just felt like a great moment, an unexpected moment really, especially after Red has just told Liz that Katerina is not a danger to Agnes.  So, I think it’s finally time for us to meet, in the flesh, the present-day version of Katarina Rostova and I think she’s an enigma. I think she’s a very mysterious, powerful, formidable person as seen in just a very brief moment that we saw her in at the end of season 6. So, that’s a promise of what is to come for season 7 and I think there’s a great momentum going into next season.

Katarina has Red! How concerned should we be about his safety? JOHN EISENDRATH: It’s always fun to see how Red sort of tries to wiggle himself out of these dangerous situations and this will be a seismic one. However, I think just the mere fact that Katarina is there and has betrayed him and what she represents, I think is probably far more dangerous than the physical peril that Red’s in at the end of season 6.

Speaking of Liz’s family, Agnes is back. Are we going to see more of Liz as a mother? Or will Katarina or something else she’s unaware of ruin their time together? EISENDRATH: Katarina’s presence will definitely impact Liz and Liz’s family life. In terms of how it impacts them going forward, we have yet to completely figure out, to be completely honest.

The Blacklist is a show at its core about a parent-child relationship. That’s Red relationship to Liz and now Katarina’s relationship to Liz and Liz’s relationship with her own child. Ultimately the decisions Liz makes regarding her own family are definitely going to be colored by the experience she has with both Red and Katarina.