Like my intro post says, I've watched eight whole seasons of this show in the past. I'm having a great time following the story from the beginning, but sometimes after a show has a particularly intense moment or resolves a particularly heavy arc, I might want to talk about that within the context of the entire show - including future episodes.
So when I feel like hashing some shit out, I'm going to be making these SpoilerBomb posts.
Keep in mind - SpoilerBomb posts contain spoilers for the ENTIRE SHOW. Not "every episode that's been covered on this blog", but "every episode of this show that has ever been produced and aired over the span of this show's ten year run". At the very least, it covers the first eight seasons of the show. So if you haven't seen the entire show, treat the following Read More VERY CAUTIOUSLY - I will be talking about MAJOR spoilers for later seasons of the show.
This SpoilerBomb post will be going into the fan theory that got me to begin watching this show, as well as some general thoughts about where the show goes from here.
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Okay, so let's start with the juicy stuff.
What's this fan theory I keep talking about?
I began watching the show because I heard that the prevailing theory was that Raymond Reddington was actually someone impersonating the real Raymond Reddington, and the impersonator is actually Katarina Rostova - Elizabeth Keen's mother. Katarina got a sex change and a litany of surgeries to pass herself off as the real Raymond Reddington.
There are a lot of clues to this, and a lot more open-ended statements in these early episodes that conveniently tie back in with this theory. In episode 2, Liz asks Reddington who she is to him. Red's answer is that there's no way that Liz could begin to comprehend how difficult that question was to answer - under this theory, he's right. At the end of episode 10, Liz asks if Reddington is her father - and the question takes him aback, and he says "no". But in a later season, Liz gets a blood test that confirms that she's related to Reddington - before finding out that the real Raymond Reddington is dead.
And then there's the matter of how Reddington escapes Alexander Kirk, and there's a shot at the end of this season that holds up beautifully in regards to this theory - where we see Reddington's back, and it's covered in scar tissue from the fire that he and Liz were caught in.
As the show goes on, everyone who was in that burning house is eventually accounted for. Even Katarina Rostova is accounted for in the flesh, before it's stated that she was a paid asset who spent almost thirty years impersonating Rostova on the world stage - by the time season 8 rolls around, Reddington being Katarina Rostova is the only explanation that makes sense.
And I think that to some degree, this twist was planned from season one. Reddington's obvious attachment to Liz. The scar tissue on his back. The awkward roundabout way he has to dodge questions about his connection to Liz, outright stating that there's no simple answer to what seems like such a simple question on the surface. The degree of care and tenderness he holds for Sam, even after suffocating him - the scene after he smothers Sam is probably one of Red's most emotional moments up to that point. Reddington gave his own daughter over to Sam for him to raise, and putting him out of his misery is clearly an emotional ordeal for him after what Sam did for him and Liz.
So the obvious answer is that Red is Liz's father, but the real-life Reddington has been dead the whole time. Considering the DNA evidence, and how Reddington managed to escape from Alexander Kirk - which is just flat-out beyond impossible without a hail mary like Reddington being Kirk's lost love Katarina Rostova - and the burn scars on his back? I think it's a safe bet to say that Katarina Rostova became Raymond Reddington.
Reddington has tender moments with close male friends like Sam. Reddington has tumultuous, passionate physical relationships with beautiful women. He lives his life openly and freely, living in the margins of danger and darkness. And while he's tethered to Elizabeth Keen, and he wants her to be okay - transitioning to become Raymond Reddington gave Rostova some much-needed freedom from his roots as a Soviet spy.
There's so much internal richness to Raymond Reddington's character that this theory ascribes to him. It's extremely out of left field, and ultimately as a transgender character, Reddington is depicted very well - fulfilled, self-satisfied and always the most charming and comfortable person in the room. Reddington constantly steals the show.
Of course, being a dark, violent TV show about the criminal underworld, Reddington is also depicted as a master criminal and a murderer. But his reasons for working with the FBI, as tight-lipped as he may be about his ulterior motives, and his connection to Elizabeth Keen give him a lot of depth and complexity. He also exists in the same universe as The Stewmaker, Wujing, The Judge etc. etc. - chemical bombers and serial killers and child-marrying backwater cults; he's certainly done bad things to an untold amount of people, but he's certainly got more altruistic motives than - say - Hector Larcos, who had over a hundred people melted into goop to cover his tracks, subsequently denying all of his victim's families any closure over the deaths of their loved ones.
The fact that it was a VERY REAL POSSIBILITY that Raymond Reddington was a canonically transgender character exemplifying such an incredible twist in the story of Elizabeth Keen? That's why I began watching the show. And this fan theory - which I think the show ends up confirming? - is still a reason why I regard the show so fondly.
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On a different note, there's a part in one of my prior posts where I talk about Ruddiger joining Reddington's roster of revolving side characters. I list off Dembe, Luli and Grey as other close contemporaries that this new character is joining, and I say how great Reddington's side of the character roster is.
Of course, I knew that Luli and Grey were going to die in quick succession. It was just kinda funny to be like "wow look at all these strong supporting characters under Raymond Reddington, they make up such a team and I love them so much!" - then one of them gets their head exploded and the other one gets suffocated to death. I'm still sad to see Luli go, I really appreciated the characterisation she got in these early episodes even if she never quite got the spotlight she could have gotten - characters who are comfortable in Red's life are few and far between after Luli is killed, even if Reddington's bond with the task force continues to solidify.
Now that Mr. Kaplan has been introduced, the character I'm most looking forward to reappearing is Brimley. Marvin Gerard, too - god knows I'm gonna get a kick out of season 9.
