Today, I explain why authorial intent doesn’t even need to play into determining the true identity of Red Reddington on the long-running (and recently finished) TV drama, The Blacklist.
Knowledge Waits is a feature where I just share some bit of pop culture history that interests me that doesn’t quite fit into the other features.
Spoiler Warning for 10 seasons of The Blacklist!
Recently, I did a post as part of my Cronin Theory of Pop Culture series about authorial intent, namely that while there’s nothing WRONG with it, it is not the final word on any subject. The topic came up because of a recent post by Daniel Knauf, a talented TV and comic book writer who was part of the writer’s room on The Blacklist early in the series’ run. Knauf confirmed that the intent of the writing staff on The Blacklist (specifically show creator and co-showrunner Jon Bokenkamp and John Eisendrath, co-showrunner for the first eight seasons, and then solo showrunner in the final two seasons) was that the Red Reddington (James Spader) that we followed on The Blacklist for ten seasons was born Katarina Rostova, the mother of Elizabeth Keen, the FBI agent who was the co-lead on the series with Reddington until her actor, Megan Boone, chose to leave after Season 8.
Now, as I noted earlier, Knauf “confirming” it, while interesting, doesn’t actually mean anything definitive. It all depends on what was put on the actual “page” (here, I guess “the screen”).
However, I mean, come the heck on, folks, they clearly revealed it on the screen, as well, just without ever having Reddington say the literal sentence, “I was born Katarina Rostova.” Any reasonable reading of the series tells you the same thing that Knauf said here, that Red was born Katarina Rostova. The arguments for that being the case are overwhelming, while the arguments against it are just some sloppy “drag out the mystery” lines from early in the series. Stacked against each other, it is so absurd to even consider it an actual debate anymore.
For many years, it WAS a legit debate, and believe you me, I think the idea that Katarina Rostova somehow got effectively magic plastic surgery to pass as a man four inches taller than her is obviously silly. The whole idea of it is silly. Not only that, with trans people already having to deal with so much nonsense in this world, having a character “become a man” as a disguise is borderline…if not offensive, it’s definitely an ill-considered idea. I hoped for years that it wouldn’t be the answer, but, well, come on, people, it’s obviously the answer.
The key clues over the course of the series are as follows:
1. Obviously, Liz is the child of the man who calls himself “Red Reddington.” There’s no doubt about that. The show has made that explicitly clear with far too many examples to list. Even people who still won’t concede that Red is Katarina will concede that Red is clearly Liz’s parent (and thus, Agnes’ grandparent). It’s just a question of whether Red is Liz’s birth father or birth mother.
2. Katarina Rostova’s husband, Constantin Rostov, later takes the name Alexander Kirk. Since Katarina gave birth to Liz (then called Masha) when married to Constantin, he was Liz’s legal father, and he believed that she was his biological daughter. In Season 4, that is proven to be untrue. He took multiple DNA tests that showed Liz was not his kid. Red gives himself up to Kirk to protect Liz, and Kirk asks Red if Liz is Red’s daughter. Red says yes. Kirk is going to kill Red when Red asks Kirk how he met Katarina. Kirk tells the story, and then Red whispers something into Kirk’s ear, and Kirk no longer wants to kill Red, and instead lets Red go. Obviously, Red explained to Kirk that he was actually Katarina. That was the first MAJOR clue.
3. One of the biggest episodes of the series in terms of filling in backstory was Season 4’s “Requiem,” which showed the life of Kathryn Nemec, the woman known as Mr. Kaplan, who betrayed Red in Season 3 to help Liz fake her death so that she could get away from Red. Red then shot her in the head in response. Kaplan survived, though, and tried to take Reddington down with her vast knowledge of his criminal empire, but also dug up some bones. Those bones were later proven to be the skeleton of the REAL Red Reddington. Kaplan wanted to prove to Liz that she couldn’t trust Reddington, as he wasn’t even the real Reddington. Before that point, though, we saw a long episode filled with flashbacks to Nemec becoming Kaplan, and we see that she was Liz’s nanny as a baby. Kaplan says that she put Liz in Red’s arms 30 years earlier, and in the flashbacks, we see that it was Katarina. Kaplan only dealt with Katarina until “Reddington” showed up, and Red tells Kaplan that he is not actually unfamiliar to her, and wants her to be his trusted advisor the same way she was to Katarina. Again, you can poke holes in errant dialogue here or there (like Kaplan referring to Red and Katarina distinctly at times), but this is blatant stuff here.
4. Dominic Wilkinson, the father of Katarina Rostova, and Red have clearly had dialogue throughout the series that only makes sense if Red is Katarina. At one point, they even had Dom imagine Red WAS Katarina when talking to a memory of her, where he tells her that she is N-13 (an intelligence asset who we learn Reddington is) AND that Reddington is N-13. There was only one N-13. Again, this stuff was as explicit as you can get.
5. Season 6’s “Rassvet” has Dominic explain to Liz precisely what happened to create the man we now know as Red Reddington. First, Katarina did not die (as had been hinted at earlier in the series), but instead Dom explains how Katarina had put a lot of money into accounts for Red Reddington to try to frame the Naval officer as a traitor. She then changed her mind, since Red was the father of her daughter, but her people killed him anyways (and framed him as a traitor), and Katarina was now on the run. In that episode, Dom says that Katarina’s longtime friend, Ilya Koslov, agreed to receive magic plastic surgery (one thing you have to remember is that in the world of The Blacklist, there’s lots of stupid science fiction stuff. Liz, for instance, had her memories literally erased TWICE on the show. So magic plastic surgery is both stupid, but within the boundaries of this ofttimes silly show), to become Reddington so that he could access the accounts, and that that money (and the intelligence from N-13) were used to form the criminal empire of Red Reddington, built to help protect Liz by making sure Reddington was powerful enough to always keep her safe. Okay, but then we later meet present day Ilya Koslov and, well, obviously, he did not become Reddington. So someone else had to, and, well, once more, come on, people!
6. Season 8’s “Nachalo” is the episode that came the closest to OUTRIGHT telling us without specifically having Reddington say “I am Katarina Rostova.” It opens with Red telling the story of Katarina, but as he begins to talk, his voice changes to Katarina, who becomes the narrator. He opens with, “To understand why I came into your life…” and then there is overlap with Red and Katarina talking, and it ends with her now speaking, “…you need to hear my story.” That whole episode was essentially “Red is Katarina!” without actually saying it. It got so detailed with various little things that I’m not even going to bother to list them all, but there are a lot.
7. Neville Townsend blamed Katarina Rostova for the death of his family, and he then blamed Red, but Red explained that he was right the first time. Townsend then wanted to kill Liz in front of Red, to make Red feel what Townsend felt (come onnnnn, people!)
8. Finally, Red gives Liz a letter from her mother that she is only to read AFTER she kills Red (it was part of a plan to protect her by having her take over Red’s criminal empire. To do so, she would have to murder Red in front of witnesses, so that people would believe she took over his empire in a coup). However, she seemingly is murdered before she reads it. In Season 9, though, we learn that Liz read it BEFORE she died (which amusingly really drove Red nuts), and she even told the details of the letter to her daughter, Agnes, who knows that Red is from Russia. One of the things people have clung to are Red’s various stories over the years about his life growing up in the Midwest, but those stories are obviously all BS, as he is not from America, he is from Russia, which Agnes confirms, and which fits tightly with the Katarina stuff.
The main defenses against Red being Katarina are various inconsistent statements over the years, especially early on, like Diane Fowler referencing that she knows what happened to Red’s family and Red being interested in that (it doesn’t make sense if Red is Katarina, but it also doesn’t make sense if Red is somehow the “real” Reddington, which is really the only other possible argument left for people who say that Reddington isn’t Katarina). And I’ll certainly admit, there are a number of weird lines like that one that don’t quite fit. But when everything else is overwhelmingly saying X for ten seasons, having a handful of minor things saying Y here and there just can’t reasonably be used to disprove the mountain of evidence that Red is Katarina. Ultimately, the objections to Red as Katarina end up a bit like gish gollop, lots of little minor inconsistencies thrown together as if it means a lot, while the Red as Katarina confirmation stuff are all major plot points that have whole episodes devoted to them. Like gish gallop, you’re wasting your time trying to come up with explanations for all of the minor inconsistencies. You have to just concede that the writers screwed up with some of the early dialogue. If you want to try to No-Prize them away, go for it, but I don’t think it’s particularly worth it.
The only reasonable reading of The Blacklist is that Red Reddington was once Katarina Rostova, even though the idea is pretty silly. That it is also the intent of the show’s writers is interesting information to have, but not dispositive – what we saw on the screen for ten seasons, though, was.
If anyone has any pop culture bit that you’d like me to discuss, drop me a line at brian@poprefs.com
The writers must’ve started out with the story that he is Raymond Reddington and something happened to his family and Elizabeth is also his daughter but then changed at some point to him actually being Katarina. You can go back and watch season 1. When they go back to his old house the scene is very powerful. The way he touches the rail by the stairs and checks for where he measured the heights of his young daughter. He also says “I raised my family in this house”. Raising a family is not coming by and watching the kids every now and then like they show Katarina doing when they reveal he is Katarina at the end of season 8. There are several other instances early in the show that are consistent with this story. I really am still curious as to what would’ve happened if they continued on this storyline. I really would’ve liked to find out what happened to his family. It would have also been waaaaaayyyy cooler if somehow they still took us on this mystery as to his true identity but then he ended up still actually being the real Reddington. I liked that he was American and a man and a Naval Intelligence officer. That character was really cool to me and it’s extremely disappointing for a great show to effectively end like that. 🫤
You are subsidizing authorial intent by your own conclusion. Bad writing changing storyline! Red’s intent all along was not to protect Liz but to expose her to his world through manipulation.
when dom captured by fake katarina, why dom not know it, if he knew red is katarina, 😂
I still think he was the real Reddington because of the burns all over his back they showed in a early episode. Liz said she left her father shot lying on his back in the fire when she was young…. explains the burn marks.
You pretty much covered all the evidence. Though I completely disagree the concept was silly. It was brilliant and a unique concept that set this show apart from the others. Kudos to the showrunners, the writers, and entire cast and crew for giving us this wonderful show. Bravo!
I have always said one of the biggest clues in the series was that episode Red whispered something into Kirk’s ear and Kirk, right there and then, withdrew from killing red. He would have no intention not to kill whoever Red was, except he was Katarina.
Also, the series was very good with their words for those that were following literally and distinctly.
Liz, very early in the series, maybe season 2 or 3 but I am not sure, asked Red if he was her father and Raymond said ‘No’. Later in the series, Liz told Raymond that he has always lied to her, but Raymond replied that ‘He had never lied to her, but only withheld from her’.
It is as easy as it gets, if he said he had never lied to her, it meant when he said he wasn’t her father, then he wasn’t. So all hope on Raymond being the real Raymond is off and done for.
To me, in the enter series, there can probably be only two major assumptions; either Raymond was Katarina or the real Raymond Reddington, but the series had distinctly, yet quietly said he wasn’t the Real Raymond.
And that made the other assumption, was I think was proven, intact; Raymond is Katarina.
The more people talk about the show, the more I fall in love with it. You can’t completely understand the show with a blear thinking. You need to think deep and bring yourself out of the Blacklisted box in order to understand the show.
In conclusion, Red was Katarina
I don’t think that the idea of Red really being Katarina is silly. It’s a fictional story and a damn good one! Suspend your disbelief and enjoy it!
Reddington was definitely Katarina. The first big indication is in an episode no one seems to be talking about which is Cape May S3 E19. Red is stricken with grief after he thinks Liz is dead and he is alone at some beach except for an old beachcomber. Then we are led to believe Red hallucinates Katarina in the traditional sense but not so.
First Big Clue
Woman: Nothing about you is obvious. What brought you here?
Red: I honestly don’t know.
Woman: You’ve been here before.
Red: Once, a long time ago. I was a very different person then. You?
Second Big Clue
Red: You said you lost someone. Harsh words were spoken. Words you regret.
Woman: I was out of my mind. There was no one. Just me.
Red: You don’t have to lie.
Woman: Neither do you. You’re no hungrier than I am. You’re not enjoying a single bite of that.
Red: I told you this is….
Woman: Superb. The quality of the cooking is wholly irrelevant in this case, isn’t it? Given the circumstances.
Red: And those are?
Woman: You tell me. Tell yourself. Say it out loud.
Third Big Clue
Woman: You still have time to go.
Red: I don’t know your name.
Woman: Don’t be ridiculous, Raymond.
That is a really big clue. Red never tells her his name. She hears the cop thanking “Mr. Donnelly” yet she knows his name is Raymond and even stranger he does not really react to this presentation of knowledge a stranger would not possess.
Fourth Big Clue
When he is “fighting” the intruders and Katarina says to him “behind you” to warn Red of an enemy at his back. Later in the episode it shows Red saying “behind you” to himself. This tells us that the woman he was seeing is literally being acted out by himself from within himself.
This episode provides a lot of arrows and combined with all the other clues in other episodes there can be no doubt in my view. It would also explain why Red was so obsessed with Liz not finding out who he really was even though it is clear he has some huge attachment to her.
If the criminal underworld found out he was not Raymond but in fact Katarina then obviously things would get very awkward for him. It is clear and in my mind beyond all doubt that Red was Katarina Rostova. She changed gender to take the dead Reddington’s identity and throw off her pursuers while protecting Liz aka Masha.
In the next episode Red goes to Liz’s grandfather.
You have no right to go through her things.
And that’s my coat!
I was just imagining
young Katarina covered in glitter.
As an adult, it’s easy
to dismiss this stuff
as girlish frivolity.
You forget the wonder it creates,
the light captured, secret wishes evoked.
It renders even the darkest days sparkly.
Never underestimate the power of glitter.
Stop it.
Stop what?
Stop… torturing me.
That was never my intention.
Then what are you doing out here?
These boxes are all I have…
all I have left of my daughter.
I’m sorry, Dom. I understand.
No, you don’t. You don’t understand.
You think because Masha’s dead,
now you… you can understand me?
You can… you can share my misery?
I feel bereft, just like you.
No, not just like me.
She’s gone because of choices
you made for both of them.
First Katarina and then Masha.
As far as I’m concerned, you
killed my entire family!
No, you’re not like me.
This conversation takes on a whole disguised meaning when considered through the knowledge Red is Katarina.
It all fits.
Good addition, Alex, thanks! Yep, Red really was clearly Katarina.
Just one issue I have: Katarina really existed and was a woman, Red, whoever he really is, is a man. How do you get around this?
Katarina became Red, so there no longer IS a Katarina anymore, just Red.
There are a lot of clues in the series about red being Katarina but some things shows us that the clues were something that we won’t be able to figure out. Cape may and last episode of S8 hints that red is Katarina. Even in a conversation between Illya and Red they said something like they were childhood friends. I’m not sure which episode. And Dom telling to fake Katarina that Katarina took the archives but Red has it. But fake Katarina kinda ruined some clues.
Wasn’t Dembe, Kalpan, Dom some of the people who knew Red’s identity. If Dom knew Red is Katarina then why he didn’t know that the woman was fake Katarina? Why was he acting like he is talking to real Katarina? Even in an episode Red asked Dom like what would he do if Katarina was standing in front of him. I’m not sure which episode it is. Dom replied to Red that it doesn’t matter, Katrina is not here. Is is a major clue of Red not being Katarina if Dom knew Red’s secret.
Why would Kaplan betray Red if Kaplan knew he is Katarina? Red is Liz’s mother. She was talking like she promised Katarina that she would protect Liz at all costs. And she was keeping it with her heart. Katarina told her to keep this promise and that promise got against her. This doesn’t make sense. And when Kaplan was taking the duffel bag of bones she was saying “I’m sorry Katarina”. Like, why then? Why she didn’t say it when she betrayed Red.
There was an episode where Red’s DNA was tested which came out as no match to Liz or Agnes. So he’s neither Reddington or Katarina.
In the end, I think show became such that the writers can even make a link to Red as Katarina or someone else. That’s why they kept it a mystery throughout the series.
None of Dom’s dialogue suggests that he thinks Fake Katarina is Katarina. There’s just lots of double speak. You know, saying “My daughter,” but not making it clear who he is talking about, stuff like that.
She promised Katarina that she would protect Liz at all costs, even from Katarina/Red.
Liz did do a DNA test on Red, but she never looked at the results. There was never a DNA test that said Red had no match with Liz or Agnes.