Hi, I'm watching The Blacklist, binging it actually, and I was wondering.. does the FBI travel all over the world like they do? Belarus, Syria, Japan, I thought this was the purview of the CIA?

Please, I am but a humble Canadian, curious indeed about this thing....

The three people pictured are my Poppi, Nana, and mother. In my opinion, this picture reminds me of Red, Katarina, and Masha... and for two reasons.

One: my grandparents sort of look like they could've been spies lol, or at least know more than they should. And my mother has a resemblance to little Masha imo.

Two: my Poppi worked for the DoD and my Nana was in the Army. Nana had a child she was forced to put up for adoption before she ever met my Poppi and raised my mother together. Both had jobs where they couldn't say what they did for a living.

Idk I just found this picture yesterday while visiting my mom for the holidays. Happy new year everyone!

If red is Katrina and if Ilya and dom made a fake Katrina then who is the Katrina we see in seasons 7 and 8?? Someone please help me understand what the hell is going on. Ps. I’m watching the show for the second time.

From the standpoint of verisimilitude, Samar’s role in the show makes even less sense than the Beetle Assassin — it’s nearly as unbelievable as Dembe Zuma getting through an FBI background check because Panabaker and Cooper “pull some strings.” On our Earth, the US would never second an officer of another country’s foreign intelligence to a classified FBI task force as a general-purpose team member — let alone abide her playing hit woman on her weekends off. They would probably even restrict a Shin Bet or MI5 officer to a specific time period for a specific purpose. Israel would not make a foreign Muslim refugee a Mossad officer in the first place. And surely even on Blacklist Earth, Samar Navabi is not the first intelligence officer to get dementia — spies get old and get old-people diseases. Can you imagine what it would do to recruitment numbers if a service bumped off every retiree, contractor or grandee whose brain starts plaque-ing over?

“Pay’s good, you’re eligible for overtime and potential hazard pay, plus medical, vision and believe it or not, our dental plan doesn’t suck.”

“Sweet. What about retirement benefits?”

“…”

“…”

“Kind of good and bad?”

Given that, my question becomes what story values are served by Samar’s fictional background? We have plenty of Muslim and Muslim-Jewish women in America who could be, you know, “really tall” on the task force. She could have the same ethnic background and have been sent over from CIA to replace Malik. That would give her and Aram the same shared perspective on anti-Muslim bias in the institutions they work for. Is there some thematic point or Blacklist-puzzle-piece function to her being a foreign national and specifically Israeli that I’m just not seeing? Would a less ridiculous reason for her to have to disappear not have served as well?

EDIT: Removed a bit about Samar returning in S10 because I misremembered a summary from somewhere.

I just finished season 1 and it’s taking everything in me not to look up spoilers. I love it so far

So season 8 had to be the most informational season yet. I just have a few things to say/ask.

1. Keen is insufferable. I was almost glad to see her go.

2. So does everyone agree Katarina is Red? I mean, are there any other contentions as to who Red might be? All of the signs point to Rostova, but…. Just curious..

I love how Ressler tells Keen „We can’t get Reddington out, he is being held in an NYPD precinct!“ like someone didn’t just infiltrate the UN headquarters AND got away.

Only in the United States of Blacklist is a NYPD precinct better protected than the place where the leaders of 193 nations and governments come together - which just had a single 19 year old mall cop standing at the door

I swear this show has become so hard to watch and I‘m not even talking about the fact that nobody picks up a phone ever or how apparently not a single millionaire/head of state has a bodyguard.

It seems like this show has become a "what if someone did the absolute stupidest thing in any given situation" social experiment

I know it has been brought up in several previous posts about how incredibly annoying Liz is and one aspect of that annoyance is her later tendency (I started to really notice it in season 3) to whisper almost half of her dialog. She would do this if they were outside, in her own home, if there were no other people around that could possibly eavesdrop. I am all for a good ASMR whispered dialog video, but this was anything but a pleasant experience.

Then when Liz was gone I thought that would be the end of it, but NO! In comes Mierce. She whispered her dialog too. I never understood the reason for the introduction of her character other than to help usher in a transition in Red’s attitude and priorities.

And then came Dr. Perillos. She was annoying for a couple of reasons. Hated her for the pain she inflicted on Denbe, but also disliked her character because she was just that. A Character. Her dialog and manners were too cartoonish. I didn’t notice her whispering as much until she reappeared in 10/6.

Due to both Mierce and Dr. Perillos both whispering a lot of their dialog I began to wonder if it was a directorial thing instead of just poor acting. Unfortunately the directors were not the same for the episodes with Mierce and Dr. Perillos. I am at a loss as for why it was allowed to be done as much as it was. It certainly had an effect, but not the one I think they thought it would produce.

I’ve invested hours into the show and just finished S03E18 and it’s horrible ending last night… I really feel let down knowing that there are 7 more seasons to go, but I feel like there just isn’t a show anymore but also want to commit and finish.

Should I carry on?

Red's monologues throughout the show were my favorite part, and this one especially captured my heart. Years later, it still resonates with me. I miss him.

In the poll options, “Anti-Liz” means “Liz is annoying and stupid and entitled and she should have just trusted Red and basically is the worst” rather than simply, “Liz is or becomes a villain.” And “Pro-Liz” means, ironically, “Nuh-UH! Liz is so not annoying/stupid/entitled out of proportion to other characters in the show or her own circumstances” rather than, “I think putting bombs in hospitals and using civilian airliners as bait in a too-clever gambit is very good and cool!” IOW if you think, as I do, that Liz “breaks bad” in S8 under the pressure of events and not because, “That’s just so Liz,” you probably count as Pro. If you couldn’t stand her even in the first or second season, you’re probably Anti. And if you just can’t abide the term ship, well, go you.

I fall into the poll’s fourth option fwiw. Partly it’s that Boon and Eggold have a chemistry together that I don’t see in Boon and Klattenhoff. Mostly the romance seems to come out of nowhere. Ressler sleeping with a fugitive and Keen postponing her master plan to get her ashes hauled by a guy charged with arresting her? I can buy that as a combination of the pressure of events and, you know, hot people will hook up. But up to that point I never detectedº anything romantic or sexual between them. But maybe I missed the signs.

(ºfn: I’m sorry I’m, sorry I’m trying to delete it)

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OMG…. Liz has always been annoying. And at first I didn’t really mind it… but the later seasons✋🏼😭😭😭… she’s insufferable. I can’t believe she just switched to Katerina’s side just like that… no DNA test no nothing. She just took that lady’s word for it. I understand she had questions about her past and Red was withholding information but she is so slow. And she always thinks she’s justified in her actions no matter how wrong as long as it’s in pursuit of “the truth”. At first I was like Keen is over hated… but now… ugh

When do they play “When will I be loved” by Linda Ronstadt if ever? Or “Knockin on heavens door” by Bob Dylan? I could’ve sworn they played it

i am in the middle of season six now and I see that after Elizabeth learned that Redington was not actually Redington. She now thinks that he is not her father but how does it work because she knows that Redington the one that is currently in the show is her father because their DNA was a match so even if he wasn’t really Reddington, he be actually her father not the original Redington that died.

One of the episodes has a sequence where Red is being a bad ass (as per usual) and the lyrics said something along the lines of ‘red alert’. I can’t remember at all what episode or any other details 😭. If anyone can tell me specifically what song and scene that would be great :)

I'm looking for a song, that might have played during the burning of the Raymond Redington skeleton.

I've tried searching the episode lists, for the official sound tracks, I find nothing that resembles the title.

It also could have played when Liz fake kidnapped herself, or was actually kidnapped and Red stormed in, in slo motion to save her.

Last I checked, the song wasn't even on Spotify, but it's been years since I checked.

I can't remember a single lyric, not even a single word of the song or what it was about. It may have been blues, but that could be just because I've been listening to a lot of blues lately.

This is all the info I have on the song, if I remember anything else, I will edit.

So please just throw the most unpopular songs you remember from the show.

I watched the show back when s3 was coming out and kept up to mbe s7 but recently started rewatching and so... Are we all in agreement? Glen is the best character in the show right?

https://preview.redd.it/qzm132e6hz9e1.jpg?width=512&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=131dd9f1df4ff267b66165ed3c00bfd1eee0cdad

cynthia panabaker hottie

dierdre lovejoy hottie

are hall passes real

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0522479/mediaviewer/rm3984204033?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

Does anyone remember the episode where Red describes the consequences of suicide based on a bomb attack he was close to event.

Was Peter Kotsiopulos already dead when he fell into the house?

A lot of people hate Red's choices and always say Liz would've been safe if not for him, but so many people overlook this reality. As the daughter of Rostova - she'd always be a target. We know Kirk was looking for her (as were others), so there's no guarantee that nobody else would've found her. Berlin, Kirk, Townsend, the Cabal, and the Russians all had reason to find her because of who her parents were.

He may have come forward when he did because he wanted to be a part of her life, but that doesn't negate the danger to her. And even if it doesn't go the way anyone expected - it gave her more info about her past than she would've learned any other way.

I’ve seen this movie twice, but today I’m watching it for the first time since binging the first 5 seasons of Blacklist.

Now I can’t not hear Red whenever Ultron speaks.

Good afternoon, I'm Federico from Argentina.

I want to motivate myself for 2025 and I'm a big fan of Raymond. Could you give me some advice or phrases that you liked the most or what message the series left you in the face of life's adversities?

I chose the title because I’m here to make friends.

Quick context: I’ve seen up through the end of S8. I have not seen S9 yet, though I do know who is “really behind Liz’s murder.” Red used to be Katarina Rostova. This post stipulates for the sake of argument that the writers were neither incompetent nor spiteful. Work with me here.

Thesis: When we stop making excuses for Red, he stands revealed as a much more interesting and more tragic character.

In Elizabeth Keen’s last days on Earth, Raymond Reddington promises to tell her “everything” but only if she murders him first. He gives Dembe an envelope presumably containing “everything.” Dembe tells Red, You should tell her now. Red responds that he can’t because, “If she knew who I am, she wouldn’t agree to kill me.”

Manipulative almost seems too small a word to describe what Red is doing here. He wants to maneuver Liz into murdering him; in exchange for that, he will shatter her world by revealing just who it was she murdered after it’s too late for her to take it back. Recently, Liz went on an unhinged vengeance quest against someone she wrongly thought had murdered her mother. Now Red proposes to make her that very murderer. The term “suicide risk” comes to mind, among others.

But it gets worse: his plan entails his granddaughter Agnes discovering her mother shot down “Pinky” in the street. Red foresees the act will be global news, and while Agnes is only around TV-5 years old, there’s no way she won’t learn, probably sooner than later, what her mother did. And there’s no way a bright child doesn’t become curious over time, to the point she feels “entitled” to know just who Mom and Pinky were to each other; lashing herself to the same wheel of Samsara that broke both her parents, and their parents, with its turning.

Nothing can excuse this. Not even the most grievous flaws we might see in Liz.

Red does all this out of love. I’m not being sarcastic. He genuinely loves Liz and Agnes. He will do anything for them except come clean in time for it to make a difference. He is brave about many things, but about genuine frankness rather than following a “code” that forbids lying by commission but validates lying by omission as Good, Actually? About that he is a coward. He comes by that, er, honestly, and that is the tragedy.

Inside the skull of Red’s DILF-bod sparks the brain of the superspy Katarina Rostova. And Katarina never had a chance. She feels love — feels it deeply. But she has no idea how to practice it. The practice of love she never got to see. All she can do is apply her tradecraft in a love-ward direction. She can lie, steal, kill, stash people she wants to protect in supposedly safe places. She ends up convinced love is practicing tradecraft — on behalf of a loved one, or on them.

Except for the spy’s most important skill: walking away. Red can’t bring himself to truly give up connection with Dom and Liz, which might have saved them. (Yes, and left us without a show.) What’s more, while Red practices flexibility in his professional life, in his personal life he gets stuck in habit. Blame Liz all you want for not trusting the doting crime lord who inserts himself into her life. Fine. But it’s obvious early in the task force’s career that Red’s approach isn’t working. This coyness, former Lady, were worse than a crime; it was a mistake. Every non-answer he gives Liz about what she wants to know just makes her want to know more.

Red has years to reflect and consider alternate approaches — including even telling his daughter the truth. Either before Tatiana Petrova gets wind of the goings-on, or at the very least, before tricking Liz into murdering her mom. Which will finally earn her the reward of learning she murdered her mom. Red is ridiculously wealthy. He could fly himself and his daughter to any isolated spot of his choice, and say, “You want to know? Here’s the story. It is really, really weird, so we are not leaving until we get this all worked between us because all of our survival depends on it.” You can even picture Dembe as Scott Evil (Scott Good?): “Come on! We can go be open and vulnerable with her together!”

But Red can’t do this because Katarina could never. Truth — not “honesty”, truth — is discovery, and discovery is death. I said the story was a tragedy, and this is the tragic flaw: Katarina learned to fear truth and trust secrecy, but Red has reached the point where truth saves and secrecy kills, and he’s clever enough to see everything but that. We can judge this by the result: Liz dead. Dom dead. Tatiana dead. Ilya broken. Agnes orphaned. Red is smart, but his plan for keeping Liz safe was not.

I. Love. This. Red undone by the secrecy of the spy. Liz undone by the arrogance of a cop. That is pity and terror, right there. I love both of these villains, condemn and mourn them at the same time.

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