The Blacklist 6x19 Thoughts
May. 2nd, 2019 10:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaRassvet
+ Dom totally just gave Liz a pile of half-truths and lies, didn't he? Going by Red's reaction, how pissed off he was, anyway. He reacted to her telling him she knew the truth very similarly to how he did when she confronted him with the fact that he was her father, and then his short scene with Dom pretty much confirmed it.
So now this puts into doubt all of the flashbacks we just saw, that frankly already had a layer of doubt simply because it was Dom telling the story and he was barely there for any of it. Can we believe any of those flashbacks? I find this annoying. I'm not sure how much of this episode was real or half-truths. So it made the reveals in the episode less satisfying then they might otherwise have been.
+ I am really interested in learning more about Ilya. Childhood friend of Katarina, works at a desk in an Embassy in the US but can handle a gun really well. I assume he was also an agent/spy.
+ My biggest issue while watching was if Red was Ilya then what about his family? We know that Red had a daughter and a wife who died. He blew up their house in season one. His daughter was a ballerina. And she and her mother probably died in a house full of blood on Christmas Eve. But there's no mention of that here. No hint that Ilya has a family. It's never even alluded to. His attitude is absolutely not that of a man whose family was destroyed. So... ???
They could have easily tied it together - Katarina turned to childhood friend Ilya, stationed in the USA, to help her get Masha back. It goes wrong, there's a fire, everything we know happens, happens. Ilya returns to his life but someone (Cabel, USSR) figure out his role. On Christmas Eve they go for him at his house but he's late because his car ran out of gas and by the time he gets there he finds a house full of blood.
I also thought that Red's final interaction with Levi indicated that Red betrayed Katarina somehow. Perhaps he was the one who revealed the Reddington affair (doing his job) and then when it blew up he immediately regretted it and him joining her in getting Masha back was part of him trying to make up for that mistake.
All of that: his regret over his betrayal, the loss of his family and his grief and guilt over that, his loyalty to Katarina and desire to make it up to her, and the fact that his own life as Ilya was destroyed all adds up to a very understandable reason for why he would take the life of dead Reddington, and then keep that life. Him building up the Raymond Reddington as the Concierge of Crime and the power that came with that is easily explained as a combination of 'protect Masha/Liz' + eventually have the power to take down the Cabal + discover the truth about what happened to his family.
It actually ties together really well! The timeline, the character motivations... Except that's not entirely what the show gives us. And while Dom's account is clearly suspect I think we're supposed to believe some, if not most of it. But I'm not sure how it works with what we know already and it leaves so many questions behind, as per usual.
There are also other things left unanswered. Like, Red saying he had to choose between the woman and her child and chose the child. I'm thinking that comes into play after the flashbacks when Ilya is now Red, he choose to save Liz over Katarina and something happens that leaves him thinking that Katarina is positively dead? This is likely part of what Red is so angry/afraid at the end.
I suppose... Red's whole family situation could have played out before the situation with Katarina? Perhaps even several years which would give his grief time to settle. You know, this could work out really interestingly if Ilya helping Katarina was similar to how he often helps Liz ie. he has his own agenda that he's keeping secret. As with Liz he does genuinely love Katarina and wants to help her but he also has a separate goal. He agrees in part to help Katarina to find out who killed his family and get revenge but he keeps this secret from Katarina. This is why he stays Raymond Reddington and makes him a master criminal. This is why he creates the blacklist. What if this secret goal of his is what got Katarina 'killed'? I could see that motivating him going forward. If true I love how this ties who Ilya was to who Red is now.
+ Actually I found Ilya at the beginning a little off. He was in a fire two months before that caused significant burns down his back but there is no hint of that even though he should still be healing, no? More importantly he thought Katarina committed suicide but wesee none of that wild grief that we saw in Cape May, despite his devotion to Katarina. Was he simply sure she wasn't dead?
+ I love that it was Red's idea to take over Reddington's life.
+ The casting of Gabriel Mann as young Red was an excellent choice. I can absolutely see Red in him.
+ Red blaming Liz, and her investigation, for the loss of his relationship with Dembe is ridiculous but so Red. He did that entirely himself and he's not going to get their relationship back if he doesn't accept it.
+ Liz's sunny attitude and "everything is going to be okay" outlook and full-steam ahead 'everything's fine now that I know the truth' when she met with Red was... kind of deluded? Like, now that she's satisfied that she has the truth everything is going to be fine? Except for the fact that neither she or Red have actually talked about her betrayal or worked through it? Why does she seem to assume that Red is going to be okay with her despite the bad place they were in when they were last together just because she's happy now? All that said I really enjoyed that scene.
+ I found it interesting that when Liz showed up Red was his usual congenial self with her at first. So maybe she wasn't wrong about her reception when she flew around the world to meet him. It worked for me last episode that Red focused all his attention on Dembe and their relationship but it appears he's going to try and move past Liz's betrayal by literally ignoring it. Sigh. This is not a good sign for their relationship going forward.
+ Also why isn't Liz more curious about what happened to her mother? I'm curious! The last that Dom knows of Katarina says that she's alive but Red told Liz she was dead. So what's missing there? And how does it tie into Dembe's "what you did to Katarina"? I don't understand Liz's complete lack of interest in her mother especially after how much time was spent angsting over her father.
+ I was a little worried that Dom was going to get shot at the end. I mean he bonded with Liz, got told that he was expected to spoil his great-granddaughter, betrayed Red by telling her the truth which in Red's world is a shootable offence. He had death bells ringing.
+ It annoyed me that of the numerous groups that Katarina listed as chasing her she never once mentioned the Osterman Umbrella Company. Having a team of assassins who never give up should be a concern. The show should have thrown in an assassination attempt at some point just to up her panic. Instead it felt like they completely forgot about that part of the story - and they only introduced it five episodes ago!
+ I really liked how Katarina's parents were unwaveringly on her side.
+ Dom totally just gave Liz a pile of half-truths and lies, didn't he? Going by Red's reaction, how pissed off he was, anyway. He reacted to her telling him she knew the truth very similarly to how he did when she confronted him with the fact that he was her father, and then his short scene with Dom pretty much confirmed it.
So now this puts into doubt all of the flashbacks we just saw, that frankly already had a layer of doubt simply because it was Dom telling the story and he was barely there for any of it. Can we believe any of those flashbacks? I find this annoying. I'm not sure how much of this episode was real or half-truths. So it made the reveals in the episode less satisfying then they might otherwise have been.
+ I am really interested in learning more about Ilya. Childhood friend of Katarina, works at a desk in an Embassy in the US but can handle a gun really well. I assume he was also an agent/spy.
+ My biggest issue while watching was if Red was Ilya then what about his family? We know that Red had a daughter and a wife who died. He blew up their house in season one. His daughter was a ballerina. And she and her mother probably died in a house full of blood on Christmas Eve. But there's no mention of that here. No hint that Ilya has a family. It's never even alluded to. His attitude is absolutely not that of a man whose family was destroyed. So... ???
They could have easily tied it together - Katarina turned to childhood friend Ilya, stationed in the USA, to help her get Masha back. It goes wrong, there's a fire, everything we know happens, happens. Ilya returns to his life but someone (Cabel, USSR) figure out his role. On Christmas Eve they go for him at his house but he's late because his car ran out of gas and by the time he gets there he finds a house full of blood.
I also thought that Red's final interaction with Levi indicated that Red betrayed Katarina somehow. Perhaps he was the one who revealed the Reddington affair (doing his job) and then when it blew up he immediately regretted it and him joining her in getting Masha back was part of him trying to make up for that mistake.
All of that: his regret over his betrayal, the loss of his family and his grief and guilt over that, his loyalty to Katarina and desire to make it up to her, and the fact that his own life as Ilya was destroyed all adds up to a very understandable reason for why he would take the life of dead Reddington, and then keep that life. Him building up the Raymond Reddington as the Concierge of Crime and the power that came with that is easily explained as a combination of 'protect Masha/Liz' + eventually have the power to take down the Cabal + discover the truth about what happened to his family.
It actually ties together really well! The timeline, the character motivations... Except that's not entirely what the show gives us. And while Dom's account is clearly suspect I think we're supposed to believe some, if not most of it. But I'm not sure how it works with what we know already and it leaves so many questions behind, as per usual.
There are also other things left unanswered. Like, Red saying he had to choose between the woman and her child and chose the child. I'm thinking that comes into play after the flashbacks when Ilya is now Red, he choose to save Liz over Katarina and something happens that leaves him thinking that Katarina is positively dead? This is likely part of what Red is so angry/afraid at the end.
I suppose... Red's whole family situation could have played out before the situation with Katarina? Perhaps even several years which would give his grief time to settle. You know, this could work out really interestingly if Ilya helping Katarina was similar to how he often helps Liz ie. he has his own agenda that he's keeping secret. As with Liz he does genuinely love Katarina and wants to help her but he also has a separate goal. He agrees in part to help Katarina to find out who killed his family and get revenge but he keeps this secret from Katarina. This is why he stays Raymond Reddington and makes him a master criminal. This is why he creates the blacklist. What if this secret goal of his is what got Katarina 'killed'? I could see that motivating him going forward. If true I love how this ties who Ilya was to who Red is now.
+ Actually I found Ilya at the beginning a little off. He was in a fire two months before that caused significant burns down his back but there is no hint of that even though he should still be healing, no? More importantly he thought Katarina committed suicide but wesee none of that wild grief that we saw in Cape May, despite his devotion to Katarina. Was he simply sure she wasn't dead?
+ I love that it was Red's idea to take over Reddington's life.
+ The casting of Gabriel Mann as young Red was an excellent choice. I can absolutely see Red in him.
+ Red blaming Liz, and her investigation, for the loss of his relationship with Dembe is ridiculous but so Red. He did that entirely himself and he's not going to get their relationship back if he doesn't accept it.
+ Liz's sunny attitude and "everything is going to be okay" outlook and full-steam ahead 'everything's fine now that I know the truth' when she met with Red was... kind of deluded? Like, now that she's satisfied that she has the truth everything is going to be fine? Except for the fact that neither she or Red have actually talked about her betrayal or worked through it? Why does she seem to assume that Red is going to be okay with her despite the bad place they were in when they were last together just because she's happy now? All that said I really enjoyed that scene.
+ I found it interesting that when Liz showed up Red was his usual congenial self with her at first. So maybe she wasn't wrong about her reception when she flew around the world to meet him. It worked for me last episode that Red focused all his attention on Dembe and their relationship but it appears he's going to try and move past Liz's betrayal by literally ignoring it. Sigh. This is not a good sign for their relationship going forward.
+ Also why isn't Liz more curious about what happened to her mother? I'm curious! The last that Dom knows of Katarina says that she's alive but Red told Liz she was dead. So what's missing there? And how does it tie into Dembe's "what you did to Katarina"? I don't understand Liz's complete lack of interest in her mother especially after how much time was spent angsting over her father.
+ I was a little worried that Dom was going to get shot at the end. I mean he bonded with Liz, got told that he was expected to spoil his great-granddaughter, betrayed Red by telling her the truth which in Red's world is a shootable offence. He had death bells ringing.
+ It annoyed me that of the numerous groups that Katarina listed as chasing her she never once mentioned the Osterman Umbrella Company. Having a team of assassins who never give up should be a concern. The show should have thrown in an assassination attempt at some point just to up her panic. Instead it felt like they completely forgot about that part of the story - and they only introduced it five episodes ago!
+ I really liked how Katarina's parents were unwaveringly on her side.
