Honey West wrote:

You know something? It would not surprise me one little bit if somehow some way he turns out to be the real Raymond Reddington all along.

With all the identity and memory swapping, faked deaths, DNA altering, etc., etc., etc. Nope! Wouldn’t surprise me one bit.  Of course, I have no idea how they would pull it off or fit it into the story.

My only idea about this might be that whatever they did to him all those years ago, it is reversing or wearing off and that might be his medical issue.

 

I know what you mean.  I have a few ideas, but u need to have more energy to go into any detail.  😴

One way I know for them to say 'This Red' is not her father is if this is a show in a show if you follow what I'm saying.
I hope that made sense, I'm really tired tonight! Lol. 

Maybe they are telling a story about him and these are the characters. That could explain why some of the stuff is Soooo Vintage sometimes.  Scenery in this show goes from modern to looking like an old black and white movie sometimes.

It would be a twist for sure!  The scenes are so odd at times.  The ending of S6 of her in that black dress on the dark street looked straight out of an old movie to me.  

IowaWatcher wrote:

I just hope they stay with the spy stuff this season and don't take long detours into things that ultimately don't matter.

 

Me too.  But with 22 episodes to fill, I expect a few detours along the way.

I'm not sure what to make of the tagline for season 7 - "He told you not to trust him."

I'm thinking that there will be some sort of betrayal on his part.  Or this could be in relation to the "confirmation" that he's not who he says he is.

Okay, I am going back into this thread to expand on a few thoughts I've had going about Red, Fake Red, Real Red, the bones, DNA and whatever else I have to throw into the mix.

I always go back to the Pilot and Red's line:  "Abandoned by a father who was a career criminal and a mother who died of weakness and shame." Now, either they hadn't really planned to bring Katarina back or they were sticking to the original story of her committing suicide. But did Liz know that story at the time? I can't remember. I suppose Sam could have told her. And the only career criminal father who "abandoned" her is him! 

My current theory, if you can call it that, is that he is her real father, but he is not the real, original Raymond Reddington. They went out of their way to tell us that the DNA from 30 years ago was from the man who is her father. They've never said it was this Red, and they've never said it was not this Red. Real Reddington is dead and those were his bones that were burned. But he was not Liz's father. Katarina herself told Kate that she wasn't sure that Raymond was Masha's father. But he thought he was. So Raymond was conveniently killed and this guy took over his identity in order to access those bank accounts. I think that part of Dom's story was probably true. So this guy, whoever he was, maybe felt that becoming Reddington was a better alternative to whatever his life had been before then, even though it would be dangerous and he would be hunted. So he stayed Reddington. Didn't he say that the way to survive was to become bigger and badder than his enemies? To become the master criminal they had said he was?

This still leaves plenty of room to speculate as to who he was and what his original relationship was with Katarina, Ilya, Dom, and the original Reddington. I think Jennifer was original Reddington's daughter, but she is not Liz's half-sister. This Red didn't seem too concerned about her, as I recall. It would make sense if she was maybe the daughter of his rival.  Wouldn't it be funny if both men were actually named Raymond?

Anyway, just some thoughts for a Monday...
 

These are some good ideas, Eastcoast! I know from the very beginning of the series we have had the big question of how could RR have been able to do all of the things that either he said he'd done and/or the things he is known to have done.

Whoever he is, he has known the Russians for a long time, as you pointed out he was also friends with some sketchy characters like Sam and the carnies. How does one person bridge the different worlds he has been part of?

I like the idea that he got into some trouble and needed a new identity. That would be good motivation. Maybe he was offered this way out as a lifeline? You now owe us, sort of thing. It's not an easy life, and not one that someone might have chosen willingly. Unless Masha was his total motivation to do it, of course. Which brings us right back to the question of who he is to her. Which we won't find out until the end, most likely. On the DVDs they say we will find out who he is in season 8. Does it mean the show will end after season 8? Or will finding out lead to other questions that can keep the story going?

Only time will tell, I guess!

So let me see if I can get this down. We know by Cooper's DNA test from the evidence box that the man who was known as RR at that time is Liz's biological father. So, it is quite possible that the man known then as RR could have been an imposter. Back to the bones. The DNA test for the bones was run against the CODIS database and came up as a match to the RR they have on file. My question is - did we ever get a firm confirmation that the RR DNA in CODIS is the same DNA from Cooper's test? I don't remember them ever saying that the two DNA tests matched each other. All they ever really confirmed was that Cooper's DNA test proved that the man who was RR at the time of the Seaduke operation was Liz's father.

So I will take this one step farther:
I think what I am getting at is that if RR was replaced earlier then what happened to the original RR? Could he still be alive? And the RR who had the affair with KR, fathered Liz, went to the Naval Academy, etc. is the one who died and whose bones were burned by Red. If he was the imposter is it possible that our current "imposter" is the original RR? But he would not be Liz's father so when he told her "No", all those years ago, he could have been telling her the truth.

I don't know. Just some ideas I've had and if you look at the idea that he was replaced much earlier on, then they even sort of "fit".

Honey West wrote:

My question is - did we ever get a firm confirmation that the RR DNA in CODIS is the same DNA from Cooper's test? I don't remember them ever saying that the two DNA tests matched each other. All they ever really confirmed was that Cooper's DNA test proved that the man who was RR at the time of the Seaduke operation was Liz's father.

No, we never got confirmation that the RR DNA in CODIS matches the DNA in Cooper's test.  Personally, I don't think it would match, since I still believe Red is Katarina.

Honey West wrote:

Tuxie400 wrote:

Honey West wrote:

My question is - did we ever get a firm confirmation that the RR DNA in CODIS is the same DNA from Cooper's test? I don't remember them ever saying that the two DNA tests matched each other. All they ever really confirmed was that Cooper's DNA test proved that the man who was RR at the time of the Seaduke operation was Liz's father.

No, we never got confirmation that the RR DNA in CODIS matches the DNA in Cooper's test.  Personally, I don't think it would match, since I still believe Red is Katarina.

I don't think they would match either. Or they would have told us that already. It matches "a" Raymond Reddington. The one Cooper sent in matches the RR that he knew back then. But I'd be willing to bet it's not the same RR.
 

 

It's hard for me to understand why they have not had Cooper take the DNA of this Red and compare it to the shirt.  It would make sense. 
Then again, I don't know that why they haven't had Liz check KR's DNA either?