The Blacklist Refugees » Episode 6.18 - The Brockton College Killer and Episode 6.19 Rassvet

Tatiana · 4/27/2019 10:51 am

Redarina is not dead and Ilya is not a new character.
Ilya is the male persona within the person we know as Katarina. It is consistent with gender identity dysphoria.
That is why 'they' made a pact when they were 6 years old. Because it is often at a young age that people recognize they identify with the opposite gender.
It wasn't a separate person Ilya who came up with the plan.
"Your mother was one of the most resourceful people I ever knew"
It was one and the same.
Ilya is Katarina! The pact they made when they were 6? It is not two separate human beings: it's two identities in one person.
It's just like the two personas in Cape May.
The producers/writers have not fooled us. They have not introduced a new character in the 11th hour. It's been there all along.
We just are now introduced to the actuality of her separate gender identity.

Tuxie400 · 4/27/2019 11:05 am

Tatiana - That's an interesting way to look at Ilya. If that's the case, then Dom didn't lie to Liz, and something was revealed. It also goes along with the multiple personality idea we've been toying with for so long.

Last edited by Tuxie400 (4/27/2019 11:27 am)

IowaWatcher · 4/27/2019 1:29 pm

Honey West wrote:
Oh, and Dembe. I think he will stumble onto something and have to come back.

I believe that you're right. I don't think Dembe is gone for good.

I'm glad to read that I'm not the only one who has problems hearing the dialog through the music. I do wish the producers would do something about that.

I'm still not sure what to think, but I agree that Red is not Ilya. I also agree that KR is alive and Dom is lying about that, and I don't believe that Red knows for sure that KR is alive.

Honey West · 4/27/2019 3:20 pm

Interesting thoughts, Tatiana. And if it turns out that Red really is another manifestation of Katarina's personality, it could work. I'm still not 100% on board with Redarina, but it certainly presents as a possibility. But who is really the crazy one, Katarina or Illya? Which one is Dom's child if there is only one of them. It could still be that there are two and maybe they were the two who were related. I've always felt that Red grew up near Dom, if not under his own roof. At one point I even wondered if Dom had been Red's piano teacher back in Russia. LOL! Maybe he was. Maybe he was the product of a Dom affair as I wondered at another time, too?

But one thing I think we can probably say for sure is that Red, whoever or whatever he was, is a psychopathic lunatic serial killer. Why did he "stay Red"? I think it's because the persona of Red gives him license to kill under the pretense of doing it for the good of all, only killing people who "deserve" it, as he says when justifying what he does. I didn't really see that in what we've seen of Illya. Maybe Illya is another side to his personality. The "good" side. The side that makes him help the Task Force to save thousands of lives, while at the same time he is still allowed to indulge his bloodlust. But he now justifies it as the price of doing good things along with it. He's still a cold-blooded killer at heart.

One thing that stood out to me was when Dom referred to Liz as "the girl" is off limits. Not Elizabeth or my granddaughter, just the girl.

I don't know - these episodes require a definite rewatch.

IowaWatcher · 4/27/2019 3:34 pm

Honey West wrote:
Maybe he was the product of a Dom affair as I wondered at another time, too?

I missed that the first time around. I'm glad you reposted that thought. That would make a lot of sense!

Honey West · 4/27/2019 3:46 pm

I think Jodi Walker pretty much nailed it with her recap this week.
the-blacklist-season-6-episode-18

Honey West · 4/27/2019 3:51 pm

IowaWatcher wrote:
Honey West wrote:
Maybe he was the product of a Dom affair as I wondered at another time, too?
I missed that the first time around. I'm glad you reposted that thought. That would make a lot of sense!

Of course back then I thought it was Real Red.

I just hope they don't go all Game of Thrones on us with some of these relationships.

Tuxie400 · 4/27/2019 3:52 pm

Honey West - Jodi Walker was the only reviewer/recapper who didn't buy Dom's story hook, line and sinker like Liz did. I was very happy with her piece today.

IowaWatcher · 4/27/2019 5:38 pm

That was a good review!

I've been surfing a lot today: it doesn't look like a lot of the fans are buying Dom's story.

I'm back to the Red-is-a-twin theory. It better explains who the other family was (the one that lived in the house that Red blew up). That is, there were two men playing "Raymond Reddington," who was a fictional construct. LIz killed one of them. The other took over full-time. If there was an Ilya, "present Red" killed him, and that's who was in the bag of bones.

I don't know! My head is starting to hurt.

Tuxie400 · 4/27/2019 6:38 pm

Honey West wrote:
Oh, and Dembe. I think he will stumble onto something and have to come back.

Dembe's plane ticket was to Cairo. I think he's investigating Anna McMahon's plot against America and trying to find the "man from Cairo." I do think Dembe will be back on the show, but whether he'll be back in Red's life is anybody's guess.

TheYeti · 4/28/2019 3:36 am

I'm still not really able to grasp everything that happened in this episode. I feel like Dom's story has to be true, or at least partly true. Otherwise, there would be no reason for Red to be so worried about what he told Liz. If he is not really Ilya, he would have known Dom did not reveal the true story and thus had no reason to worry.

Some other things from this episode:
- When I saw Katarina's alias Anna Croft, I thought for a split second she would turn out to be Anna McMahon, but it seems that this is just another case of the show playing around with names.
- In "The Caretaker", Liz meets Irina Velov, supposedly Anton Velov's daughter. In this episode Velov finds a woman named Irina. Are they somehow the same person, meaning she is not really his daughter?
- After coming out of the ocean, Katarina was only hunted by Velov. Does this mean the Osterman Umbrella Company was after her before the Cape May events?
- So it appears that Katarina is still alive somewhere, working with Red perhaps?
- Gabriel Mann was the perfect actor for this role, just like Joanna Adler was perfect as the young Kaplan.
- The INXS song "Never tear us apart" was perfect for the moment when Ilya became Red.

Trelliswires · 4/28/2019 5:08 am

Gabriel Mann is an excellent actor (former runway model). He was Nolan Ross on Revenge and was probably the best actor on that show.
Another Blacklist actor was on earlier seasons of Revenge - Margarita Lavieva who played Emily Thorne/Amanda Clarke and was Gina Zanetakos on the Blacklist. Margarita was born in the Soviet Union and was in their Olympic gymnastics training program.
There is much more to the story than what Dom revealed. However, Ilya may still be the impostor and may have displayed a true larcenous tendency when he brightened with the reveal of how much money Raymond and Katarina had banked. He may have jumped at the opportunity to fund a personal criminal empire.
I don't think we are dealing with a Redarina. In a previous season episode when Red was seeking sanctuary at Dom's home, Dom emphatically labeled him a "selfish pr---." Dom would not use that label on Katarina and I don't think Katarina could pull off a transgender role with her father. Transgender is too simplistic for this story.
And how far has inquisitive, offensive Glen pursued a background check on Red? If he suspected a Redarina, you know he would blurt out inappropriate comments:
"Hey toots! What's up! Oh, wait, you can't....Ha, ha."
"Hey babe, how about coming over to my place to help me feed my turtles!"

Trelliswires · 4/28/2019 5:11 am

This was Rassvet - I'm waiting for Zakhod Solnsta (sunset).

Cate · 4/28/2019 6:59 am

My main pondering revolves around the scars on "Fred's" back ... there is nothing in this episode that indicates Ilyas was injured in the fire, and while the bones were DNA tested as Raymond Reddington, I'd be willing to bet that record could have been altered early on if Fitch was in on the game. I'm partial to the theory that Red caught up with Ilyas and killed him, took the money for himself, and perhaps double crossed Katarina in the process ("I don't think Elizabeth will ever be ready for what you did to Katarina...") ... of course, Ilyas could still have done that. That scene between Red and Dom - "but if she WERE here, what would you say" - will tie in somewhere down the road, perhaps if he knows she is alive.

Close second to this is -- what is in Dembe's "sendoff" box from Red? I think that (and Tuxie's great catch that he is going to Cairo to continue the search) will bring him back in an episode or two, or at least tease the promise of a reunion next season.

Is anyone else worried that the Russian goons are going to catch up to Dom this season? Perhaps when Liz takes Agnes to meet him?

Tuxie400 · 4/28/2019 9:02 am

Trelliswires - Last season when the show used variations of the name Ana/Anna nine times, I thought it would either turn out to be Katarina's real name or an important alias of hers. Then we got Anna McMahon as the baddie from this season, and I thought it was foreshadowing her. But now we get Katarina's Anna Croft alias, an important one for Kat's "afterlife." I think the Irina name is very common in Russia. But maybe the abused Irina became like a daughter to him. There are so many surrogate daughters in this tale!

Tuxie400 · 4/28/2019 9:03 am

Cate - I also wonder what's in Dembe's box from Red. Maybe we'll see that in the next coulple of episodes.

Big Badd Bazzer · 4/28/2019 10:15 am

Tuxie400 wrote:
Trelliswires - Last season when the show used variations of the name Ana/Anna nine times, I thought it would either turn out to be Katarina's real name or an important alias of hers. Then we got Anna McMahon as the baddie from this season, and I thought it was foreshadowing her. But now we get Katarina's Anna Croft alias, an important one for Kat's "afterlife." I think the Irina name is very common in Russia. But maybe the abused Irina became like a daughter to him. There are so many surrogate daughters in this tale!

IN Caire - perhaps Dembe runs into Samar - and they form a team - SAMARBEE

Those 2 could do a lot of damage. Samar has contacts throughout the world - Dembe was Red's trusted right-hand man for a very long time!

I think the real catch made on this forum about Dom being duplicitous to LIz - IS THAT DOM, LIKE RED IS ALSO A PROXY - - - ie. NOT who he is stated as being by apparent false evidence and cruel trails.

Tuxie400 · 4/28/2019 10:19 am

BBB - Dembe and Samar would be an unstoppable team!

I'm not sure what you mean about Dom being a proxy. You don't believe he's Katarina's father?

Tuxie400 · 4/28/2019 10:34 am

Certain terms came back into play in Episode 19. Tatiana mentioned to me yesterday about Dom saying Red was the architect of the charade. That goes back to the architect in Season 1's Wujing, The Architect episode in Seaon 4, and many other references to architecture and architects.

Dom also used the word reborn in connection with Katarina's life after her Cape May death. "For most people, baptism comes early. My daughter had to wait half her life to be reborn." I was reminded of the Mako Tanida episode.
Meera: Within the agency, that man is known as Aiko Tanida, Mako’s younger brother. He escaped the night of the raid that took Tanida. We believe he went underground, dark, reemerged as something entirely different - bookish boy turned ruthless crime lord.
Ressler: They call him “Tensei.” Means “Reborn.”

Big Badd Bazzer · 4/28/2019 11:46 am

Tuxie400 wrote:
BBB - Dembe and Samar would be an unstoppable team!

I'm not sure what you mean about Dom being a proxy. You don't believe he's Katarina's father?

Samar would also have Aram from the task force at her absolute beck and call . . .

fwiw - Dom being a proxy? Perhaps both Red & Dom were replacements for the originals?
If true - who was the original Dom ? Might explain a ton of things - although would our blog-provider says - it might continue opening a Pandora's box of false revelations inter-twined with occasional truths . . .