I'm still wondering if RealRed knew Sam or did Ilya? Maybe Sam never knew RealRed. Maybe he knew Kat and Ilya and later Mr. Kaplan.  When did Ilya tell Naomi he wasn't Red?  Did Fitch know?   Did Fitch send someone to kill Ilya and put the next person into the role of Red? How many Reds are/were there?

It's possible that Ilya did have a wife and family that he left to help Katarina, we know Red left Naomi and Jennifer for her, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that she was a great femme fatale who was able to get men do drop everything for her.  Maybe part 2 of the story, the part that explains why it is so dangerous for Liz, and for Red to reveal who he is - also explains how and why his family was killed. Maybe he went into the Red impersonation lightheartedly and very temporarily to get the money out of the bank and something went horribly wrong and the Cabal or others targeted his family in revenge and then he went underground and had the surgery to permanently become Red.  (I've lost track of the timeline so i don't remember if the surgery came right after the fire or a few years later).  Or maybe this iteration of Red (which would be the 3rd after Real Red and then Ilya, or maybe there are even more) is the one who lived in Tacoma Park, and we'll get those details when we find out that Ilya is long dead too... because I agree with others who say maybe Ilya was killed shortly after the bank heists and there's a 3rd person who is now Red, if so, it's someone else we have yet to meet so I'm not going to expend too much energy trying to guess who it might be.

And lastly, I think Red sees no longer sees Liz as some innocent little girl he needs to protect but rather as a strong and formidable foe who is relentless in her pursuit of the truth, no matter who gets hurt. She's cut him to the core twice now - faking her death and having him arrested. And then she destroyed his relationship with Dembe. So 3 strikes which is why I think he's done with her as far as loving protector goes. He may not show it to her, and he definitely won't kill her, and he may continue to protect her from whatever harm is out there, but I don't think he'll forgive her for those 3 sins.  I agree that he's probably mad at Dom for giving her a new bone to chew on (the Ilya story) and fears that she will uncover all kinds of dangerous secrets in pursuit of it and who she will tell. (wait until he finds out Ressler knows... ). Which would explain his reaction when he found out Dom told her the truth, or the part of the truth of what happened after the fire, and why he wants to know what details she has and which ones she'll be running down.  Does she have Ilya's full name? His place of birth? his family? his job? ...  Or just the name Ilya, which may not lead her anywhere. etc.

 

I typed up stuff and the page went wacky and lost it??   Sigh...…. 

So I am wondering who Ilya is?  He worked for the embassy, but he had to be in the spy network.  Besides the Crossword we saw him doing for a message, he had no problem shooting those guys.  

A man does not just turn up missing from the Embassy and no one looks for him.  Liz is going to go poke around and find out something and then he will be on the radar, and then he will be in more danger himself.  I would be tripping if he were Seaduke.  I wonder how Liz would feel about that?