Tatiana, I do not think Red would have told Liz that right then even if Sam was not involved and he had made him that promise.  She was in No way ready for that.  She is so different now.  I was looking at some of the 1st season and she is not the same girl at all.  

​I know some people do not look at the adoption as a reason. But I know people who are adopted and who have adopted and that is a huge issue. 
​Actually, I just thought of a man I know ( actually most of my life) who has grown children who were adopted who have contacted him and although he has a relationship with them, he flat out says he is not their father.  I have heard him tell people when they ask that he has no children.  I had to ask him why he said that. He told me he gave up that right when he let someone else raise them and be there for them through all their ups and downs. He is happy they even want anything to do with him but he said a father is the one who raises them. 

 

Eastcoast - If Red is the real Raymond Reddington and Liz's bio dad, the fact he didn't raise her may well be why he doesn't say he's her father. During that torture scene with Kirk when he's asked about being her father, he brings up her living with Kirk and Sam. And he told Sam that Sam would always be her father. That does work with him being bio dad. And that's where my other 35% comes from. I would much rather that theory be true.

Last edited by Tuxie400 (2/27/2018 11:05 am)

Tuxie, you reminded me of something with that scene with Kirk: Kirk just disappeared. Now that's kind of strange, right? Bokenkamp said that what Red said to Kirk was relevant to the core story. So whatever it was, it had to be huge. We all thought he told him that Katarina was alive. Well that's half the story. The other half was that Katarina disappeared in plain sight. 

Red is known as the concierge of crime. His best selling product is making people disappear. That's where Redarina comes to play again: she made herself disappear. I remember stories about big time criminals having plastic surgery to change their appearance. She just changed it in a bigger way. It stands to reason that Katarina would be able to negotiate with world league criminal empires as she easily moved among them as a Russian spy.

And, if Katarina was a double agent spying on the real Raymond Reddington, she would have known of Reddington's contacts, Harold Cooper. She would have known almost everything about Raymond Reddington's life. 

I wonder what it meant when Carla said, "I can't believe you brought me here" to the Flora Segunda house.
 

Tatiana - I always thought Red told Kirk that he was Katarina because of Kirk's shocked look. Altthough the Katarina-is-alive thing would be my number 2 guess.

I don't have any idea how Carla fits neatly into the Redarina theory. I've always felt there was real a history of love between the two. I can't see her angry enough to slap anyone except a former romantic partner. That was one of the reasons I thought Red was the real Raymond Reddington.  Because she goes with the "Red is the real RR and Liz's bio dad theory" in my head, I can't seem to move her to the Redarina column ... yet.

What we do know about Carla is that she has a set of survival skills. What she does with the chicken bone seems like something an operative would do. And using the bone as a weapon mirrors what Berlin did in fashioning a knife from his daughter's bones, which may or may not indicate she'sRussian. She seems to recognize and know who Elizabeth Keen is.

She gives Liz two key pieces of info:

1. "He wants something from you. It's a game. It's a manipulation. He's made you feel a connection that makes you feel like you matter somehow. And there's no one on earth who can make a woman feel like the center of his universe more than Raymond Reddington."  The interesting thing to me is that if you look at those sentences without the pronouns, it sounds like she's talking about is the objective (or game) of the honeypot spy: to manipulate the target into making them feel like they are the center of the universe.

"He's not who you think he is."  I don't believe she meant he wasn't a criminal. I thought at the time that Liz still suspected he might be her father. So what did Carla mean?

And that bit about Red telling her she looked so different. And her responding not as different as him. It's all very curious.


 

Tuxie400 wrote:

Brittany said, "For me, as a casual viewer/non-fandom viewer until after season 4 finale, I have yet to be really surprised by something on the Blacklist. "

I was thinking about your statement. I've been surprised big time several times by The Blacklist - especially in Season 2 . The biggest surprise for me was when Liz shot the attorney general and her wanted poster was placed by Red's. I like being surprised. That 's why the Season 2 finale is my favorite. That turn of events was so unexpected. I also was shocked when we found out a KGB agent was Liz's mom. I was surprised earlier that season when we found out Tom was originally hired by Red. I was devastated when Liz "died." That was a huge surprise - even though I knew within 36 hours that it had been faked. The Alexander Kirk reveal that he was Constantine Rostov and Liz's "dad" was pretty shocking too. In my opinion, this writing staff has a track record for shocking viewers.

Tuxie-that's interesting. I am sure there are plenty of people who are surprised by stuff.  I just haven't been. It may just be how I watch the show.   For some of those things (like Liz shooting the AG and Kirk), I felt like they were showing us that something in regards to those things was coming, even if not the specifics.  I figured Liz was going to have to be on the run and do something big because they were trying to frame her and she ended up shooting Connelly.  With Kirk, the minute we learned his name was Rostov I knew he had to believe he was her father because of Rostova and because it felt like from the beginning of the series when Liz started asking about her father they were always going to do some fake out "I'm your father, Liz/Masha' moment and it not be with Red.   I figured they might have Liz kidnapped/missing or fake a death while Megan Boone was off having her baby because I knew she was pregnant and due before the end of the season and when she 'died'  I wasn't surprised and I knew she'd be back.    There are also several similarities between Alias and Blacklist so the KGB agent mother thing felt like a natural occurrence for me. I can't remember if there was anything that tipped me off to it, but I didn't feel surprised by it. 

There have been plenty of times where I didn’t expect specifics (Like Liz shooting Connelly) but figured something would happen.  So maybe I just have zero expectations so nothing surprises me?  Lol. There is also the very real possibility that nothing in life surprises me because of my career.  People (real or otherwise) rarely surprise me.  I don’t know if it is because I’m used to looking for micro expressions and body language and syntax or if it’s just because I’m jaded.  Who knows.  I’m definitely not psychic.

Tuxie400 - I tried to read the Reddit thread, but most of the comments, the individual ones were just too long...can't read those lengthy posts I just can't get into that level of micro-analysis of the show, believe it or not!  LOL.  I go mainly with impressions and things that may loosely knit together along with external references..  But I did read your responses.  And the last couple of comments in the thread, including yours,  say it all, really.  

I did get a chance to look at Tessa's tumblr and she wrote out some stuff that I have mentioned and some that I have in my notes and don't get a chance to say along with a few things I didn't think of.   

There is another woman in my notes that Red has been with and that is the French lady Laurence Dechambou in The Courier.  He said he knew where her lovely little freckle was.  Wee Wee lol 
 

In the Miss Rebecca Thrall episode, Red makes a big deal out of hearing the call of a bird - a piping plover. He's very concerned about it. As I rewatched the episode recently, I thought it might be a clue. It turns out piping plovers are endangered in Canada, and Cape Breton (site of the Summer Palace) is one of the main breeding grounds for piping plovers. Katarina, having spent so much time in Cape Breton, would likely have known this since signs are posted on the beaches there to watch out for the nests.