Thank you Tuxie!
Folks if you get a chance, be sure to listen to this podcast. I was so impressed with how genuine and dedicated to their craft each of the panelists are. Jon Bokenkamp confirmed we have 22 episodes booked for season 7. 

Yes, I was happy to hear 22 episodes too. But that just makes it longer until we learn the main BL secret.

All the panelists were great! I especially enjoyed hearing Harry Lennix answer questions. He's a lot like Cooper. Amir is always enthusiastic and funny.

I was thrilled to be able to watch the whole thing. Thanks to Nancy Jo Comeau for posting the link on her tumblr! I thought Troy and Aaron's questions were excellent, and so were the guest questions.

Last edited by Tuxie400 (3/24/2019 4:55 pm)

I was too exhausted and busy after C2E2 to discuss it much but I think we got a lot of information from Jon:
1) Liz POV
2) Confirmation that the Pilot was written so that the lead, Liz, could have been a son or a daughter, a male or a female. They chose a female.
3) Jon Bokenkamp has fought tooth and nail to have female leads in his movies; plus, when they selected Susan Blommaert for Mr. Kaplan all hell broke lose and they told him it should be a Harvey Keitel type instead.
4) Paradox of Red which is at the core of what they are trying to say: once you think you understand who this guy is, you realize you know nothing. Oftentimes the Blacklisters are misguided good guys. Sometimes the moral speech is in the bad guy's mouth. Who better to voice those concerns than someone who is a little off his rocker but proclaims the truth. Is Red good or bad? Is he on a path of redemption? He's killed lots of people, but he's done good things.
5) All of the characters have an evolving morality that they are trying to strive for. What is good? Where their souls be lost in this fight? Can they stay above the fray? Will they be consumed an sucked into this underworld or will it empower them in an unusual and unexpected way?
6) In TBL, we will have a scene that will project as one thing but the subtext is really what it's all about. It's subtle. If it's too obvious we haven't succeeded.
7) Jon Bokenkamp and John Eisendrath absolutely have a vision for the end. Jon says he has two songs he will listen to on the plane which he wants for the grande finale.
8) JB said they are committed to the ending of the show and disregard the pressures of tv business. In other words, they will not compromise their ending in order to tell the story.
9) Criticism of fans about Liz in recent episodes; JB says what appears as contradictions are part of a longer game, be patient, look at what we've done over the long term and what we've revealed -  Season 1: Liz, are you my father? No; Season 2, Who knows about the plastic surgery I've had done? Therapy has made me an entirely different person? Season 3 - We confirmed that Raymond Reddington (through DNA) is Liz's father. This man is just not Raymond Reddington, Raymond Reddington is her father.
10) What we look at as symbolism, things that JB doesn't intend, are left up to the director's discretion, actors help directors along the way, thematic winks to the audience are sometimes included that JB is not aware of, very collaborative art form.
11) Has anybody guessed at the final ending? Any theory out there that's correct? "I can't answer that and if I did that would somehow narrow down the choices" That has been a very closely guarded secret.
12) Great potboiler of conspiracy going on it will come to fruition by the end of the season that will be quite surprising and unexpected.

13) SPOILER: End of season 6
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
there will be an episode similar to Cape May which is a stand alone non-Blacklister
and it will be about Katarina and the year 1991.

The other thing I thought was interesting were the comments made by Harry.  He was talking about Red's blood was taken and processed.  I know we probably knew that already because that is what they do when they arrest someone who has committed the crimes that Red had done. 
There were a few comments I had read a while back (somewhere) who did not think they took any blood.  So I was glad they cleared this up and confirmed it.  



 

Tatiana - I thought it was really interesting what Bokenkamp said about subtext and symbolism. I liked that he confirmed the show is from Liz's point of view. I always thought it was. I think it's interesting that all the characters have an evolving morality.

11) Has anybody guessed at the final ending? Any theory out there that's correct? "I can't answer that and if I did that would somehow narrow down the choices" That has been a very closely guarded secret. 
I have to laugh at that one!

I was really surprised no one asked Bokenkamp about the timeline and how that tape of Fitch and Katarina blew up the timeline we previously had.

 

Last edited by Tuxie400 (4/12/2019 6:44 am)

Tuxie400 wrote:

Tatiana - I thought it was really interesting what Bokenkamp said about subtext and symbolism. I liked that he confirmed the show is from Liz's point of view. I always thought it was. I think it's interesting that all the characters have an evolving morality.

11) Has anybody guessed at the final ending? Any theory out there that's correct? "I can't answer that and if I did that would somehow narrow down the choices" That has been a very closely guarded secret. 
I have to laugh at that one!

I was really surprised no one asked Bokenkamp about the timeline and how that tape of Fitch and Katarina blew up the timeline we previously had.

 

11) I asked him that question and what I found interesting is that while he's very well trained in his responses, he subtly admitted (in my opinion) that the correct theory is out there. Initially he was a wall "I can't answer that" but he followed up with an answer would narrow down the choices. Interesting. But that's just my wishful thinking, ha!

No one asked JB about the timeline. 
There's another part of questioning along that same line, which is, trust us, we know what we are doing. JB says, 
9) Criticism of fans about Liz in recent episodes; JB says what appears as contradictions are part of a longer game, be patient, look at what we've done over the long term and what we've revealed -  Season 1: Liz, are you my father? No; Season 2, Who knows about the plastic surgery I've had done? Therapy has made me an entirely different person? Season 3 - We confirmed that Raymond Reddington (through DNA) is Liz's father. This man is just not Raymond Reddington, Raymond Reddington is her father.

I recently came across something JB said (was it at C2E2 or a different interview?) in which he said something to te effect of, there were a lot of questions about the who, what, where, when, and how early on and he just decided to barrel forward with his story. My wild guess is that this addresses the questions about basic facts, like CSI type of facts. Why didn't they run a DNA test on Red when he turned himself into the FBI? Wouldn't Liz and Red's DNA match? etc. So they abandoned typical CSI/criminal investigation processing that we see in most other shows these days in order to tell a story. 

Just my two cents.