The Blacklist Refugees » The Blacklist is part of a Chess Game Red is Playing

Tuxie400 · 3/12/2017 1:08 am

I've come to believe Raymond Reddington is playing a specialized variant of chess with a main opponent who will be the ultimate Big Bad of the series. As in Alice Through the Looking Glass, which is referenced multiple times in the show, his game is with real people as pieces. This metaphorical game has been going on with Red and this Chess Master for many years, probably since before Red first met Katarina.

I think all the references about royalty in the series are really about this type of chess. We do know Red plays chess and is a fan of famous chess matches. Red is shown playing chess in a park in Episode 1.03, Wujing. In that episode he plays with a traditional chess set by himself as Wujing's man makes contact. Then in Episode 2.11 Red tells Ruslan Denisov a story about Bobby Fischer sacrificing his bishop in Game 13 of the 1972 matches with Boris Spasky. Red claimed Russia lost the Cold War right there because Spasky had no answer to Fischer's move. He didn't have an endgame.

We know Red has an endgame in mind, and that it involves Liz. She is a very special part of his plan, and he must protect her at any cost. I don't profess to know exactly what Red's endgame is. But I do believe these latest Season 4 attacks on Red are part of that over-arching chess game.

If lara1 hadn't protested that there isn't a princess piece in chess, I wouldn't have discovered fairy chess, and gone down a rabbit hole researching it for more than a week. She said with all the references to Liz being a princess there would have to be a princess piece. There is in fairy chess, and dozens of other unusual pieces.

Fairy Chess, invented in 1914 in Australia, is a type of chess where new pieces are invented to move in ways not normal to chess. These pieces are decided upon before the game begins. The board is usually larger than in traditional chess with more squares to accommodate more pieces, and it may even be three dimensional. The purpose is for trying out new strategies, or offering new challenges. In other words, it's more complicated than regular chess. And who do we know who likes complicated?

The Princess is a fairy chess piece that can move like a bishop or a knight. This compound piece is nearly as powerful as a queen. And a king and princess versus a king is a forced win for the side with the princess. A princess and a pawn have a slight advantage over a queen. Other names for the Princess piece are Archbishop, Cardinal and Janus. I find it interesting that we had a Cardinal Richards in The Vehm, and Janus was the last name of the Caretaker.

There are dozens of other pieces in fairy chess. Some of them are royalty like Empress and Prince. There are also many animal pieces, marine pieces, ships, spy, soldier, machine, and even a ghost.

The inventor, Henry Tate, sort of reminds me of Dom's character. He was a music teacher and composer. One of his compositions was based on bird calls. Rember how the birds were always chirping at Dom's place.

I found other connections to The Blacklist, but it's getting very late and I need sleep. I'll post more tomorrow.

Last edited by Tuxie400 (3/12/2017 12:27 pm)

Honey West · 3/12/2017 1:12 am

That's fascinating, Tuxie400! Can't wait to read more. (cheerful)

Tatiana · 3/12/2017 11:33 am

Tuxie that is wonderfu to wake up to! Very clever, you are!

Tuxie400 · 3/12/2017 11:46 am

Thanks, Honey West! When I stumbled on fairy chess and its connections to Season 3b, I started thinking if anything had looked like chess pieces or playing chess. Sometimes chess pieces are made of glass like the fairy chess pieces shown above. I discovered that all the blown glass animals Red gave Josephine in the Allistair Pitt episode are powerful fairy chess pieces that can move multiple spaces. The giraffe, Red's first gift to Josephine, is one of the most popular fairy chess pieces. It moves like a knight, and can jump to four squares away and then one more square vertically. The elephant piece has been used in fairy chess and forms of ancient chess including Chinese, Indian and Korean. The elephant can attack through three spaces, taking all the pieces it encounters, including friendly pieces. With the idea of the Blacklist, Red is taking friendly pieces (Zamani and others he has helped). The last piece Red gives Josephine is an antelope, known for solving fairy chess problems. It can move three spaces diagonally and then one space to the right. I was thinking Glass Managerie with Josephine. Who knew it was Chess too?

Then I was thinking, what else looked like playing chess? Bam, it hit me! In the Artax Network, Red and Dom pass the Tabasco bottle and the pepper shaker across the table - just like they are playing chess. They both slide those pieces across the table and thunk them down - just like a chess player would. I don't know if that's a clue that Dom really is the person Red is playing this big game with, or if it's just more imagery of Red's Chess game. Then there are the pill bottles on a table at Dom's. I think that cluster of pill bottles represents chess pieces - in the Artax Network and all the places we've seen them: the blue pills of the team leader helping Solomon, the cluster of pill bottles at Emma's house in The Harem, the pill bottle Red shakes and clutches in the Apothecary. Can anyone remember seeing pill bottles elsewhere?

And those pesky plaids we've seen thoughout the series - I think they represent chess boards. What do you think? I got the idea while researching the human chess game in Alice Through the Looking Glass. The board there was made of green fields and blue streams.

I'm more of an auditory learner and word person, but when I started looking for visual symbols and chess, I started seeing so much. There's plenty there in word connections too, and that will be my next post.

Last edited by Tuxie400 (3/12/2017 5:02 pm)

Tatiana · 3/12/2017 12:20 pm

Wow! This is so much fun!!! Thank you so much Tuxie for taking the time to research this! I was just looking at the beautiful little glass trinkets Red gives Josephine. They just had to have some type of meaning and YOU found IT!!! Wow! I am impressed! I never gave any thought to it being like a chess piece because I know nothing of fairy chess. Something new to learn about. One of the things I enjoy so much about this show :-)

First, I think you are on solid ground with Dom and Red and their cross with the Tabasco and Pepper bottles. There are moments in this show that just remain in the mind as significant and that is one, visual, auditory, etc.

Re: prescription bottles. Not as certain on this one, but I do know that chess players will frequently pick up one piece, look about, then place the piece back in its spot. Could it be like that? A consideration of a move, seeing it would place them at risk, then replacing the piece in its original spot? I'm just blabbing here.

The plaid theme is funny, but you're right, it could be a chess board, whether it is a visual reminder that this is a chess game or if it is pointing something specific out about a move or predicament in the given scene/episode?

The literal/word connections are plentiful. I really think you are on to something there as we've noticed the royalty references but never made a connection. This connection really clicks, at least to me it does. Let's see what others have to say, but it just seems to fit perfectly!

Really looking forward to your thoughts on the word connections.

I really should have been paying more attention when my son kept trying to teach me chess.

lara1 · 3/12/2017 12:30 pm

Tuxie400 - I really enjoyed reading your post, and think you are onto something. I have always thought that Red is playing a chess game because of all the references to it, and he has told several people, including Harold, that they need to focus on the endgame, and he himself has an end game. But I could never knit it together.

I think you are right about the small glass pieces and Josephine. Possibly the pill bottles too. I recently asked the same question as I put together all of the prescription bottle references since the end of Season 3 - but I could not think of any others than the ones you mentioned.

I also think that plaid is a version of the chess board. Where it appears could mean another piece of the game having moved in some way. I think this because I've also seen the motif on other things, where a checked pattern (rather than a plaid per se) is on fabric, wall coverings, and remember that checkered mug in Dom's house, which then Red had in Esteban (it was either the same one that he took, or another, but there was some symbolism in it.)

RL is calling but look forward to re-reading your posts. And - apologies if my comment on the princess and other non-chess pieces came off as protest! I just like bringing up options/things that will make us collectively think through the puzzle and come up with possible solutions. My mind works in very analytical ways and I frequently jump right into the exception (that maybe proves the rule!) LOL.

Tuxie400 · 3/12/2017 12:34 pm

Tatiana wrote:

Re: prescription bottles. Not as certain on this one, but I do know that chess players will frequently pick up one piece, look about, then place the piece back in its spot. Could it be like that? A consideration of a move, seeing it would place them at risk, then replacing the piece in its original spot? I'm just blabbing here.

The plaid theme is funny, but you're right, it could be a chess board, whether it is a visual reminder that this is a chess game or if it is pointing something specific out about a move or predicament in the given scene/episode?

That's a great observation about a player picking up a piece, thinking about it, and putting it down. I hadn't thought of it that way. For plaid, I think it's a subliminal reminder that this is a chess game, but the plaid also signals something in the scene is not as it seems. There is either subterfuge, lying, or deceit going on. It may just signal a strategy a character is using.

Tuxie400 · 3/12/2017 12:36 pm

lara1 - I didn't mean protest in a bad way. After all, your comment led me to a treasure trove of information. You are very right about those checkered mugs. Thanks for reminding me!

Last edited by Tuxie400 (3/12/2017 12:44 pm)

Tatiana · 3/12/2017 12:40 pm

"I also think that plaid is a version of the chess board. Where it appears could mean another piece of the game having moved in some way. I think this because I've also seen the motif on other things, where a checked pattern (rather than a plaid per se) is on fabric, wall coverings, and remember that checkered mug in Dom's house, which then Red had in Esteban (it was either the same one that he took, or another, but there was some symbolism in it.)"

Lara - yes, you've pointed out these things quite a bit and with good reason. I too have noticed the recurring patterns particularly in wall hangings, eg, Liz and Tom's 'home' in the warehouse. They've used a lot of geometrically patterned cloth material as wall art and clearly, it wasn't there just to look groovy.

You definitely pointed out the checkered mug! I remember that because my mother-in-law still has a bunch of those. I kept thinking checkers, but not chess.

Anyway, clearly Red is strategic, he has a game plan, he plays 'alone' (which is also true of chess, you have an opponent but you play alone, right?)

So if this is significant, it could point us in a better direction to who Liz is to Red, is she being 'played', how is she part of his plan?

Tuxie400 · 3/12/2017 12:53 pm

Getting back to Alice Through the Looking Glass and that chess game, I think it gives us a big clue about Liz. She replaces the white queen's daughter, Lily, and stands in for her during the Chess match. We've often speculated about replacement daughters, or children being switched. I think there's good reason to think the child switching is a strategy Red or his opponent has used.

Tatiana · 3/12/2017 1:14 pm

Tuxie400 wrote:
Getting back to Alice Through the Looking Glass and that chess game, I think it gives us a big clue about Liz. She replaces the white queen's daughter, Lily, and stands in for her during the Chess match. We've often speculated about replacement daughters, or children being switched. I think there's good reason to think the child switching is a strategy Red or his opponent has used.

Tuxie - yes. What I especially like about this theory is that it's the scientific approach: gathering data to see what patterns emerge from it, rather than taking a favorite theory and using clues to 'fit' that theory.

This is why I find this discovery so exciting because it is very organic. Since you posted this morning, I've been thinking more and more about replacement daughters.

I've been reflecting on the number of disfigured or diseased children who've been featured and it's made me wonder if either the 'switch' or whatever the mystery is about Red's daughter is to protect her from disfigurement/disease or if she already has been disfigured/diseased. The Chess game theory doesn't answer this, but it does make the idea of two daughters more realistic.

Ok, I need a quick primer on chess and all its nuances and the Looking Glass. I have to say, I've read Alice in Wonderland, but I don't remember reading Looking Glass. Well, there's nothing like the present.

(besides, I'm trying to avoid doing any real work today lol)

Tuxie400 · 3/12/2017 1:38 pm

Tatiana and lara1 - I remember both of you talking about checks in fabric and other places. I'll have to look for those. I think there may have been lots of other hints a long the way. Even in Wujing in the scene where Red is playing with a traditional chess set, there's a statue of mermaid in back of him. A mermaid is one the marine pieces that can be used in fairy chess.

Tatiana · 3/12/2017 2:09 pm

Pills/pill bottles. The Pilot - Ranko Zamani is sitting on the steps outside, takes a pill which had been in a small silver flask. In the end it turns out he kept his pills and the tracking device in that flask.

Tatiana · 3/12/2017 2:24 pm

This has nothing to do with Chess per se, but I think it does indicate we are on the right path.
I believe Bokenkamp has said everything you need to know is contained in the pilot and the first few episodes. I don't think he meant the answers were there; he meant all the clues were there.

I've mentioned this before, but we all know this show is set up as a giant puzzle, we must look at the clues, and in the meantime, the biggest one of all is that this is a show of characters, pawns, being moved about in a strategic way: a giant Chess game.

So as an avid Puzzler and long-time subscriber to all things words and nerds, I note the obvious close up of the crossword puzzle Red works on in the Pilot, see photo below. It is created by none other than Will Shortz, the all-time greatest genius puzzle creator. He's the Sunday New York Times puzzle creator and formerly the Chief Editor at GAMES magazine. In fact, I remember doing this particular crossword puzzle.

Regardless, it's the biggest clue of all, in my opinion, and it tells us we are on the right path.

Tatiana · 3/12/2017 2:44 pm

Ha! Well, look at that checker/chess board!
The Freelancer 1:2
There's also a 3rd dimension to this when Red goes up and down the stone steps, echos of Escher the artist, the Penrose stairs.

Tuxie400 · 3/12/2017 3:11 pm

Great examples, Tatiana! I love the screenshot from The Freelancer. It really does look like Red and Liz are standing on the chess board.

Tatiana · 3/12/2017 3:24 pm

I find this fascinating too, Tuxie. In Wujing, the first we see of Red playing chess outside is a reflection in the park pond/fountain, much like the looking glass I would say:
(I found this site to have the more easily accessible screen shots: http://screencapped.net/tv/theblacklist/thumbnails.php?album=10&page=2

Tuxie400 · 3/12/2017 4:58 pm

Tatiana I love that one with the reflection in the water. Also this one where the board is reflected in his sunglasses. In the main shot, there's a stone mermaid in back of him. The mermaid is also a fairy chess piece.

Tatiana · 3/12/2017 5:11 pm

Oh that is great!

Tatiana · 3/12/2017 5:48 pm

Checkered/patterned pictures
The Courier 1:05

First, there's a picture of the Courier in a room with lots of ammunition, guns, and a peculiar shot of part of a rifle with 5 prescription bottles around the gun. Two bottles standing, three fallen.

At the Farmer's Market the boy who takes the item from the Russian is wearing a plaid shirt. Also, just behind them is the stand the Courier is in and it has a yellow and white checkered table cloth.

And then there's this shot I just had to include, of Tom who's pretending he doesn't know his wife found his go box but the last shot is him in a plaid shirt looking at the go box in the floor. Interestingly, Red was the one who put Tom in Liz's life:

http://screencapped.net/tv/theblacklist/displayimage.php?album=15&pid=10673#top_display_media

Then there is Laurence DeChambou's night club, several checkered scenes.