The Blacklist Declassified

🔴 S2 Unanswered Questions

 

May 25, 2015
 
Note: This list was prepared based on input from fans on Twitter and at the WSJ blog. It was shared with several members of the creative staff. Daniel Knauf, writer and co-exec producer responded with a smiley face :). Dave Metger, another writer responded on Twitter that it was “a good list.” That’s all I know. – LizzieB90.
 
● Who is the little ballet dancer? (see note #1)
● Who is the girl Red remembers at his house & in his movies? Who was her mother?
● What is Jennifer’s relationship to Red? Daughter, step-daughter?
● Was “Bloody Christmas Eve” real? What happened? (see note #2)
● How/why did Red lose/abandon his family? Was the family he lost (above) different from the one he abandoned on 12/24/1990 (assumed to be Carla/Naomi & Jennifer)?
● Who saved Liz from the fire? Who were the other people there? Why was Red there?
● If Red “never lies to Liz,” why did he say “yes” when she said her only memory of her father was of him pulling her from the fire? (see note #3)
● Who was the man with the red signet ring?
● Why does the version of the argument when Liz shoots her father differ from the argument from Braxton2? (see note #4)
● How did Liz and Red get their scars? Was Liz “branded”? (see note #5)
● Why does the shape of Liz’s scar resemble that on the two “go” boxes and bank envelope?
● Why did Liz tell Red she got the scar from a fire when she was 14 and not 4?
● Who was Liz’s father and what was his relationship to Red? Why would knowing his identity put Liz’s life “in grave danger”? Has the danger passed?
● More about Liz’s mother and her relationship to Red. Was she really a “Mata Hari”? Why did Red say she died “of weakness and shame”? (see note #6)
● Why has a DNA test never been done to see if Red is Liz’s father?
● What was Red’s relationship to Liz (if any) prior to the fire?
● What was Sam’s relationship to Red?
● What was Liz’s father’s “criminal background”? Was this Sam or her bio-dad? Why/how did he “abandon” her?
● How does The Director know what Liz’s mother looked like?
● Why does Liz’s mother wear a ring that Tom thinks looks like one Berlin wore?
● Why did Tom tell Liz “Your father is alive”?
● More about Red’s “weird little apartment” – whose was it, if not his?
● Why would Pepper have the skeleton key for the Fulcrum?
● The Presidential limo ❗
● Is Liz even an American citizen? A Russian citizen?
● Does Liz have the ‘warrior gene’ (the rarer type)? What does this imply about her mother?
● How was the Cabal established? What is their goal (originally planned for 2017)?
● Why was Fitch in Russia? Was Red there? Is that where/when The Cabal was set up?
● Was Red framed?
● What is The Stewmaker’s backstory and is it related to Red’s own history?
● Who is Mr. Kaplan and why is she so good at cleaning up blood etc.?
● What happened with Cooper and Reddington in Kuwait where Reddington gave Cooper the only evidence on the USB drive?
● Are the Germans and/or the Major still hunting Jacob/Tom? Why aren’t the Germans dead?
● And of course: What explains Red’s fascination with Liz?
● P.S. What’s with Liz’s dog❓❗

See http://wp.me/pDKwi-ZN for Notes

Notes:

Note 1: Age of the little ballerina in [1:16 Mako Tanida]

The service academies do not allow dependents of any kind. Nor do they – in the interest of group cohesion – allow skipping ahead of your class and graduating early. This means that Red could not have graduated prior to 1983, gotten married, and had a daughter before 1984. When he attends the performance of Swan Lake he holds a program for a March 1987 performance. The ballerinas have gossiped that his daughter performed in Swan Lake “years ago.” The girl Red remembers or imagines dancing among the older ballerinas could be as young as 8 or 9, though the actual age of the performer was 12. But Red’s own biological daughter could not have been more than three or four years old in 1987.

Did Red have a step daughter? This scene was one of the most beautiful of Season 1 and fans on many forums have noticed the age issue. Who was the little ballerina and why is Red holding the program to the 1987 performance while his voice in the voiceover offers condolences to Ressler on the loss of his fiancé?

 
Note 2: The story Red told to Madeline Pratt

The story Red told to Madeline Pratt seems to have been confirmed by Diane Fowler’s telling Red in [1:13 The Cypress Agency] “I know the truth, Red, about that night – about what happened to your family. Do you want to know the truth?” and his emotional response, “More than anything in the world…” before shooting her dead. If not for this, the story could have been dismissed as simply a trick Red played on Madeline. Because of this corroboration, however, the story Red told to Madeline still needs an explanation.

 
Note 3: “Red never lies to Liz”

If “Red never lies to Liz,” why did he say “yes” when Liz said she remembered her father pulling her from the fire? On the wsj blog (comment dated stamped 2:52 am May 21, 2015 Masha Rostova discussion http://on.wsj.com/1HGFsEG), LizzieB90 gave this explanation:

Red has placed his highest value on blocking from Liz’s memory the fact that she shot her father. She was apparently having nightmares etc. There was a fire (we still need an explanation of why it started) the night that Liz’s father was shot. Liz says Tom told her that her father was alive. Red wants her to know her father is dead, but his highest priority prevents him from saying Liz shot him. So, instead of focusing on the immediate cause, he refers to the general context: “in that fire” or “the night of the fire” (a period of time rather than a cause).

It reflects Red putting one thing above telling the whole truth to her: “I think I will always do what is necessary to keep you safe.” When he decided (with Sam, presumably) to block her memory of what she did, he also committed to not telling her what he blocked. He is even willing to accept her opprobrium in allowing her to speculate that he killed her father because he was in love with her mother – even though we now know he did not kill her father. That’s quite a “sin” to “eat.” But this “lie” told by Red still stands out as blatant, compared to other half truths and misleads offered by Red and may need to be further explained.

 
Note 4: Two versions of the argument scene

Even a cursory look comparing the argument scenes between [2:10 Braxton2] and [2:22 Tom Connolly], differences are apparent. How much of the [2:10 Braxton2] version is to be trusted? Liz remembered “My father!” and, about Red, “You were there!” to which Red responds “Yes.” How much of the Braxton2 version remains intact through the caveats of 1) “the memories and a 4yo are unreliable,” 2) Red’s intervention to block Liz’s memories of the night, and 3) Dr Orchard’s caution to Liz about the tampering. It is a critical night in the story’s mythology that at least has to be revisited in light of Red’s admission to Liz that he was there.

One woman, Nan, at the WSJ blog, had her sons apply special sound enhancement and voice recognition software to the argument scene in [2:10 Braxton2] which is considered as canon at that site. That transcript is here: http://wp.me/pDKwi-Lt.

 
Note 5: Liz’s scar is peculiar

Some fans don’t believe the scar on Liz’s wrist could have been caused by the fire, intense as it was. It is too interior – other parts of her body would have burned first; her hair would have caught on fire. In [2:10 Braxton2] the burn appears mysteriously. The scar appears to be a chemical or plastic burn, like napalm, something that stuck to her skin. In any case, it is oddly shaped (similar, some have noted, to the shape of the Chinese symbol for fire http://pic.twitter.com/0y0vyCjtZK).

The shape of Liz’s scar appears similar to the symbol carved on the two wooden “go” boxes, Tom’s and Gina Zanetakos’. It also appears on the Manila envelope Tom directs Liz to get from a bank vault which contains the photos proving that Red was at the hospital at the time of Sam’s death. What caused Liz’s burn? Did her father ‘give it to her’ as she tells Beth in the pilot? Why does she tell Beth she was four when she got the scar but tells Red she was 14 (both in the pilot)? And who is behind the mysterious use of this symbol in Season 1?

 
Note 6: Liz’s mother died “of weakness and shame”

In [2:20 Kuon Zhang], Red confirms as he said in the pilot (which perhaps could be renamed “Ranko Zamani”) that Liz’s mother “died of weakness and shame.” In [2:21 Karakurt] Agent Masik refers to Liz’s mother, Katarina Rostova, as a mythical “pinko Mata Hari,” invoking the WWI spy who obtained secrets from officers by seducing them, a femme fatale. It was intimated in [2:4 Dr Linus Creel] that Liz may have “the warrior gene.” That would mean her mother would have had it too. Wikipedia http://bit.ly/1qZG6jX indicates the warrior gene is associated with alcoholism and drug abuse. In the original pilot script (but not in the actual show), it indicates that, Liz’s mother suffered from substance abuse. Red: “Abandoned by a father who was a career criminal. A mother who worked two jobs, despite her addiction, to keep you out of juvenile court. You’ve practically raised youself.” Were sexual adventurism and substance abuse the reasons Red said Liz’s mother died “of weakness and shame”?

Observation: Earlier in [2:8 The Decembrist], the show’s writers did provide an answer regarding the age of Berlin’s daughter when she was a “dissident” (very young) and her age in the photo in The Stewmaker’s book and, although it seemed a stretch, the answer was appreciated by the fandom and for the most part people were willing to move on.

Miscellaneous :)

● Is Red a woman? Did s/he have sex reassignment surgery? Is s/he Katarina Rostova?
● Is Mr Kaplan (“Kate”) Katarina Rostova? Is “Jelly Bean” Katarina Rostova? Is PeeWee Herman Katarina Rostova?
● Is Liz a Romanov? Is she related to General Zhukov? Was General Zhukov Katarina Rostova?
● And the perennial classic: Is Red Liz’s father?