The Blacklist (2013–2023)

The show where Raymond Reddington walks into the FBI and somehow becomes everyone’s boss

Let’s start by showing y’all the trailers shall we?

Season 1:

Season 2:

Season 3:

Season 4:

Season 5:

Season 6:

Season 7:

Season 8:

Season 9:

Season 10:

⚠️ Content Warning:
This series contains frequent depictions of violence, including shootings, torture, and graphic crime scenes. Episodes often involve disturbing criminal activities such as kidnapping, human trafficking, psychological manipulation, and serial killings. The show also explores themes of betrayal, abuse, and moral ambiguity, with characters regularly operating in ethically gray areas. Some scenes include intense interrogations, implied sexual violence, and emotionally distressing situations involving families and children. Viewer discretion is strongly advised.

Right off the bat, The Blacklist has one of those premises that instantly grabs you.

Raymond “Red” Reddington, one of the FBI’s most wanted criminals, just walks into FBI headquarters, takes off his hat, kneels down, and gives himself up like he’s arriving early for a dinner reservation.

That alone is a great hook.

He’s not dragged in. He’s not arrested during some big shootout. He chooses to walk in. And that already tells you everything you need to know about Raymond Reddington. This man is not surrendering because he lost. He is surrendering because he is starting a game, and everyone else is already behind before they even know there’s a board.

And then he says he has a blacklist. A list of criminals the FBI doesn’t even know exist. Criminals so dangerous, so hidden, so connected, that even law enforcement is basically playing hide-and-seek blindfolded.

But there’s one condition.

He will only speak to Elizabeth Keen.

And that’s where the show begins.

That hook is great. That hook is strong. That hook is why the show lasted as long as it did. Because you immediately want to know why. Why Liz? Why now? Why is Red doing this? What is the connection? Is he her father? Is he lying? Is everyone lying? Is the truth buried under fifteen other truths wearing fake mustaches?

And yeah… welcome to The Blacklist.

Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

The Blacklist follows Elizabeth Keen, played by Megan Boone, a rookie FBI profiler whose first day on the job becomes the weirdest first day imaginable when Raymond Reddington, played by James Spader, surrenders to the FBI and demands to work only with her.

Red offers the FBI a deal. He will help them catch dangerous criminals from his personal blacklist, but he does it on his terms. Every episode usually focuses on a new criminal, a new conspiracy, a new name on the list, and some strange corner of the criminal underworld that Red somehow knows about because apparently this man has eaten dinner with every villain on planet Earth.

That is part of the fun. Red doesn’t just know criminals. He knows their hobbies, their families, their weaknesses, their favorite food, their vacation habits, probably their childhood dentists. He talks about international assassins like he’s reviewing a restaurant. It’s insane, but James Spader makes it work.

The show starts as a crime thriller mixed with a mystery about Red and Liz’s connection. That mystery is the glue. Why does Red care about Liz? What happened in her past? Who is Tom Keen really? What is Red hiding? Who is Katarina Rostova? What happened the night of the fire? And why does every answer create five new questions like this show is allergic to closure?

And that’s where The Blacklist becomes both entertaining and exhausting.

At its best, the show is addictive. The blacklisters are creepy, creative, and memorable. Red is endlessly watchable. The task force has a strong rhythm. The mystery pulls you in.

At its worst, the show drags its central secrets for so long that it starts feeling like the writers are hiding the truth from themselves too.

I’m giving the entire series a 7 out of 10. I wasn’t a die-hard fan to begin with, and I do think the show goes downhill hard after Liz dies. Even if Liz could be frustrating, she was the emotional center of the story. Once she’s gone, the show still has Red, and James Spader is still great, but the main engine of the show is missing.

It’s like keeping the car running after removing the steering wheel. Sure, it still makes noise, but where are we going?

Character Rundown

Season 1 introduces Raymond Reddington, played by James Spader, and honestly, he is the show. I know that sounds dramatic, but let’s not lie to ourselves. Without James Spader, this show probably lasts two seasons and disappears into the NBC crime drama graveyard. Red is charming, dangerous, funny, theatrical, manipulative, and constantly five steps ahead of everyone. He can threaten someone, tell a weird story about a goat in Istanbul, and then order lunch without changing tone. And yes, the funniest realization is that James Spader also voiced Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron. So now every time Red starts monologuing, part of me imagines Ultron retiring from murder robots and becoming a criminal consultant in a fedora. “There are no strings on me, Lizzy… but there is a blacklist.” I’m sorry, that’s funny.

Elizabeth Keen, played by Megan Boone, is the rookie profiler pulled into Red’s world. She starts as the audience surrogate, the person trying to understand why this legendary criminal is obsessed with her life. Early Liz works because she’s overwhelmed, curious, emotional, and clearly caught in something much bigger than she understands. The problem is as the show goes on, the writing for Liz becomes extremely uneven. Sometimes she’s smart. Sometimes she makes decisions that make you want to pause the episode and stare at the wall. Still, the show is built around her relationship with Red, so whether you love her or get annoyed by her, she matters.

Tom Keen, played by Ryan Eggold, starts as Liz’s husband, but Season 1 makes it clear very quickly that something is wrong with this man. He has that “nice schoolteacher husband” energy, but there are secrets underneath. Tom becomes one of the most interesting characters because he starts as a mystery, then becomes a threat, then becomes something more complicated.

Donald Ressler, played by Diego Klattenhoff, is the FBI agent who starts off wanting Red locked away forever. He is very much the straight-laced agent, the rules guy, the “we don’t negotiate with criminals” guy, which is funny because this entire show is about everyone negotiating with a criminal every single week.

Harold Cooper, played by Harry Lennix, is the task force leader trying to keep this whole circus from exploding. Cooper is the adult in the room, or at least he tries to be, because when Raymond Reddington is involved, adulthood becomes more of a suggestion.

Dembe Zuma, played by Hisham Tawfiq, is Red’s bodyguard, friend, moral anchor, and probably the only person on Earth who can make Red shut up just by looking at him. Dembe is quiet, loyal, and deeply important to Red’s humanity. Their relationship becomes one of the best parts of the show.

Aram Mojtabai, played by Amir Arison, becomes the tech genius of the task force. He brings warmth and awkward humor, and he’s one of the few characters who often feels like a normal person trapped in a world of international criminals and government secrets.

Meera Malik, played by Parminder Nagra, is part of the original task force, and while she doesn’t last long, she adds another layer to the early team dynamic. Her death is one of those early reminders that the show can kill people when it wants to.

Season 2 expands the mythology with Berlin, played by Peter Stormare, as one of Red’s major enemies. Berlin feels like the kind of villain who belongs in Red’s world, someone with history, revenge, and a reason to hate him. This season also brings more focus to Naomi Hyland, played by Mary-Louise Parker, who is connected to Red’s past and complicates the question of who Red really is and what kind of life he had before becoming the criminal concierge of doom.

Season 3 pushes Liz into fugitive territory and gives more importance to Mr. Kaplan, played by Susan Blommaert. Mr. Kaplan starts as Red’s cleaner, the person who makes bodies and problems disappear, but she becomes so much more than that. She is one of the best side characters in the entire show because she has history with Red, loyalty to Liz, and eventually becomes one of the few people willing to challenge Red in a way that actually hurts him.

Season 4 gives Alexander Kirk, played by Ulrich Thomsen, a major role as a man claiming a deep connection to Liz and her mother Katarina Rostova. Kirk is important because he pushes the family mystery even harder. This is the season where the show really starts pulling the audience deeper into the “who is Liz, who is Red, and what really happened” black hole.

Season 5 brings more focus to Ian Garvey, played by Jonny Coyne, who becomes tied to the suitcase full of bones. And yes, the bones. The infamous bones. This is one of those storylines where the show basically says, “You thought you were close to answers? Cute.” Tom also becomes central again this season, and his arc reaches one of the most emotional endings in the series.

Season 6 introduces Red in prison, which gives James Spader new material to play with. It also makes Anna McMahon, played by Jennifer Ferrin, and President Diaz, played by Benito Martinez, important antagonistic forces. This season leans into conspiracy thriller territory, with Red facing execution and the task force trying to unravel corruption at a high level.

Season 7 brings in the Katarina Rostova storyline in full force, with Laila Robins playing the woman presented as Katarina. This is where the mythology becomes very messy. Katarina is supposed to be this legendary ghost from the past, the answer to so many questions, but the way the show handles it creates even more confusion. The season also continues building Liz’s distrust of Red, which becomes the fuel for what happens next.

Season 8 is the Liz breaking point. Neville Townsend, played by Reg Rogers, becomes a major villain tied to the archive, Katarina, and the old secrets. Liz turns against Red, and the show becomes less about catching blacklisters and more about the collapse of the Red/Liz relationship. This is also the season where Liz dies, and that is the point where the show fundamentally changes.

Season 9 has to deal with the aftermath of Liz’s death. The task force has split apart, Red disappears for a while, Dembe becomes an FBI agent, which is a huge shift, and the season slowly brings everyone back together. Marvin Gerard, played by Fisher Stevens, becomes one of the most important figures this season, and his betrayal matters because he has been part of Red’s world for so long.

Season 10 is the final season, and by this point the show is mostly about consequences catching up. Wujing, played by Chin Han, returns and starts building a coalition of blacklisters against Red after learning Red worked with the FBI. Congressman Arthur Hudson, played by Toby Leonard Moore, becomes a threat to the task force itself. Siya Malik, played by Anya Banerjee, joins as Meera’s daughter, giving a connection back to Season 1. The final season is more reflective, but it also feels like the show is running on whatever mystery fumes are left in the tank.

Important Villains / Blacklisters Segment

One of the best things about The Blacklist is that the villains can be really creative. Not every blacklister is amazing, but the best ones stick out because they feel like they come from Red’s strange hidden world of criminals.

The Stewmaker is one of the early standouts because he is genuinely creepy. His whole thing is dissolving bodies and making people disappear, which immediately tells you this show is not just doing normal bank robbers and drug dealers. This is a guy whose entire job is human erasure. That’s horrifying.

Anslo Garrick is memorable because he brings violence directly to the task force. He attacks the black site and puts Red in real danger early on, which helps prove that Red may be powerful, but he is not untouchable.

Berlin is one of the first major mythology villains who feels like he has weight. His hatred for Red is personal, and the season builds him like someone from Red’s past finally coming to collect.

The Director is important because he represents the Cabal and the deeper conspiracy side of the show. He is not scary in a physical way, but he has institutional power, which makes him dangerous.

Alexander Kirk matters because he connects to Liz’s family mystery and claims to be her father. Even if the show keeps bending the truth like it’s made of rubber, Kirk is still important to the mythology.

Mr. Kaplan becomes one of the best antagonists because her conflict with Red is emotional. She knows him, loves Liz, and genuinely believes Red is destroying the person he claims to protect. That makes her more interesting than a random villain of the week.

Ian Garvey is important because of the bones, and the bones are one of the biggest mystery objects in the entire show. Garvey’s involvement turns the suitcase into a massive ticking bomb.

Katarina Rostova, or at least the woman presented as Katarina, becomes one of the most controversial figures because she is supposed to answer questions but mostly opens a trapdoor into even more confusion.

Neville Townsend is important because his connection to N-13, the Sikorsky Archive, and Katarina pushes Liz into her war with Red.

Marvin Gerard is one of the most painful later villains because he is not some stranger. He is Red’s lawyer, Red’s ally, someone inside the machine. His betrayal hurts because it comes from within.

And Wujing returning in the final season matters because he represents Red’s past blacklisters realizing the truth. Red has been feeding criminals to the FBI for years, and eventually, yeah, someone was going to connect those dots. Criminals may not be famous for emotional stability, but they can count.

Pacing / Episode Flow

The early seasons of The Blacklist have a great rhythm. You get a blacklister of the week, Red gets to be mysterious, Liz investigates her own life, and the task force slowly gets pulled deeper into Red’s world. It’s a strong formula because every episode gives you something immediate while the bigger mythology keeps simmering in the background.

Season 1 through Season 3 are probably the cleanest stretch because the show still feels like it knows where it’s going. There’s mystery, but it feels exciting. You want the next clue. You want the next reveal. You want to know why Red is doing all of this.

But eventually, the pacing starts getting dragged down by the mythology. Not because mystery is bad, but because the show keeps teasing answers and then swerving away from them. It becomes mystery edging. “We’re about to tell you the truth. Actually no. Here’s a new fake truth. Come back next season.”

After a while, that gets exhausting.

The case-of-the-week format also becomes uneven. Some blacklisters are great and memorable. Others feel like filler so the show can keep the season moving while the real story hides in the corner wearing sunglasses.

The biggest pacing problem happens after Liz dies. The show loses the central question that had been driving it from the beginning. Red is still interesting, but the emotional engine is gone. Seasons 9 and 10 feel slower, more scattered, and more like an extended epilogue than the main story.

Pros

James Spader is the biggest strength of the show. He gives one of those performances where even when the writing gets ridiculous, you still want to watch him. Red can be charming, terrifying, hilarious, heartbreaking, and completely insane all in the same episode, and Spader makes it feel natural.

The premise is excellent. A master criminal helping the FBI catch criminals they don’t even know exist is just a great idea. It gives the show a strong engine from episode one.

The early mysteries are genuinely engaging. Red’s connection to Liz, Tom’s secret life, the Cabal, Katarina Rostova, the fire, the Fulcrum, the bones, all of that stuff hooks you hard at first.

The blacklisters are often creative. The show doesn’t just do generic criminals. It gives you weird specialists, underground doctors, assassins, cleaners, fixers, corrupt officials, secret organizations, and criminals with bizarre methods.

Dembe is fantastic. His relationship with Red gives the show heart and makes Red feel more human.

Tom Keen’s arc is way better than it has any right to be. He starts as one thing, becomes another, and somehow becomes one of the more compelling characters.

Cons

The mystery goes on way too long. At some point, a mystery stops feeling intriguing and starts feeling like a hostage situation. The show keeps promising answers, then giving half-answers, fake answers, reversed answers, secret answers, and answers that need three more seasons of explanation.

Liz’s writing becomes frustrating. Megan Boone is not the problem. The writing is. Liz gets thrown back and forth between smart profiler, emotional wreck, criminal mastermind, betrayed daughter, revenge machine, and gullible disaster depending on what the plot needs that week.

The Red identity mystery becomes too stretched. Whether you like the implied answer or not, the show waited so long and danced around it so much that it lost some impact.

The whole “is Raymond Reddington actually Elizabeth Keen’s father or not?” storyline got really tiring after a while. At first, it’s intriguing—like okay, cool, there’s a mystery here, let’s unpack it. But then the show just keeps dragging it out, constantly teasing answers, backtracking, throwing in new twists, and then undoing them like none of it mattered. It stops feeling like a clever long-term mystery and starts feeling like the writers are stalling for time. Every time you think you’re finally getting a straight answer, the show pulls the rug out again, and not in a satisfying way—just in a “here we go again” kind of way. After a certain point, it loses its emotional weight because you’re not invested anymore, you’re just exhausted by it.

After Liz dies, the show loses a lot of purpose. Again, you can still enjoy Red, but the central relationship is gone.

The final seasons feel like they are mostly running on James Spader’s charisma and leftover mythology smoke.

Final Thoughts

The Blacklist is a show I respect more than I love.

It has a great hook, a fantastic lead performance, some really strong villains, and early seasons that are genuinely addictive. When it works, it really works. It has style. It has mystery. It has Red walking into rooms and turning everyone else into background furniture.

But it also drags. It overcomplicates itself. It keeps secrets for too long. It makes Liz frustrating. And once Liz dies, the show never fully recovers.

That’s why 7 out of 10 feels right.

It’s not bad. It’s not a masterpiece. It’s a strong show that slowly gets tangled in its own mythology until it starts tripping over the same secrets it used to make interesting.

Still, James Spader as Raymond Reddington is absolutely worth watching.

That man carried this show like he had a blacklister in one hand and the entire NBC schedule in the other.

Rating

7 / 10

Spoiler Warning

Alright, now we’re getting into the full season-by-season spoilers, including the major twists, deaths, betrayals, revelations, and the stuff that made the show addictive and then eventually made it exhausting.

Spoilers

Season 1 starts with Red surrendering to the FBI and demanding to speak only with Elizabeth Keen. That alone sets off the entire mystery. Red clearly knows Liz, or at least knows about her, but Liz has no idea why this criminal mastermind would care about her. The early season is built around that question while Red helps the task force take down blacklisters.

The first big personal twist is Tom Keen. Liz thinks Tom is her normal husband, a sweet schoolteacher, the safe part of her life. But the show starts dropping hints that he is not what he seems. The hidden box, the fake identity, the money, the passports, the gun, all of that reveals that Tom is living a double life. That twist works because it attacks Liz at home. It’s not just that her job is dangerous. Her marriage is a lie. Her safe place is fake.

Red’s relationship with Liz becomes more mysterious as the season goes on. He protects her, manipulates her, and gives her just enough truth to keep her close without actually explaining anything. This is where the show is at its strongest because the mystery still feels fresh. Every weird look from Red feels like it means something. Every time he says “Lizzy,” you’re wondering what this man knows.

The season also introduces the Cabal through Alan Fitch and the larger conspiracy surrounding Red. By the end of the season, the task force has become more dependent on Red, Tom’s real nature is exposed, and Liz’s life is completely broken open. Tom is not just a husband with secrets; he was placed in her life. That is a strong ending because it tells Liz that her entire identity is built on lies.

Season 2 goes deeper into Red’s enemies and the mythology. Berlin becomes the major threat, and he is introduced as someone who hates Red deeply. Berlin believes Red destroyed his life and caused the death of his daughter. That revenge gives the season more emotional weight because Berlin is not just some random criminal. He is part of the consequences of Red’s past.

Naomi Hyland, Red’s ex-wife, also becomes important because she complicates the question of who Red was before becoming Raymond Reddington the criminal legend. Her presence makes you wonder about Red’s former life, his family, and what really happened before all of this started.

Tom survives and remains a major problem. Liz captures him and keeps him prisoner on a boat, which is one of those moments where the show starts pushing Liz into darker territory. She’s not just the innocent profiler anymore. She is lying, hiding things, and making morally questionable decisions. And honestly, that could have been really interesting long-term if the show handled it consistently.

The Fulcrum becomes the major mythology object this season. It’s this blackmail file that could expose the Cabal, and everyone wants it. Liz has a connection to it through her childhood, which brings us back to the fire. The fire is one of the biggest pieces of the puzzle because it ties Liz, Red, Katarina, and the night everything changed together.

The season ends with Liz being framed for the murder of Senator Hawkins and later the Attorney General Tom Connolly, who is tied to the Cabal. Liz shoots Connolly, and that sends her running. This is a huge shift because Liz goes from FBI agent to fugitive. The show basically says, “Okay, now she’s inside Red’s world whether she likes it or not.”

Season 3 starts with Liz on the run with Red, and this is one of the better stretches of the show because it changes the format. Liz is no longer just working cases from inside the FBI. She is being hunted. Red is protecting her directly, and their dynamic becomes even more intense.

The Cabal is still after Liz, and the task force is divided between their duty and their loyalty to her. Ressler is hunting her, but it’s not simple because he knows Liz isn’t just some monster. Cooper is trying to navigate the mess. Red is doing Red things, meaning he is probably lying, helping, manipulating, and eating a fancy meal all at once.

Liz eventually clears her name, but the season takes a major emotional swing when she appears to die while giving birth to Agnes. This death fake-out is huge at the time because Red is devastated. James Spader plays Red’s grief beautifully. He seems completely broken, and for a moment the show lets you believe Liz is gone.

But of course, Liz is not dead. Mr. Kaplan helped fake Liz’s death so Liz could escape Red’s influence and live safely with Tom and Agnes. This is one of the most important fractures in the entire show because it reveals the conflict between Red and Mr. Kaplan. Kaplan loves Liz in her own way and believes Red is dangerous to her. Red sees Kaplan’s betrayal as unforgivable because she took Liz away from him.

Alexander Kirk appears near the end of the season and claims to be Liz’s father. This is where the family mystery gets even louder. Liz is kidnapped by Kirk, and the show ends with the question of whether this man is really her father and what that means for Red.

Season 4 picks up with Alexander Kirk holding Liz and claiming he is Constantin Rostov, Katarina Rostova’s husband and Liz’s father. This season leans hard into the question of Liz’s parentage. Kirk believes Liz is his daughter Masha, and the show uses that to create another identity crisis for her.

Red and Kirk’s conflict becomes personal because both men are tied to Katarina and Liz. Kirk is dying and needs a cure, and he wants Liz partly because of that biological connection. But the show eventually reveals that Kirk is not Liz’s biological father. The DNA truth gets twisted around multiple times, because apparently in this show, paternity is less a fact and more a seasonal weather pattern.

One of the biggest moments in Season 4 is Red shooting Mr. Kaplan after her betrayal. He takes her to the woods and shoots her, believing she has crossed a line by faking Liz’s death and taking her away. But Kaplan survives. And this is where the season becomes one of the strongest emotionally, because Kaplan’s revenge against Red is not random. She knows where the bodies are because she buried them. Literally.

Mr. Kaplan becomes one of Red’s most dangerous enemies because she understands his empire from the inside. She starts dismantling his criminal network piece by piece, exposing his secrets, turning allies, and proving that Red’s greatest weakness is the people who know him best.

Kaplan’s war against Red culminates in her trying to reveal the truth to Liz. She digs up the suitcase of bones, which becomes one of the biggest mystery objects in the show. Kaplan kills herself by jumping off a bridge rather than letting Red stop her, and she leaves the bones behind for Liz. Her death is tragic because Kaplan is not just a villain. She genuinely believes she is saving Liz from Red.

Season 5 revolves heavily around the suitcase of bones. Tom gets involved, and this is where his story reaches its tragic end. Tom has grown so much since Season 1. He started as a fake husband and spy, then became a complicated ally, father, and someone who genuinely loved Liz. His desire to uncover the truth about the bones puts him directly in danger.

Ian Garvey becomes the major villain connected to the bones. He knows the truth they represent, and he uses that knowledge as leverage. The bones are revealed to be connected to the real Raymond Reddington, which blows open the entire identity mystery. The implication is massive: the man we know as Red may not be the real Raymond Reddington.

Tom discovers too much and is brutally attacked. He and Liz are both injured, and Tom dies from his wounds. This is one of the biggest emotional deaths in the series. Tom’s death hits because his arc had become one of the better ones, and Ryan Eggold really made him more compelling than he had any right to be.

Liz goes into a coma and wakes up later to find Tom gone. This sends her into revenge mode against Garvey, and it also deepens her distrust of Red because she realizes Red has been hiding something enormous. By the end of the season, Liz learns the bones belong to the real Raymond Reddington, or at least that is the big reveal, and she decides she is going to find out who Red really is.

Season 6 starts with Liz secretly investigating Red’s identity while pretending to trust him. She teams with Jennifer Reddington, who is believed to be the daughter of the real Raymond Reddington. Together they try to uncover the truth about the imposter Red.

Liz makes one of her biggest betrayals by turning Red in to the police, which leads to him being arrested and placed on trial. Red is nearly executed, and this creates one of the more interesting arcs because it strips him of his usual power. Red is normally untouchable, moving through the world with money, secrets, and contacts. But in prison, he is trapped inside a system he cannot completely control.

Of course, because he is Red, he still manages to manipulate people and survive, but the prison and death row storyline gives the season a different flavor. Red facing execution also forces Liz to confront what she did. She wanted answers, but she almost got him killed.

The season also brings in a presidential conspiracy involving President Diaz and Anna McMahon. The task force uncovers a plot tied to assassination and corruption at the highest level. This part of the season is more political thriller than family mystery, and while it has stakes, it also shows how far the show has moved from the simple blacklister format.

By the end, Red survives, the conspiracy is exposed, and the show brings Katarina Rostova directly into the story. Red is abducted in Paris by a woman who appears to be Katarina. This ending is supposed to be huge because Katarina has been the ghost haunting the show for years. Finally, she’s here. Or so we think. Because with The Blacklist, even when someone walks onscreen and says “Hello, I’m the answer,” you know the show is already hiding three trapdoors underneath them.

Season 7 focuses on the woman presented as Katarina Rostova, played by Laila Robins. She captures Red and tries to extract information from him about the Townsend Directive. She is dangerous, desperate, and tied to the mythology of Katarina, Dom, Ilya Koslov, and the old spy world.

This season spends a lot of time on Liz being pulled between Red and Katarina. Katarina presents herself as Liz’s mother, and Liz wants answers so badly that she starts trusting her. This is one of those points where Liz becomes frustrating because you understand emotionally why she wants to believe Katarina, but you also want to shake her and say, “Girl, this is The Blacklist. Nobody who says they’re telling the truth is telling the truth.”

We get more reveals about Ilya Koslov, Dom, and the plan that followed the real Reddington’s death. The show suggests that Ilya helped create the Reddington identity, but again, it refuses to fully settle the question. It keeps giving you pieces but not the whole picture.

The season was also affected by production shutdown, which is why the finale uses partial animation. And honestly, that finale is bizarre because you suddenly have live action mixed with graphic-novel-style animation. It’s a weird workaround, but also kind of fitting for a show whose mythology already feels like a conspiracy board got hit by lightning.

Liz ultimately sides with Katarina against Red by the end of the season. That is a major turning point. The relationship between Liz and Red, already damaged, is now basically on fire.

Season 8 is the most important late-season arc because it brings Liz and Red’s relationship to its breaking point. Liz is angry because Red kills the woman she believes is her mother. Red insists the situation is more complicated, but at this point Liz is done listening. She turns fully against him.

Liz becomes a fugitive and starts working with criminals to destroy Red. This is where her writing becomes very divisive. The show wants Liz to become darker, smarter, and more like Red, but it doesn’t always feel earned. Sometimes she seems like a mastermind. Other times she makes decisions that feel wildly reckless. It’s hard to tell if she’s becoming Red or just becoming plot chaos in a coat.

Neville Townsend becomes the major villain. He wants revenge because his family was killed as a result of N-13 and the Sikorsky Archive. Red is accused of being N-13, the mysterious operative who stole intelligence. The archive becomes another major mythology object, and Townsend’s rage turns toward Liz once he learns more about her connection to Katarina and Red.

The episode “Nachalo” is where the show finally dumps a massive amount of backstory. We see the story of Katarina, the real Raymond Reddington, the fire, Masha/Liz, and the creation of the Red identity. The real Reddington was Liz’s father, and he died the night of the fire after Liz shot him as a child. Katarina and others worked to cover everything up, and the man we know as Red became Raymond Reddington after the real one died.

The show heavily implies that Red is Katarina, transformed into Reddington to protect Liz and hide from enemies, though it still never states it in the blunt, clean way a lot of viewers wanted. And that is one of the most frustrating things about the show. After eight seasons, it still acts like saying the answer out loud will cause NBC headquarters to explode.

Townsend attacks, Red kills him, and then Red makes a final plan. He is dying, or at least believes his time is limited, and he wants Liz to kill him and take over his empire. His idea is that if Liz kills Raymond Reddington, she will inherit his power and protection. This is insane, but it is also very Red. His love language is apparently trauma inheritance.

In the Season 8 finale, Liz meets Red outside a restaurant and is supposed to kill him. But she can’t do it. Before she can make the choice, one of Townsend’s men, Vandyke, shoots her. Liz dies in the street while Red holds her.

This is the show’s biggest turning point. Whether someone liked Liz or not, her death changes everything. The entire show was built around Red and Liz. Their connection was the mystery. Their relationship was the emotional core. Once Liz dies, the show loses the thing it had been orbiting since episode one.

And yeah, this is where I think the show goes downhill. Red is still great. Spader is still Spader. But the central female lead is gone, and with her goes the main question that gave the show its original spark.

Season 9 jumps ahead after Liz’s death. The task force has disbanded, Red has disappeared, and everyone is dealing with grief in different ways. Dembe has become an FBI agent, which is a huge shift because he was Red’s closest companion for years. Seeing Dembe on the other side of the law creates a new tension between him and Red.

Red returns with Weecha and Mierce, and he is clearly not the same man. Liz’s death has changed him. He is more detached, more spiritual in some ways, and also more broken. The season slowly reveals that there was more to Liz’s death than it first seemed. Someone helped orchestrate the circumstances that led to her murder.

The big reveal is Marvin Gerard’s betrayal. Marvin, Red’s lawyer and longtime ally, was behind the manipulation that led to Liz’s death because he believed Liz was unworthy of inheriting Red’s empire. This betrayal matters because Marvin is not a random enemy. He is part of Red’s inner circle. He knows Red’s world, his weaknesses, and his business.

Red eventually uncovers Marvin’s role, and Marvin dies by suicide after being cornered. Before his death, he gives Wujing information about Red’s deal with the FBI, setting up the final season. This is a strong setup because it finally addresses something that should have blown up years earlier: Red has been feeding criminals to the FBI, and if the criminal underworld finds out, they are absolutely going to lose their minds.

Season 9 is emotionally about aftermath, but it also feels like the show trying to figure out what it is without Liz. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it feels empty. Red mourning Liz is compelling because Spader can sell grief with one quiet look, but the show itself feels like it is missing its original purpose.

Season 10 brings back Wujing, who now knows Red has been working with the FBI. Wujing starts recruiting former blacklisters and enemies to go after Red, which is honestly a smart final-season idea. Red spent years using the blacklist to eliminate threats, protect himself, and work with the FBI. It makes sense that eventually the blacklist would come back to bite him.

At the same time, Congressman Arthur Hudson starts investigating the task force. This is another major threat because the task force has always operated in a morally gray area. They work with one of the world’s most wanted criminals. They bend rules. They hide things. They justify it because Red helps them catch worse people, but eventually someone was going to ask, “Hey, why is the FBI letting a criminal mastermind run errands through a secret team?”

Siya Malik joins the task force, and her presence connects the final season back to the beginning because she is Meera Malik’s daughter. That’s a nice full-circle element, even if the show is far removed from its Season 1 energy by this point.

The final season slowly dismantles Red’s arrangement with the FBI. Hudson gets closer to exposing everything. Wujing and the blacklister coalition put pressure on Red. The task force is forced to face what they have been doing for years.

Red also starts shutting down parts of his empire and saying goodbye in his own strange way. He gives things away, closes accounts, makes arrangements, and feels like a man preparing for the end. The show becomes less about one final answer and more about Red exiting the world on his own terms.

The finale is strange, poetic, and honestly very Blacklist. Red goes to Spain, has one last stretch of freedom, and eventually encounters a bull. He is killed by the bull, and Ressler later finds his body. It’s not a giant shootout. It’s not the FBI taking him down. It’s not a blacklister getting revenge. It’s Red wandering into the path of something wild and unstoppable.

Is that ending going to work for everyone? No. Absolutely not. Some people probably wanted a clearer answer, a bigger confrontation, or one final full confession about his identity. But in a weird way, Red dying like that fits him. This man spent his whole life escaping governments, criminals, spies, assassins, and the FBI, and then nature basically said, “Move.”

The final image of Ressler finding Red closes their long cat-and-mouse relationship. Ressler spent years chasing Red, hating him, working with him, depending on him, and finally he finds him at the end when there’s nothing left to arrest.

And that’s The Blacklist.

It begins with Red walking into the FBI by choice.

It ends with Red leaving the world on his own strange terms.

The problem is that the journey in between is messy. There are great reveals, great performances, great villains, and genuinely strong emotional moments. But there are also dragged-out mysteries, frustrating character choices, and answers that come too late or too vaguely.

Still, Raymond Reddington remains one of the most watchable TV characters of the last decade.

And if nothing else, this show proved one thing.

James Spader can sit in a chair, tell a story about some guy he met in Marrakesh, and somehow make that more interesting than half the actual plot.