“The Blacklist” has finished its fourth season with some tumultuous changes in the lives of several of its characters, especially the James Spader character, Ray Reddington. The series also concluded for the spring with not just one but two big reveals.
The Reddington – Kaplan War ended the only way it could
If Reddington ever knew the adage that would state, in his case, that if you strike at the Queen, make sure that you kill her, he certainly found out in the course of the current season. Mr. Kaplan, as his female former assistant was called, proved to be his most formidable enemy.
She not only knew all of his secrets, including literally where the bodies were buried but had also learned every lesson of criminality and ruthlessness that Reddington could teach during all the years in his service. To be sure, Mr. Kaplan felt obliged to leap from a bridge to her death to avoid prison. But she left Reddington’s criminal empire in ruins. He is literally left only in possession of that hat he always wears.
About that big reveal
The fact, revealed in the last episode, that Reddington is Liz Keen’s father was the least surprising twist in the history of episodic television. The criminal mastermind’s behavior toward the FBI special agent was the hallmarks of a long lost father toward a beloved daughter whom he had done wrong.
There was no scene with, “Lizzie, I am your father!” to rock the viewers back in their seats. The main emotion one felt was to the effect, “I’m glad we got that one over.” Of course, the relationship between the two main characters will have changed starting with season five.
But then there was the other matter
The big secret that Reddington sincerely hopes that Liz never finds out is contained in a suitcase that Mr, Kaplan left in a locker at a bus station.
The suitcase, now in possession of Liz’s husband Tom, contains human bones, but whose bones?
The obvious answer would be that the bones belong to Liz’s mother. But a fan theory is swirling about the Internet that the bones belong to the real Raymond Reddington and that the man whom we’ve come to know by that name is an imposter.
That theory is very unlikely. Harold Cooper, the director of the FBI’s Counter Intelligence Division, seems to have known Reddington before he became a criminal. He would certainly know if the man who presented himself at the Bureau’s headquarters four years ago was not the man he knew. But then again, who knows?
