The Blacklist season 5: Another possibility for Reddington flashbacks

As we’ve mentioned over the past week, one of the big challenges for The Blacklist season 5 is going to be finding new loose ends. We’ve talked already about his other daughter, and here, we’re going to discuss further Raymond Reddington and his time in Russia.

When James Spader’s character first visiting the country, it’s worth noting that it was not something that he did altogether willingly. He was kidnapped by them decades ago, and there’s a lot of groundwork there with Katarina Rostova and others for some of this to be further explored on the show. Will it? There is no confirmation on that right now, but as executive producer Jon Bokenkamp notes to Entertainment Weekly, this part of his life is something that is on the table:

“Potentially [Reddington’s past with Russia could be brought up more]. It lines up with the mythology. There’s a reason why it was Russians, Katarina was Russian, Reddington was a Naval intelligence officer who was dealing with the Russians, so yes it is part of that fabric, but that wasn’t intended as a big clue. That was more so just to feather in nicely to the mythology and the backstory with all our characters because that’s where he would’ve been working.”

Any chance to explore more of Red’s history anywhere is something worth exploring on this show, whether it be with Russia or anywhere else. The big question that we still wonder more than anything is if this man running around with Elizabeth Keen is really Raymond Reddington at all. The imposter theory is still one of the more interesting ones we have. We also do think that there is some merit here when you think for a moment about how the DNA test was specifically locked away in a vault rather than being from “Reddington” the person working occasionally with Liz Keen and the Task Force.

Now that Reddington’s entire history with Mr. Kaplan is firmly fleshed out on the show, here’s to hoping that the producers do find a way to flesh out some of the other fantastic parts of this man’s life. After all, this should give us even more insight into how he became the man that he claims to be in the present.

What do you want to see in terms of Reddington flashbacks on The Blacklist season 5? Be sure to share in the comments!

(Photo: NBC.)