The Blacklist season 5: Discussing the Rival Reddington theory

With The Blacklist season 5 still not premiering on NBC until later this fall, there’s still time to dive into theories. Out of all of the ones that we’ve pondered over the past several weeks, the Rival Reddington is one of our favorites.

What is the Rival Reddington theory? It starts off assuming that one other theory, the Reddington imposter theory, is true. This is one that we’ve supported virtually from the night of the season 4 finale — that this Raymond Reddington spending time with Liz Keen and working occasionally with the FBI Task Force is not the actual Raymond Reddington. While there was a DNA test that proved that Reddington is Liz’s father, this was tested from DNA that was several decades old. Why not test the Reddington right in front of you if the goal is to prove that he and Liz are related?

The Reddington imposter theory also gives the show more in the tank in terms of figuring out who this person is and why they’ve been pretending to be the man for so long. Maybe they were an envious follower who wanted to be him so bad that they became him. Maybe the real Reddington is dead and his bones are in the suitcase.

For us, the most interesting possibility is that this Reddington impersonator knows that the real version of the character is very much alive, but someone is keeping him hostage, prisoner or maybe in a black ops site somewhere in the world. From the beginning of the pilot, Fake Reddington made it his goal to get closer to Liz, to understand who she is and how she thinks, in order to permanently disrupt the life of the real Reddington. The Real Reddington may have wanted Liz to have a normal life, so that she didn’t have the chaos and the pain that he knows he would inflict on her if he was around. Fake Reddington could know that, and could be inflicting suffering on the real one by getting involved in her world. Or, he could just be using her to suit his own ends by using her and his Blacklist to take down some of the real Reddington’s rivals therefore clearing the way for him to be the #1 crime boss in the world.

Doesn’t Reddington care about Liz?

This is where things could get complicated. Just because you have an original evil plan to destroy the real Reddington’s life through his daughter doesn’t mean the plan ends up as expected. Maybe Fake Reddington didn’t anticipate that he would care about Liz on the level that he does, and that keeps him from achieving whatever his original endgame is with her. He may just now be spinning his wheels with her, desperate to keep some collaboration going while the real Reddington remains locked away. He may be a lonely man who welcomes this bond now, realizing that he’s not getting it from anywhere else. You’ve got an imposter man clinging to this label because it’s so much better than what he actually had in his real life. That’s powerful, interesting, and absolutely haunting stuff.

Maybe the reason he’s so afraid of that suitcase is because the contents could expose something that gives him away; or, maybe it just brings Liz along that path. With him caring about his target, Liz is probably now safe … but also set up for heartbreak if this theory turns out to be true.

Are there holes in this theory?

You can argue that a big one is that Mr. Kaplan and many others have known Reddington for years, so wouldn’t they notice if someone entered the fray pretending to be him? Well, that seems likely, but remember that if someone was willing to go so far as to pretend to be him, they would also go so far as to study up, or even do things to themselves to make themselves similar in appearance to the real Reddington, though keeping up the act 24/7 seems like an enormous challenge. (There’s also something fun about James Spader playing two different characters.)

While the idea of the real Reddington being locked up somewhere for years may sound a little too far out-there for even this show, this is a show that’s really delivered several big twists that certainly had their own far-fetched components. By comparison, maybe this isn’t that strange! We just think it’s far too convenient that the Reddington as presented is actually Liz’s father, just as having the real Reddington dead renders it impossible for Megan Boone’s character to have a genuine moment with her father. We want that, but we also want drama at the same time.

What do you think about this theory?

Do you believe that the real Reddington may be hidden away somewhere, kept from his daughter because of this false man? Share below!

(Photo: NBC.)