The Blacklist season 6 episode 19 review: Is Ilya Koslov Reddington?
Just in case you wanted some more verification that Katarina Rostova did not die at Cape May, we got it through the start of the episode. Katarina knew that she was being hunted, which meant that she had to ultimately find a way to escape. It didn’t take a whole lot of time in order for her to be suspected at the shelter she was hiding, but sooner or later, she seemed to know that she’d be found … and that she would have to find a way to escape on her own.
Katarina was a woman of survival, and we clearly saw that orchestrated throughout the night. While she struggled to stay hidden and on the underground, there was one person she still trusted: Ilya Koslov. Katarina left him a clue or two for him to track down, and that led to the two of them reuniting. (For the record, doesn’t Gabriel Mann look a little bit like a young Raymond Reddington? Feels that way to us.)
Koslov has been a mystery person in this story to date, but his closeness to Katarina is clear — even though he knew that she was a KGB traitor and had people coming after her, he refused to leave her. After all, they had a rather lengthy history together and that bond was going to persevere. Apparently, Ilya and Katarina tried to do everything that they could to help Reddington after the fire. He also helped her to get a new name: Anna Croft. At this point, she ended up having a brief reunion with her mother Virginia, where she was able to push her out of her life forever.
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From here, Katarina headed overseas to Russia with one goal and one goal only: Paying a visit to her father. Dom was in Russia at this point and this is where the betrayal was confronted first-hand. He lied to Velov’s men in order to ensure that she was safe, and put his life in danger in order to do so. This was a big gamble for Katarina to take, relying on her father to do something that would help the two of them make it out of here alive. It was ultimately Ilya who saved both of them in that particular moment.
Following this, Katarina convinced Dom to depart, and that’s when he made the decision to flee from everything in order to ensure that he would be safe … and that Masha would be safe. He urged her to go to Helsinki. In St. Petersburg, though, she made a different decision — she was ready to take her own life.
Did Ilya have another way?
As it turns out, he might! We were sure going into commercial that his idea was to use Reddington almost as a cover so that she could go into hiding … and that he would become Raymond Reddington. It’s the only thing that made sense. There was money in Reddington’s accounts that the two of them could access, which they could use in order to figure out the future. They had already figured out a way to change the narrative around Reddington, so this was the next natural step in making it happen.
Everything seemed completely perfectly aligned — or at least that’s what it seems. Koslov was able to withdraw all of Reddington’s money.
After this big coup on Koslov’s part, Katarina decided to hand a key to Dom — that was the key to post office. Dom hasn’t seen Katarina seemingly ever since.
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What was going on in the present?
Dom revealed to Liz that Katarina was his protegee and that he ordered Katarina to turn Reddington. He just didn’t imagine things going down the specific road that they did. He told Liz everything that he knew, and after getting all of the information, Liz confronted Reddington and told her everything that he knew about Ilya. She laid it all out there, including that Dom was the one who handed down all of the information. It seemed like Liz was at peace with the information that she had … but we’re not sure that anything that she knows is accurate.
Reddington, of course, didn’t give her any additional information. Liz is proud of herself, but should she be?
In the closing minutes…
Reddington paid Dom a visit, one where he confronted him about all of the information that he told Liz. Let’s just say that he wasn’t happy, and he wanted to know everything Dom said.
CarterMatt Verdict
Is Ilya the present-day Raymond Reddington? That’s a pretty fair theory to speculate on at the moment. Yet, the thing with The Blacklist is that it’s hard to really buy into just about anything as reality. Just because Ilya Koslov was Reddington at one particular moment, that doesn’t mean that he still is.
What did you think about tonight’s episode of The Blacklist? Be sure to share in the comments! (Photo: NBC.)
This article was written by Jessica Carter.