The Blacklist season 6 theory discussion: Who is #1 on the Blacklist?
Before we dive head-first down this rabbit hole, let’s start things off with a chat just about the nature of this list in the first place. How serious is it? How much attention should we really give it? We do wonder if the numbers evolve, if certain people have changed in their placement since the start of the show, or the numbers are just an arbitrary convention used more by the writers to establish an added dose of intrigue.
No matter how you perceive the list, there is at least some sort of trend to it — the higher the number, the closer in proximity to Reddington. The more of a threat you really are to him and his empire, whether it be as a possible traitor or a straight-up enemy. Dembe Zuma, for example, is #10, and Tom Keen is #7. You could still argue though, that Dembe should be higher given that he has so many more skeletons of Reddington’s buried somewhere within his mind.
To date, the highest-ranking Blacklister is Mr. Kaplan, who currently sits at #4. So who could be ranked higher than her — who could be a part of the top 3, or above all others at #1? Within this article, let’s do our best to hand out some theories.
New The Blacklist video: We also have a video below with some additional thoughts on the number 1 Blacklister — Subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube! We have new theory videos all the time about the show so make sure you don’t miss out!
Reddington himself – That’s one of the more prevalent theories out there at the moment, and we certainly understand why it would be. In so many ways, the biggest threat to Reddington is Reddington since one wrong move, one shift of the piece on the chessboard could send the entire operation toppling over. He has to watch out for others, but above all else, he has to watch out for himself.
Liz Keen – She may be a part of the FBI, but she’s certainly killed and could kill again. Given that Reddington has a blindspot for her, it’s easy to consider her a candidate to be #1. She’s capable of hurting Reddington in the deepest way possible and, because he didn’t kill her, she elicits a different reaction from him than most.
Katarina Rostova – If she is somewhere still out there, whatever happened between them could blow this Reddington’s identity wide open — provided, of course, that he is not really an older version of Ilya Koslov. Katarina was there when the story began, and it makes sense for her to be there at the end.
Ilya Koslov – If Reddington isn’t Ilya and he is still alive, wouldn’t you consider him an enormous threat? He may have a motive to take Reddington out, and even if he doesn’t, he could still be a threat to expose some of his greatest secrets.
Donald Ressler – He has been tracking Reddington for a long time — yet, we don’t think he’s #1 on the list. Maybe he’s got a spot within the top 20 if the show wants to do a full episode about him, but not at the very top.
Jennifer Reddington – Is it possible that she’s so much more involved in everything than she’s let on, and she was actually playing along with Liz before realizing that their investigation wasn’t producing optimal results? It’s a stretch, but because of the apparent family connection, you can’t ignore her.
Robert Diaz – It’s possible POTUS could be at least in the top three because he’s POTUS, and the same goes for Anna McMahon. To us though, it’d be a tad disappointing emotionally for one of these people to be ranked higher than someone like Mr. Kaplan who we had such a deep connection to.
Someone we don’t know yet – Remember that we at least have another season coming up! That means that, provided the right story is told, there’s still room for someone incredibly compelling to take one of those top spots.
(Photo: NBC.)
This article was written by Jessica Carter.