The Blacklist season 7 spotlight: The future for Raymond Reddington
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In this week’s edition of our show spotlight series (check back every Friday for more), we are putting the focus on none other than James Spader’s stellar character. Think of this as your proper intro enter what his world could look like — and we’ve got five different specific questions to wonder.
What happens with him and Katarina Rostova? – We’ve already published many a theory here, suggesting that maybe the “attack” was actually staged and that Reddington, perhaps, used this public incident as a chance to flush out whoever is hunting for Katarina. If not, though, season 7 is going to start with Reddington in a very vulnerable position. He’s going to need to figure out where he is, why what happened actually did, and if there is a way to patch up this relationship. In the early going, it’s not going to look great.
What’s the relationship like between him and Dembe? – Are these two really on better terms now? At the end of season 6, we saw Dembe make the decision to come back, feeling as though his path was merging with Raymond once more. What’s their dynamic like now? Is it a little more of a collaboration? Reddington now knows that Dembe is someone who can be lost, and perhaps he shouldn’t lead so much with a culture of fear this time around. We actually think this storyline was one of the most beautiful of all of this past season, as it introduced more of the concept of free will and also that Reddington is something more than just a man who kills everyone he feels has wronged him.
Is he actually sick? – While it wasn’t fully addressed throughout the entire sixth season, there were little moments that suggested that there was something going on with him medically. Given that the producers often introduce small nuggets to be paid off later (think all the way back to the photo at the end of “The Stewmaker”), we like to imagine that there is more of a payoff coming here, as well.
Will he see more of him and “The Stranger”? – This character was introduced at the end of this past season, and it seems as though he’s known Reddington much of his life. Now is, of course, a chance to get to know him and his relationship with Reddington more, but beyond that, explore why he hasn’t been around until now.
What is his final endgame with the Blacklist? – While we don’t know if season 7 is the final one, we do hope that the upcoming episodes offer up a chance to dive a little bit more into this concept — in particular, why Reddington really wanted to get close to Liz Keen in the first place. Was it just to fill a hole in his heart, and he could really care less about the enterprise and stopping criminals? We do think we’re seeing more of this man’s humanity now and we hope that the series does continue to embrace those corners of this character’s mind.
What do you want to see when it comes to The Blacklist season 7 and Raymond Reddington? Be sure to share right now in the comments, and check back for some other news. (Photo: NBC.)