The Blacklist season 9: Could Dembe Zuma be the new ‘Big Bad’?

We’ve had a long time now to simmer over the latest The Blacklist season 9 cliffhanger, and of course it leaves us with big questions. Are the writers really about to go in a Mr. Kaplan direction with Raymond Reddington and Dembe Zuma? The former now knows that the latter betrayed him in a pretty significant way, so what is he going to do about? Are we setting the stage for an epic showdown?

We should start by making one thing clear: We don’t want to see these characters battling each other for the rest of the season. With that being said, though, we have to prepare for this and many other scenarios, as well.

Watch our latest The Blacklist theory discussion! There’s all sorts of fun stuff we get into about Reddington and the letter below. Check it out! Also, be sure to SUBSCRIBE to Matt & Jess on YouTube to get more video theories all about the series. There are more coming you don’t want to miss!

If Reddington is opting to go to war with Dembe over him seemingly giving Liz the letter prior to her death, there’s one thing that stands out clearly between him and Mr. Kaplan: Dembe isn’t going into hiding. He’s front and center as a part of the FBI now and he’s not going anywhere. Presumably, he also will have their protection. He knows all of Reddington’s secrets based on what we can tell, and he also will have backup in a number of situations. Dembe’s pragmatic enough that he also won’t act emotionally; he’s a pretty terrible enemy to have for all of these reasons.

So while we think the writers are hinting at a showdown between these characters right now, we can’t see the whole season being about this forever. The Blacklist shouldn’t just want to repeat a storyline from season 4 with a different character. Plus, if they make Dembe into a Big Bad (one who isn’t even bad, mind you), it’d likely mean that the story would need to have an ending. Given that we’ve already lost Megan Boone, we don’t want to see another cast member exit before a possible season 10! Nothing is confirmed about this being the final season, so we’re trying to look ahead as we think of all of this.

Do you think the rest of The Blacklist season 9 will be Reddington vs. Dembe?

Be sure to share right now in the comments! Once you do just that, come back around for some other updates. (Photo: NBC.)