The Blacklist: Liz & Tom voted as CarterMatt readers’ favorite ‘ship

While we knew that there were a number of different popular ‘ships going into this poll, it really did come down to just a couple of different pairings with enormous audiences: Lizzington (Liz & Reddington) and Keen2 (Liz & Tom). Both ‘ships had clear motivation to try and take home the title.

Lizzington – This ‘ship has been out there for years, with the belief that Liz and Reddington are not actually related. Even in spite of the reveal at the end of season 4, there is an understandable contingent of fans who still believe that not all is as it seems. We are a subscriber to the Imposter Theory, which states that the Reddington we’re seeing is not the actual Reddington but rather someone who took up the mantel at some point after the real person vanished. It’s possible that the bones in the suitcase belong to the real Reddington.

The motivation here for fans is clear: They want to see the pairing become something more, even though to date it has not been fully addressed beyond a few comments here and there.

Keen2 – This ‘ship is still feeling the pain from Tom’s death at the end of the first half of this season. Unless the series somehow gets into resurrection it doesn’t appear that the character is coming back and the showrunners have stated many times over that the character is dead. Yet, Liz & Tom had many fans who adored the two together. The votes this year, we feel, are a response to sadness that many of these fans feel over what happened. Tom is missed on the show by many who cared about the character, watched him on Redemption, and are sad to see him go. We imagine that there are many people hoping still that Ryan Eggold lands another great role in the future. (We’re still pulling for him to star in Magnum PI.)

For this year, the winner is Keen2 with 57% of the vote! Congratulations to all who voted; these were both worthy ‘ships and we’re glad that there was such a great turnout.

(Photo: NBC.)