The Blacklist: Is Red's Death Inevitable?
Denis Kimathi
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As we approach The Blacklist series finale, many questions have lingered, especially about how the show will end and what will happen to its most interesting character, Raymond Reddington.
Ending a show as iconic as The Blacklist or deciding the fate of an epic character like Red is difficult. In almost all cases, there can never be a satisfactory ending.
Viewers who watch The Blacklist online have begun picking up on the subtle hint that Red's death might be the only way to end the show.
Will Raymond Reddington die?
It all depends on how you look at some scenes we have seen throughout the season.
There's an end waiting for all of us.
Reddington
Live like you're dying, am I right?
Reddington
No one will blame you if you don't know where we found The Blacklist quotes above.
The first line is from the promo NBC released for The Blacklist Season 10.
The promo teases what the season would be offering, and towards the end, Red and Cooper meet in the bathhouse, and while answering one of Cooper's questions, Red utters those words.
Now that might not have been interesting by itself.
The next few episodes of the season would see a similar promo video used for all the episodes, and at the end of the promo, Red says the second quote, albeit sounding charming as ever.
While these could have passed as marketing gimmicks on the network's part, what came next is the most telling.
Raymond started surrounding himself with people he considers friends, and one of the earliest was Robert Vesco.
He broke Robert out of prison so they could spend time together.
While working a job together, Robert noticed something off with Red on The Blacklist Season 10 Episode 4.
Robert: So, what gives? First, you burst me out of prison. Now, you're treating me like a princess.
Raymond: I've lost a lot of people Robert. If my circle of friends gets any smaller it won't be a circle. I just want to fill my world with people I care about.
Robert: What a crock of crap! You need me for a job, or what?
Raymond: I need you for a job.
Raymond has lived long, been to many places, and met many people -- enough to make informed guesses about what might happen to him. He has seen enough people die and isn't deluded about his mortality.
It was in that episode that the first mention of death happened.
Unfortunately, he would reencounter death soon afterward, when Vesco died.
Through the remainder of the season, we saw him do things he had never done before.
He risked his life so that he could spend time with Agnes. Like her mother before her, Raymond loves Agnes without any reservations, and he has made it his mission to spend as much time as he can with her.
It was never Red's modus operandi to do things without expecting something in return or without foreseeing some gains on his part.
Yet, on The Blacklist Season 10 Episode 13, he engaged in selfless acts by giving away or selling some of his most valuable possessions at throwaway prices.
He cleaned up a charity organization of corrupt people before giving them a huge donation.
Later, he tried reconciling two warring families on The Blacklist Season 10 Episode 18.
He was exposed to poison, but he would not let that keep him down, as he had a ballet recital to attend.
Later, after Cooper visits him in his current lodgings at the bathhouse, the scene from The Blacklist Season 10 promo becomes clear.
Cooper questioned why Red was playing fast and loose with his life when that had never happened in the past. Wasn't he afraid of dying?
Of all the precautions you've taken over the years to survive, suddenly you're OK with putting your life in the hands of pure dumb luck. Why?
Cooper
There's an end waiting for us.
How will Raymond Reddington die?
Based on what we have seen so far if death really is Red's fate, it will not surprise him.
It appears as if he knows it's coming and inevitable.
People tend to give away their possessions when they plan to follow God (or a god), which happened in the bible and happens in modern cults.
Red never follows anyone but himself, and nothing he has done in his life would communicate that he heard the Good News and decided to dedicate his life to Jesus.
When anyone brings death up in conversation, he seems undisturbed by the idea, as if he anticipates and welcomes it.
This state of affairs would rule out death by any means apart from a terminal illness or suicide.
As we said before, Raymond has seen enough death worth many lifetimes. He has seen the people near and dear to his heart die before him. That does something to someone. At his age, he has had the time to experience the consequences of the life he led, and he is no stranger to what can happen.
Agnes is the person he loves the most in the world. Liz died because Red existed. If he had been dead, then she would have lived. It was the same with Katarina. What if that's the same thing awaiting Agnes?
The only way to save her would be for him to die. And since natural death seems to be avoiding him, how about making the final sacrifice by ending his life?
Raymond also suffers from a mysterious illness.
In The Blacklist Season 6, the illness, vaguely mentioned as being neurological, began. By The Blacklist Season 7, it had become so bad that Red collapsed, and his emergency medical team had to gather.
It has taken the backseat through later seasons, but the stress he was under after Liz's death during The Backlist Season 8 brought back the illness for The Blacklist Season 9.
The Blacklist Season 10 has avoided bringing up his fact, which might make this the most plausible analysis.
Neurological diseases can be terminal and deadly. Some kill their victims, and others erase the world from their minds.
Based on the timeline Raymond has kept in doing his good acts and the fact that he's doing them, he seems prepared for it. It's like he knows when the disease will take him.
Why would the show kill Raymond Reddington?
The most straightforward reason is that they seek a way to end the series.
Killing the lead is usually a polarizing decision among the viewers, but sometimes there is no other way.
Raymond is an anti-hero. He is a bad guy who does good things such that sometimes viewers lose perspective of how bad he is. The Blacklist's universe would not count it as a loss if Raymond Reddington died. Some might even celebrate.
Many anti-heroes have died, and while viewers might complain about the circumstances, no one really objects to it. Showtime attempted that with Dexter Morgan, while AMC accomplished that with Walter White.
The two episodes that will make the series finale are Raymond Reddington and Raymond Reddington: Goodnight.
Red might sleep and never wake up. We'll know soon enough of his fate.
Over to you, The Blacklist Fanatics. What is Red's fate? Will you be angry if they kill him?
Hit the comments.
Denis Kimathi was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. He has watched more dramas and comedies than he cares to remember. Catch him on social media obsessing over [excellent] past, current, and upcoming shows or going off about the politics of representation on TV. Follow him on X.
