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I think the necklace could well be in the box Red gave Dembe in Season 4.  The necklace and permission to tell Liz what she wants to know.

I think Red gave his Cape May necklace to Dembe in Philomena’s episode. I think that’s why Dembe came back at the time he did. I love how Katarina referred to Dom as “Papa” the way it did on her necklace. 

I imagine him giving it to Liz instead of Dom, although I imagine him giving it to Dembe more than Liz. Dembe more than Liz because Liz doesn’t know his truth and he has no plans to tell her. Dembe more than Dom because Dembe actually accepts who he became. Dom excommunicated him. 

I think that’s why the necklace hasn’t been seen since. Liz is Red’s past and Dembe is his future. That’s why I feel Dembe acts more like his moral compass than Liz does, which makes the necklace perfect. Moreso for the person trying to save his soul. Dembe just left and came back, so I think that will come back into story somehow or another in S7.

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After Rassvet, it seems obvious to me why Red identified so strongly with the homeless woman.

“Some people are truly alone in this world,” Harold Cooper tells Raymond Reddington.  Red seems to deeply identify with this, and he joins the homeless Delores by the graveside so she will not be alone. This reminds me of what Red told Liz about Dembe in The Kilgannon Corp.: “Dembe stayed … because he saw the man I truly was. No friends who could be trusted, no faith that loyalty or love could ever truly exist.”  So Reddington must have felt very alone at one time. I don’t think I’ve ever loved Red more than when he pats Delores’ hand, after she’s reached out to connect with him.

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Red Set Up a Fake Katarina

I thought about writing my opinion about the last scene from last night’s Blacklist finale.  And then I read Kelly Keybored’s post on Reddit. What she wrote contained much of what I was thinking, and it was so eloquently laid out. I totally agree with her second impressions and her supporting evidence:

First impressions

Oh no poor Red, abducted by evil Katerina! Red must not be Katerina because we see a present day Katerina with our own eyes!

The stranger on the bench must be someone from Red's childhood but someone he trusts and loves. But he can't be a relative, because he would not have to give a “reason” to love a relative. The stranger says “I thought that's why you loved me” (because Red said the stranger was so optimistic).

Red still thinks there is danger, to Liz and Agnes, to Katerina, or to himself and the secret of his identity. Because he seeks out the stranger, who does not seem to be a stranger to him at all.

Second thoughts, after sleeping on it

Red set the whole thing up, just as he did in Madeline Pratt, when both he and Madeline were tasered in the street and thrown into a van. In the very next scene they are shown in a jail cell, Red in distress, appearing to have been beaten, tortured and he narrates the tragic homecoming Christmas story to Madeline. (But of course it was all a ploy to manipulate Madeline, Red had set the whole thing up.)

Supporting evidence: Red called out the name “Katerina” aloud, yet the woman whispered to him “Are they watching?” She knows they are being watched. The entire scene must have been staged.

The stranger on the bench must be present day Ilya. In the synopsis for the episode “Rassvet,” we were told that Katerina would turn to the only man she had ever trusted, someone who had always promised to protect her. That person turned out to be Ilya in Dom's story.

Red tells him “I love you because I can trust you.” This coincides with Katerina's relationship with Ilya as the only man she could ever trust.

Illya was also someone Katerina had known since they were 6 years old. Red tells him “When we were children. You wouldn't give back the truck.” Again, a childhood memory that may have occurred between Katerina and Ilya.

(So for me, this scene one again supports the impostor being Katerina, but of course the writers were just making sure we were standing on the rug before they pulled it out from under us with the last scene.)

Conclusions

Dom's story was not true. Red is not Ilya.

Stranger: What I can't figure out is Dom. … Why would he tell her all that?

Red: In an attempt to help her move on.

Stranger: And she believed him?

Red: She did.

One does not say "And she believed him?" if the truth is being discussed. Evidence that the man on the bench is Ilya: The writers intentionally did not give the stranger a name, he resembles the younger version of Ilya we were introduced to in Rassvet, and his conversation with Red seems to parallel the conversation Ilya had with Katerina in Rassvet.

The woman we saw at the end of the episode could not be Katerina. After 6 seasons, we know Red very well, and we should recognize red flags when Red is acting out of character. We should suspect that things are not always what they seem.

Supporting evidence: Red would not have gone to France without Dembe. If Red wanted to warn someone that they are in danger or to protect them, he would not have called out their name aloud on a quiet dark street. Red knew that the “Russians” were still interested in Katerina because they had approached Ressler. He would not intentionally lead them straight to Katerina.

What Red would do is use the abundance of surveillance cameras (in France) to capture a staged meeting between Raymond Reddington and Katerina Rostova, and he would instruct his intelligence contacts to leak that video into the ether, so the Russians would eventually see it.

I think Red staged the event in order to convince the Russians that Katerina lured Raymond Reddington to France in order to abduct him and kill him, perhaps in retaliation for ruining Masha's life. (Or they might think that Reddington arranged the meeting to kill Katerina for once and for all for betraying him so many years earlier.)

I believe Red staged the abduction in an attempt to once again protect his true identity.

I believe the most important scene in the entire episode is when Red and the man on the bench discuss the danger that still exists, made worse by Ressler's investigation and Dom's story. I believe that is the reason Red set up the "abduction," to misdirect the Russians.

Once again the danger surrounding Liz and Agnes originates from only one source: Katerina. And that once again is tied to Red's identity and his agenda to keep it concealed.

tldr: Don't worry, Red is just fine. Red set the whole thing up. We still don't know who Red really is. The stranger on the bench is current day Ilya, the woman who seemed to abduct Red was NOT Katerina.

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That feeling when Daniel Knauf likes a Rederina and Cape May post. 

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Liz was given an alternate history, and she easily stepped into the lie.  I do believe Katarina was the woman who invented the Raymond Reddington we’ve come to know. So what parts of Dom's story about Katarina and Ilya are likely true?

1. Katarina did not die in the ocean. There may have been a suicide attempt, but she saved herself. 2. It's highly probable she went to a church for sanctuary. We've seen Red do that on more than one occasion. 3. Katarina probably did recover in the homeless shelter. We know Red is a financial supporter of a homeless shelter, probably because of Katarina's experience with one. This is why Red identified and sympathized so much with the homeless woman last season. 4. Katarina probably did intervene in a domestic dispute and kill the abuser with a spoon. We saw Red intervene in a similar situation in the Marvin Gerard episode. And we've seen him use another kitchen tool, the meat thermometer, in a similar way.

The story becomes less believable as soon as she leaves the shelter. I can't see Katarina being dumb enough to use dead guy's credit card to buy a tiny computer and pay for her hotel room. It leaves too much of a trail when you're desperate to "stay dead."

5. I do believe Katarina helped Dom and her mother go into hiding. I question whether Dom was in Moscow when she contacted him.

6. Somehow Katarina acquired fake IDs and fake passports. This could have been done with help of someone like Ilyas.

It seems to me at least some of that RR bribe money had to have been acquired before the Koehler surgeries. Katarina was broke and Ilyas had supposedly liquidated his assets for Screen Mama. How would they have paid for the plastic surgery? If someone like Ilyas was involved, Katarina likely used him to portray Reddington and withdraw at least some of the money, acting like he had changed his appearance.

7. The only other part of Dom's tale I believe is that he last saw Katarina as a woman in the review of his Wagoneer.

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“There is a woman. My employer’s connection to her has been his moral compass, and that connection is broken. Without it, no one is safe.”

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I made that connection too when I saw the scene!

You haven’t the slightest clue how to speak to a woman, have you? Now, my friend there and I are having a very important discussion. So you just sit tight, enjoy your muffin, and if I hear you say anything other than “please” or “thank you” to Carly, I’m gonna drag you into the men’s room and wash your mouth out with soap. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll cut your filthy tongue out with that butter knife. Is that clear enough for you?

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I have a secret too…

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For @tatianareddington

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I thought of that too. But we’ve seen Red fooled by a grave before - one that had Elizabeth Keen’s name on the tombstone.  Is it possible Dom or someone else helped Kat’s mother get a new life and faked her death, but Red never knew? This certainly raises a question mark for me on the mother theory, but it doesn’t kill it. I’d need a bit more to put a tombstone on the Redarina theory.

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Rest in peace, Smokey.  I think my favorite Smokey episode of all was with those elephants.

Smokey Putnam

Fugitive, gambler, gaffer

Elephant wrangler, body snatcher

Exaggerator and whiner extraordinaire

They don’t make men like him anymore.

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Red + Aram + purgatory (Part 1)

Part 2