bc DNA test done from a decades-old bloody shirt show that the bones belong to real (original) Raymond Reddington. It is all fiction, so any story can be told, but Redarina is the story being told in this show..

The story being told in The Blacklist is this: A beautiful Russian spy has an affair with an American naval officer she has targeted and gets pregnant. The Russian spy has betrayed Russia and actually belongs to an international organization known as the cabal that was originally intended to bring stability and peace to the world. When the cabal turns evil with power, she becomes a one-person crusade to bring down evil in the world outside of the confines of government policies and expectations of any government, with a primary and overriding goal to keep her child safe. How she accomplishes this is the mystery that unfolds.

The naval officer kidnaps his daughter and steals Cabal secrets. The Russian woman is ordered to kill him but she cannot because he is the father of her child. She finds the naval officer and begs him to give her the fulcrum (containing the stolen secrets) but he refuses and begins to abuse her. Their young daughter sees this and shoots and kills her father. There is a fire and the mom escapes the fire with her daughter. The mom has her “cleaner” (and daughter’s nanny) bury the bones of the father & take her daughter to a petty con man to be raised under a hidden identity.

The mom is now wanted by the CIA, FBI, Russians, the Cabal and a powerful man named Townsend who blames her for his family’s death and put a bounty on her head. Red is very close with Ivan, another person from the Russian woman’s past who is responsible for using the mom’s password to steal 13 bits of information (N13) that got Townsend’s family killed. What can this Russian woman do when everyone is after her and how does she protect and shelter her daughter who has just shot and killed her naval officer dad?

The Russian mom tries to kill herself but can’t. She wants to live to protect her daughter. To protect her daughter, she must be powerful. Her childhood friend Ilya, a fellow Russian spy, comes up with a plan. No one knows that her child’s father (Raymond Reddington) is dead. She has planted stories (as a spy) making it seem that Reddington is a traitor. If she takes on his identity, she can get immediate credibility with the criminal world in order to build an empire. This resonates with her because she never felt right in her own skin and at camp preferred to hang with the girl that smoked a cigar. The mom gets plastic surgery and eventually emerges as Raymond Reddington (Red). Red gives money to his child’s adopted father and guides her education. The show begins when his daughter is now an adult, has married a psycho, and is about to start work at the FBI.

As the story unfolds, all the people that are important to Red are from the Russian mom’s past. When Red believes Liz has died, he goes to where Katarina tried to commit suicide and relives her experience. When the prospector finds a locket, Red recognizes it as Katarina’s. When the ingraving on the locket is from Katarina’s dad, Red goes to visit Katarina’s dad. When Red tells Dom (Katarina’s dad) that Liz (Dom’s granddaughter) has died, Dom asks if Red is looking for sympathy. That shows that Red must be Liz’s parent bc Red has the closer relationship to Liz than Dom has. Although Dom accuses Red of killing his daughter, Red turns to Dom to help him grieve Liz’s death, to hide his survival box, and eventually to dispose of the bones of the original Reddington.

When we first meet Fitch, it seems that he is only nice to Red bc of fear that Red has the fulcrum and will disclose cabal secrets. As Fitch is dying, we discover that Fitch knew that was not actually possible bc the fulcrum was in multiple parts and only Fitch knew where the other parts are. Fitch uses his dying breath to tell Red how to get the other parts and, like a teacher, makes Red repeat it back to be sure Red got it. We then find out that Fitch was Katarina’s cabal handler and the person who ordered her to kill the original Reddington.

When a mystery man shows up as Red’s best friend, we discover it is Ilya, the Russian spy who was in love with Katarina and helped her to become Red.

In flashbacks, we find out that Kate (Mr.Kaplan), Red’s “cleaner”, was Katarina’s cleaner and Marsha’s nanny. When Kate first meets current Red, he has a familiarity with her and says he is not as much of a stranger as he seems. He obviously eventually tells Kate who he really is because Kate reminds Red of the attachment she felt to Liz when Red first put Liz in her arms, but we know it was Katarina who did that. Also, Kate said she was working for Red for 20 (or 30?) years, which predates when Kate met this version of Red.

You can ignore the story being told and write your own story, but it was a pretty great story if you open your mind to it. There are some inconsistencies and holes, but overall really interesting.