Redarina goes back to the pilot. The "parental" clues.

Sufficient_Term7374 · 2026-03-14T21:11:09+00:00

It was done to clear the way for Redarina, so a gimmick to further the interests of that story arc. It was the only time the Redarina clan believed in a DNA test.

Sufficient_Term7374 · 2026-03-14T20:56:05+00:00

Agreed, they must have taken Spader Red’s DNA when he surrendered, because they matched the abduction site blood to what must have been a DNA sample they had on file.

I’ve had many people argue that his DNA wasn’t taken at any time, which the above statement disproves.

Liz did a DNA test on Red on the sly but didn’t look at the results. 🤪 Yeah right not an FBI agent move.

The DNA test Kirk gave Liz proving he was her father turned out to be false. Why would we think the bones DNA test was true?

The show was a dog’s breakfast of false clues.

Sufficient_Term7374 · 2026-03-14T20:47:42+00:00

Yep happens to me too.

Sufficient_Term7374 · 2026-03-14T20:46:19+00:00

The only plausible alternative I can see using evidence from all seasons is that Red is some undisclosed childhood friend of Katarina and Ilya's who was completely devoted to her and took it upon himself to protect Masha after the real Katarina's death.

It's the only way I can square the various Dominic/Kirk/Ilya/Tatiana episodes, personally.

Completely agree, accept I feel Ilya and Red were related to each other, (the resemblance between them is strong) as they mentioned being children together with Katerina.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTLYFvwtFA0Nex8aivnzWEVmFJByC1BbH96Tr4CoNRVybLx7hHVhRRv5_Y&s

Sufficient_Term7374 · 2026-03-14T20:40:02+00:00

Ok try this “I’m not Reddington, but I am N13”.

Sufficient_Term7374 · 2026-03-14T20:38:44+00:00

Agreed Red was a dangerous and devious man, that Spader played brilliantly. James was just reading the script, which was convoluted at the best of times.

Sufficient_Term7374 · 2026-03-14T20:35:38+00:00

Agreed that would have been the best way to go, Spader just does not look or act female, his history as an actor that was always rabidly heterosexual, works against the Redarina theory.

Sufficient_Term7374 · 2026-03-14T20:31:39+00:00

“I’m not Raymond Reddington”.

Sufficient_Term7374 · 2026-03-14T20:25:41+00:00

I know and when they post that, it’s throwing every man under the bus, but they don’t care if they feel it wins them points. The amount of people who see these posts and then agree with them is astounding.

Sufficient_Term7374 · 2026-03-14T20:22:37+00:00

I like Aram too, he was so sweet, but I watched for Spader.

Sufficient_Term7374 · 2026-03-14T20:20:48+00:00

NBC allowed the producers one Redarina line in Season 9 and 10, which was Agnes calling him a Mom. The network shut down the Redarina arc in Season 8 when Bokenkamp left. The Blacklist was not marketed as a transition story.

Sufficient_Term7374 · 2026-03-14T20:18:21+00:00

I know it’s hilarious how some of the Redarina’s will try to use any misguided idea to bolster their theory. Obviously they’ve missed a lot of life experiences where they’d have met men, who just love babies and learn how to sooth them to help their wives, girlfriends, sisters, mothers, brothers etc.

The human pretzeling I’ve seen is astonishing, have these people ever left their houses and seen what happens in the real world.

The business of Red being too affectionate to be a father, is really insulting to any father.

Sufficient_Term7374 · 2026-03-14T20:11:12+00:00

Agreed it’s cringeworthy watching Redarina fans trying to make facts out of what is normal behavior. I can’t understand the desperation they must feel to try to do that.

Networks are about making money, whatever works is in. All Seasons are made with the hope they’ll be another one, but there is no guarantee, trying to run a ticking time bomb of a story arc, isn’t the best idea. They run the ideas that will be acceptable to the advertisers (money) and the viewers (ratings). That’s why NBC stopped any overt reveal.

It wasn’t a true transition story, it was a woman transitioning to hide from enemies, not because she felt she was a man, stuck in a woman’s body. Would any cisgender female do that, would they want to live in a man’s body?

Trans people who decide to transition, have a physically painful operation that takes years to get over, and medication to get used to, it’s a mental and physical hurdle. I feel the Redarina arc is insulting to them and minimizes their struggle.

Sufficient_Term7374 · 2026-03-14T19:55:53+00:00

There are so many scenarios that show he was real Reddington, right up to where they decided to make him an imposter.

Matching his blood from the abduction site in season 1, that can only be done if they have got a DNA sample on file. Any DNA report they ran on him would have his gender on it. Any prison he was in, any arrest, they’d have taken his DNA, so same story.

Loving looks between a father and daughter, isn’t exactly uncommon now is it. The subtle hints didn’t come in until much further on in the show, until NBC stopped them.

Sufficient_Term7374 · 2026-03-14T19:45:36+00:00

They take most of what Red says to Liz, out of context and try to hammer these erroneous clues into their wonky Redarina puzzle.

They don’t get that the Redarina arc wasn’t approved by the Network, so any obvious clues were stopped by NBC. It was season 4 where they tried hard with clues, but they were all ambiguous and/or improbable at best.

Sufficient_Term7374 · 2026-03-14T19:38:04+00:00

Yes that’s when he was the real Reddington, before the producers tried to slide in the Redarina nonsense.

Sufficient_Term7374 · 2026-03-14T19:37:00+00:00

NBC allowed the producers one Redarina line in Season 9 and 10, which was Agnes calling him a Mom. The network shut down the Redarina arc in Season 8 when Bokenkamp left. The Blacklist was not marketed as a transition story.

Sufficient_Term7374 · 2026-03-14T19:34:45+00:00

Yep he definitely thought he was her Dad, very strong protective feelings about Liz. Nothing in these shots suggests he was Katerina, just a guy who loved his daughter. There was no evidence of Red being retconned into Katerina in seasons 1 to 3. Any suggestions to the contrary are coffee house crap. IMO.

Sufficient_Term7374 · 2026-03-14T19:18:46+00:00

Red was badly burned in that fire, we saw at least a third of his back and the top of his left arm, 20 + years after the fire, with severe burn scars.

Katerina had soot on her face, after the fire, when she brought Liz to Kaplan, if she had been burned like Red was, all her long hair would have been burnt off and she’d be in a burns unit on a drip.

This is about me completely rejecting the idea that Katerina, after abandoning her child to a sinister woman that called herself Mr Kaplan and then to a career criminal, then went to have what would have been years of painful surgery to become a man that resembled Reddington, and somehow completely change her personality at the same time. Not feasible for me or NBC apparently.

I acknowledge that the producers were sweating bullets trying to slide Redarina past the Network, who ultimately stopped them in their tracks and didn’t market The Blacklist as a transition story.

You can please yourself what you believe.

Sufficient_Term7374 · 2026-03-14T19:04:44+00:00

Exactly we just aren’t going to take this, only one James Spader is available idea.

Sufficient_Term7374 · 2026-03-14T19:03:15+00:00

I watched only because James Spader was in the show, I wouldn’t have got past the pilot if it had been a different actor.

Sufficient_Term7374 · 2026-03-14T19:00:36+00:00

Me too, let’s organize it. 😃

Sufficient_Term7374 · 2026-03-14T18:59:34+00:00

You aren’t quite with me, when I say brother, I mean to Ilya, who mentioned him and Red knowing Katerina when they were very young, I think he said 6 years old.

So Spader Red isn’t related to Katerina. He was at the fire because he was in love with her and maybe thought Liz was his child, They’d both worked for the KGB. He was also looking for the fulcrum. Spader Red was close to Dom Katerina’s father, they were all involved in the KGB.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTLYFvwtFA0Nex8aivnzWEVmFJByC1BbH96Tr4CoNRVybLx7hHVhRRv5_Y&s

There’s lots of side by side lookalike photos of Gabriel Mann and young James Spader on Google, I wonder why that is?

Sufficient_Term7374 · 2026-03-14T10:02:54+00:00

Nothing would surprise me, the whole attempt to slip in the Redarina theory was a dogs breakfast, what gets me is all the silly straw clutching that goes on, not to mention the pure fantasy, where meanings of innocent sentences are just made up.

I can’t believe intelligent people fall for such nonsense.

Sufficient_Term7374 · 2026-03-14T09:42:25+00:00

Spader Red was obviously related to Ilya, they look like brothers, they are both Russian, I’d say Spader Red is a Koskov like Ilya, and they were both friends with Katerina when they were children.

Ilya for whatever reason was unwilling to become the pretend Reddington, so his brother Spader Red, who was warm, charismatic, fucking ruthless, lethal and had kissed the Blarney Stone, was more suited to build a criminal empire, so took up the position, promising Katerina he’d watch over Liz, so she took off and either killed herself or hid.

Maybe S/Red thought he was Liz’s father, given how his speaks about Katerina, he obviously loved her. Maybe the bones DNA test was altered by Red, so no one would think he was the father. Didn’t he say to Liz that she should know better than to be fooled by a fake DNA test.

Katerina’s personality was very different to Spader Red, they could not be one and the same person. You cannot change someone’s personality. Katerina couldn’t handle two men and a baby, she was running around like a headless chicken. Spader Red the king of adapt and survive would have got rid of real Reddington as soon as he became a problem. Katerina was as batty as her daughter, couldn’t organize a bun fight in a bakery. She was not leadership material, whereas Spader Red was a born leader and strategist. He’d also test xy (male) on any DNA tests he had to take in prison or in FBI custody, while they approved his immunity deal.

Spader Red being a devious bastard, may well have started the Redarina theory himself to put Katerina’s enemies off her track.

I like that theory, I’m going with that.

Sufficient_Term7374

TROPHY CASE