‘The Blacklist’ Ends With Shocking Revelation About Red

The Blacklist ended its latest season with a twist that changed everything fans thought they knew about the series: Raymond “Red” Reddington is actually dead.

It turns out, the “Red” that has been on The Blacklist for the entire series, played by James Spader, has apparently been an impostor.

The reveal came at the very end of Tuesday night’s episode after Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone) finally got her hands on the infamous black bag that Red has been hiding. Why double-crossing Red and aligning with the episode’s villain, she looked in the bag and saw DNA test results that identified that the bones inside belonged to the true Red.

The fake Red eventually got his hands on the bag again and went out to a remote cabin to burn the bones.

However, Liz now knows the truth and went to Tom Keen’s (Ryan Eggold) grave to reflect on what she knew. There she explains how she fooled Red to a imaginary version of her late husband.

“Those bones in that bag are Raymond Reddington’s. My father.” Liz says. “This man is an impostor. Why he came into my life, why he took [Tom’s] life… I’m gonna figure all that out.”

Executive producer Jon Bokenkamp opened up about the big twist to Entertainment Weekly. Apparently this was not a sudden creative decision, it was actually the plan for the entire series.

“This is something that we’ve talked about from the inception of the show,”Bokenkamp said. “It is part of the underlying mythology that we’ve slowly been unraveling. I think there are a number of episodes that we can go back and sort of map and chart how we got here. Hopefully that is proof of concept to the audience that this is not something we’re just winging, and that we’re on a very specific path, and this is a well-earned reveal.”

Bokenkamp also stressed that the “Red” fans have grown attached to is not going anywhere, and his character will still act the same as he always has.

“The thing I want to point out is that it doesn’t change tuning in to watch Spader be Raymond Reddington,” he said. “He’s lived as Raymond Reddington long enough to be this person, right? He has told great stories, he has had great experiences, he’s become a world-class criminal and probably become a far more interesting person than the real Raymond Reddington ever dreamed of becoming.”

The Blacklist airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.

Photo Credit: NBC