‘The Blacklist’ Sets New Mystery After Big Red Reveal

The Blacklist main characters Raymond “Red” Reddington and Liz Keen’s relationship faced a major change during the first part of the Season 6 premiere, as a new mystery was set in motion.

In the Season 5 cliffhanger, Liz (Megan Boone) discovered that Red (James Spader) is actually an impostor who assumed the real Reddington’s identity decades ago.

However, Season 6 began with Liz aware of Red’s secret, but Red not knowing he has been made — presenting a new dynamic between the criminal mastermind and the FBI agent fans have not seen on the show before. The season premiere on Thursday night found Liz dealing with the aftermath of the Red reveal and talking to her sister Jennifer (Fiona Dourif) as she remembers the night of her real father’s death in a fire.

The sisters plan to work together to find out Red’s real identity while keeping the secret, but also preparing for the fallout when he eventually finds out that they know he has been made.

Back at the task force headquarters, the team reluctantly agrees to continue to work with Red as he continues to provide names from his Blacklist. After getting their next name, one of a doctor who changes criminals faces to keep them from being aught by authorities, Harold (Harry Lennix) tells Keen that it will be her call if the FBI shuts down the task force working with Red after his latest betrayal.

As the team works to find the missing criminal doctor, Liz meets Jennifer and she tells her she believes Red might know Liz is aware of his secret based on the case of the week. Their suspicious are tossed aside when Jennifer reveals she remembers a beach house in Delaware that her parents used to take her to when she was a child that burned down. A newspaper article reveals the fire took place at the same time as Liz remembers her father’s death.

The sisters visit the site of the burned down home and through flashbacks, Liz remembers she was the one who shot and killed her father after he started hurting her mother during an argument. The moment is interrupted when Liz must return to D.C. when a clue to the whereabouts of the doctor leads to the reveal he was being held hostage by a deadly international assassin, who had him change his face before attempting to shoot and kill him.

Red arrives where the doctor was being held just as he was shot and he whispers something on Red’s ear. Liz and the FBI team also arrives and confronts the criminals, though they manage to get away. At that moment, Liz confronts Red for hiding his true intention when he gave her the doctor’s name, and he agrees to be honest about his secrets if she is about hers.

Later, as the team works against the clock to stop the assassin from leaving the country or killing anyone else, Red goes to the doctor’s home and retrieves his client list.

After the assassin gets away, Liz tells Harold that she has decided to continue working with Red despite not being able to trust him, because that is the key to finding out his real identity.

At the end of the episode, Red and Liz meet, where he hands her the doctor’s client list also revealing that one file was deleted from the drive that would have revealed himself as a client. Liz continues to pretend that she doesn’t know his secret and manipulates him by holding his hand and pretending to continue trusting him as a father.

We’ll have to wait and see who Red used to be, and his true plan for working with Liz as the season unfolds. The Blacklist season premiere will continue with its timeslot debut Friday at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.