Warning: This story contains major spoilers from the season 5 finale ofThe Blacklist.
Read at your own risk!
Reds dead no, seriously.
Credit: Virginia Sherwood/NBC
If Spaders not playing Red,who is he portraying?
EW turned to executive producer Jon Bokenkamp to get the scoop.
It is part of the underlying mythology that weve slowly been unraveling.
Will Hart/NBC
Did the cast?Yes, James has known and its something weve talked extensively about.
The cast did not know, as far as I know.
Im always the last to know, so I have really no idea who else knew.
Hes lived as Raymond Reddington long enough to be this person, right?
There are a great number of them, by the way, many of which could make sense.
Does this speak to my long-held theory that Spader is not playing her dad, but her mom?
[Laughs] Youre holding on to that, arent you?
Well, yeah its one of the possibilities.
That is one of the theories, one ofmanytheories.
There are many more-grounded theories.
A number of these really add up.
Liz has vowed to destroy Red.
She went pretty dark in this episode.
I think that piece of information is really compelling.
Watching Megan perform this year, I think shes been fantastic.
When shes in the corner, she becomes a very interesting character.
Can Liz and Jennifer trust each other?I have no idea.
But thats a great question.
Red doesnt know that Liz knows.
Very rarely does anyone know something that Reddington doesnt know, right?
Hes always ahead of the curve.
Hes a very cunning and smart, brilliant mastermind criminal, and yet he didnt see this one coming.
So I think that is a real power shift and something that we havent explored in past seasons.
The show has touched on this idea that Liz had some of her memories surgically repressed.
Will you revisit that concept next season?I think its certainly on the table.
Everything that Reddington has told her is up for re-examination.
Whats fun about it is so much of itistrue.
He told her in season 1, when she said, Are you my father?
he said, No.
When Liz said at the end of season 2, I shot my father that night.
I killed my father.
He said, Yes.
Weve very clearly been laying out the mythology.
I think all of that is something that she needs to become very suspect of.
The Blacklistwill return in 2019.
