#gregory devry

He didn’t even learn how to swim.

Me:

Me:

Scottie: My perfect baby boy. He loved the water. 😭

Liz: Tom used to have this boat he was always tinkering with, you know, repairing. And one day he just pulled this out of his tool box and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

The FBI has no relationship with Raymond Reddington. No, they don’t. But they think they do.

How have we never talked about the similarities between these two before? I did a quick Google search, and I found a gifset comparing the "don't marry that guy" scene from the respective shows, but that was about it.

There are soooooo many similarities, it physically hurts my soul.

Guy/gal couple have a very meaningful, trusting relationship (which is explicitly romantic and sexual in Kill Bill; the jury is still on out The Blacklist)

There is a significant age gap between the guy and gal; in some ways, he is her mentor as well as her love interest

Both of them live in a violent world and/or take part in a violent profession that involves tracking down and (sometimes) killing people

Gal finds out she's pregnant, distances her self from guy in an effort to keep her baby safe

In her efforts, gal fakes her death

Guy is absolutely devastated to lose her

Guy tracks down gal inadvertently while looking for the people supposedly responsible for her death

At some point, gal intends to marry a second dude, and first guy objects to this marriage; and because of some violent circumstances, gal never marries the second dude

Gal gives birth to a baby girl

Guy helps to raise the gal's daughter while she is ~gone~ (in Kill Bill, Bill raises his daughter B.B. while the Bride is in a coma; in TBL, Liz fakes her death)

Guy and gal have a confrontation where each of them is angry at what the other did; yet deep down, it's evident they both still care about each other

Guy at one point is accused of/says he's the gal's father

There are plenty of differences too, don't get me wrong.

But, while the whole "Red is Liz's dad-CONFIRMED" thing from the S4a finale frustrated me to no end, it's good to keep in mind that there was a scene where the Bride pretended that Bill was her dad, even though the two had been in a relationship and she was pregnant with their child.

I think this also gives some perspective on why Liz has seemed so mean and vicious toward Red. Even if the "Agnes Reddington" theory turns out to be false -- and, as awesome as it would be, I highly doubt the writers would go there -- Liz would still feel incredibly protective of Agnes from Red.

Liz and Red had been in a relatively good place in their relationship. They built up a great level of trust, understanding and affection while she was on the run in Season 3a. Then, in Gregory Devry, she's clearly frustrated that he isn't going to take a break and that the fight against the Cabal must continue. But, it's only after she finds out she's pregnant that her frustration and venom against him REALLY escalates.

***

Before that strip turned blue ...I was a woman, I was your woman.

I was a killer who killed for you.

Before that strip turned blue, I would've jumped a motorcycle onto a speeding train.

For you.

But once that strip turned blue ...I could no longer do any of those things.

Not anymore.

Because I was gonna be a mother.

But why didn't you tell me then, instead of now?

Once you knew, you'd claim her. And I didn't want that.

Not your decision to make.

But it's the right decision, and I made it for my daughter.

She deserved to be born with a clean slate.

But with you, she would've been born into a world she shouldn't have.

I had to choose.

I chose her.

***

That, ladies and gentleman, is the dialogue -- as best I can tell -- from the confrontation between The Bride and Bill once she finds out that B.B. lived and that Bill raised her, and as Bill is finding out why The Bride faked her death to begin with.

Even operating under the assumption that Agnes IS Tom's daughter, the conversation still applies quite well to the Lizzington relationship. While she definitely disagreed on his methods and decisions, Liz showed time and time again that she was loyal to Red and cared about him and his well being. Granted, not to the same level that the Bride did with Bill, but still... it works.

In Lizzington's case, Liz's affection for / loyalty to Red seems to have gone out the door the minute she found out she was pregnant.

Red, well-meaning as he was, did try to "claim" Liz and her child, in a certain way. He definitely tried to insert himself into her life. He offered to give her money for her child; he put a security team across the hall; booked pregnancy massages, bought her a couch, etc. So long as Liz was in Red's life, that meant that Agnes was in his life as well. Liz knew first-hand that people had used her to get to Red; who's to say they wouldn't use Agnes to get to her and/or Red?

She rejected Red's "dirty / blood money." She wanted Agnes to have a relatively normal life. Fair enough. As venomous and hateful as she's been toward Red since Season 3b, I can't fault her for that much.

In the end, Liz chose her daughter over Red.

And, now, Bill gets to tell the Bride "the truth."

***

And for the record, letting somebody think somebody they love is dead when they're not is quite cruel.

I mourned you for three months.

And in the third month of mourning you... I tracked you down. I wasn't tryin' to track you down. I was tryin' to track down the fucking assholes I thought killed you.

So I find you...and what do I find?

Not only are you not dead...you're getting married to some fucking jerk.

And you're pregnant.

I overreacted.

You overreacted?

Is that your explanation?

I didn't say I was gonna explain myself. I said I was gonna tell you the truth.

But if that's too cryptic, let's get literal.

I'm a killer. I'm a murdering bastard. You know that.

And there are consequences...to breaking the heart of a murdering bastard.

You experienced some of them.

Was my reaction really that surprising?

***

Gah, if this isn't Red, you guys, I don't know what is.

Granted, in TBL, Liz and Tom decide to get married while Liz is pregnant and THEN she fakes her death. (Whereas in Kill Bill, it's the other way around.) Either way, Red was devastated and hurt by both decisions. He warned Liz not to marry Tom -- begged her, even. Said it wasn't in her best interests, that he wouldn't change. Now, it's been a while since I watched Kill Bill Vol. 1, but I feel like Bill told The Bride that she shouldn't marry the other dude because she was a killer and she would always wake up and be a killer. It would be hard for, if not impossible, for The Bride to be satisfied with a "normal life."

(In some respects, I would argue the same thing for Liz. We saw in the pilot that she's drawn to the criminal mind. Not saying she couldn't also be a stay-at-home mother, but would she really be happy with that life, long-term? I feel like she would miss the action, drama, and psychology of her time on the FBI Task Force. Anyway...)

Now, as for the fake death, Red is completely distraught -- a man without purpose -- after Liz's death. His saving grace, he'd hoped, was to be a part of Agnes' life, but Tom seemingly puts the kibosh on that. So, he goes to Cape May and then he sulks at Dom's house. It's not until Aram says they need help tracking down Liz's killers that he decides to come back.

Additionally, Red has told Liz (and others) time and time again that he is a killer. He's a monster -- someone who does bad things; even if he has the best of intentions, he still kills people.

After Liz died, what was the first thing we saw in the Cape May episode? Red presumably killed Nick, her doctor guy. He also went on quite the killing spree to find Susan Hargrave and then Kirk, all in an effort to get revenge for Liz's supposed death.

But, after he reunited with Liz, what did he do? He kept his distance. Yes, he offered her help and protection, and so on, but he isn't nearly as close or as unguarded with her as he had been previously. Even now... he gets Liz her much-desired pardon, and what does he do? He lets her find out on the TV and hangs out in his car. Doesn’t even give her so much as a phone call. This was a man who was thrilled to buy her an apartment and called her seemingly every half-hour she was waiting for her trial in 3x10.

All in all, I just wanted to point out the similarities between these two shows, and wonder at whether this means The Blacklist will follow in the shoes of Kill Bill, or if it's going to do its own thing. (It's going to be the latter, let me tell you right now.) Still, it's fun to speculate.

“Imposter”

Missing scene from Season 5 that supports Imposter...   

Red: 50 minutes of pure reflection and self-evaluation.

Liz: You’ve been to therapy?

Red: God, yes. Therapy helped me become – an entirely different person.

Jon Bokenkamp interview excerpts

“The Imposter Theory can be traced all the way back to first time Reddington met Elizabeth Keen and told her: ‘I’m a criminal, criminals are notorious liars. Everything about me is a lie.’”

“If you go back and look at The Blacklist again, you will see numerous examples of us working toward this big reveal,” executive producer Jon Bokenkamp tells EW. “It goes all the way back to the very first time Elizabeth Keen met Raymond Reddington. This trail of breadcrumbs has been five years in the making.”- Jon Bokenkamp

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Did you know from the beginning that James Spader was not playing Raymond Reddington?

JON BOKENKAMP: Yeah, this is something that we’ve talked about from the inception of the show. 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.

https://ew.com/tv/2018/05/16/blacklist-raymond-reddington-imposter-season-6-spoilers/

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/blacklist-boss-breaks-down-breadcrumbs-160004091.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudHVtYmxyLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAHP5RivGEmB7D6Bd1g7MFsOHy8oDnh6jGhXGw7Ud5uhamsmuh3U03gPQ1-LsPXHg6XL5_r9Wwpo7KRwulOojoFDSlcf3mwfiK7Ri8Ce8g-I5GTyDH1RUsbrRpsvYBm_CsPZms_qFfmUn_4a9dYGh9rew8oPlBaVOOHDyI9gsNV0H