u/IntrovertAdaptable

Red was playing the Mom the whole time. There are 10 seasons of supporting Redarina evidence beginning with the very 1st episode. Find a lot of the clues here: https://katarinas-redemption.tumblr.com/reddit

 In addition to all the evidence onscreen, the show’s creators, Producers, and Writers, confirm there was always *one* story they wanted to tell, and they never changed it.

James Spader: The show really has been deliberate. We’ve been shooting the ending since the beginning, so we know where we’re headed. 

James Spader: There’s an intention from the writers, creators and mine to bring the audience with us during this journey and keep them until the end. And at the end the audience will be able to go back to the first episode and watch it all again and notice it all makes sense since the beginning.

James Spader: It may come as a surprise, but the truth is, that the directions that we’ve taken and the decisions that we’ve made in terms of the show are not arbitrary. They’re not. “- there has been a plan.”

Will we — and Liz — learn whose bones are in the bag?

Megan Boone: The audience will. It’s the biggest reveal we’ve ever had. You’ll look back at the entire series with new eyes.

Daniel Knauf: On the Blacklist, we are making up a lot of things as we go along but not the main thing. The core - the heart and soul of that show  is the relationship between Red and Liz. Their trajectory has not changed one iota. It’s solid as a slot-car track. 

Daniel Cerone: The pieces will fit, but it’s a series journey with twists and turns. We know the end game.

Did you know from the beginning that James Spader’s character wasn’t really Reddington?

Jon Bokenkamp: Since day one. It’s almost impossible to not know the ending before you begin or at least a really strong sense of it. “it is something that we’ve been playing from the beginning, and James has been playing from the beginning that we’ve been working towards.”

Eisendrath: We had an idea of what the story was from the beginning, and we haven’t really veered from it at all. That’s part of why, every year, we’ve been able to give genuine, legitimate answers that the audience has been able to enjoy.

Inspiration for this post came from this post where the OP asserts, There is a 0% chance Redarina was planned. I wanted to address a few of the claims in that post below. 

"The show makes vastly more sense from seasons 1-6 if you accept the premise that Red is the real Red, he was married to Carla, and he was seduced by Katarina, who compromised him, forcing him to go on the run where he became the Concierge of Crime."

In a separate post the OP also claims:

>

Red was always playing an Imposter. And an Imposter PRETENDS to be someone they are not. Didn't we have a lot of those on the show? People with new identities? Also, why on gods green earth would the show give aways it's main secret early on? The goal is to preserve that mystery for as long as possible.

Anti Redarina folk can reject every single confirmation directly from the showrunners, Directors, Producers, Writers, cast, and other Blacklist staff who have confirmed that Red is not the Father, and that he was playing an Imposter the whole time. And that he was Katarina Rostova.

But what they cannot say is that the show did not give concrete reveals ONSCREEN.

1. Red tells Liz in the Anslo Garrick 2 episode that he was not her father.
2. There were Imposter clues in every season, including Season 1.
3. Red: Yes, Elizabeth is my daughter. He tells Liz, "Because you're my Daughter?" in 5.02.
4. Red confirmed that Liz's father died in the fire in Season 1, three times in episode 1.22 alone.

✅ Red acted like Liz's parent since Day 1

✅Red said everything about me is a lie

✅The General Ludd ep. - Dr. Maltz gives the guys a new identity via plastic surgery. Liz to Red: Someone changed their face.
✅The Alchemist. People changing their identities, including their DNA.
✅Tom saying, "Reddington is not who you think he is"
✅Red: Yes, Elizabeth is my daughter.

✅Carla: He's not who you think he is.

Red: Unfortunately, Tom and I share some propensities. Whatever you think you know about Tom Keen, forget it. The bookish elementary-school teacher was a masterful illusion. The man is an extremely talented covert operative. I’m not surprised he convinced you that his persona was real. Once he takes on a new identity, he convinces himself.

Re: Red being an Imposter.

"Everything about me is a lie". This line was on the PILOT DRAFT (Jon Bokenkamp) wrote in 2012. The final draft that made it to air was different from the draft as they had made some slight changes. But what didn't change was that one line. It was an imposter clue that Jon Bokenkamp confirmed when the imposter episode aired in the season 5 finale. 

Zee Hatley post-production supervisor, associate producer, and co-producer tweeted about the imposter reveal (Episode 5.22). “My favorite line from the pilot paid off last night. Follow the breadcrumbs…” No doubt the line he’s talking about is everything about me is a lie.

A red herring. 

In the pilot episode, the show could not be sure if Red was Raymond Reddington as he claimed. Cooper: We confirm it's actually him? Ressler: It's him, alright. Prints match, tattoos. Cooper: It really IS him.

A red herring. Red is not home. “I haven’t been home in years”. Home is Russia. Not America. And it is definitely *NOT* him because everything* about him is a lie. This is a testament to Red’s brilliance that he was able to fool everyone with this identity all the way to the end of the series (aside from the Bones arc. It was unknown to the world that he was an Imposter)

The showrunners confirm they've only ever had *one* story in mind and they never changed it. Eisendrath: I think we both agree that no matter how aware we are of what people are saying the story is the story. We’ve never changed the story based on what people are guessing is the end game, the answers, the truth.

Lukas Reiter: One of the things that’s really special about this series is, unlike shows where you’re finding it as you go, we’ve always had that sequence and we’ve always known the central truth at the center of the series. And so it is pretty cool as a writer to be working on the same story for this amount of time cause I don’t think you see that that often.

On the topic of Red being flirtatious. A woman can be flirtatious. Katarina knew how to seduce.

"Early Red doesn’t really care about Liz’s emotions as long as she’s physically safe; middle and later Red obsesses over Liz’s emotional state more and more as time goes on."

Red doesn't change from being uncaring to Liz in the earlier seasons to caring about her in later seasons. The entire first season establishes that Red truly cares about nothing in the world except Elizabeth Keen. To the point he's willing to die for her. This is true throughout the whole show. Red: Every cause has more than one effect. Say what you will about Frederick, but someone who’s willing to burn the world down to protect the one person they care about – That’s a man I understand. Red:

The Carla scenes do not imply Redarina, but they do imply IMPOSTER. Red: You look so different. Carla: Not as different as you.  Carla: A- are the [Sighs] Are the two of you, what, working together? I don’t even want to know how you pulled that off. That line works if Red is her parent/the Mother. Something, obviously, that needed to be pulled off. 

"There’s also the Anslo Garrick monologue where Red talks about wanting to sleep like when he was a boy."

In this one-more-time dialogue, Red kept prefacing the lines with "one MORE time." When he got to this line about sleeping like a boy, he dropped the word more and said just ONE TIME. According to Carnahan, "James said, 'I'm gonna drop the "more".

Cape May is obviously Red reliving his grief over Katarina’s suicide. That’s the only thing that explains the loving, protective behaviour from Red towards Katarina. 

Lot's of clues in the Cape May episode. We just didn't know it at the time. It's better viewed in a retrospective lens. Although some clues were apparent. https://katarinas-redemption.tumblr.com/tagged/cape+may

Little clues. "I was out of my mind, there was no one just me" “Just me? Just you.” At the end of the episode, Red is shown playing the piano… It wasn’t Katarina sitting there playing it; it was Red. The fedora on the piano. When Red helps Katarina by putting her near the warm fire, the camera angle pans the fedora, which is right above her head.

https://katarinas-redemption.tumblr.com/post/702277536309231616/the-hat-and-katarina

The visuals: https://katarinas-redemption.tumblr.com/search/cape%20may%20visuals

Both Katarina and Red make the same body gestures; Red is doing exactly what Katarina is doing. They show both halves of their faces when they are lying by the fireplace. The purposefully angled camera makes it appear as though it's ONE FACE. Half Katarina, Half Red.

Red: “I was a very different person then, you?” Of all the lines they could have put in the script, they chose to phrase it that way.

The Dialogue in Cape May: Red talks about making a Hobson’s choice. But what some people don’t realize is that Katarina also talks about making a Hobson’s Choice. Except in her dialogue, she never says it was a Hobson’s choice, but it was. They just phrased it a bit differently. HER Hobson’s choice is stated right after Red gives her the suicide speech. Now compare the two. They both choose the child and sacrifice the woman. Clever writing. If we hypothetically assume Red is a separate person or a third man,  they both cannot make the same choice to choose the child and sacrifice the woman. It would only work if they are the same person.  We saw no third man at any point in the show’s flashbacks that made any choice for Liz during her first four years of life. Katarina made all the choices. Katarina made it clear that SHE called the shots when it came to her daughter. 

>Nail in the coffin: Dom
The initial dynamic between Red and Dom completely kills the Redarina theory.

The Dom/Red scenes in the Artax Network work perfectly with Redarina. Dom blames Red for killing his daughter. Red says he chose the child in the Hobson's choice, and the woman was sacrificed. And yet, he didn’t actually literally kill her; we find out later. So what does Dom mean when he says that Red killed his daughter? It means that when Katarina decided to become Raymond Reddington, she ceased to exist. She died. 

If we assume that Red was a third man, and he had literally killed Katarina, he wouldn’t be trying to save her from attempting to kill herself. He wouldn't be giving her a suicide speech. Which is it? Did Red literally kill Katarina or did she commit suicide?

The answer to that is TWOFOLD, and both are true: Katarina actually did try to end her life by walking into the water. The writer of the episode, Daniel Knauf, spoke about the devastating effects of suicide evident in the suicide speech to Katarina. Katarina’s decision to become Red resulted in the metaphorical death of Dom’s daughter. 

The Hobson's Choice is the metaphorical suicide.  In the episode, Red is grappling with the choices he made. He goes back in time in his mind to try and talk himself into changing those choices. But he CAN'T. This is why Katarina keeps walking into the water despite Red trying to stop her twice. He is unable to stop her. What's done is done, and Katarina is not coming back. Red sacrificed it all to save Liz, and now Liz is dead. But Katarina is also dead (Katarina: And now you're dead, you believe there's nothing left for you.) However,  at the end of the episode, he is assured that he made the right choice. Katarina: Raymond, you did save me, through her. It was the only way. You chose well. 

Red To Dom: I'm sorry I wasn't the person you wanted me to be. That line does not work whatsoever with Dom talking to the Real RR like that or a third man. But it works with Redarina.

Dom is like the father of the DJINN. A "moralistic" old-school stubborn man with phobias who cannot accept that his Daughter became a man. The DJINNS' father seemed to be ashamed of him because he was gay. Red: I was a difficult child. People saw me one way – I saw myself another. I felt misunderstood – acted out. My father fancied himself a disciplinarian. Very moralistic. Instead of trying to understand me, he excommunicated me.

The clues throughout the entire show do not work with an Imposter third man. That would be the only other theory since Red being the Dad was eliminated as an option in Season 1. 

Red acted very paternal toward Liz throughout the show.  This is why Liz asked him in the mid-season finale in Season 1 if he was her father. He said no. That was the truth.

Parental hints/visuals. 

In the Gina Zanetakos and Berlin conclusion episode, Red and Liz are seated the exact same way. This was no coincidence. Joe Carnahan (Director) talks about this in the Berlin Conclusion commentary at approximately video timestamp 42.20. 

The Red and Liz connection (Parent/child) "CRIMINAL" aspect (Liz) was established in the very 1st episode. All throughout the show, they tease that Liz had a dark streak/dark impulses that lived within him. Right in the pilot, she stabbed Red with a pen in his neck. Season 2: She locks Tom in a ship and tortures him for 4 months. When she kills the Attorney General, Red is saddened she committed that crime. Red: I never wanted you to be... Liz: What? Red: Like me. Parent. And yet he is not her father.

Liz: And how should I look at this? Red: Like a criminal, may come easier than you think. The criminal aspect linked Red and Liz together. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Season 4, episode 4.22, Liz: Were you afraid I’d turn out like you? ‘Cause guess what? I am like you. All those times you asked me to think like a criminal, was it a test to see how naturally it came to me?  

And ironically, the show comes full circle and ends with the criminal that lives within Liz’s DNA. 

Red: They’ll accept it when I’m dead in the street. They’ll accept it because you’re a criminal.
Liz: Is that what I am? Or is that what I am because of you?
Red: I’ve considered that question, so many times. How things might have been different if I had never re-entered your life. Would you be safer? Happier? Was it, uh, my presence alone that brought you to this crossroads? Or maybe none of that ever mattered. Maybe you were born to this out of a lie, the daughter of a spy, genetically predisposed to deception and danger. I don’t know. I’ve thought and thought about it. And I just don’t know. What I do know is that – whether it’s chance or karma, DNA or fate, or just bad luck – this is where you are now. This is who you’ve become. A criminal. A fugitive. And taking my life – is a way forward. 

On the Imposter reveal in Season 5, Jon Bokenkamp said this: Jon Bokenkamp: Yeah, it really was. Red told Liz in the ninth or tenth episode that he was not her father. She asked him very clearly, ‘Are you my father?’ and he said ‘No.’ There are other clues that have been woven through, but it’s a truth that we’ve been working toward for five years now. It’s an underlying part of the mythology that is a great relief to let everyone in on.

None of the women Red has been with have noticed anything off about any parts of his anatomy, apparently. Surely this would at least have been used as blackmail against him at some point by one of these women?

The assumption here is that Red's genitalia is what? Different? That he still has his woman parts? That by people looking at his genitalia, they would automatically know. There are few options to overcome this. 1. Red has perfected surgery. Yes, in The Blacklist, Red can make that happen. His life depends on being able to successfully fool everyone and to survive. It would be convincing. The show has established that certain Blacklisters are way ahead of current medical technology.  2. We are assuming that there was intercourse involved and the women could see or feel something different. But we don't know if Red even took off his pants. People are assuming that women LOOKED at his genitalia. Remember, he was always alluding to oral sex ("tastes just like Patty Sutton" Petty Officer Virginia in his mouth)

Red: And you’re on the wrong side of 80, sitting on a donut pillow. My sympathies to your significant other. And if your flag is flying at half-mast, rest assured, I find in the privacy of one’s boudoir, pleasing others is the key to pleasing oneself.

Anne is completely taken away with sex with Red to the point that when he talks about the “output connector” (make of that what you will), she automatically thinks about sex. Sex with Red is an experience apparently. Red: I had a little talk with Rasil. We had a few laughs, compared notes about you. He told me all about that delightful thing you do with a trouser belt, which was a bit hurtful, since I was pretty sure it was our thing.