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Raymond "Red" Reddington is the villainous protagonist of the NBC series The Blacklist. He is a master criminal who helps the police find other criminals.

He was portrayed by James Spader, who also portrayed Eddie Dutra in The New Kids, Lee Woods in 2 Days in the Valley, Stewart Swinton in Wolf, Mr. Richards in Mannequin, Rip in Less Than Zero, Mr. Black in Shorts, Robert California in the US version of The Office, and Ultron in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Biography[]

Backstory[]

Since the original Raymond Reddington was killed, and the protagonist only took his first and last name, very little is known about his backstory.

All that is known is by his own revelation or through his memories.

He is known to be Russian, and was actually a childhood friend of Ilya Koslov, with whom he had a fight over a toy truck. He also had a complicated family life; his father was very strict and his mother quite carefree. According to him, at the age of fifteen he worked at Lake Chardevoix installing carpets, a job he hated, but his father demanded that he continue working there, because he gave his word to the owner of the place. When he finished the job, the owner gave him 40 dollars for being the first to give his word that he would work all summer and keep his promise; that day he learned the importance of loyalty. He also says that in high school he had an affair with a teacher, and that he took a lifeguard course that he dropped out of. Once hed admitted that as a child he admired the life of outlaws.

Despite being Russian, he at some point started a family that was raised in America, but they apparently died, causing him to turn his back on the United States as he blamed the country for the death of his family.

At some point, he met the thief Robert Vesco, who taught him how to be a fugitive; according to himself he has always been a criminal. Vesco also stole all of his life savings by convincing him to invest all the money in a cattle ranch in Paraguay, which actually turned out to be a brothel outside of Asuhion.

As an adult he met the Russian spy Ivan Stepanov, adopting the identity of N-13 the two began to work together and became very close friends. N met Katalina Rostova, the mother of Masha Rostova, or as she would be known later in life, Elizabeth Keen; N and Katalina also became great friends.

N-13 learned that her friend, Katalina, had betrayed the KGB, working as a double for the Cabal, an organization that sought control of the world on a global scale, but instead of exposing her, she kept silent.

Raymond Reddington, Katalina's lover and Elizabeth's father, took the girl, and Elizabeth betrayed both organizations, and asked for help from N-13 and a few trusted friends, although N-13 helped Katalina find her daughter, this put him in the Cabal's crosshairs.

The night Karina located Reddington and Elizabeth, N was also there. When Elizabeth shot and killed her father, a fire broke out in which N saved the girl, severely burning himself in the process.

To keep Elizabeth safe, Katalina handed her over to her friend Kathryn Nemec for protection, and N recommended that Nemec seek out Samuel Milhoan, a trusted friend of his, who took it upon himself to protect Elizabeth and raise her as his own. N also contacted Reddington's widow, Naomi Hyland, and alerted her of everything that had happened.

With the Cabal after her, Katarina devised a plan; take Raymond Reddington's money, and have N undergo surgery to take on the appearance of the girl's father, so that she could use his resources to make the world believe that Reddington was still alive, giving the fake Reddington thirteen packets of information that she had stolen from the KGB, for him to use to protect her daughter.

N agreed and underwent the surgery, and promised that he always would take care of Elizabeth.

Starting with the thirteen packages, Raymond eventually built a global spy organization that gathered information on governments, criminal cartels, and underground criminals, while also founding his own crime syndicate with the help of a few trusted allies: Dembe Zuma, Marvin Gerard, Kathryn Nemec, and Luli Zeng. His organization grew as he continued to keep an eye on Elizabeth.

Raymond did so. At some point he hired Tom Keen to take care of Elizabeth. When Tom fell in love with Liz, Red realized he was a burden and was going to kill him, but decided not to because he made Liz happy.

The Blacklist[]

Red turns himself into the FBI and starts a task force to go after criminals which is led by Harold Cooper. The force includes Elizabeth because of Red's influence. Red has Tom tortured and tried to turn Liz against him. Over the first few episodes, Red murders three people but the FBI have to look the other way because of his value as a rat.

When Liz's adoptive father Sam wants to reveal the truth to Liz ,Red murders him as he thinks that knowledge would place Elizabeth in great danger. When Anslo Garrick attacks the FBI, Red saved Donald Ressler and is willing to sacrifice his life to save Liz and his loyal bodyguard Dembe. Red is imprisoned by Garrick and questioned by Alan Fitch, but he is freed after he kills Garrick.

After Ressler's wife Audrey is killed by Mako Tanida, Red has Tanida killed and sends his head to Ressler along with a letter, expressing his sympathy. It is possible Red decided to take care of Tanida to keep Donald from bloodying his own hands. When Liz confronts him over his role in Sam's death Red admits it as he has a rule that he never lies and only hides the truth. Ultimately, Liz forgives him when she realizes Red was trying to help.

Red becomes a target of the criminal named Berlin who wrongly thinks Reddington had his daughter murdered. Berlin has Red's ex-wife kidnapped and Red does everything he can to save her. He tells her new husband Frank he will be murdered if he cheats on Naomi again. Ultimately, Red proves his innocence, but kills Berlin in revenge anyway. When Elizabeth is put on trial for murdering a harbormaster who Tom killed Red as Tom come back and testify to prove Liz's innocence. After Liz becomes a fugitive when she kills Tom Connolly, Red becomes one of her only allies, ultimately proving her innocence after taking the opportunity to free his friend Marvin Gerad from prison and re unite him with his girlfriend Becky.

Red gets into a serious conflict with Alexander Kirk who wrongly thinks Elizabeth is his daughter. Elizabeth is seemingly killed by Kirk's men, but it turned out Red's cleaner Mr. Kaplan deceived Red by taking Liz's death to ensure her safety. For this, Red shot her and left her for dead, which disturbed Dembe. When Kirk discovered Liz was not his daughter, he took her hostage. Red traded himself and somehow convinced Kirk to spare him. When Kaplan resurfaced Red was willing to spare her if she took his offer to stay on a tropical island and never return, but she refused and killed herself.

Tom investigated Red which led to his death at the hands of Ian Garvey. This caused Liz to become resentful and she called the police on Red. He befriended a young man named Vontae Jones and protected him. Reddington was almost executed but Cooper saved him. When Red discovered this and that Dembe knew about he was crushed but chose to forgive both of them. When Liz chose Katarina over him, Red murdered Katarina to keep her from revealing his secrets. Liz then waged war on Red who tried to reason with her.

After taking down Wujin and erasing all mention of him from the Unit's report, causing his identity as an informant to be protected forever, Reddington decides that his life of crime is enough; he has defeated all his rivals, protected his secret identity, and expanded his power to the maximum, but he has failed to protect Elizabeth Keen whom he wanted to make his successor, and he cannot protect Agness either, not while he remains the leader of the largest criminal syndicate in the world with thousands of lesser criminals conspiring to take his place, putting anyone he loves in danger. Realizing this, Reddington makes a decision: dismantle his crime syndicate forever.

Aware that if he does so, his employees will join other criminal organizations, which will lead to an increase in crime, Red hatches an ingenious plan; he will manipulate the unit into finding and dismantling his information management network so that his employees believe that the FBI is closing in on them, leaving them no other way out than to retire from the life of crime, and in the process handing the FBI the juiciest prize they could ever have imagined: Raymond Reddington's own criminal empire, which for thirty years has managed to elude the authorities.

In the final episode of the series, Raymond flees to Spain, to a guest house near bull-breeding camps, but Ressler is in hot pursuit (in fact, Ressler finds out where Raymond is staying, and only eludes him because, by pure chance, Raymond was at the local market at the time). Realizing that he has nowhere left to run, Raymond decide to suicide. That night he call to Agness to speaks with her one last time. The next morning he goes for a walk in the countryside and ends up wandering into a bull enclosure.

When he sees the animal, he doesn't move, expecting it to attack him; the bull takes this as a challenge and charges at Raymond.

Ressler finds the carcass soon after, and calls Cooper to report his capture, while picking up Reddington's hat and putting it on his head.

With the Blacklist handed over and Reddington dead, his criminal empire is officially shut down, cancelling the task force but also freeing its members, who have done their duty and proven their integrity; Agness is no longer in danger, as no one can use her to extort Reddington; Dembe can now start over; Jordan Nixon can't press charges; Congressman Hudson died for nothing; and Raymond can reunite in the afterlife with his long-lost friends, including Luli Zeng, Newton Phillips, Sam Milhoan, Marvin Gerard, Robert Vesco, Tom Keen and Elizabeth herself.

Quotes[]

Trivia[]

• Raymond Reddington thanks to his connections and his criminal life managed to work with the most dangerous and powerful people in the world: - traffickers, crime lords, warlords, politicians, dictators and presidents.
• He is one of the most wanted fugitives in the world with a massive bounty on his head from every agency.

See Also[]

• Raymond Reddington on the Blacklist Wiki.

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