Warning: This story contains spoilers for the second part of The Blacklist's Season 6 premiere -- "The Corsican (#20)."
In the second half of The Blacklist's Season 6 premiere, Red was arrested, and Liz turned out to be behind it. The series' creator, Jon Bokenkamp, is weighing in how much Red suspects Liz knows. When asked about it, Bokenkamp had this to say:
I am the first person to say, "Well, we should wonder about how much he knows." But I think it's best to be completely straight with you: He doesn't know. He is genuinely caught off guard by [getting arrested]. He was caught buying a pretzel. [Laughs] We thought it was fun that the most wanted man in America wasn't caught doing some crazy heist; he was caught, like many of these people are, in a very benign situation. And yet, that stinks to him. He knows that it can't be that simple. He knows that somebody has betrayed him. But he does not know that it's Liz. That doesn't mean he won't figure that out, and if and when he does figure that out, there may be some fireworks.
Red suspecting that Liz knows his secret identity and that she was the one behind his arrest are two separate things. What Jon Bokenkamp is telling TVLine is very important. Because based on his answer, it seems that Red does not know about either at the end of The Blacklist's two-part Season 6 premiere.
It is tough to keep track of everything Red is in the dark about on The Blacklist these days. So far though, Liz is in possession of two secrets. The first is that she knows Red is not the original Raymond Reddington. The second is that she is the one who tipped the cops off to Red's location, leading to his subsequent arrest.
The Blacklist's creator does not rule out Red eventually figuring out what Liz has been up too. If the show remains true to form, Liz should not be able to keep the truth from Red much longer. She may have learned at his side all these years. However, she is still a student.
Red has been at this for 30 years and counting. Liz is relatively new to this game, in comparison. Among the exciting things that The Blacklist creator said is that there "may be some fireworks." If and when Red learns of Liz's betrayal, it should be explosive.
Red and Liz never entirely worked through her faking her death. He chose to punish Mr. Kaplan for that betrayal instead. That should have been a warning sign to him that he could not trust Liz entirely.
When she faked her death, she did not believe he was her father. So, maybe her being convinced of that changed how much he thought he could trust her. Regardless, Red should eventually be confronted with the fact he has been betrayed by Liz. A reality, he cannot ignore this time around.
It was one thing to keep the fact she knew his true identity from him. Liz has now taken action against him. She has gotten him incarcerated and, based on the promo, that will have physically-damaging consequences for Red.
It says something about The Blacklist that this viewer is looking forward to Red learning the truth. However, that is tempered with a large degree of dread over how that will alter their dynamic. It is tough to imagine things ever being the same between them, and the thought of those ensuing "fireworks" is frightening.
See the "fireworks" show when new episodes of The Blacklist's sixth season air Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC. The crime drama will continue airing new throughout the midseason.
