Over the course of the past eight seasons, I don't think any fans of The Blacklist would have referred to the NBC drama as being an open book when it comes to the various mysteries surrounding James Spader's Red Reddington (so to speak) and Megan Boone's Liz Keen. But it looks like the twisty series is actually going to give audiences some long-anticipated answers as Season 8 comes to a close, so this is definitely the time when everyone who's ever watched The Blacklist needs to come back to see how things play out.
The preview for The Blacklist's penultimate Season 8 episode (seen below) hinted at certain mysteries finally getting solved in the final two episodes, and showrunner Jon Bokenkamp has confirmed the episode "Nachalo" will indeed deliver the goods, telling TV Insider:
These last two episodes are really sort of companion pieces. The next episode, ‘Nachalo,’ translates from Russian to mean: The Beginning. We’re going to go back to the very beginning and unpack answers to eight years' worth of questions.
I believe a slow clap is the appropriate response here, though perhaps not one slow enough to last eight full years. In any case, The Blacklist's creative team appears to have decided that now is the perfect time to give viewers an answer key for the storylines that have played out with Red and Liz and their respective identity-centric reveals over the years. Of course, Jon Bokenkamp wasn't exactly forthcoming with which specific questions will get resolved during the notably black-and-white installment, but the ep will feature Red, now revealed to be N-13, taking Liz to Latvia to uncover lots of secrets and connections.
So far, the only two images that NBC has released for The Blacklist's second-to-last episode are the ones seen above, with one centering on Liz and the other focused on Lotte Verbeek as a younger version of Liz's biological mother, Katarina Rostova, so it's entirely possibly we'll get to learn more about Liz's conception and/or her earliest moments in life. And it's also possible the character's biological upbringing will be put to rest in the episode in lieu of other mysteries, as Jon Bokenkamp says this about the Season 8 finale:
In contrast, our finale is titled, ‘Konets’ — which translates to mean: The Ending. And it very much is an ending. It may not be the ending of the series, but it’s very much the ending of a story we’ve been telling for eight years.
Considering how well The Blacklist has juggled its ongoing serialized mysteries with its procedural storytelling, I wouldn't be surprised if Jon Bokenkamp has a few other slow-burning plots up his sleeves for Red and Liz. And let's not forget that there's the possibility of future spinoffs happening at NBC or Peacock. So as long as fans keep showing up, I'm pretty sure the network will keep delivering more Blacklist fun.
Check out the trailer for "Nachalo" below, which features a familiar face in Ryan Eggold's long-dead Tom Keen.
The Blacklist is changing up its time slot for the final two episodes of Season 8, which will respectively drop on NBC on Wednesday, June 16, and Wednesday, June 23. Be sure to tune in to experience the big reveals firsthand and show NBC that the drama needs to keep going even after some of its core plotlines are resolved, and stay updated on all the other awesome shows hitting the 2021 Summer TV schedule.
