ATTENTION, SPOILERS AHEAD!
The Blacklist: As season 8 of The Blacklist draws to a close, some mysteries are being solved. Perhaps that’s why this week’s episode is so important in a broader context, especially when audiences already know about Megan Boone’s departure from the NBC production.
So find out more about the 8×21 episode of The Blacklist with our recap!
The Blacklist: Katarina Rostova’s past and her relationship with Red
Featuring a black-and-white look to tie up certain loose ends of the narrative, “Nachalo” (Russian word for Beginning or Beginning) opens with Liz entering a bunker mentioned by Red (James Spader) in the previous episode. The location is related to the creation of the Black List and also its protection.
This last piece of information is quite disturbing for the character, mainly because she just wants to find out the true story about her life and what would have happened to her mother in the past.
As Red prepares to take Liz back to the nachalo, or the start of it all, time seems to freeze. Katarina Rostova (Lotte Verbeek) seems to let everyone see how she was created, because as the character herself argues, Liz needs to understand the past to understand the present.
Katarina’s childhood was marked by an extremely controlling father, who wanted his daughter to follow in his footsteps as a spy. Before even understanding what was happening in her life, she already performed some operations. This man would have known her daughter’s husband and also the one who would become involved with her. In this case, he is Raymond Reddington, Elizabeth’s biological father.
While in Russia, Reddington was still married and still fell in love with Liz’s mother. After the birth of the couple’s daughter, known as Masha, Katarina’s father persuaded her to deceive the two men around her, causing moral confusion for the character.
