The Lesson of Raymond Reddington
]NBC’s The Blacklist was one of the cleverest shows I have watched. Raymond Reddington (Red), placing near the top of the FBI’s most wanted list, turns himself in in exchange for an immunity agreement resting upon two conditions: 1) that he aids the FBI in catching the worlds most dangerous criminals, criminals who have hitherto managed to escape the FBI’s attention, and 2) that he works exclusively with an Elizabeth Keen. Elizabeth Keen is a strange choice for Reddington’s primary contact, as the day he turns himself in is her first day with the FBI, has seemingly no similarity to him, nor shows any sympathy to the criminal. Over the course of the series the relationship between Red and Keen develop, the reasons why he turned himself in, and why he is so interested in her, comes (mostly) to light. In the first few seasons everything is connected. What appears to be filler turns out to be essential, and what you expect does not happen. Absent from the show is one of my biggest pet peeves, and unfortunately saturates series like Peaky Blinders: off-camera side deals, and dialogues. All plot twists make sense given what the audience has seen, and can be, however unlikely, deducible based upon prior information.
I gave the caveat “mostly” because, while the show is incredible, and I have recommended it to all my friends, there is a glaring problem with the identity of Raymond Reddington. Going into the specifics would ruin the show, so I will be as obscure as possible to protect the new viewer. The mystery of the show is “who is Raymond Reddington, and what is his relationship to Elizabeth Keen?” Between the two is a similar dynamic with Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling, a highly dangerous criminal mentoring a young woman in law enforcement, teaching her how to think like a criminal, but Red, unlike Hannibal, clearly loves Keen in the way a father loves her daughter. Throughout the show three possible identities, with corresponding relationships to Keen, emerge, and the evidence for each cancel each other out. Seeing Raymond’s back, comparing his personality to [redacted], the brief case, his relationship with D, the circular logic given to Keen when she discovers The Epicenter (write out the cause and effect), being recognized by those in his past life, among other things, create a chaos of evidence that all casts doubt on all three likely identities, but does not leave an alternative to these three. This, I believe, is because the writers did not expect the show to go on as long as it did, and each twist in identity was a built in way to wrap up the show with a bang in case of cancelation. Despite what I believe to have been too much “rainy day writing”, and the latter seasons losing the ingenuity of the first few (which is natural to any show), the show is clever, fun, and I highly recommend it.
The Appeal of Reddington
Writing and plot aside, people love The Blacklist because James Spader plays Red. Spader is an incredible actor who has a unique blend of quirky humor, drama, and utilizes his face in ways I have not seen before. If the character required Spader, or if Spader made the character, is an open question, but it easy to say that without Spader, the show would not have the reputation it does.
Besides the mentoring relationship that Red and Keen have, Red has another similarity to Hannibal: the trope of a highly cultured criminal. A duality exists in Reddington, he is both the most brutal man you could encounter, and also the most well mannered, most cultured person you will meet. His clothes are designer, he knows the right wine to pair with every course, he has a deep appreciation for art, and history, and he is a paragon of civility. At the same time as criminal walked into FBI headquarters, a true gentleman walked into a world that has long forgotten the virtues of chivalry, gentleness, and beauty. Red is in a class of men like Henry Adams, T.S Eliot, and Photios Kontoglou, a class of person who embodies high civilization, and whose death evokes emotions similar to when the Notre Dame Cathedral went up in flames. It is cool how Reddington can wiggle out of any situation, has pop-up ICUs at his disposal, and has a network capable of any task, but this “body” is animated by the soul of a gentleman, a gentleman who claims to do it all for the sake of another. Class + selflessness + a near indifference to his own safety, or social acceptance, makes the character of Raymond Reddington so lovable.
Reddington’s Lesson for Us
Outside of a few tactics findable in The Art of War, (like turning enemies into friends by creating a problem for them, and then solving it) Reddington can teach us a lesson that, if not dramatized, can be difficult to learn. Without giving too much away, Red claims to have built his criminal empire for the purposes of protecting Elizabeth Keen from an unidentified threat. There are always more allies to make, judges to put on the payroll, weapons to stockpile, safe houses to buy, and chances to expand the secret storage locker network filled with all the essentials in case one needs to flee. Outside of two seasons, Reddington is always expanding his empire. Not for profit, but because if his empire is bigger than all other criminal enterprises, if it is more sophisticated than all governments, and even international networks, then, and only then, might Elizabeth be safe. By the time the show ends, this threat never emerges, but what does emerge are enemies that Red has made in attempts to ward off enemies. In trying to guarantee safety, he progressively makes himself more and more vulnerable. His closest allies turn on him one by one after they all see he is taking unreasonable risks to prevent a fuzzy, if non-existent, danger from coming to fruition, so that by the end of the show almost every single member of his inner circle is dead or abandoned him.
Whether this “threat” never came is due to the writers not anticipating the show to last as long as it did (I can think of two, maybe three, bad guys that could have been the ultimate threat), or if there was never a threat in the first place,—and I would ask those who watched the whole show to consider all of Reddington’s possible identities, and ask what threat would exist to Keen if he did not enter into her life, keeping in mind that others got curious about Red’s identity only after Keen began searching, which she only did because Red turned himself in—it nevertheless provides a chance for reflection. Raymond had an anxiety, an anxiety that weighed so heavily on him that he spent his entire life building walls to protect himself from it. No matter how many walls he put up, not only did the anxiety not go away, but he began to actualize this fuzzy threat. Because he was not comfortable sitting with his emotions, hundreds of bodies were buried, and he was left alone in the end.
Many of us, me especially, will try to avoid uncomfortable situations, or will try and find ways to prevent a likely outcome because we are afraid that we will be unable to cope. Because Red thought “if something happens to Elizabeth, I will be unable to cope” and because this thought was so intense, even though this “something” was so fuzzy, and essentially non-existent, he avoided it at all costs, even when this avoidance created other uncomfortable situations, and never had the desired effect of “eliminating” the anxiety. We may avoid confronting a coworker about an ethical violation because we do not want to be in that uncomfortable situation, let’s say, but avoiding that one discomfort opens up the discomfort with us having violated our moral code. Trying to calm the heart through physical effort will never work, because an internal matter cannot be solved by an external solution. I can try and safeguard myself from my fear of sickness, or mortality, by amassing enough wealth so that I could afford the best doctors in the world, but no matter how much I amass, I will kick the bucket eventually. Should I fight the internal fight, and come to grips with my own mortality, make peace with myself, my neighbor, and my Maker, then being able to afford a doctor is irrelevant to me being okay when it is my time.
Our fears are, at their root, a recognition that our exceptions and reality will not align, and a refusal to be okay with that. I am scared that my brother will die before his time, someone might say, and if she wants to be rid of that fear then the only way she can do that is to acknowledge while it would be sad, she can handle that death when it happens, and the only thing that can be done now is to enjoy her brother’s company. Trying to force him to stop smoking, or drinking a glassful of lard each morning will only piss his fat ass off. Even if he could be forced into a diet, starts riding a bike, and comes to deeply desire a healthy lifestyle, this will not prevent a drunk driver from close-lining him on his morning cycling route. We cannot, as Reddington found out, make ourselves immune to life, nor can we, or should we, detach ourselves from our loves, like Buddhists and some Stoics attempt, but we can learn to be comfortable with discomfort.