Red & Liz from “The Blacklist” have a lot of similarities to Bill & The Bride from “Kill Bill.”
Perhaps you’ve heard that I’m a fan of NBC’s The Blacklist. I know two of the Nerds have watched the show and talked about it on the podcast; but unlike James, I am committed to seeing this show to its bitter end. The Blacklist has had its ups, and it’s definitely had its downs. But I’m to the point where I’m so invested in the characters and their journey that I can’t not watch it.
The two characters who hold my attention the most are Red (AKA, Raymond Reddington, played by James Spader) and FBI Agent Elizabeth Keen (played by Megan Boone). Now, while Red as a character is far more interesting, thanks to Spader’s brilliant performances and the fact that he’s the show’s anti-hero who can do pretty much whatever he wants, Liz is … another story. (I’ll talk about her more in a future post.)
But, throughout the first four seasons of the show, we got serious chemistry and meaningful interactions between these two, to the point where I — very early on in Season 1 — began to believe that the show would end with Red and Liz being a couple. And, while their dynamics have changed a great deal throughout the course of the show, I firmly believe these two idiots are our endgame couple.
One of the reasons is their similarities to other couples in pop culture, including — as referenced in the title of this post — Bill and The Bride (AKA, Beatrix Kiddo) from Kill Bill.
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR BOTH KILL BILL AND THE BLACKLIST.
(Author’s note: the below text was taken from a social media post that I wrote in Summer 2017, so between Seasons 4 and 5, which I have edited and re-posted here with the Nerds’ permission.)
Strangely, though, their similarities haven’t been discussed much among The Blacklist’s fans. I did a quick Google search, and I found a gifset comparing the “don’t marry that guy” scene from the respective shows, but that was about it.
But, there are so many similarities that I can’t believe that this has flown under everyone’s radar.
- Guy/gal couple have a very meaningful, trusting relationship (which is explicitly romantic and sexual in Kill Bill; the jury is still on out The Blacklist)
- There is a significant age gap between the guy and gal; in some ways, he is her mentor as well as her love interest
- Both of them live in a violent world and/or take part in a violent profession that involves tracking down and (sometimes) killing people
- Gal finds out she’s pregnant and distances her self from guy in an effort to keep her baby safe
- In her efforts, gal fakes her death
- Guy is absolutely devastated to lose her
- Guy tracks down gal inadvertently while looking for the people supposedly responsible for her death
- At some point, gal intends to marry a second dude, and first guy objects to this marriage; and because of some violent circumstances, gal never marries the second dude
- Gal gives birth to a baby girl
- Gal goes into a coma and guy helps to raise her daughter in the meantime
- Guy and gal have a confrontation where each of them is angry at what the other did; yet deep down, it’s evident they both still care about each other
- At some point, gal tells everyone present that the guy is her father; he’s not super-pleased about this but goes along with the charade
There are plenty of differences too, don’t get me wrong.
But, even the whole “Red is Liz’s dad-CONFIRMED” thing from the Season 4 finale made me think of that scene where the Bride pretended that Bill was her dad, even though the two had been in a relationship and she was pregnant with their child.
I think this also gives some perspective on why Liz was so mean and vicious toward Red once she found out she was pregnant in Season 3 and then later in early Season 4. Given what he’s done and what he represents and the life he leads, it’s no wonder that Liz would feel like she needs to protect her daughter from Red.
Before she found out she was pregnant, Liz and Red had been in a relatively good place in their relationship. They built up a great level of trust, understanding and affection while she was on the run in early Season 3. Then, in the Gregory Devry episode, she’s clearly frustrated that he isn’t going to take a break and that the fight against the Cabal must continue. But, it’s only after she finds out she’s pregnant that her frustration and venom against him really escalates.
***
Before that strip turned blue …I was a woman, I was your woman.
I was a killer who killed for you.
Before that strip turned blue, I would’ve jumped a motorcycle onto a speeding train.
For you.
But once that strip turned blue …I could no longer do any of those things.
Not anymore.
Because I was gonna be a mother.
But why didn’t you tell me then, instead of now?
Once you knew, you’d claim her. And I didn’t want that.
Not your decision to make.
But it’s the right decision, and I made it for my daughter.
She deserved to be born with a clean slate.
But with you, she would’ve been born into a world she shouldn’t have.
I had to choose.
I chose her.
***
That, ladies and gentleman, is the dialogue — as best I can tell — from the confrontation between The Bride and Bill once she finds out that B.B. lived and that Bill raised her, and as Bill is finding out why The Bride faked her death to begin with.
Right now, as we’re nearing the Season 6 finale, there are fan theories circulating that Red and Liz were ~together~ while they were on the run in early Season 3 and that Liz’s memory of it was wiped (which we heard about episode 4.19). This makes sense of the pregnancy timeline, which doesn’t add up if Tom is the father, meaning that Agnes is Red’s daughter.
Still, even operating under the assumption that Agnes IS Tom’s daughter, the conversation still applies quite well to Red and Liz’s relationship. While she definitely disagreed with his methods and decisions, Liz showed time and time again that she was loyal to Red and cared about him and his well being. Granted, not to the same level that the Bride did with Bill, but still… it works.
In Red and Liz’s case, her affection for / loyalty to Red seems to have gone out the door the minute she found out she was pregnant.
Red, well-meaning as he was, did try to “claim” Liz and her child, in a certain way. He definitely tried to insert himself into her life. He offered to give her money for her child; he put a security team across the hall; he booked pregnancy massages; he bought her a couch; etc. So long as Liz was in Red’s life, that meant that Agnes was in his life as well. Liz knew first-hand that people had used her to get to Red; who’s to say they wouldn’t use Agnes to get to her and/or Red?
So, she rejected Red’s “dirty money.” She wanted Agnes to have a relatively normal life. Fair enough. As venomous and hateful as she was toward Red from mid-Season 3 onward, I can’t fault her for that much.
In the end, Liz chose her daughter over Red.
And, now, Bill gets to tell the Bride “the truth.”
***
And for the record, letting somebody think somebody they love is dead when they’re not is quite cruel.
I mourned you for three months.
And in the third month of mourning you… I tracked you down. I wasn’t tryin’ to track you down. I was tryin’ to track down the f***ing ***holes I thought killed you.
So I find you...and what do I find?
Not only are you not dead…you’re getting married to some f***ing jerk.
And you’re pregnant.
I overreacted.
You overreacted?
Is that your explanation?
I didn’t say I was gonna explain myself. I said I was gonna tell you the truth.
But if that’s too cryptic, let’s get literal.
I’m a killer. I’m a murdering bastard. You know that.
And there are consequences, to breaking the heart of a murdering bastard.
You experienced some of them.
Was my reaction really that surprising?
***
If this isn’t Red, you guys, I don’t know what is.
Granted, on The Blacklist, Liz and Tom decide to get married while Liz is pregnant and THEN she fakes her death. (Whereas in Kill Bill, it’s the other way around.) Either way, Red was devastated and hurt by both decisions. He warned Liz not to marry Tom — begged her, even. Said it wasn’t in her best interests, that Tom wouldn’t change. Now, it’s been a while since I watched Kill Bill, but I feel like Bill told The Bride that she couldn’t have married the other dude because she was a killer and she would always wake up and be a killer. It would be hard, if not impossible, for The Bride to be satisfied with a “normal life.”
(In some respects, I would argue the same thing for Liz. We saw in the pilot that she’s drawn to the criminal mind. Not saying she couldn’t also be a stay-at-home mother, but would she really be happy with that life, long-term? I feel like she would miss the action, drama, and psychology of her time on the FBI Task Force. Anyway…)
Now, as for the fake death, Red is completely distraught — a man without purpose — after Liz’s death. His saving grace, he’d hoped, was to be a part of Agnes’ life, but Tom seemingly puts the kibosh on that. So, he goes to Cape May and then he sulks at Dom’s house. It’s not until Aram says they need help tracking down Liz’s killers that he decides to come back.
Additionally, Red has told Liz (and others) time and time again that he is a killer. He’s a monster — someone who does bad things. Even if he has the best of intentions, he still kills people.
And after Liz died, what did Red do? Like Bill with The Bride’s “killers,” he went on quite the murdering spree to find Scottie Hargrave and then Kirk, all in an effort to get revenge for Liz’s supposed death.
But, after he reunited with Liz, he kept his distance. Yes, he offered her help and protection, and so on, but he wasn’t nearly as close or as unguarded with her as he had been previously. Even later, when he gets Liz her much-desired pardon, what does he do? He lets her find out on the TV and hangs out in his car. Doesn’t even give her so much as a phone call. This was a man who was thrilled to buy her an apartment and called her seemingly every half-hour she was waiting for her trial in episode 3.10.
All in all, I just wanted to point out the similarities between these four idiots, and wonder whether this means The Blacklist will follow in the shoes of Kill Bill, or if it’s going to do its own thing. (It’s going to be the latter, let me tell you right now. Or, at least, it’d better be.)