At the end of its 10 seasons, landmark crime thriller series The Blacklist left one central conundrum unresolved. The show never clarified the true identity of its protagonist, Raymond “Red” Reddington. Midway through its run, The Blacklist revealed that Red had stolen the identity of the real Raymond Reddington, leaving other characters and viewers alike wondering who this enigmatic informant actually was. Yet one scene in season 8 came closer than any other to giving away Red’s actual identity.

In the episode “Katarina Rostova: Conclusion”, a deadly showdown between Red and one of The Blacklist’s fake Raymond Reddington really was.

Liz Keen Saw Raymond Reddington Shoot Her Mother Dead in The Blacklist Season 8

Red Appeared To Shoot Katarina Rostova In One Of The Blacklist’s Most Shocking Death Scenes

During the scene in question, Liz Keen rushed to the place where Red was about to kill the person she believed to be her mother, but who was actually one of The Blacklist’s greatest villains. Unfortunately for Liz, she only made it in time to see Red shoot his victim twice in the chest, killing her instantly, as Liz cried out in anguish.

Red himself appeared to be upset when he noticed that Liz had arrived in time to see what he’d done. His actions inflicted further trauma on his long-suffering daughter, who believed she’d just seen her mother murdered by a man purported to be her father.

The Woman Red Shot Wasn’t Really Liz’s Mother Katarina Rostova

She Was Fellow KGB Agent Tatiana Petrova Pretending To Be Katarina

Yet the truth was even more complicated than Liz realized, as would become clear later in season 8. The woman Red had just shot was lying when she claimed to be Liz’s mother, Katarina Rostova. In fact, she was another KGB agent named Tatiana Petrova, who was assigned to be Katarina’s double by Liz’s grandfather, Dominic Wilkinson, so as not to draw attention to the real Katarina Rostova. The untangling of this labyrinthine plot thread means that season 8 ranks among the most complex of The Blacklist.

Tatiana Petrova was responsible for Dominic Wilkinson's death earlier in the episode "Katarina Rostova: Conclusion", as she forced him to awaken from a coma he'd slipped into after being injured in a previous shootout between her and Red.

After decades of pretending to be Katarina, Tatiana made it her personal mission to track down the true Katarina Rostova, who’d disappeared under suspicious circumstances, so that she was free to have her own life back. At the same time, Tatiana had begun to form a genuine bond with Liz Keen, which made her shooting at the hands of Reddington even more traumatic, regardless of her real identity.

Tatiana Petrova Revealed The Blacklist’s Biggest Clue To Red’s True Identity

She Told Red He Was The One She’d Been Looking For All Along

The Blacklist’s ending saw Red away without his actual identity ever being revealed to the world. While many fans were disappointed with this conclusion to the show, it also encouraged viewers to pore over previous episodes of The Blacklist in search of answers, with plenty of clues to be found by those looking in the right places. The biggest clue of all was a line of dialogue spoken by Tatiana Petrova moments before she was shot by Red.

By that point in the series, it was already clear that Tatiana’s main aim was finding the real Katarina Rostova, something she’d been working on for many years. So when she told Red, "All those years searching for answers, and you were right in front of me the whole time," it implied that James Spader’s character was precisely the person she’d been looking for. This stunning revelation is the most compelling evidence anywhere in The Blacklist that the man calling himself Raymond Reddington was himself formerly the Russian spy Katarina Rostova, Liz Keen’s mother.