The Blacklist Season 10 Episode 8 was titled “The Troll Farmer Part 2”. Is the real Raymond Reddington still alive? And is it this Raymond Reddington? There is a lot of discussion on “Is this the real Raymond Reddington?” Because this is the final Season. There were some clues going on in here. We’re gonna talk about The Goat.
On the surface, it may seem like not much was revealed, but I think some stuff was revealed. This is my favorite episode of the Season and honestly, it’s not even that close. Even some of The Blacklister’s stuff felt reasonably compelling.
I think we got some really good Reddington stuff. So this is only the beginning of what’s going to be coming up here. Get ready because we’re opening the shed to see what’s inside here and it’s Belka, which means squirrel in Russian.
The Blacklist Season 10 Episode 8 Review
Reddington tells this story to Phil that he has had some issues with one of his guys who’s been with him for 17 years. He’s like “You’re not paying me. You’re rejecting my delivery of steel. Do you know how difficult it is to get steel right now?”
Whatever Wujing has been doing, he is telling everybody and it is getting to everyone, including some of Reddington’s longtime people that he’s been working with Wujing has not come to Phil to be like, “Hey, guess what?” He just is starting to hear it.
Whatever Reddington’s plans are, is he really able to put this genie back in the bottle? Like it is getting everywhere. And he tells him this story that every summer he goes to see his grandmother who has a goat named Belka. Which, as I said, means squirrel in Russian. Is this a situation where he’s going to visit his grandmother? Is she living in America? But she was living in Russia? Could he just be going to Russia in the summer to see his grandma?
It’s possible, I think that there’s another fascinating wrinkle to that potential idea. OK, let’s play all this out because we’re gonna play a lot of things out of this The Blacklist Season 10 Episode 8 Review. And I understand just on the surface that it seems like the real Raymond Reddington is to put gone. Like the evidence, the bones, the shallow, and all that stuff. I get it, I understand it. It’s not like I’m just sitting here being like “No, no, no, no”.
Listen, some weird things have happened on this show. Let’s not pretend like we haven’t seen some very weird unexplained things on this show.
Reddington, Belka, And The Shed
Let’s say this is the real Reddington who has a grandmother who’s out in Russia. He goes there for the summers. Could this be a reasonable explanation as to how he befriends Ilia. Because that has also been a very long-time question of like, “OK, Ilya and Reddington have known each other The vast majority of their lives. How is that possible if? The real Raymond Reddington is American and Ilia is Russian.”
All of a sudden, this grandmother, Belka The Goat, seemed to have like this heightened sense of importance, and now we get to the shed.
So here’s the story that he has told that his grandmother was like, “You can go anywhere you want. Everything is OK but stay away from this shed”. And of course, as soon as someone’s like, “Oh, don’t go to the shed”, you’re like, “Oh, man, well, there’s gotta be something either really good or really bad going on in that shed”, like “What’s in the shed?”
Reddington said it was in his dreams. It was in his nightmares. Belka the goat goes missing in the shed. He opens the shed and what’s in the shed… There’s nothing in the shed. It’s just a place to store the hay and Belka is in there probably having a good time having a meal.
Reddington And His Identity
The thing with this is mostly that this could all be seen as a little bit of a metaphor. I mean, we all love Spader speeches, that’s abundantly clear. And maybe they gave multiple minutes to this Belka shed story just because we love a speech. But I think there’s something a little bit more important here.
I think this can be viewed as how Reddington ultimately views his own identity in a way where you spend all this time obsessing and thinking of it, trying to get some sort of answer, and then once you finally open the shed, it is the obvious answer that has been there the entire time. And the obvious answer here is like “Your Raymond Reddington. I am who I am”.
Those are two really big, really obvious clues that despite all of the evidence that Reddington, the real one, is gone, is dead like all this other stuff that it’s actually still him. It’s either that or this is just an “it doesn’t matter who I am. I’m not interesting no matter what”.
When it comes to Reddington’s monologues and Belka’s stories, there is typically some sort of tie to something about himself. He’s never going to really just straight come out and say the truth about something. It’s going to be wrapped up in some sort of story that has something to do with himself.
I know we’ve spent a lot of words here on this goat story, but I really do think that it is connected to who he is. That it’s like, “Who am I? Opened the shed and who is it? It’s exactly what you would think it is, it’s filled with hay to feed the goat. This makes the most sense, it’s Reddington.
I and the goats have a real sympathy bond here. We understand each other. Also, the idea of just being cooped up somewhere and eating just appeals a lot to me, at this given moment in time. But I suppose we should move forward.
What’s Going On With Siya?
Let’s talk about some of the stuff that’s going on with Siya because it seems like she’s got a couple of storylines going on here.
There was that whole talk with Dembe which gave a lot of information as well, where Dembe was kind of like, “Yeah, it’s hard not working with Reddington anymore, but it’s also that I enjoy what I’m doing. And yeah, I have this relationship where there’s this sort of honest mistrust with each other where we trust each other even though we know certain things are being left out as a way to protect each other from certain things and it’s a relationship that works really well”.
I think Dembe is explaining that kind of thing to Siya so that she kind of understands that the task force works like that as well. I mean, we kind of saw at the end too with Cooper and Reddington being like “You left out this”. So they’re in that kind of relationship as well where they’ll tell enough, but not everything sort of thing. So I think Siya is really kind of seeing that if she’s going to be part of this task force, it’s kind of how it has to work out.
But then Dembe sort of drops this really important piece of information like, “Listen, when your mom came on, Reddington did his research, he always does. And I don’t know what it is that he found out what secret about your mom. But he would know whatever it is. He hasn’t told me, I don’t think he’s told, anyone. I think he just knows what it is, so if there’s some sort of secret you’re looking for about your mom, he is the person who knows”.
Siya Know The Danger She Is In
This is where things can get a little bit interesting, because is there something about Mira that we don’t know as viewers and only Reddington know? And I think that sort of accelerates Siya’s story in an interesting way.
Because what I don’t want is for later this Season, more information about, the way in which Mira gets killed, all that stuff comes out, and then all of a sudden Siya is just like “I want revenge on you Reddington, how dare you do this to my mother”. When it’s just like you knew what you were getting into from the start. You know your mom is gone, and you kind of have like at least the circumstances around it already. I don’t need some sort of emotional extreme with that.
But if there is some sort of like big, shocking secret about Mira that’s buried and it eventually comes out. I mean it is a little bit of revisionist history on Mira, who has just been buried for years, but at least it could be.
What’s Going On With Herbie?
We also need to talk about what’s going on with Herbie. Is he not married? Like he is and he has got this little baby. He’s calling Siya a million times a day. Like I understand he wants to be part of the task force and he’s trying to find a way in. But having like comments from Ressler to kind of be like “ohh Herbie’s calling you 100 times a day.” It’s just like he’s married with a little baby if that is where they’re going
It feels like they may have been circling that a little bit. It kind of sucks to do that Herbie character so dirty. Like right out of the gate that he’s got a little baby, his woman’s out working, he’s at home, and then he’s what ‘Calling another woman 100 times a day’. Even if it’s for the idea that he wants to be part of the task force that needs to be kind of pushed more as the narrative than other people on the task force and like, “Hey, this guy is interested. OK he is married. Stop this”.
This is really weird, it almost makes me wonder if The Blacklists themselves are doing some last-minute revisionist history of their own where they’re going to pretend like this life thing never was mentioned, and never happened. It’s sort of like how they just completely forgot about the age that Liz was in the fire and just changed it later. I don’t know what exactly they’re doing. I don’t think we need a will they or won’t they story for Hervie and Siya.
Reddington, Agnes, And That Hat
Maybe we’re getting a story coming up where it’s like the wife just never comes home at some point and calls up and is like “It’s over”. Like I don’t know, but I would like it sooner rather than later for them to put some real sort of they’re done with trying to like to hook these two up or have a romance. Or like they’re gonna give us something where Herbie’s relationship is actually over.
Because it’s just sort of like, if they can handle this, I think the rest of Herbie as a character is pretty interesting and rather fun. Like Reddington going over putting the hat on the baby’s head is just a nice thing.
I really liked the pink hat, but not for that baby. We had that whole adorable moment with him cooking with Agnes and putting the mayonnaise in, which all of us know is a trick. But she doesn’t know that yet, but now she does know. That Hat should have been put on Agnes. I said it, I’m not trying to like, be real, super knit picky and critical of these moments.
But how amazing and how would that have been to have that moment when Pinky puts his pink hat on Agnes’ head? Like that baby is cute. But like, who’s that baby to Agnes? Come on, Agnes needs to have that hat. It’s perfect for her cooking vlogs.
I do love that she is continuing to call him Pinky, that meant a lot to me emotionally. The randomness that Cooper, who is like an FBI agent boss and he is letting his daughter do vlogs online, knows how like crazy the Internet can be. That’s a little bit like this is probably the most controversial take I have in this entire article. I thought that Agnes’ stuff was really, really fun, really adorable. Great to have a lot of that in here.
Overall Review On The Blacklist Season 10 Episode 8
There were so many reveals going on in The Blacklist Season 10 Episode 8. This was a really, really good episode. Like we’ve got interesting questions on what’s going to happen to the Freelancer. Obviously, who is Reddington? What is Reddington’s endgame play? I really hope there are some big answers coming in these next few episodes.
Our Rating: ⭐️ 3.7/5
Also Read: How To Watch The Blacklist Season 10 Episodes? Streaming Guide
