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#let me kill peter; i poisoned gerard; i will kill gerard; i will kill jennifer; i will kill deucalion; i will fight for my life against pete
colethewolf · 1 year
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u know what annoys me abt teen wolf beside everything? ppl overestimating scott as true alpha by saying "entire pack of alphas went after mccall and he was the one left standing" as if he had a hand in killing the alphas. i mean ennis died bc of deucalion (n derek for injuring him), jennifer killed kali and caused the twins to lose their alpha spark, and deucalion had a change of heart and left. even derek lost his alpha spark for his sister. ALL those events have nothing to do w scott, he literally did nothing to stop the pack. he became a true alpha when the party was over. like i understand if in later seasons they shpwed his power as true alpha n praised it, but dude acted like a beta w leadership skills. so it was very disappointing they didnt show true alpha powers in the show yet kept depicting scott as a powerful one. its been years, i should move one, but it still pisses me off.
Yeah, that's partially why I don't like that character. I don't like how everybody else basically always did the heavy lifting & then Scott got all the credit. Like, first of all, the alpha pack went after Derek. That was literally their whole thing for the majority of the season. They wanted Derek to join their pack & started killing his betas.
It's the same with the other seasons (at least the ones I watched, because I didn't watch 4-6). But who stopped Peter? Stiles/Jackson threw the molotov at him, Allison ignited it, and Derek slashed his throat.
Who stopped the Kanima? Gerard killed Matt & Derek/Peter killed the kanima, letting Jackson finally morph into a werewolf. Scott poisoned Gerard and then let Gerard run off to live for many more years.
Who stopped the alpha pack & Jennifer? As you already said, Deucalion killed Ennis. Jennifer killed Kali. Deucalion was allowed to leave (again, because Scott lets villains walk). The alpha twins were adopted into Scott's pack. And Jennifer was killed by Peter.
The only time the writers made Scott "kill" a villain was the nogitsune wearing Stiles' body (and even that was a cop out because the nogitsune was canonically undefeatable and unable to be killed) so void!stiles turned to dust. Then we go to the movie & it's DEREK & Parrish who killed the Nogitsune while Scott stands and watches.
lol
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princeescaluswords · 3 years
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All this is just further proof that fandom is DEEP in their own, self indulgent crafted narrative/au that they assert as "canon". They actually HATE the show for subverting common tropes. No, the broody and attractive white man from a distinguished lineage isn't the hero. Nor is the snarky white sidekick. Fanfiction would have you believe Derek was kindly offering lessons to Scott, who rudely snubbed him. Stans whine about the "lost potential" of exploring the Hale Family, but it WAS NEVER ABOUT THEM!!!!
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Your question struck me because it's so completely true. They claim to be looking at canon, but they really aren't.
One story I read this morning had Stiles joining the Hale Pack and ending his friendship with Scott because Scott 'neglected' him after Gerard kidnapped him in Master Plan (2x12), because the fact that Scott 'left with Allison and Chris' shows that Scott didn't care about Stiles at all.
Except that we don't see Scott leave with Allison and Chris. The next scene we see is Allison breaking up with Scott and we know it's the same night. But there's no indication that Scott didn't talk to Stiles after Jackson's resurrection. And it certainly seems that Stiles and Scott are in a pretty good situation with each other at the end of the season. Why would their minds go to "Scott didn't care that Stiles was kidnapped and hurt!?!?!"
Especially when their minds don't go there after Raving (2x08). It took you a moment to figure out what I was talking about, didn't you?
When Victoria is using poison gas to kill Scott, Derek, who is standing next to Stiles and his mountain ash line, has to shout at Stiles to break the line because he's sensed Scott is in trouble. And Stiles huffs and breaks the line. But we don't see Stiles ask Scott if he's okay. We don't see Stiles help find Scott. We don't see Stiles at the Animal Clinic while Deaton is taking care of Scott. Derek's there and waiting, but Stiles isn't.
Why don't their minds go to "Stiles is selfishly focused on his own needs and is neglecting Scott!?!?" Because it would be a ludicrous conclusion to draw; Stiles has demonstrated his care and feelings for Scott in the past just as Scott has demonstrated his care and feelings for Stiles in the past.
Now, this is a double standard, one of many, many, many double standards in a fandom that seems to relish them. And one could make the argument that it's a deliberate and conscious choice to ignore one scene in order to support their desired conclusions in another, but after reading enough well-meaning author's notes which talk about how they think that "Scott was a better friend than canon portrays," I think it might be something more troubling:
The fandom has been indoctrinated so deeply by the culture to see non-white characters as inherently not as good or as interesting as white characters that they can't really judge fairly.
I know that there are a lot of minority readers out there looking at each other and going 'duh, stupid white man is just figuring this out now!?!?!', so let me elaborate. I've always assigned a certain level of malicious self-interest to this before, that they chose to ignore scenes that run counter to their desired end -- they wanted the show to be about the Hales and Stiles, but, as you put it, it wasn't, so they were going to get back at the production.
But I'm beginning to suspect that white supremacy is so fully ingrained in the culture that it's become like an optical illusion. They literally cannot see the scenes that establish the idea that this is Scott's story and he's the lead protagonist.
As an immediate aside, no one should possibly interpret this as me arguing that white viewers have no obligation to overcome this narrative illusion or that minority viewers must teach them otherwise if they want to be able to participate fully in fandom. Individuals are responsible for their own behavior, regardless of cultural influences!
But it explains how often well-meaning people can come up with interpretations so essentially disproved by the narrative, again and again. People can say that they like Scott but believe that Scott somehow had less virtue, less talent or less claim to the focus within the story.
It's why they can argue that Scott had 'shit control' because he didn't follow Derek, when Scott literally surprised Derek with his control in Heart Monitor (1x06).
It's why they can argue that Scott was a poor student or can't keep a secret or can't bake or can't do any number of things it is assumed that white characters can do without question, how he is a lovable idiot without any positive qualities that weren't given to him by the Hales or Stiles.
It's why they can scold Scott for not being able to tell that Theo was a chimera infiltrator but forget that Derek couldn't tell that Deaton wasn't an alpha and couldn't tell that Jennifer was the Darach.
It's why they hate Deaton for insulting Derek once and not 'helping enough' but think Peter was the Sassiest Happy Fun Uncle who cared for his family so much.
It's why Kira is a placeholder and annoying, but Cora somehow wasn't.
It's why Monroe being slashed up by the Beast, forced to cover herself with her friend's body, and then having to wait there for the sheriff to find her is a 'stupid reason' to start hunting supernaturals, but Scott telling Stiles to go talk to his father about the person he killed and then decided to hide it is grounds for the end of the friendship if not outright revenge murder.
It's why Stiles could never ever trust Morrell because she worked with the Alpha Pack and promised to euthanize him to protect others, but he would love, love, love, love, and have Derek Hale's babies when Derek worked with Peter and spent an entire season trying to murder Lydia.
It's why they so strongly believed that the show should have ended with Alpha Derek and the Hale Family reclaiming their family's legacy, with all the little betas following them around.
It's why the subversive nature of having the hero be the earnest Latino and not the broody white antihero flies over their heads. It's why they conjure up elaborate and self-contradictory fantasies of unreliable narrators.
They just can't believe that this is Scott's story.
I'm finding it harder to believe that every one of these people is a malicious asshole who chooses to ignore canon so they can get their white power fantasy fix. It's exactly how it's been described.
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msmischief101 · 3 years
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NOW HOLD ON JUST A MINUTE.
Belasko: Where's your power, Scott? Scott: Who are you? Belasko: A devoted fan. Show me the man who took down Deucalion and broke the Argents. I came for that Alpha.
Ah, wow. Two episodes in a row, huh? Okay, fine, let's go through this point by f*cking point.
Let's start with Deucalion.
Deucalion: Jennifer injures him severely then Derek tricks her into healing his eyesight (which somehow made him reconsider all his life choices (?)) and the shithead is allowed to leave. He comes back because Scott asked him to manipulate Theo into killing the chimeras. He comes back again and is killed by a random hunter.
And now, the Argents. Oh boy.
Gerard: Deaton suggests poisoning him which Scott does (..... I hate Master Plan, I hate it with a burning passion). The piece of shit survives and is healed by Chris. Comes back with a vengeance in 6b and is killed by his own daughter.
Chris: Starts doubting his family after Stiles told him what Kate did. Stops hunting werewolves because of Allison.
Kate: Is killed by Peter (and kinda sacrifices herself for Allison.. maybe?). Comes back with a vengeance (s4). Is poisoned by Chris. Comes back with a vengeance (6b). Is poisoned again. She's either dead or alive. Who tf knows.
Victoria: Derek accidentally bit her (still no idea how that worked out) while saving Scott's life. She kills herself because of the code.
Allison: Manipulated by Kate. Snaps out of it as she realises how terrible Kate is. Goes dark after her mother's death then snaps out of it after she realises how horrible Gerard is. Is killed by an Oni while saving Isaac's life.
You gotta check your sources, man. Something doesn't add up here.
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asterekmess · 4 years
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1-4 What the fuck is a true alpha? A recurring joke? A convenient plot armor? A desperate attempt to make an irrelevant character look ‘relevant’ despite canon showing otherwise? Scott/Posey Stans think that Scott McCall has a right to command and dictate everyone’s life because he is a tWuE aLpAhA; Scott has a right to play judge, jury & executioner with his “inferior” friends, and he has a right to determine what is wrong or right based on his own benefit and bigoted black and white mentality.
2-4 If you think that this sounds an awful lot like the Divine Right of Kings, you are absolutely right. An unearned (and undeserved) mystical superiority or blessing, a fabricated sense of purity, goes a long way in ameliorating Scott McCall’s Failures and Fuck-ups. And like kings who rule by Divine Right, he can do as he likes. Which is why Scott can patronize and lie to Allison and Kira to control them, assault Isaac and Jackson due to his own pathological jealousy and possessiveness,
3-4 use Hayden (Liam’s girlfriend) as bait against the Dread Doctors without her consent to play the hero, dehumanize Stiles and accuse Stiles of being a violent, dangerous, inhuman monster and serial killer for daring to accidentally kill his abuser in self-defense, sell Derek and his Pack to the hunters, refuse to tell his girlfriend Allison the truth about her mother’s death to look ‘good’ in her eyes,
4-4 plot/conspire with Gerard Argent and Deaton behind everyone’s back to violate Derek Hale’s boundaries, bodily autonomy and consent for his own benefit, claim that the Argents had a reason to slaughter the Hales (including HUMANS and CHILDREN) in front of Derek Hale and of his comatose uncle – and then Scott/Posey Stans will consider everyone kicking Scott’s whiny, toxic excuse of an ass to the curb and not giving an utter crap when Scott died in Season 5 as an act equivalent of treason
I put all your asks together so I didn’t get confused (which is v likely to happen) and I thank you for numbering them for me. <3
The concept of a true alpha...sigh. Look, I see the intention, okay? I see the goal, the idea that you don’t have to kill someone to become an Alpha. That there can be “Good” Alphas who haven’t killed anyone. But I also think it’s lazy writing. This is one the few instances where TW hadn’t actually shot themselves in the foot yet. They gave us so little information on werewolves that they never actually said that the only way to become an Alpha was by killing another Alpha. They could very easily have said “Also, you can become an Alpha this other way” (Be it by passing the Alpha spark down to children willingly, or being beaten in a special kind of combat, or through a ritual of some kind)
But they didn’t just want another way to be the Alpha. They wanted a way that didn’t take any effort. It would be too hard to introduce another Alpha that would give up their spark to Scott, or to have him put in the effort to do a ritual. They needed a way to make Scott an Alpha without any additional effort. Part of me honestly wonders if they did it because they knew they’d lost a lot of Scott fans by the end of Season 2, what with all of his betrayals and lies and what he did to Derek. They needed a way to reaffirm that Scott was the good guy, so they made up the True Alpha thing and said “Look! He’s so pure and goodhearted and he has so much good will, that he can’t even help but become an Alpha”
They demonized werewolves by reducing them to murderers who had to kill for power (In Derek’s case it was survival, and i’ll fight for him.) and then held Scott up as a saint because he managed it without killing.
Except that he had killed. Or at least tried to kill. How could he be this pure person they claimed if he spent weeks poisoning a cancer patient, lying to everyone around him, and he took Pleasure in it. He was Proud of himself for his lies and his tricks and for getting back at Derek by hurting him. That’s the kind of behavior we expect from Stiles, who is established as a morally gray character. You cannot have Scott do something like that and then make the claim that he is morally pure.
Once Scott finds out from Morrell that killing someone will take away his True Alpha status, he goes out of his way to avoid killing people even when it puts others at risk. This ISN’T an Avatar moment, okay? He doesn’t summon the power of his ancestors and render the villains completely incapable of harm. He just fucking lets them go! Deucalion gets his fucking eyesight back for fuck’s sake. He was MORE dangerous than before and they let him go! (I know Derek was part of that, but I’m pretty sure Derek was possessed by a pod person by that point)
He never said he’d behave. No one checked on him or watched to make sure he didn’t hurt anyone. They just let him leave. He could’ve just rebuilt a new Alpha pack. Could’ve killed dozens more people.
Jennifer would have too, had Peter not killed her.
Even better, he brings Ethan and Aiden into his pack. They walked right up to him and told him “Everyone is hunting for us because we killed a ton of people” and he just took them in? Gave them protection from the families of the people they’d slaughtered? All because they followed him around for a bit and said “We’ll only kill for you from now on.”
And this is why I get so frustrated about the blue eyes. The concept of ‘taking an innocent life’ is so fucking vague? Scott is indirectly responsible for countless deaths throughout the show. Whether by inaction or because the people doing the killing were acting on his orders, or whatever the fuck else I can’t think of at the moment. It doesn’t matter if he hasn’t intended to kill anyone. He should not still have his True Alpha status. Period. But he does, so apparently Scott can kill as many people as he wants, actually, so long as he doesn’t do it with his own claws and teeth. Or maybe he just can’t kill a human who hasn’t killed anyone else? Who the fuck knows.
I’ll say it again. If The Alpha spark can be used to heal someone, why didn’t Scott use it to save Allison? She wasn’t cursed. She was stabbed. He could’ve done the same thing Derek did. Peter even said that it can be done on accident. All it requires is that he do the pain drain and not stop when it starts to hurt.
To be quite honest, I don’t blame Scott’s True Alpha eyes for his entitlement and his belief that he can do no wrong. He held that same notion way before his eyes ever turned red. The eyes are to blame for no one else calling him out for his actions. You’re told by the only fucking person who seems to know what’s going on in the supernatural world that this kid’s eyes turned red all on their own because he is meant to be an Alpha. That it’s because he is good and pure and it’s a sign of his worthiness. He literally was just gifted extra power, apparently because he’s the only one worthy of it. How the fuck are you supposed to deal with that? Are you supposed to be the one person who tells fucking Werewolf Jesus (technically Derek is Actual werewolf jesus what with the evolution thing, but before that Scott’s as close as it gets cus’ Peter’s just a zombie.) that he doesn’t know best? That he’s doing something wrong? If the Powers that Be made Scott an Alpha, what will they do to the one who tells him he fucked up? Everyone is just supposed to trust that Scott must be in the right. That his reasons are good enough. That he knows what’s best. Because if he doesn’t, then why the sudden Alpha eyes? Peter questions Scott often and happily, mostly because he doesn’t care if he gets struck by lightning or something. It’ll always be worth it to get that last quip in. Eventually Stiles starts to argue too, because he’s reached the point where he doesn’t care if he dies so long as everyone else important to him stops getting hurt. That’s when Scott starts cutting him out. When he stops believing Scott knows best.
And honestly, it’s like the first post I made that sparked this whole ranting binge. Scott cheats. He cheats and he uses his abilities to his advantage without ever thinking of what it does to other people. Except this time he’s not cheating at lacrosse. He’s not taking credit for bowling six strikes in a row. For some reason his eyes turned red, and everyone else is taking it as a sign that he must know better and he should be in charge, and he never disagrees.
Sure, he complains. “Why me? Why does it have to be my responsibility?”
Guess what buddy? It fucking doesn’t. If you stopped fucking ordering people around and admitted you don’t know what you’re doing to someone besides your MOM and you want someone else to take the lead? THEY WOULD. But because he will not admit any kind of weakness or that he isn’t sure what to do, he puts the weight on himself. He blames everyone else for the lead weights he tied around his waist. He doesn’t want to have to do the work, but he hates the idea of someone else being in charge. Of not being important. We’re told right off the bat that Scott wants to be important. He wants to be on first line not because he loves the game, but because he wants to be popular. He wants Allison to go out with him. This is just another way he wants to be important, and he won’t ever let go of it. He gives orders and makes calls on who gets to know what and who is worthy and won’t take responsibility for the failures, but happily takes credit for the successes. When he fucks up by not talking to people or by lying to them or making a bad call, he doesn’t admit it. He doesn’t tell anyone. He lets them think that he’s blameless so that when he actually says shit like “I lost them” someone will say “They’ll come back because you’re their leader” No. He’s not. He lost them because he pushed them away. It was his fault.
Whatever. I’m salty. *pouts* Anyway. True Alpha is dumb, and I’ve read a couple theories about how Deaton made it up, and tbh, I’d follow that logic. If you’re curious, I think I tagged it ‘true alpha’ or ‘deaton’ on my blog.
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tessabltheorist · 7 years
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The Blacklist, the puzzles and the symbols and themes.
the Blacklist is telling a story in the plots in the episodes. it is also telling the story Red is telling Liz which is told in the numbers of the Blacklisters.
In addition to the clues offered in the episodes in dialogue and actions, we also have another narrative, told exclusively in symbols and themes, that also tell a story.
I know that for some in the rarified Tumblr fan universe,  the Blacklist is nothing but a procedural or a love story. But the reality of it, flying under the radar and above the heads is a complete and rich narrative told in semiotic language, completing the picture and creating a complex puzzle.  This is the reason I often tell that The Blacklist is a show geared towards content TV, a show that will make the most money for the creators and the networks in re-runs and post-final episode sales, when people watch it many times to catch all the clues, and symbols missed.
I know I am still watching and still finding them, and I am sure so many are flying right above my head, like meteors.
In the early days I was aware of a figure, a picture, glimpsed like a figure in thick fog. My friend @2redpyewackets pointed me in the right direction and let me loose.  My compulsion to solve mysteries have done the rest.
It is a long post. 
The most prevalent theme is children in danger / taking care of the family. The Blacklist is a love story, yes. A family love story featuring all kinds of love. Paternal, maternal, romantic, filial, love of country, love of truth. this theme appears in nearly all of the episodes:
1.01 Beth Ryker in danger as are all children in the Zoo and the people near the detonation area
1.02 All the women and children being sold as sex slaves. Avenging Dembe.
1.03 Wujing was a second child, his parents gave him up and he became invisible. The Chinese American architect’s son was in danger too.
1.04 The Stewmaker may have suffered what Red described in the farmer speech: the loss of his children in an earlier family.
1.05 The Courier became unhinged as a child by the actions of his father.
1.06. Gina Zanetakos is another one of the children picked by The Major and transformed into a corporate terrorist
1.07 Frederick Barnes was fighting to save his child from Kurz disease by finding someone with natural resistance.
1.08 Nathaniel Wolff  was avenging his father and his destroyed childhood, while Sam wanted to tell Liz “the truth”. Red is trying to protect Liz from the truth about her father.
1.09 & 1.10 Anslo Garrick - Red tried to save Dembe and Liz by getting out of the box
1.11 The Good Samaritan Killer, Karl Hoffman  had been a victim of abuse by his mother and he was trying to punish abusers and save others, including children.
1.12 The Alchemist / Eric Trestle was caught because he had to take his daughter with him and she was diabetic and could be found. He murdered a child to be a stand-in for his daughter. Red mentions he has killed children and babies to do his fake deaths
1.13 The Cyprus Agency / Michael Shaw - a child returned to social services never gets over the rejection and in turn produces hundreds of his babies to have a “legacy”
1.14 Madeline Pratt - Red tells the story of the bloody Christmas house. It may be a fabrication, the truth or a combination. It features his daughter in peril.
1.15 The Judge / Ruth Kipling - her father served time for a crime he did not commit, and she devoted her life to even out the score
1.16 Mako Tanida was avenging his brother. Agent Sam Raiko would rather die by ritual sepukko rather than put his family in harm’s way. Ressler’s baby dies with Audrey.
1.17  Harrison Lee tries to commit suicide when his romantic gesture does not pan out.  Abby was in danger and Liz remembers her own fears as a child. 
1.18 Milton Bobbit’s assassins were trying to hep family members by becoming assassins
1.20 The Kingmaker causes  Chandler’s wife to die and endangered his daughter, with Chandler’s acquiesce
1.21 & 1.22 Milos Kirchhoff  was avenging his daughter’s supposed death.
2.01 Nora Mills  was abused as a child and nobody helped her or believed her. She killed her sister and suffered a split personality disorder. The child-soldiers in Yaabari’s army. 
2.02 Monarch Douglas Bank - Naomi / Carla tells Berlin she went into hiding to protect her child.
2.03 Dr. James Covington was trying to save children using the funds from his organs for rent business.
2.04 Dr. Linus Creel made Liz realize her genetic makeup, given by her parents.  Carla AKA Naomi tells Red Jennifer left because Red would “come for her”
2.05 Carrie Ann Beck saved the world by backing out of Becks’s plan to save her child
2.06 Geoff Perl’s cartel had left Dembe an orphan and sold into sexual slavery. He has a secret family.
2.07 Samar killed Walid Abu SItta  to avenge her baby brother, whom she thought dead.
2.08 Alan Fitch arranged for Zoe to get to safety but made Berlin believe she was dead, setting him on a revenge quest on Red and Red’s family
2.09 & 2.10 Luther Braxton wanted to get into Liz’s memories as a child from the night of the fire. A child or maybe 2 girls were there as integral part of the story.
2.11 Ruslan Denisov wanted to avenge his family and neighbors.
2.12 The Kenyon Family were a cult that did child abuse and incest.
2.13 The original  Deer Hunter was a child abused by his father because he wasn’t masculine enough, possibly because he was gay, and his wife was, in theory, trying to save women and children from abusive men
2.14 Young Peretti was being held to be sold to use as a lever against his family. The family had a Russian Roulette game to leave only 1 heir.
2.15 The Major picked up a young Tom and molded him into an undercover operative
2.16 Liz sets a fund for Ames’s daughter to assuage her guilt.
2.17 Tom is carrying the ultrasound of the child Liz and him were going to adopt.
2.18 Vanessa Cruz’s mother thought her dead. Vanessa was avenging her husband.
2.19 Liz finds the photo of her as a child with her mother in the apartment and she saves Red. Red explains that he hired Tom with the best intentions to protect her
2.20 Liz learns she was known as Masha Rostova and her mother was known as Katarina Rostova.
2.21 Andropov kills the senator’s son to try his weapon. Red tells Karakurt’s neighbor he knows about colicky babies
2.22 Liz and Tom make love on the boat. Liz gets pregnant. Liz gets indignant when she realizes Andropov was using Cooper.
3.01 Solomon tells Dembe that his  granddaughter has been poisoned to force Dembe to surrender to him.
3.02 Marvin Gerard lost his license and freedom when he tried to save his son from his powerful wife. The child committed suicide.
3.03 Red wants to shield Susan Hanover’s child from a “scene”
3.04 Nasir was forced into a sex change at 19 for being gay.
3.05 Blair was avenging her mother, killed in the  OREA bombing. Red was willing to do anything to save Liz.
3.06 The inspector’s son had drowned in Portofino, and Peter threatens Mr. Karpos with harming his child.
3.07 Shahin Navabi saw the murder of his parents as them being weak, while Samar got inspired to fight the perpetrators. They were left orphans, resulting in a terrorist and a terrorist-fighter.
3.08 The Kings of the Highway - a dysfunctional  “family” albeit a fun one. Liz and Dembe save Red. Dembe tries to facilitate Liz to escape.
3.09 & 3.10 Peter Kotsiopous wanted to kill Liz, and Red made him pay. Karakurt at the end talks to avoid damage to his sister.
3.11 Red tells Liz that being exposed as Masha Rostova brings back the dangers she faced as a child.  Liz suffered because she has been exposed as the daughter of a Russian spy. Liz finds out she is pregnant .
3.12 Cardinal Richards used reformed child molesters to eliminate his money laundering schemes . Liz tells Red she is pregnant and Tom finds out he will be a father. 
3.13 Mr. Alistair Pitt arranged for the death of a young woman to further his business. Children used as pawns in fixing businesses. Red wanted revenge for his lover who got killed in another arranged marriage. Liz is planning on giving Agnes for adoption and Tom is desperately trying to get a legitimate job and  (which Red takes away) or to do a robbery, to convince Liz to keep their baby.
3.14 Lady Ambrosia, to mourn her own “perfect drowned child” while she was left with her “imperfect child” would take children with special needs in which one parent did not want to keep him/her and keep them until age 14, at which age they were murdered. Liz thinks about adoption and finds out about her own mother pregnant with her. 
3.15 Liz decides to keep her and Tom’s child instead of having her adopted
3.16 The Caretaker stole a child that he saw as abused, after his pregnant wife died, destroying her family and she sought revenge for her destroyed family.
3.17 & 3.18 Solomon  endangered Liz and her unborn child by trying to kidnap her at any cost. Agnes is born.  Kate offers Liz, a fake death to protect her daughter. 
3.19 Red  examines his past and his and Katarina’s choices, in regards to Liz and to each other.
3.20 Dom and Red mourn Katarina and Liz. Tom bonds with Agnes who is in danger.
3.22 Alexander Kirk was trying to get Masha back safely (apparently). Tom learns he is Christopher Hargrave, whom Susan had been mourning for 28 years. Tom saves the girl in the bank. 
3.23 Kirk kidnaps Liz and Agnes. Red is trying to find them
CB-2 The Arsonist , Ethan Donovan was  hunted by an image of a child he watched burning 
CB-1 Sebastian Royce  wanted to get revenge and recognition for his dead family that got killed because the FBI failed to protect them.
4.01 Agnes is kidnapped and Mato threatens to kill her
4.02 Agnes is taken from Liz by Romina at gunpoint
4.03 Agnes is in Kirk’s hands and he may use her tiny body for a bone marrow transplant. Red volunteers Tom, his son-in-law to help save Agnes.
4.04 Gaia is trying to get revenge for his son’s disfigurement because he was exposed to radiation. Tom attempt a rescue operation that fails. Liz tells Fred how she is failing as a parent, mirroring Red’s struggle.
4.05  Red uses a staging area which was used to stage Jewish children being smuggled out of France into Switzerland. Riley the inventor of the battery had a little toy car with a baby.
4.06 Rostov stands on a ledge with Agnes, threatening to jump from it with her.
4.07 Liz finds out she is not Rostov’s daughter and that this is a source of danger to her. Liz wants to save Rostov thinking he is her father. Tom discuss the quest of the past with Liz.
4.08 Red surrenders to Rostov in exchange for Liz. Red admits that Liz is his daughter. Tom works with Dembe to save Red.
4.09  Attemps to save her adopted country by Samar.
4.10 the child who listens on her hearing aid. Tom fears for Agnes. Red fears for Liz.
4.11 Could it be that Emma is Jennifer and Red send Liz in to keep her safe. Making Liz meet her half sister?
The symbol of water is also prevalent. I am not sure what is the meaning. I see shades of The Tempest: Prospero and his books, that give him the magic, his daughter, exiled in a island. Commanding the fairies.  Red was win the Navy and he wanted to be the captain of a ship.
Most of the songs used in the show have references to water.
1.01. Red sits at the end of a table with a center runner that looks like water. He talks about being Ahab and catching the whales. Beth is taken via the river. Ressler jumps in the water to try to save her. Cooper has in his office a picture of him fishing. the Zoo is by the water. Red and Zamani meet by a reflecting pool.
1.02. Red is kept in a red ship. He meets Liz by the river at the end of the episode. One of the jobs of The Freelancer was  to capsize a ferry on the brahmaputra river. At the end when he talks with Liz by a pier, a fisherman can be seen. The FBI finds a shipping container with many women and children.
1.03. Red says his usual tech is unavailable because he was stung by a Manta Ray off the barrier reef in Belize. First images Red is by water, a fish pond.
1.04. The Stewmaker goes to his cabin to “fish”, so it must have a body of water near the cabin. Liz meets Red by a stream. 
1.05 Red says: “Perhaps this is an opportunity to let our new friends at the FBI carry the water.”
1.06. Gina Zanetakos - Red was brokering the sale of the Storm at the sea of Galilee. Gina was planning to contaminate the Port of Houston. Red is in the shipping business. The Port of New Orleans figures prominently.
1.07 Red mentions that Barnes took the bait like a trout to a butterwort
1.08  very faint reference but the aerial view of Miami Beach.
1.09 & 1.10. Red mentions that Garrick  liberated Mahmoud Al Azok from an Alcatraz-like CIA black site in the Bering Sea. He gives the one more time speech: Have you ever sailed across an ocean, Donald? On a sailboat surrounded by sea with no land in sight? 
1.11. there is a ship painting in Aram’s apartment in that season (he seem to have moved) when they go looking for him as Louis Coogan. Lulu’s ashes gets dispersed by the water. Red suffocates Newton while he looks at the water “Look at the water”
1.12 The alchemist’s ex-wife has a painting of ships in her house.
1.14 a very faint threat but the very first image is the bay at Istanbul.
1.15. Red visits his former roommate Admiral Richard Abrahams. Cooper was going to be executed by immersing his feet in water and using a generator to electrocute him.
1.16. Ressler’s apartment has model ships, ship drawings. He meets Red by the river. Harold fishing photo is the one Red is looking at when Cooper arrives in his office.
1.19. The Pavlovich Brothers  were going to take Ms. Li by a ship. She writes Archimedes’s formula in the wall.
1.20. The Kingmaker orchestrates the accident of Chandler going over a bridge with his wife and daughter in the car. Red sees Niko in a pool. Story about him being a lifeguard. Red is shown with a maritime painting behind him.
1.21 & 1.22 Red talks about the Moken Sea Gypsy that rescued him when he was free diving and got stung.  Berlin plane crashes in the river. in Milos Kinsky, AKA fake Berlin’s office there is a giant mounted fish on the wall.
2.01 Yabaari’s camp has a boat nearby. When Red visits Cooper’s house there is Cooper’s photo of him fishing. Berlin is bathing in a tub with ice when Norah Mills’s handler visits. Red is wearing a plaid vest.
2.02 Berlin is  expecting something in the port of Mogadishu. Red’s guy in Poland calls him from the waterfront. Red and Berlin meet in Coney Island by the waterfront. Berlin keeps Carla in a house by the water.
2.03 Red is trying to get the contracts for the port of TanKulu.
2.04 Liz is going to the boat to interrogate Tom. A creel is a basket fishermen put their fish in.
2.05 Red tells he story of seeing  Beck in an inflatable boat in the North Sea with waves coming at him.
2.06 the bodies Matthew skins are thrown in the sea. Matthew bathes in a tub with a record player, and a bath toy of a red boat, a yellow boat and a totem pole. “small fish in a very big pond”. Aram solves a puzzle by reconstructing tide patterns. Ezra finds Tom in the boat. Liz and Red meet by a pier.
2.07 the body of Walid Abu Sita washes ashore on the river after Samar kills him
2.08 Red meets Liz at the boat after Fitch dies, and she goes to clean the boat
2.09 & 2.10 The Factory is in the Bering Sea, on a platform. Red gives the speech about the hideous fish. Liz is waterboarded. Red  and Cooper make reference to people drowning or burning.
2.11 the water in the villages had been poisoned.  Ruslan keeps an executive immersed in the contaminated water. Zebra mussels prompt an inspection and in turn the attention of Eugene Ames into Aleko’s boat.
2.12  2 references between Cooper and Connolly: “A rising tide lifts all boats”  and “There are good ships and there are wood ships.The ships that sail the sea. But the best ships are friendships. And may they always be.”;  the song “Beyond the Sea” when Red turns on the radio in the Presidential car and  Ernie’s shrimp platter with Glen.
2.14. Josephine Sullivan is buying a Van Gogh featuring a beach. Madeline was grabbed in the Port of Lisbon. Tom stands under a Portofino sign (the inspector in Sir Crispin Crandall drowned in Portofino)
2.15 &  2.16 Judge Denner’s chambers have numerous maritime items. he makes a fishing reference “Let me save you the trouble, Mr. Markin. You and I, for all of our accomplishments, remain rather small fish in this deep and dark federal pool.”
2.17 Dr. Powell stands in front of an aquarium. His research used Jellyfish.
2.18. Tom talks about buying a ship to get a diving business near an abandoned Naval base in the Pacific. Vanessa staged a fake death by drowning at the beach. Declan Sinclair is in a bathtub. Vanessa’s husband was killed by faking a jump from a bridge.
2.19. Liz and Tom talk by a river at the end. Liz goes to the apartment and sees 2 photos with water: one of a house by the water, and one of her and Sam by the water.
2.20  Red blows up Japer’s yatch to draw him out.
2.21 Tom keeps talking about his boat, asking Liz to run away with him. Red says: “Senator Hawkins has taken the bait like a bluegill to a cricket.”
2.22 Liz goes to Tom’s boat to be safe. Agnes is conceived in a boat. Connolly: ”Our river of influence is deep”
3.01 the apartment where Liz dyes her hair has inclined windows that look like sails. Red tells her the story of Sok Pich and the monsoon, and he mentions reading past issues of Bass Master
3.02 Red and Liz escape in a shipping vessel. Red talks about being a captain. The windows in the Russian Ambassador house were round like portholes. There is a round mirror that amplifies the feeling of being on a ship.
3.03 Costa had a painting of the sea in his apartment. Only artwork seen.
3.04 The Dijnn house was by the water. The meeting point is a park by the river
3.05 Solomon is going to fillet Liz like a salmon.
3.06 Sir Crispin Crandall was building a modern day ark, Peter and Solomon talk by the river, the inspector’s son drowned in Portofino and Tom is in the fight club, by the water.
3.07 Zal Bin Hasaan AKA Shahin Navabi -  Shahin was going to abduct Samar in a boat
3.08 Red talks about getting a first edition copy of Life in the Mississippi , about the captain of a steamboat
3.09 & 3.10 Tom keeps Karakurt in his boat. There is a fisherman’s knot called a Huffnagle, like the Kotsiopulus’s psychologist. the cabin where Karakurt is kept has mounted fish
3.11 Cooper is confirmed to have been in the Navy. Liz meets Tom at his boat. “Follow this fish, and you can net the entire school.”. Tom asks  Red is he wants someone to play GoFish.
3.12  Gerard and Brenda sing “Michael Row Your Boat Ashore” by the camping fire.
3.13 There is a nautical wheel in the restaurant where Happy gets killed. Liz mentions a restaurant in Bethesda by the water. Wonderful scene of Alistair Pitt in the tub with the champagne, Marilyn and Monroe
3.14 Lady Ambrosia’s older “perfect” son drowned in a river while her other son survived. They die in a well. One of the children” drowned” in the Ohio River.
3.15 Red and Liz meet at an art exhibit of a storm (Katrina?)
3.16 Red uses his contacts in the Port of Miami to foil the terrorists
3.19 Red has an hallucination of Katarina while at Cape May. Trying to get to terms with her drowning?? or his subconscious telling him Katarina or Liz  are not dead??
3.21 Susan Hargrave finally takes Red’s calls after Red steals  the oil in the Port of Amsterdam
3.22 Christopher Hargrave disappeared while at the beach. Kirk reminds Red of the time he had a gun in Red’s mouth in the house by the water. Susan has a painting of a ship, and Senator Diaz’s house has several nautical paintings.
3.23 Liz house in Cuba is by a beach. 
CB-1 Sebastian Royce lives in a yacht . He disappeared in 1994  in a bridge over a river in Switzerland. Red found his hat floating in it. Red and Royce were looking to make their fortune in a boat in Thailand
CB-2 Red and Liz escape in a boat. 
4.01 Rostov escapes in a hydroplane with Liz. Red arranges an escape for Esteban in a boat.  Rostov’s safe house in Cuba is by a beach. 
4.02 Liz takes the hydroplane down. She and Rostov talk about drowning. Liz saves Rostov.   Rostov and Liz are saved by a fisherman in a boat. The unspoiled acre where Red attempts to kill Kate has water in it.  Mato takes Agnes in a boat with Romina
4.03 Frog men attacking the power plant. All  men are former SEALS. Kate crawls to the edge of the water and see her reflection in it. The FBI agent’s office where Liz breaks into has drawings and paintings of ships.
4.04 the plan Gaia had was to use the Hudson river low tides to increase the impact of the nuclear plant accident. The Power plant is by the river. 
4.05 Red has the hematologist in a tub with water and is torturing him with burrowing fish. He tells Dembe to “fish him out of the tub”. One of the inventions dealt with desalination of sea water. Elise floods Aram’s apartment with suds.
4.06 Red tells Liz the story about spear fishing lion fish. Kirk is in a steam bath.  Cynthia used a fishing reference to tell Cooper to not screw up.
4.07 Dembe finds the sailboat in the magazine. Dr.  Blom AKA Adrian Shaw works in a ship.
4.08 Odette  takes Liz to a Pier to kill her, then commits suicide by jumping into the shallow water. The pick up location for Reddintgon is in a bench by a giant fountain.
4.09 The title is  Lipet Seafood Company. Smuggled items in fish. Marlin and the story of Marlin Trout.
4.10 the first murder is a drowning in  a pool of the judge
4.11 Red is looking to get an interest in a cruising ships company to smuggle things.
The theme of Russia and the former Soviet Union is the second most common theme:
1.01 Liz discovers Tom’s box and in 1.04 The Stewmaker, she finds that it pertains to the murder of a FSB would-be defector, Viktor Fokin.  the chemist is said to have left MIT to work with a Russian, Vor Usoyan. Ranko Zamani is Serbian, a former constituent nation of the Soviet Union.
1.02 one of the contracts of The Freelancer was to collapse a building in Moscow.
1.03 Ressler and Cooper become aware of Liz looking into the murder of Fokin, a classified file.
1.04 The  fact that Fitch send Kirchhoff daughter to the Stewmaker leads to the idea that Stanley Kornish may have been also in the Soviet Union
10.5 An Iranian spy was looking to “buy” Seth. Iran was in conflict with the Soviet Union until 1946, the Iran Crisis.
1.06  Liz’s code name in the FBI is “White Bear”. The bear is  a commonly used symbol of Russia.
1.07 One of the dealers in Strontium 90 was apprehended by Russian authorities
1.09 & 1.10 Among Sam’s items that Liz brings home is a Russian doll. Red mentions that among Garrick earlier jobs was liberating someone from “ an Alcatraz-like CIA black site in the Bering Sea” (The Factory?)
1.11 the guy who pay the low level contractors (doctor, EMT, Apple man, etc) was named  Fyodor, suggesting he was Russian.
1.12 the case starts with  Pytor and Catherine Madrczyk, ex-Serbian mob turned informant.
1.13 one of the child adopted was supposed to be from Estonia, a former part of the Soviet block.
in 1.14 Madeline Pratt sells the information about the coordinates of the old nuclear weapons to the Russian mobsters.  the nukes were old Russian nuclear devices, but the first time the Kungur 6 are mentioned it is assumed they are 6 Soviet spies. Rasil Kalif, the Syrian boyfriend of Madeline Pratt was recruited by  a Russian Bratva.
1.15 the events in the Rifkin case took place in Afghanistan, a country that figured prominently in the Cold War.
1.16 Swan Lake, the ballet Red commission is a Russian Ballet. Tensei  is said to have expanded Tanida’s empire by establishing connection to the Russian Bratva among others
1.17 Ivan, the hacker has a problem with Russia. Ivan is a derogative nickname given to Russians.
1.18 Red finds Bosnian professor Vlad  Cvetko in El Salvador, and he asks in return for a weekend in Red’s Croatian villa.
1.19 The Pavlovitch brothers were from the former Yugoslavia
1.20 when Red learns that The Kingmaker is dead and he cannot find Berlin that way, he throws the glass in the fireplace, a Russian costume. Also The Kingmaker strikes first by removing a politician in Prague, Czech republic, formerly part of the Soviet Union.
1.21  & 1.22 Berlin, Milos Kirchhoff was a Russian Colonel in the Red Army and later a KGB officer. Milos Kinsky was also a KGB agent. Red inquires information from the Russian Ambassador. A few of the fugitives in Berlin’s plane were Russian. One of the five horseman in Berlin’s plan was a former Aeroflot pilot.
2.01 Nora Mills was working in Iraq, another important country in the Cold War. Carla Reddington is traced partly to her fondness for WWII documentaries
2.02 The branch where the criminal activities are run from is in Warsaw, Poland, another former Soviet Union country. Berlin and Red meet in Coney Island, near a significant Russian neighborhood
2.03 When Red tells Liz about knowing Bernard Babbitt he tells her he once shared a flight with him and he was so fat they had to counterweight the plane with three containers of Russian R.P.G.s just to accommodate his girth. When Mr. vargas is trying to ensnare Niko he pretends to be buying weapons for Berlin and he tells them of his preference for Russian or Eastern European weapons
2.04  ??
2.05 the original encryptions  were in Cyrillic. Zoe is wearing a Russian scarf. Red talks about being in a prison in Sochi, Russia.
2.06 Bataoula, a poacher on The Mombasa Cartel, last seen in Paris, washes ashore in Russia
2.07 the Scimitar is dispatched to even out the score for the murdered Iranian nuclear scientist
2.08 The Decembrist, Alan Fitch was orchestrating the Kursk bombing and moving strings to send Berlin to jail by making him believe his daughter was in jail. He buys an apartment in St. Petersburg and leaves an important piece off information in there. Kiryl Morozov was the low level operative that carried out FItch’s bombing in Kursk, and became the finance minister
2.09 & 2.10 in Liz’s memory recall in Luther Braxton the music played is a Russian song, a spooky lullaby. The prison in which Red is, The Factory is in The Bering Sea. it is possible that Red’s disappearance and the fire all happened in Russian Orthodox Christmas of 1990: January 7, 1990
2.11 Ruslan Denisov’s problems started when the Soviet Union was ending and the concession for oil were open. the dancers are dancing a Russian Milonga. Red mentions the chess match between Fischer and  Spassky.
2.12 Red gets the number of Leonard Caul from the safe in St. Petersburg
2.13 Vince Peretti is kidnapped by the Kings to auction him to prevent his family to give evidence against the Serbian and Sicilian mafias
2.14 When Liz goes undercover in T. Earl King, she is disguised as Josephine Sullivan, who acts for a Russian oligarch on the no-fly list: Alexi Koskov.
2.15 & 2.16 Tom is on assignment with a neo-nazi group in Dresden, which was in the former East Germany, a member of the Soviet block.
2.17 the company for which Powell worked originally, was called Sadovo Solutions. Sadovo is a small town in Sadovo Municipality, Plovdiv Province, central Bulgaria, former USSR.
2.19 Liz goes to the apartment. there are two Russian pictures: an icon and a painting of St. George and the Dragon. Tom tells Liz that Berlin wore a ring like her mother’s: with a Russian inspection stamp
2.20 Liz and Ressler visit the OREA. Karakurt is a Russian assassin who works for the cabal. Karakurt bombs the OREA - Office of European and Russian Analysis of the CIA. Red has Mr. Brinley torture an Aid of the Russian Consulate who is a call errand boy in the cabal
2.21 Velov, the old KGB who denied knowing Katarina personally , but who tells Liz he was tasked to find him is Russian as well and a KGB member. Liz learns her mother’s name and that she was born in Russia. Also finds Andropov, the virologist who creates the fake disease for Cooper was Russian as well.  Tom goes to the club and asks about Katarina. chooses the name Konstantin. Dr. Kimberly, who interprets the virus created by Andropov to infect the senator also speaks Russian
2.22 it comes light that Liz was born in Moscow, she was known as Masha Rostova and she is the daughter of Katarina Rostova.
3.01 Liz identifies herself as a Russian agent in Marvin Gerard to gain safe passage, while Red is with the Russian Ambassador and then she meets   Alexander Raskovich, who knows every spy in the western hemisphere 
3.02 the office of Russian Tarif (Vitsin) is the one  that order’s Liz’s transfer to Moscow
3.04 Tom goes looking for Karakurt in Karakurt’s brother in law crime ring:  Charlie Volkens
3.05 The entirety of Peter’s plan was to create a new Cold War with Russia.  Implicating Liz was part of the plan.
3.06 The entirety of Peter’s plan was to create a new Cold War with Russia.  Implicating Liz was part of the plan.
3.07 The entirety of Peter’s plan was to create a new Cold War with Russia.  Implicating Liz was part of the plan.
3.08 The entirety of Peter’s plan was to create a new Cold War with Russia.  Implicating Liz was part of the plan.
3.09 & 3.10  The entirety of Peter’s plan was to create a new Cold War with Russia.  Implicating Liz was part of the plan.
3.11 Among the Shell Island there is the Russian Bratva
3.12  Red killed the guy who attacked Liz. He called her a Russian traitor.
3.13 Liz is again referred to as a Russian agent in  Alistair Tate
3.14 Red goes to a former KGB: Vasilia Patinka to tok at the Glasnost files of Rostova
3.15 it would seem the painting is titled: Rostova (@kiss-my-freckle)
3.16 Liz goes to see Anton Velov, former KGB agent.
3.17 & 3.18 The man behind hiring of Solomon and Halcyon is Konstantin Rostov, a man of Russian origin (I do not think he was a Soviet citizen)
3.19 Red finds the locket in Russian from Papa to Katarina
3.20 Red goes to see Dom. Katarina Rostova and her father Dom seem to have been Russian in origin. She was described by Red as being a KGB agent
3.21 We hear the name of Alexander Kirk
3.22 Kirk amassed his fortune in the former Soviet Union. He might be Russian
3.23 Konstantin Rostov is also a Russian name. 
4.01 Rostov is supposed to be a Russian. at least Red refers to him as “el ruso” (The Russian)
4.02 Liz remembers her mother speaking to her in Russian. Burying a can in the ground with a Russian nesting doll
4.03 Liz finds her mother diary. It is in Russian 
4.04 Liz continues to reader mother’s dairy
4.05 Tom goes to Vasily Komarov, the Russian Cultural Attache but in reality a under official cover spy-runner. The Kremlin hates Rostov, and they raided a safe house in Russia.
4.06 Rene Le Bron is captured in Minsk Belarus. Rostov has a phone with a Rumanian code. Liz speaks some Russian with Kirk 
4.07 All of Rostov men and Odette are speaking Russian.
4.08 Rostov’s men are Russian
4.11 the story about Kate’s sister involves Russian mobsters
Then music and musical instruments are usually seen as a symbol of grief and mourning.  Not prevalent in each episode but whenever used there is an expression of grief:
1.04 The Stewmaker has a record player in his cabin. he plays a record when he is “working”
1.05 there is a piano in the apartment that Red owns where his writer friend used to live  
1.06 the Turkish diplomat who Gina seduced to get the car in the US was going to get his son from piano lesson
1.11 Karen the victim of the Good Samaritan was going to pick up her other child from piano lessons
1.13 Red wakes up Diane Fowler by playing a record on a record player
1.14 Red tells Madeline the bloody Christmas house story with his daughter playing piano.There are live musicians at the Embassy.
1.16 there are musicians in the Ballet Company
1.17 Red gives Liz the 10940′s Sorrento music box
1.19 Tom finds the music box
2.01 Nora Mills responds to the song playing while she killed her sister. her handler uses a record player to trigger the split
2.02 In the house where Berlin is keeping Carla there is a cello.
2.05 Red put’s an iPod on Liz with the song “you were born”
2.06 Matthew plays a favorite song in a record player as he takes his bath with a toy red boat and total pole. Geoff Perl plays the drums in the club.
2.07 Red is looking for records in a record store in The Scimitar (in the deleted scene they are a gift for Zoe AKA Ms. Kirchova)
2.09 & 2.10 Braxton and Kotsiopolus meet in an abandoned chapel. Usually there is an organ in a chapel.
2.11 there are live players in the Russian Milonga scene
2.14 there are live musicians at the auction
2.19 In Red’s apartment in Bethesda there are records and a record player
2.22 Liz is under the awning of a musical instruments store when she calls Ressler.
3.02 There is another record player and records in the shipping container
3.04 The Tuba mouthpiece for sale is the way for Red and Dembe to connect
CB2 Liz remembers a little ballerina music box in the fire. her mother gave it to her.
3.11 the house or apartment where Red is staying has a piano & Janet McNamara is picking up her son at a piano lesson
3.12 Brenda and Gerald sing and play Michael Row Your Boat Ashore
3.13 There is a piano at the Vacarro’s house
3.17 & 3.18 here is a piano (or organ) at the church, and Tom plays a record at Agnes’s birth
3.19 There is a piano at the hotel and which Katarina’s hallucination plays and Red does
3.20 Dom has a piano (broken which Red fixes) and an accordion
3.21 Susan has a piano in her office
4.02 Rostov talks with Liz by a piano
4.04 Gaia plays music for his plants
4.05 Red plays the organ in the church he is staying in.
Identity is another one of the fundamental themes of The Blacklist. It is expressed in many different ways:
the doppelgängers: identities manufactured to safeguard the real person.  If the trail is followed it would lead to the doppelgänger and keep the real person safe. Or it could be used like Fred: a safeguard for Red’s reputation.
Fake Berlin: Milos Pavel Kinsky– sometimes known as “Berlin.” He’s a Russian national, former Spetsnaz Commando, trained in the KGB’s 45 Division. Organized crime is now his fancy. Kinky was an associate of real Berlin, Milos Kirchhoff, another KGB  officer and Colonel of the Red Army. His grudge with Red was due to the actions of The Decembrist AKA Alan Fitch, in hastening the end of the Soviet Union
Fake Ivan by using the identity of a known hacker, Harrison Lee was escaping attention
Fake The Djinn AKA Alice. She was the front of the operation, protecting the identity of Nasim Bakhash, the real Djinn
Fake Zal Bin Hasaan: The man Red follows the trail to the motel, only to discover because of the lack of burns in his back that he is not the real Hasaan. The real one  was Shahin Navabi AKA Zal Bin Hasaan. His job was to insulate the real Hasaan.
Fake Red: one of Red’s many contingency plans. His job was to help repair Red’s reputation which had been damaged by rumors he was an FBI informant. A dear friend with a terminal illness fit the bill.
Fake Liz: she uses a double to escape Red’s surveillance via Ezra. She attends a psychologist and does a strip tease.
Fake Deer Hunter
aliases:
Raymond “Red” Reddington  AKA Bill Kershaw / Robert Bortner / Bill Houston / William Burchfield / Kenneth Rathers/ Mr. Givens / Mr Holme/  Roger Raymond/ Robert Bortner / Mr. Hirschfield/ Mr. Holman/ Mr. Howe / Kevin Donnelly / Michael Troughton 
Elizabeth Scott Keen/ Masha Rostova / Elizabeth Reddington? / Kenya /  Samantha Evers / Ginger Lumber  / Carolyn Givins, PhD in Applied Physics from M.I.T./ Molly / Christina / Nicole /  Liz Crawford
Katarina Rostova / Ekaterina ? / ??  and who knows how many more?
Tom Keen real name Christopher Hargrave AKA Jacob Phelps/ Piere-Louis Anton/ Dieter Neumann/ Lucas Ponald/ David Balthis/ Christof Mannheim / Matt Buckey / Eugene Pavlenko/  Reggie /  Mr. Wainwright / Eugene Pavlieko / Willem Eckervelt / Martell
Samar Navabi / Victoria Cronin (identity set by Mossad as a safeguard)
Alexander Kirk / Konstantin Rostov
Carla Reddington / Naomi Hyland /??
Alan Fitch / The Decembrist
Jennifer Reddington / ??
Gina Zanetakos / Shubie Hartwell / ??
Zoe D’Antonio /  ?? Kirchova
Leonard Caul /  Joseph McCray
Shahin Navabi / Zal Bin Hassan
Fake Red, Fred / Gregory Devry
Jolene Parker / Lucy Brooks
Drexel /  Reginald Turner
Alan Fitch / The Decembrist
Milos Pavel Kinky / Berlin/ Fake Berlin
Milos Kirchhoff / Berlin
Rowan Mills/ Norah Mills / Lord Baltimore
Bobby Jonica / Tensei
Geoff Perl / Ace Salter
Nathaniel Wollfe /  Arthur Denning /  Roger Gard / Bradley Holland.
Michael Shaw AKA  Owen Mallory  AKA Charles Lassiter Jr.
The Scimitar / Walid Abu Sitta
Vasilia Patinka / ??
Alistair Pitt / Maximiliano Cartier
Reginald Turner / Drexel
Rimona / Rachel Hobbs
Elise / Kate Lord
Dr. Sonia Blom / Dr. Adrian Shaw
Elise /Kate Lord
Rose Janus / Jessica Van Zandt
Kate ?? / Mr. Kaplan
Ranko Sinisa Zamani / Sacha M.  Chacko
Characters who had no idea of their real name:
Tom Keen  birth name is Christopher Hargrave
Elizabeth Scott Keen / Masha Rostova / possibly Elizabeth Reddington
Rose Janus / Jessica Van Zandt
Shapeshifter: secret identity as good guys/bad guys
Floriana Campo was the head of the Eberhart Cartel
Peter Kotsiopolus, Director of Clandestine Services as part of the Cabal
Alan Fitch, Assistant Director of National Intelligence as part of the cabal, as well as being known as the Decembrist during the end of the Cold War
Bobby Jonica was the head of Tanida’s empire, assuming the identity of Tanida’s dead brother after killing him
Madeline Pratt, socialite is also a thief
Geoff Perl, head of the Mombasa Cartel
Diane Folwer, head of Criminal Justice as a Cabal member
Laurel Hitchins, Presidential advisor as a Cabal member
The Stewmaker was supposedly a dentist
Diane Folwer as a Cabal asset
Ruth Kipling, clemency officer as The Judge
Agent Galarza in Warsaw was a FBI guy protecting the Douglas Monarch Bank to fiancee black ops 
other identity issues
Wujing was a second child. he became invisible when his parents denied him
Seth Nelson has fake job as a tv repair technician
Norah Mills AKA Lord Baltimore killed her twin sister and suffered an personality split assuming her identity
Kaja was a living code for accounts numbers
Pepper was hiding her real identity from Beck
Rimona was hiding her real identity
The colorful aliases
The Freelancer 
The Innkeeper
The Chemist
The Undertaker AKA Milton Bobbitt
the Courier AKA Tommy Phelps
The StewMaker AKA Stanley Cornish
The Alchemist  AKA Eric Trestle
The Judge AKA Ruth Kipling
Lord Baltimore AKA Norah Mills’
The Scimitar AKA Walid Abu Sitta
The Decembrist AKA Alan Fitch
Berlin AKA Milos Kirchhoff
The Major AKA Bill MCCready
The Troll Farmer AKA Bo Chang
The Djinn AKA Nassim Bakhash
Arioch Cain AKA Blair
Lady Ambrosia AKA  ??
The Caretaker AKA Janus
Gaia AKA 
The Coroner AKA
The Forecaster
and by episode:
1.01 Ranko Zamani was presumed dead. He used a different identity, provided by Red to enter the US
1.02 The Freelancer used mass murder to hide the identity of his victims. Gloriana Campo was a shapeshifter, hiding her evil identity under the blanket of a philanthropist 
1.03 Wujing was a second child gave away by his parents.He made a life working in a business where invisibility was an incredible asset.
1.04 #161 The Stewmaker  
1.05 Seth Nelson, the NSA analyst had a fake identity as a  cable repair company
1.06 #152 Gina Zanetakos used the alias Shubie Hartnell. Tom confronts Liz and turns the tables on her finding his “identity box”
1.07 Frederick Barnes’s son was thought to be another man’s son.
1.08 Nathaniel Wolffe assumed several identities (Arthur Denning / Roger Gard / Bradley Holland)  to pull his robbery of the software for the US $100 bill.
1.09 & 1.10  the intelligence used to trigger the FBI protocol to take Red into protective custody was a fake. Ressler was still holding on to Audrey as his next of kin, an old identity. Mr. Kaplan is revealed to be a woman. Fitch identity as a cabal member is revealed.
1.11 Red kills anyone who knows of his “identity” as a FBI informant. Newton Phillips is revealed as a traitor
1.12 #101 The Alchemist’s business was to find people closely resembling his clients, kill them and using his knowledge of CSI protocols made them into a fake victim to give his clients a new identity. Lucy Brooks AKA Jolene Parker was among the clients. 
1.13 None of the babies in the Cyprus Agency were who the parents thought they were. They all were offsprings of Owen Mallory AKA Michael Shaw and an abducted woman. Jolene Parker AKA Lucy is still in play. Meera is suspected as a the traitor.
1.14  #73 Madeline Pratt. Jolene Parker AKA Lucy Brooks is still in play
1.15 #57 The Judge. Jolene Parker AKA Lucy Brooks is still in play
1.16 Bobby Jonica assumed the identity of the murdered  Aiko Tanida as Tensei to run Mako Tanida’s empire. Jolene AKA Lucy Books is killed.
1.17 Harrison Lee used notorious Russian hacker Ivan tag to protect himself. The man who died was Nathan Gregory Platt, who has a front job at Roy’s TV Repair since ‘09, but was an analysis for The Skeleton Key.
1.18. Red reveals that Tom bought 3 forged passports from a forger in Warsaw. Craig Keen’s real identity as  Christopher Maly is revealed.
1.19  Liz’s code name was mockingbird, a bird with call of its own, no “identity” of its own. Tom tells Liz Red is not who she think he is.
1.20 The Kingmaker was about trying to find the identity of Red’s enemy
1.21 & 1.22  Berlin has a doppelgänger to protect his identity: Fake Berlin AKA Milos Pavel Kinsky. A clue to Liz’s father is given by Tom with what he thinks is his dying breath
2. 22 Connolly fabricated a fake identity for Cooper as a “dying man” to force his hand.
2.01 Norah Mills AKA Lord Baltimore, killed her twin sister and assumed her identity after a personality split. Carla Reddington assumed the identity of Naomi Hyland.
2.02 Agent Galarza was a fake ID of an agent protecting the Monarch Douglas Bank  on behalf of the US Government
2.03 Liz suspects Ezra is following her. Mr. Vargas purports to be a Berlin’s associate. Red and Carla meet again and comment on how different they look.
2.04  Liz goes undercover. Red gives Carla and Franks new identities. Frank identity as a cheater is uncovered. Carla tells Liz Red is not who she thinks he is. A fake woman is used by Dr. Creel to trigger his last victim, Duncan Prince.
2.05 In the Front Pepper shields her true identity from lover Maddox Beck 
2.06 Perl, the Mombasa Cartel leader, was AKA Sean Salter. His younger child, Matthew was a ghost, his existence denied by both his parents.  Liz uses a doppelgänger to elude Ezra.
2.07 The Scimitar AKA Walid Abu Sitta creates a fake Federal Agent, John Reese (nod to Person of Interest) to lure the Government into revealing the identity of the nu;year scientist who is also shielded by an alternative profession as a professor of astrophysics at Duke University
2.08 The Decembrist  was Alan Fitch. He got Morosov to do his dirty job. Zoe D’Antonio was the identity assumed by Ms. Kirchova.
CB-1 The Gambler identity and even existence was erased from the FBI files. He was trying to get it back.
2.09 Luther Braxton was trying to extract Liz’s memories from her. Memories, a person’s past is key to the identity. The first hint of Liz’s real name is revealed.
2.11 Father Aleksandr Nabiyev was the fake identity of CIA Agent Burke.
2.12 #71 The Kenyon Family 
2.13 Tracy took the “identity” of the real Deer Hunter, her victim and husband, to continue her own agenda.
2.14 Liz goes undercover as Josephine Sullivan
2.15 The Major took children and thought them to assume any identity.
2.16 Tom Keen thought he was Jacob Phelps, even though that identity was nothing but a shell, only to find he is Christopher Hargrave, stolen from his parents under mysterious circumstances
2.17 Tom has to burn all his passports. Basically all his identities are gone in smoke.
2.18  Vanessa Cruz faked her death by drowning. Aram composes her identity by piecing together her prints and face
2.19 Leonard Caul  was supposed to be invisible. He was ears and eyes only. His real may is Joseph McCray. Liz visits Red’s apartment and finds the picture of her mother.
2.20 Liz learns the name of her mother and her own birth name
2.21 Karakurt’s real identity remained a mystery. He assumed the identity of Jonas Flemming a reporter for the European Wire 
3.01 The Troll Farmer created smokescreens with fake sightings and fake “social media footprint identities” to shield the real events.
3.02 Marvin Gerard
3.03 Coopers hands Tom an undercover assignment to get Karakurt. 
3.04 #43 The Dijnn shielder her true identity by using a fake Djinn, Alice. Her original identity was a male named Nassir and her father forced him into a gender re-assigment. Tom creates the identity of Matt Buckley who uses the alisa Mr. Wainwright to get to Asher Sutton.
3.05 #50 Arioch Cain was a biblical name used as an alias by Blair to out Liz on the DeadNotAlive.ord as a hit candidate. Wendigo was a alias used by a vigilante who used Psalm 1.11 from the Bible as an identifier
3.06 #86 Sir Crispin Crandall
CB-2 #123 The Arsonist
3.07 Shahin Navabi became Zal Bin Hasaan . He also had a doppelgänger, Fake Zal Bin Hasaan to protect his identity.
3.08 #108 The Kings of the Road 
3.09 #24 The Director 
3.11 Gregory Devry was a doppelgänger fabricated by Red to re-build his reputation
3.12 Amy Dowd was living as Lisa Neil to escape her father 
3.13 Alistair Pitt used the alias Maximiliano Cartier
3.14 Vasilia Patinka was living under an alias.
3.15 Drexel hid his real identity Reginald Turner to do his “performance” murder “art”. Ramona real identity was Rachel Hobbs
3.16  The Caretaker had stolen a child and created a new identity for her, setting in motion events years later.
3.17 & 3.18 Red tells Liz that Tom is not the man she thinks he is. Nez plays the part of aggrieved partner, a decoy. Liz fakes her death, with Kate Kaplan’s help
3.19 Red seems to not have an idea first who the mysterious woman is in his hallucination. Red uses the identity Mr. Donnelly 
3.20 Cooper and To confuse Scottie with Katarina Rostova
3.21 Tom assumes the identity Reggie to get information about Scottie 
3.22 & 3.23 Alexander Kirk shielded his identity as Konstantin Rostov. Tom’s real identity as Christopher Hargrave is revealed. Tom uses the identity Eugene Pavlenko and then the waiter, and then the EMT 
4.01 The identity of Liz’s father is a theme in this episode. Esteban was pressured to be dead.
4.02 The identity of Liz’s father is a theme in this episode too
4.03 Tom assumes the identity of Willem Eckervelt. 
4.04 Tom uses his old identity of Martell.
4.05 Silos took identities of patent lawyers
4.06  Kate was pretending to be Aram’s girlfriend to gain access to the Post office. Aram goes undercover.
4.07 The Coroner gave new identities to people using dead people and total  complete stories, among them Adrian Shaw AKA Sonia Bloom
4.08 Liz is Red’s daughter. Katarina was making Rostov believe Liz was his daughter for access.
4.09 Samar was still operating as a Mossad agent. she is forced to choose “identities”
4.09 Tom looks to discard his “identities” and he and Liz discuss it
4.10 Liz goes undercover. Emma has been undercover.
the number of fake death are staggering:
Ranko Zamani was presumed dead (picture and all). He entered the US with a fake identity
Red’s fake death in The Gambler 
Liz’s hangar scene in Arioch Cain & in Mr. Solomon conclusion. Masha Rostova might have been presumed dead as well
Vanessa Cruz, by leaving her clothes on the beach and never be seen again. Her mother was sure because she would have never left her.
Lucy Brooks faked her death using The Alchemist and became Jolene Parker
all the clients from the alchemist, did as well
The alchemist’s family also had their deaths faked by him
Shahin Navabi faked his to become Zal Bin Hasaan
Milos Kirchhoff’s daughter, Ms. Kirchova AKA Zoe D’Antonio, Fitch got The Stewmaker to fake her death
Christopher Hargrave was presumed dead
Mako Tanida’s bother’s death was real, but his identity was assumed by Bobby Jonica
All the children in Lady Ambrosia were presumed dead, including Anya Patinka
Tom was presumed dead as Christoher Hargrave and again when Liz shot him in 1.22
Kate Kaplan is presumed dead.
Liz thinks Emma is dead
The royalty, nobility or chess mentions: kings, queens, princes, lords, horses, knights. Red plays chess with himself in Wujing. And do not forget Keen sounds similar to King.
1.01 mention of Thailand, a monarchy.
1.02 Diane: Does Dembe have a last name? Cooper: No, ma'am. Just Dembe. Like Prince or Madonna. Gloriana Campo started in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, a Monarchy. Malik is King in Arabic.
1.03 Red is playing chess by himself.
1.04 You’re due in Port-au-Prince at noon if we’re gonna make your appointment.
1.05 a reference to Marrakesh, Morocco. A principality.
1.06 a reference to Kuwait, an Emirate
1.07 a reference to Doha, Quatar, a monarchy.
1.08 A reference to Malaysia, a Federal Constitutional Monarchy
1.09  & 1.10 The assassination attempt on Red happened in Brussels, Belgium, a monarchy.
1.11 Red references Papua, New Guinea, part of the United Kingdom
1.13  Red. What’s up, fool? 
1.14  The file’s on the Ottoman  The Ottoman Empire. The effigy of Atargatis was stolen it from the British Museum.
1.15 I found a flash drive, and your girl got some stuff. The last six months, she’s been in Havana, Port-au-Prince, Miami, various aliases. Last September, she was in Prague.
1.16 Has 3 references: “After Tanida’s arrest, we thought his empire would collapse. It didn’t.” then Ressler says: “I got a place up in Prince George’s county, off the grid. I got to get Audrey there.” & finally Red tells Christine about his Swan Lake production: “No, I understand, but I don’t care about the prince. No, no, no, no, no. The 22nd. That was our agreement. Christina, I don’t care about production issues. Please just figure it out by the 22nd.”. Japan is a Empire.
1.18 And your husband, the police, and all the king’s men will be here soon. 
1.19 Calculus.I can’t even think about derivatives without thinking of that tutor in manor hall Cindy something-or-other.
1.20 Chandler went to Princeton.
1.21 & 1.22 What better way for a criminal to turn the tables on someone than to get the FBI on his side? Our resources and our protection not to expand his empire, but simply to survive. Red also mentions  Liechtenstein, a principality
2.01 2 references in Lord Baltimore:  Ah, that girl, she was fearless. First one in, last one out. Hell, if half the boys on my crew had a pair like her, well, you could crown me king and take the afternoon off & Yaabaru tells Red: There was someone.I-I can’t remember his name. They call him something the The Prince, The Lord. Also a reference to Kuwait, an Emirate
2.02  Monarch Douglas Bank
2.03 I once shared a ride with the man on a twin-engine prop from Port-Au-Prince to Baracoa. We had to counterweight the plane with three containers of Russian R.P.G.s just to accommodate his girth.
 2.04 I have got a hidden subdirectory here The killers. Everyone in this file has murdered someone. Except one Duncan Prince. He must be next. Liz mentions Saint. Kitts, part of the United Kingdom
2.05 Mentions of Spain, United Kingdom, and the Byzantines and the Ottomans. All kingdoms or empires.
2.06  Geoff that was breathtaking an operatic perversion of righteous intent. But your strategy, no matter how noble the rhetoric, is betrayed and, inevitably, defined by your actions. .
2.07  Samar kills the Iranian nuclear scientist in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
2.08  The Decembrist & Liz asks Tom:  What bank? Tom:  Monarch Douglas in Warsaw. It’s where Berlin keeps his money.
CB-1 Sebastian Royce tells Red he was always a King.
2.09 & 2.10 four references: Red’s story on Bruno: he got it into his head that he was gonna break into the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge to steal an imperial vase from the Qing Dynasty worth millions– the single biggest trophy of his career. Luther tells Dr. Orchard: The princess here has something in her head that I want. It’s a memory. Now, you helped make all my memories go away. & Red:  Well, you better hurry. ‘Cause your girlfriend, the princess, she’s got the answers in her head that I’m looking for, and I found a way to get them out & Peter tells Kate:. Every operative, every analyst, every case officer in his pocket. And Mr.Cooper has given him the keys to our kingdom. the man who gives Brxton the pharmaceuticals is Wilson Bishop.
2.11 Rich as Croesus, and you let Anneca Oil poison your own countrymen . Croesus was the King of Lydia. Red talks about  Bobby Fisher sacrificing his bishop.
2.12  the Kenyons sing: down to the river to pray studying about that good old way and who shall wear that starry crown good Lord, show me the way oh, sisters!
2.14 four references. Red explains the case: Not “king” as in “king and castle.” Earl King and his two sons, Tyler and Francis, descendents of a Senescent Dynasty. then Liz references her under-cover identity colleges Columbia, then Princeton.Then Red is introduced:  A former naval intelligence officer, he possesses a wealth of classified information and presides over one of the world’s most prosperous extralegal empires. You may know him as the concierge of crime. I present Raymond Reddington. I will commence the bidding at $2 million.Then Red tells Yaabari:  I could easily provide you with enough influence and firepower to crown yourself king. 
2.15 & 2.16 So Reddington is using you to expand his criminal empire. They kidnap the Malaysian Deputy Minister t the UN. Malaysia is a Kingdom.
2.17 Does that mean something to you? Gold Crown Pharmaceuticals? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?
2.18 You said she was his assistant?  … Which means she’d have the keys to the kingdom: Passwords, financials, credit cards.
2.20 two references: Red tells Jasper: Heads up, Kenneth. I’m afraid I mean quite literally. I’m gonna need you to keep your head up for this next part. It’s bad news, old boy. I know. A few days ago, I offered to crown you king, and now here you sit. Well, the road not taken. and the last “groom” is described as: Mr. and Mrs. Chao Xiang Han mourn the loss of only son Jin, the heir apparent to the Han tech empire, worth billions.
2.21 Jonas Flemming, the alias used by Karakurt lived in Rotterdam. The Netherlands are a monarchy.
2. 22 TomConnolly: Agent Keen’s been hiding secrets from you– secrets that clearly implicate her as an enemy of this country. She was handpicked by a notorious fugitive to assist in expanding his criminal empire. The two of them have been using this task force to do Reddington’s bidding.
3.01 two references: Red’s story:  I’ve never seen so much rain. Winds like a monarch gone mad. & Liz telling him about her dreams as a child regarding Katarina:  When I was a little girl, I used to imagine that my mother was a prima ballerina who danced for kings and queens in London and Paris. A reference to an oipum Den in Kuala Lumpur, in Malaysia, a Monarchy.
3.02 Marvin and his wife separated. He fought for custody, contacted police, social services. But his wife was the princess in a very prominent and powerful legal dynasty, so no action was ever taken.
3.03 Before Red and Liz turned around, the ship was headed for Spain, a constitutional monarchy.
3.04 in The Djinn there are three mentions: Tom and Cooper creating the Mr. Wainright personna:  Graduated Princeton. Summers in the Hamptons. Maybe you should tell him how you learned to channel lady luck in college during a weekend bender in Sag Harbor. and in the case one of the crimes was: The kidnap and rape of a British princess. And the group headed by Nasim was the Newcastle.
3.05 El Malo Grande headed the Mejia cartel out of Guatemala. He was killed while living under an alias in Madrid by Wendigo (Spain is a monarchy)
3.06 Sir Crispin Crandall.   An ice castle in the air, the best and the brightest frozen solid. I’m intrigued.
3.07 Samar: There is nothing noble about what you’re doing, Shahin. Our parents would be ashamed.
3.08 Red:  Let me see if I can guess how this works. You grab hapless motorists, drain their ATM accounts, max out their credit cards, and dump them by the side of the road. Money or your life. You’re highwaymen. "KOTH". Knights Kings Of The Highway. How romantic.
3.09 & 3.10 It was never a city. When Spanish explorers reached South America, they heard stories about a gold-dusted tribal chief dumping vast piles of treasure into Lake Guatavita as an offering. & Cocaine still remains a valid currency to some of my clients. Especially in England. The wealthy Brits? They are cocaine mad over there. Go figure. Spain & Great Britain are monarchies. The Director was gong to be brought to The Hague in Netherlands, a monarchy.
3.11 a reference to Kuwait, an Emirate.
3.12 Red: The Vehmic Court was sanctioned by the Emperor and directed by the Archbishop to punish sinners.
3.13 Samar: Arranged marriage has been a tool of peacekeeping and empire-building for centuries. It’s still practiced in many parts of Asia, Africa, he Middle East. Thousands of children are forced into arranged marriages every year, often with judicial approval. The Erikssons and Vacarros are not just families, they’re businesses. This isn’t about love and marriage. This is about profit and loss
3.14 Vasilia means Queen in Greek.
3.15 That is your name, isn’t it? Rachel Hobbs. Daughter of Randall Hobbs, the patio-furniture king of Costa Mesa, California. I admire your respect for anonymity, Rachel, but your principles are a luxury I can no longer afford. Nik also references taking a bullet from a criminal from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (monarchy)
3.16 I gave it to a North Korean general in exchange for a young woman’s freedom. North Korea is virtually a monarchy.
3.19 .  That is a fine thing. A noble thing. But not terribly difficult. Also Red mentions Barbados, part of the United Kingdom
3.20  They pray at Liz Funeral: Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever
3.21 Mr. Clark made three calls today to another secure cell. Now, we can’t trace the owner of that cell, but believe it or not, it is on right now, so I have been triangulating its location. They are somewhere on this block near Eighth and King. Red and Howard Hargrave had adventures in Malayia, a monarchy . Christopher was building sand castles.
3.22 & 3.23 You work with the single most sought-after criminal in America. Thanks to you, he’s not only free, his criminal empire’s expanding. You, all of you, have proven quite capable of parking your selective morality when the moment serves.
4.02  Rostov: Do you know why I call this cottage the Summer Palace? We came here for a vacation one July, and my little princess loved it.
4.03 two references: Miles McGrath was a child prodigy. He wrote the code for OnScreen when he was at Princeton. &  All Reddington told me was that he was staying at the Sovereign Royale tonight on business in London  
4.04 You’re talking to the team captain of the newly crowned Mid-Atlantic champs.
4.06 Elise’s identity as Kate Lord is revealed.
4.11 Emma KNIGHTley.  And mentions of a heard of Arabian horses.
Another symbol used in The Blacklist is the plaid. It took me a while to figure it out but it means that deception is in play, as in something is not as it seems. Not necessarily that the wearer is lying, but that a deception is going on.
1.01 when Red arrives at the FBI building there is a woman with a plaid scarf.  Liz is wearing a plaid shirt the second day. An IT Post Office technician is wearing one too. Red is wearing a plaid vest.
1.02 Red is wearing a plaid piece suit.
1.03 Red is wearing a plaid vest.
1.04 The Stewmaker wears a plaid shirt in the cabin. Reven Wright wears a plaid suit.
1.05 Seth Nelson the NSA analysist is wearing a plaid. he has a fake occupation as a TV repairman. Many plaid shirts on the farmer’s market. The Courier wears one in the market. First time Tom wears one, is after he finds the box (not when he finds it) when he calls Liz.
1.06 Ressler puts on a plaid shirt when he walking undercover in the park to get Gina.al
1.07 the child playing with his father wears a plaid
1.09  & 1.10 Fitch wears a plaid shirt 
1.11 Apple man’s co-worker wore a plaid shirt when Red killed him.`So is Aram when Red kidnaps him to find out if he is the mole. And one of the men in the abusers support group.
1.12 Borakove wears a plaid. Tom wears a plaid when Jolene is there. The Alchemist wears one when he is on the run with this his ex-wife and daughter.
1.13 the report that comes to the lecture under false pretenses and then slips in to take pictures was wearing a plaid shirt
1.14 Tom wears a plaid shirt when the detective comes to talk about Jolene.
1.18 Vlad wears a plaid shirt. Red slept with his wife Fadila.
1.21 & 1.22. two people at the bank are wearing plaids: a  man and a child. Jesse AKA Spider tattoo man is wearing plaid. Also a patient at the hospital where Dr. Sanders is.
2.01 Frank Hyland is wearing a plaid shirt
2.03 Dr Albee wears a plaid shirt. He provided illegal organs to Dr. Covington.
2.04 Frank, Carla’s cheating husband is seen wearing a plaid shirt. The cabin has plaid curtains.
2.05 Both Maddox Beck and Pepper, his lover wear plaid.
2.06 Ressler wears a plaid when he is in Alaska and slams the car door on his thumb to get more pills
2.13 The reporter who sneaks in Liz’s lecture and then at the coroner’s lab wears one.. Liz wears a plaid scarf (she is lying to Red about knowing about the fulcrum). Trudy Sbovoa’s house has plaid curtains  and cushions and she wears a plaid shirts. Chad Hennings wears one in the photo. the woman and child who find Chad’s body are wearing plaid scarves.
2.14 one of the men who took Red for the Kings wears a plaid as do 2 more at the Dresden’s bar
2.15 Tom wears a plaid shirt when The Major picks him up as a child.
2.21 Andropov wears a plaid shirt when he tests his biological weapon on the Senator’s unknown son.
3.01 Lyle wears a plaid shirt.
3.02 Carly wears a plaid shirt. 
3.03 several of the Los Segadores wear plaids, including Costa and Matchet. After  Mattchet kills the others he removes his plaid garment.
3.05 Liz wears a plaid shirt when faking her death. So does one of Red’s transport team when Wendigo attacks them, someone is Ressler’s NA meeting does and so does Blair and her parents in the picture of them.
3.06  the guy building the fake restaurant which is truly a tunnel wears a plaid shirt. Red wears a plaid vest
3.07 Shahin was wearing a plaid shirt at the Pushing bombing when he faked his death. Another terorirst wears plaid when setting the modern day trojan horse.
3.08 all of the Kings of the Highway wear plaids, as many customers in the bar. Even the blankets are plaid.
3.09 & 3.10 there are plaid blankets and plaid garments on the cabin, and plaid curtains: the cabin was a plaidfest.
3.11 Caliguri wears a plaid suit as does Espen.
3.12 Liz attacker was wearing 2 plaids: one when he attacked her anther when Red caught him. Harlan wears a plaid shirt when going to abduct the child psychologist 
3.13 Alistair wears a stylish form of plaid coat, and bow tie. another couple wanting to adopt Liz and Tom’s baby has a picture wearing plaid. The DEA agent wears a plaid shirt.
3.14 the man in the couple wanting to adopt Liz and Tom’s baby wears a plaid. Noah also wears one. Some of Gina’s men wear plaids.
3.16 The Caretaker wears a plaid sweater and a plaid jacket. Charlene wears one when Cooper drives by.
3.17 & 3.18 one of Red’s men wears a plaid shirt. (decoy ambulance was in play)
3.19 several of the killers including the one following Katarina wear plaids.
3.20 Dom wears a plaid shirt in most of the episode
3.22 & 3.23 the cop at the bank was wearing a plaid shirt. Some reporters are the hearing are wearing plaid shirts, as in the cuban airport of Baracoa.
4.02  Kate was wearing a plaid scarf  and suit when she was shot
4.03  Aram is wearing a plaid shirt when he is preparing dinner and Elise comes in. Johan  is also wearing a plaid.
4.04 Gaia is wearing a plaid shirt. Kate’s rescuer wears a plaid shirt.
4.05 the couch in Silas’apartment is upholstered in plaid. 
4.06 Kate’s savior-jailer wears a plaid shirt. Aram is wearing a plaid shirt. Chester is wearing a argyle vest,
4.07 A few of Rostov’s men masquerading as patients from the bus crash were wearing plaid garments.  Giza Barrera wears a plaid skirt.  Dr. Shaw new partner wears a plaid shirt. So does Ressler. And Red is wearing a plaid vest.
4.08  Dr. Rayburn, Dr. Shaw’s new partner wears a plaid. The ship captain where Dr. Shaw had her  hidden treatment center wears a plaid shirt.
another symbol used is magic and magicians which could tie back into The Tempest. I find interesting the characters that speak of magic in a positive way, the ones that love magicians are Liz, Aram, and Meera. A few others speak of it in positive ways, but the ones who despise magic are Judge Denner, and Ressler. Ressler favors facts and solid detective work. The others are more whimsical in their thinking.
Liz is the first person that speaks of magic. She uses the word to describe her scar which she rubs when she is scared or anxious. And Meera translates or uses it from the tech guy that gives her the technology to give to Liz in 1.03 Wujing: Shun Lee says it’s like a magic box. the teacher who upsets Liz in The Alchemist uses the word magical to describe her time off with her son Eddie:  Oh, I’m so jealous of you right now. I took 12 weeks with Eddie.It was just magical.
And Liz uses it to describe her work getting the password from Dr. Linus Creel in a positive way. Samar is smiling at the whole exchange. I mean, what do you expect? ‘Course I got it. Magic.
Luther Braxton describes the memory extinction as magic. Something that helped him:  The princess here has something in her head that I want. It’s a memory. Now, you helped make all my memories go away. You made Khafji disappear. Boom! -  Just like a magic trick. I’m thinking, if you were able to bury one of my memories, then you can retrieve some of hers.
Judge Denner is another character who uses magic is a derogatory way, as something that distorts the system: This is a system of checks and balances founded on a separation of powers. The fact that any federal prosecutor who utters the magic words, who invokes national security, can suppress cases, can quash subpoenas, can avoid grand juries– that offends me! 
Aram is like a kid with magic.   
Oh, that is so cool. Sleight of hand. I love magic.
Oh. Magic. How’d you do that?
Aram finds the way Red does things, like finding Alistair Pitt when they could not as Red being a magician, which he loves. Aram is whimsical, and he often is the magician in the group, finding out and revealing previously unknown things, through technology. While Ressler hates magicians and favors facts, as he told Liz in episode 1.05 The Courier: “Have I told you yet I don’t place much stock in profiling? And by “much,” I mean “none.” It’s never once helped me solve a case. You know what has? - Facts” Ressler:  I hate magicians. That and lap dogs. I mean, I really hate lap dogs.
Lady Ambrosia describes the wrapping of the bodies to throw them in the well as magical in Lady Ambrosia. A “bad” use of the word.: Well, you are beautiful, Anya. It’s magical work– magical! Isn’t Anya going to make the most gorgeous butterfly?
Liz reads “The Wizard of Oz” to her unborn baby in Lady Ambrosia “'How can I get there?’ Asked Dorothy. You must walk. It is a long journey through a country that is sometimes dark and terrible. However, I will use all the magic arts I know to keep you from harm.’ She came close to Dorothy and kissed her gently on the forehead’
Liz uses it to describe how she imagined having their baby to Tom. Liz: This just isn’t how I pictured the birth of our baby. Tom: How’d you picture it? Liz: Magical.
Rostov uses in a derogatory way as well: Your magic bullet to save my life is some experimental treatment they’re not even testing on humans. And Red uses it frequently: Relax. Have a drink. Help me finish this infuriating puzzle. And when Iniko does come, you’ll be waiting with a magic bullet.
In addition to the mentions of magic and magicians we have Red using a hat. Liz’s toy rabbit, the live rabbit.  Liz does sleigh of hand. The Blacklist skilled used of mirrors and mirror situations is like a funny house. The writers frequently distract us by brandishing something in front of our eyes, and then showing something different. We are lead to believe Red’s family is dead, and then they turned up alive. We talk and talk about Liz’s father, but is Liz’s mother that appears in a shot, then we spend another season talking about the mother, but is the father who shows up.  We spend all that time showing up Tom and his undercover work, but when Red was referring to him, it was about Katarina, another undercover.
for a complete list that is kept updated dec to the master list:
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princeescaluswords · 3 years
Text
Black-and-White Whatever
Peter: Oh, come on. How much damage can they do? So they off a few homeless people, a drunk stumbling out of a bar too late. So what? Let Scott deal with it. Let him be the hero of his morally black and white world. The real survivors, you and I, we live in shades of gray. Then again, even if you did kill them, you're still an Alpha. You can always make more werewolves.
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Just to remind you that in this scene in Fireflies (3x03), Peter Hale says this while his nephew is trying to corral his beta, Boyd, and his sister, Cora, who have been driven moon-mad by the Alpha Pack.  Peter suggests killing them, which is what Deucalion wants to happen, or letting Boyd and Cora, out of their minds, kill any innocent people they come across.
And yet, his criticism of Scott has echoed across the fandom for years.  Peter’s self-serving appeal to Derek has become the fundamental attack against Scott McCall’s character arc.  (And it is self-serving.  Notice in the above passage how it turns out to be a subtle defense of Peter killing innocent people along with the guilty in season one and how he justifies it as survival.)  
And it is just as racist as the themes of Stiles is Always Right and Derek Deserves Nice Things, because all three of them are about the same thing: the entitlement of good-looking white males and the necessity of minority characters knowing their place.  
Peter’s argument, as Peter’s argument almost always are, was designed to get him what he wants as much as they are dishonest and insincere.  The audience knows, if they paid attention to the show at all, that Scott doesn’t devolve into black-and-white thinking.   I mean, would someone who refuses to cross the line into ‘shades of gray’ do the following things?
plan to kill Peter to cure his lycanthropy.
rescue Derek after Derek betrayed him to Peter and tried to kill Jackson
work with Derek after Derek abused him in Ice Pick (2x03)
deceive Derek by joining his pack
deceive Gerard by feeding him scant information (”You haven’t been answering your phone”) and poisoning him
try to reach an accord with a mass murdering cult leader like Deucalion
agree to join Deucalion’s pack to save his and Stiles’s parents
call on Peter to help Stiles during his possession
conspire with Chris Argent against his own father
conspire with Deucalion to stop Theo from getting the Beast’s powers
ask Peter for help and endure his annoying and pedantic lectures
try to reach an accord with Gerard and Monroe
Any one of those actions puts the lie to the idea that Scott won’t cross his own arbitrary moral boundaries.  I’m sure you can think of others, but Scott eschews black-and-white thinking throughout the show when it is necessary to save lives.   It’s actually one of Scott’s strengths in the story -- his ability to put other’s lives above his own wants and needs, including his desire not to have the power and responsibility thrust on him.
Then where does this criticism come from and why is it racist?  Because its always used to defend white male characters and argue that the story should be theirs.
They see this fallacy in Scott refusing to condone Peter’s killing spree in Season 1 or fighting against Derek’s recruitment of child soldiers and kill-them-first thinking in Season 2 or believing that Stiles would be capable of murder in Season 5.  White men have the privilege to ignore morality when it suits them, and so if Scott considers himself better than Peter, it is unforgivable.  White men should be in charge, so when he resists Peter’s and Derek’s attempts to compel and control him, it is stubornness or obsession.  That he opposes Derek’s attempt to murder his way out of the mess he created in Season 2 must be stupidity.  That Scott could possibly (and finally) think he can hold Stiles accountable for his behavior in Season 5 is tyranny.
Look at it this way -- very few people in the fandom (except me) hold it against Derek that he tried to murder Lydia, because he believed that she was the murderous kanima.   It would have been the slaughter of an innocent girl performed by other children at Derek’s orders, but he was doing it for the greater good.   Yet, when Scott tells Stiles to go talk to his dad, the chief law-enforcement officer in the city, about the manslaughter that Scott thinks Stiles performed, it’s ... well, you know fandom’s reaction.   Who, to them, is entitled to think in terms of moral necessity?   Not the Latino.
And, to be sure, it’s not just this minority character.   It’s perfectly okay when the Sheriff is willing to risk exposing the supernatural world for his shifting dedication to the law.   It’s perfectly okay for Stiles to despise Peter for the entire show and decide if Malia gets to know the identity of her biological father.   Yet it’s not okay for Alan Deaton to act according to his own concept of right and wrong and his own code of behavior.  It’s not okay for Mason to hold what Theo did against him.
Women, too, get it in the end.  Compare how the fandom treats Derek, Peter, Argent, and Theo compared to how they treat Jennifer, Monroe, Allison, and Meredith.  Black-and-white thinking -- the reduction of people to good or bad with no empathy for necessity, trauma, or history -- is rightfully considered a bad thing, but fandom’s more than willing to use it to dismiss a character like Braeden because she’s a mercenary as they are to infantilize Isaac because he’s a hot white dude.  Isaac was willing to kill Lydia because she turned him down for a date but ... he’s baby.
This black-and-white-world criticism isn’t really being applied as a sincere criticism of Scott.  It’s echoing a single solitary quote from Peter, a character whose very nature is repeatedly described as unreliable and manipulative, in order to undercut Scott’s position as hero protagonist.   
BUT IT’S NOT RACISM.
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