Season Analysis

The Blacklist

Season 9 Analysis

Season Woke Score

out of 10

Season Overview

In the two years following the death of Elizabeth Keen, Raymond Reddington and the members of the FBI Task Force have disbanded – their lives now changed in unexpected ways and with Reddington’s whereabouts unknown. Finding themselves each at a crossroads, a common purpose compels them to renew their original mission: to take down dangerous, vicious and eccentric Blacklisters. In the process, they begin to uncover lethal adversaries, unimaginable conspiracies and surprising betrayals that will threaten alliances and spur vengeance for the past.

Season Review

Season 9 of "The Blacklist" operates largely as a standard, late-run crime procedural that attempts to refocus on the core cast and Blacklister-of-the-week formula following a major character departure. The narrative centers on a two-year time jump and the emotional fallout of Elizabeth Keen's death, driving a main arc of personal revenge and a secondary arc of an FBI leader's cover-up. The primary detection of 'woke' themes is found in the inescapable background mythology, the 'Redarina' reveal, which defines the main character's identity as a biological female living as a male. This is a massive, central element of alternative sexual identity that the season chooses to mostly ignore the implications of, but it remains the foundation of the character. The season also features an arc where a former criminal bodyguard, a non-white character, is improbably elevated to a formal FBI agent role, contrasting sharply with the personal failures of a white male agent struggling with addiction. While the plot contains one Blacklister group framed as 'religious extremists,' the overall tone and majority of the episodic plots remain focused on traditional crime-thriller elements—betrayal, revenge, and criminal enterprise—rather than overt political lecturing or the vilification of Western society.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics4/10

The narrative features a prominent arc where Dembe Zuma, a former criminal and black character from South Sudan, is elevated to the rank of a Special Agent within the FBI Task Force, an elevation widely criticized as implausible given his criminal history. Simultaneously, a white male agent, Ressler, is shown spiraling downward due to oxycodone addiction and a chaotic life after the disbandment of the Task Force. This creates a subtle contrast where the non-white character is elevated to an unquestioned role of authority and moral integrity within a key American institution, while the white male character is depicted as personally incompetent outside the rigid structure. The overall casting is diverse, but the plots do not exist to lecture on systemic oppression.

Oikophobia2/10

The central plots revolve around a private criminal revenge story and an internal FBI cover-up and blackmail plot. The vast majority of the Blacklisters are traditional villains like pirates, assassins, and financial criminals motivated by greed and vengeance. There is no sustained narrative arc dedicated to framing Western civilization, the nation, or its institutions as fundamentally corrupt or racist. The primary focus is on internal betrayals within the criminal world and the Task Force.

Feminism2/10

The core female protagonist, Elizabeth Keen, is dead, shifting the primary focus back to the male ensemble (Reddington, Ressler, Cooper, Dembe, Aram). The main remaining female agent, Alina Park, is a competent professional who handles her cases effectively and is shown to be in a stable marriage. She is not portrayed as a flawless 'Girl Boss' figure nor are males universally emasculated or presented as bumbling. There is no explicit anti-natalism or anti-family messaging in the main storylines.

LGBTQ+7/10

The main character, Raymond Reddington, is secretly Elizabeth Keen's mother, Katarina Rostova, who underwent a sex change operation and assumed the male identity of Reddington. This 'Redarina' reveal from the prior season is the unstated but inescapable core of the series' mythology. While the in-story justification for the transition is deception for protection, not gender identity, the central, world-famous protagonist is established as a biological female living as a man. This fact inherently centers alternative sexual ideology at the highest level of the narrative structure. The season itself tries to bypass the controversy by focusing on the criminal implications, but the truth remains central to the character's definition.

Anti-Theism3/10

One of the Blacklister storylines, 'The SPK,' centers on a group explicitly identified as 'religious extremists' who commit violent crimes by stealing and auctioning off holy relics like the Sacra Cintola. This trope portrays a religious group as the antagonists and criminals. However, the season does not promote a broad, anti-theistic message, and the morality of the Task Force is generally one of secular justice and objective good versus evil, without a sustained philosophical critique of faith or the embrace of pure moral relativism.