Did Red Die on The Blacklist Finale? What Happens to Raymond ...

It’s time to say goodbye. The final episode of The Blacklist aired on July 13, 2023 – and we finally know how the NBC drama ends. Did Red die on The Blacklist Season 10 finale? Here’s everything we know.

The Blacklist, NBC’s long-running crime thriller, follows the story of Raymond ‘Red’ Reddington, played by Spader. Red is a former US Naval Intelligence officer who becomes a high-profile criminal. After escaping capture for decades, Reddington surrenders to the FBI and gives them the “Blacklist,” a compilation of the most dangerous criminals in the world. He collaborates with FBI special agent Elizabeth Keen, played by Megan Boone, to help catch the criminals in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

The show was created by Jon Bokenkamp and premiered on NBC in September 2013. In addition to Spader and Boone, the cast also features Ryan Eggold, Diego Klattenhoff, Clark Middleton, Mozhan Marnò, Anya Banerjee and more. NBC announced in February 2023 that The Blacklist was ending after Season 10.

“After 10 years, hundreds of Blacklist cases and more than 200 episodes produced, we’re honored to reach our conclusion,” showrunner John Eisendrath said in a statement to NBC. “It’s been incredibly fun to create the strange, devious, and delightful Blacklisters to challenge Raymond Reddington and our FBI Task Force each week. We would like to thank everyone at NBC and Sony, our extraordinary crew who make the impossible happen every day, our endlessly inventive writers and producers, and our remarkable cast who brought life to these characters. We appreciate our dedicated fanbase who came along for this wonderful ride and are excited to share this final season with them.” 

After the announcement, Spader revealed why he thinks the show had to end with Season 10. “I think if the show went beyond this year, it would turn into a very different show,” he said in an interview with NBC. “And I think that the thing that has been nice about this show was that we’ve never really had a really clear paradigm for the show. Tonally the show shifts a lot from episode to episode, and I think that even the show has taken strange turns, and I suspect that the show, if it went much further, would just become something that would be less recognizable to me.”

So, did Red die in the series finale of The Blacklist? Keep reading to find out.

Did Red die on The Blacklist Season 10 finale? The answer is yes, Red dies in The Blacklist series finale. While walking in the Spanish countryside, Red was trampled by a bull and killed. In the final scene, Red and the animal had an intense standoff. The bull charged at him – and while we didn’t see the exact moment he was killed – the next scene revealed Red’s bloody body found by Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff), who tracked him down in Spain.

On July 7, 2023, Entertainment Tonight released exclusive photos from the finale where Red was confirmed to be the final blacklister. The eerie tiles on the final episodes “Raymond Reddington #00: Part One” and “Raymond Reddington #00: Good Night,” pointed to a cryptic ending for the veteran informant who was now the intended target.

In the images, we saw Red’s “Most Wanted” poster and his character on the run in an open field, as well as photos of a helicopter from the manhunt. “The Task Force will spend its final two hours attempting to anticipate Red’s next move under increased pressure from Congressman Arthur Hudson (Toby Leonard Moore) and his investigation,” ET reported. Now we know that Red was killed before the Task Force was able to capture him.

Spader spoke to The Associated Press in July 2023 and shared what it was like filming The Blacklist’s final moments. “I was very, very glad we were able to end it exactly the way we wanted to end it. It was deliberate and we weren’t taken by surprise in terms of when the ending was going to come,” Spader said. “You’ll see that the ending has conviction and we commit to it.”

He continued about his character’s ending: “I really felt like this was complete and I loved how it really completed a circle, in a way,” he added. “It wasn’t just an unbroken line from point A to point Z, but it was a circle of sorts.” The three-time Emmy award-winner also praised the character he’s played for many years. “He [Red] inhabits the whole world, he really does. He lives in it and he really loves it. And he loves life. I guess one would understand the value of life if one has to take it every so often.”

The Blacklist is available to stream on Peacock.