Characters / The Blacklist: Main

Characters present in The Blacklist.

WARNING: Only spoilers from the current season (Season 9) are whited out.

Current:

Red

Raymond "Red" Reddington

"The FBI works for me now."

Played by: James Spader

"You know the problem with drawing lines in the sand? With a breath of air, they disappear. You may not like me. You may not understand how or why I do what I do. But I'm here because you want answers to questions you haven't even thought of yet."

A world-class master criminal on the FBI's Most Wanted list, Reddington surrendered to the FBI after decades of giving them the slip (including at least one assassination attempt). He first offers to help them catch Ranko Zamani, then to catch the rest of the names on his blacklist. However, he will only help them if he is allowed to speak to Elizabeth Keen.

"Rassvet" suggests that he's ex-Russian Embassy employee Ilya Koslov, who masqueraded as him in order to ensure the safety of Liz and Katarina, but later episodes prove this is untrue.

---

• A Day in the Limelight: "Anne" has Red spending time with the woman of the same name.
• Affably Evil: While he's a manipulative criminal mastermind, he's exceedingly charming. He's polite, witty, urbane and greets everyone with a handshake and a smile. He will treat you with respect and a kind word. But cross him or hurt anyone he cares about, there is no hole deep enough that he won't find you.
  • Following the collapse of his empire, he moves into a low-key hotel and has charmed every guests there with none the wiser that he was a notorious criminal. This include games he'd plays with children and the young couple who invite him to party with and from all accounts genuinely enjoy their company.
• Ambiguously Bi: While the few love interests and flirtations Reddington has onscreen, there is one line from “Nacholo”…
  • “And as the Soviet Union fell, I gorged myself. On information. Money. Weapons. Women. Men.”
• Animal Lover: He seems to have a pretty pronounced soft spot for our feathered and four-legged friends, siccing the task force on The Mombasa Cartel for no particular reason aside from "why not us [be the ones to take them down]?" and he enjoyed the company of a few of his doggy day care clients in season 5 as well. There's occasional passing comments ruing the endangered status of some species, and he even makes a friend out of a rat in his jail cell at the beginning of Season 6. Many episodes indicate a particular fondness for birds.
• At Least I Admit It: This appears to be at least part of his objection to the activities of Floriana Campos. Quite aside from the human trafficking, which is established on several occasions to be a line Red himself won't cross, it's the fact that she pretends to be helping trafficked girls while she secretly enslaves them for her cartel. Reddington is many things, most of them terrible — but he is honest about them, and he seems genuinely offended by the particularly vile and galling nature of her hypocrisy in pretending to not just be someone who doesn't break the law, and not even someone who is more virtuous than she actually is, but as someone who claims to be actively fighting against the horrors she instead perpetuates and profits from.
• Anti-Villain: Reddington is Well Intentioned, as he knows no bounds to achieve his goals, but his goals are noble. It's lampshaded by Cooper at the end of "The Cyprus Agency", who remarks about how vile and amoral Reddington is, but without his help, the FBI wouldn't have saved all the women and children the Cyprus Agency was taking advantage of.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: As a graduate of the Naval Academy at the top of his class, he most certainly can hold his own in a firefight while looking good in a three-piece suit and a hat.
• Bald of Evil: Granted, he's not totally evil, nor totally bald.
• Benevolent Boss: Red treats his employees very well, to the point of genuinely being friends with them.
• Bully Hunter: A key to his psyche is that he hates anyone and everyone who abuses those weaker than them to get ahead. After all, he built his empire on the backs of people much more powerful than he was, which makes his targets weak and cowardly in comparison.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's whimsical and mercurial, and also the most brilliant and dangerous criminal mastermind alive.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Whatever Reddington does, he does because he believes it's right. Many people even agree that his goals are just. However, his moral compass is more of a moral "Wheel of Fortune" when it comes to the means of achieving those goals. Sometimes he'll smooth-talk a terrorist like a lover. Sometimes he'll poison a philanthropist.
• Brought Down to Normal: After Kaplan's death and the subsequent crumbling of his criminal empire, Reddington is left broke and with little power for the first few episodes of Season 5.
• Card-Carrying Villain In the pilot episode, Liz asks Reddington if he can be trusted. His response?
  Reddington: (chuckling) Of course not. I'm a criminal. Criminals are notorious liars.
  • In "The Stewmaker", Liz calls him a "monster". He simply answers "Yes."
• The Chessmaster: The very premise of this series is how he manipulates the FBI and everyone else to fulfil his mysterious hidden agenda. Several episodes have him playing both heroes and villains as pawns so he can get something out of it, and he usually succeeds.
• Consummate Professional: Always calm, cool and collected; When you contract the "Concierge of Crime" to do a job, It Gets Done.
• Cultured Badass: A world-class criminal broker who can kick your ass, in the right mood.
• Dead All Along: The Season 5 finale reveals that this man is an imposter and the bones inside the duffel bag belong to the real Raymond Reddington.
• Deadpan Snarker: Constantly. Some of them lead to hilarity.
  Liz: Wujing is a myth.
  Reddington: That's what they said about Deep Throat. And the G-spot.
• Establishing Character Moment: The very first scene of the series. A well-dressed, harmless-looking late-middle-aged man walks into the FBI headquarters, asks to see a high-ranking assistant director with no appointment, gives his name, and calmly sets down his briefcase and removes his hat and coat (to the bemused stares of onlookers) while she checks his identity... only to suddenly be flagged as one of the FBI's most wanted and suddenly surrounded by armed response officers. And tellingly, he's already assumed the position the very second they show up. Raymond Reddington is a criminal, is elegant and refined, is a lot more dangerous than he seems at first glance, is brazen, is cool and collected under pressure, and is clearly several steps ahead of everyone else.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He had a family, but it's implied that they're dead. He cared for Luli Zheng as well. He has a wife and daughter, but hasn't spoken to either of them since being identified as a criminal twenty years ago - they've since been given new identities and moved on with their lives.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Reddington despises human trafficking, after all he saw what it did to his bodyguard Dembe.
  • Reddington makes a point of adhering to his promises (which is why he doesn't make very many), partly for his reputation and partly because it's good business.
  • He also hates hypocrites; he might be a bastard, but he's honest about it. However, he especially hates hypocrites who pretend to be helping the people whose lives they ruin while profiting from doing so (and if they also murder their spouses, well, so much the worse). Floriana Campo learns this the hard way.
  • Reddington has expressed a fondness for wild, endangered animals and even mentioned killing a poacher about to kill a wild elephant to save it.
• Evil Old Folks: He's quite old, and probably one of the most dangerous men in the world. He's also Elizabeth's biological mother, which makes him Agnes' grandmother.
• Expy:
  • From the bald head to the high taste (and even the glass prison), Reddington just screams Hannibal Lecter. Except he's not a serial killer or a cannibal.
  • In terms of his role as the "Concierge of Crime", he better evokes a more badass, modern-day Professor Moriarty.
• Face–Heel Turn: Reddington was a decorated intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy before becoming a world-class master criminal.
• Father to His Men: Red goes out of his way when it comes to his subordinates and they reciprocate this loyalty in kind.
• Faux Affably Evil: Often engages in playful banter even as he's torturing or murdering.
• Fiction 500: He spends more on his schemes than the U.S. spends on waging the War on Terror. And every one of those schemes nets him exponentially more money than he spends.
• The Fixer: For the criminal world. They don't call him the "Concierge of Crime" for nothing.
• Heroic BSoD/Villainous Breakdown: Elizabeth's death leaves him in great shock. He stays for several days in an opium den and begins to have hallucinations with Elizabeth's mother.
• Informed Attribute: After listening to him deliver a monologue from "Mother Courage", Liz declares him a terrible stage actor. Extra amusing since Reddington is played by James Spader, who is not a bad actor.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Reddington not only invokes this, he takes it to the villainous extreme. His wife has moved on, and he accepts this. But when he discovers that the man she's now with has a mistress on the side? He takes him aside very politely, and tells him in no uncertain words that if he does not dump the excess baggage and dedicate his life to making the woman happy, he will kill him where he stands.
  "You make her happy. That is the only reason you are still here."
• Kick the Dog: His decision to murder Kaplan. While she did betray him she did so to protect Liz which He undestands perfectly and despite his attempts to rationalize she really was not a threat to him at all. This comes back on him immensely as Tom's murder and his near execution likely wouldn't have happened if not for his choice to callously murder someone who had been very loyal to him.
• Large Ham: Oh yes. Particularly when he is in full bore Affably Evil or Faux Affably Evil. Spader has incredible talent, and he's also clearly having a great time playing Red.
• Lonely at the Top: For all his success as a criminal, it's pretty clear Reddington has no one to care about him, and only a handful of real friends (Dembe, "Mr." Kaplan), and he deeply misses his family.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: A DNA test at the finale of Season 4 reveals that Reddington is actually Liz's biological father. Subverted in the Season 5 finale when it is revealed that he is an imposter and the real Reddington has been dead for over 20 years. It's revealed by the Season 8 finale that the present day Reddington used to be Liz's biological mother Katarina, who'd concieved Liz with the original Reddington.
• Manipulative Bastard: He manipulates everyone (and by everyone, we mean everyone) to achieve his goals.
• Man of Wealth and Taste:
  • How Reddington portrays himself; he's wealthy enough to be a regular guest at a very expensive Washington, D.C. hotel, for one.
  • Lampshaded at the start of the second episode with the use of The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil". That said, in the same episode, Liz pegs him as being as comfortable in a Taliban cave as a swanky hotel.
• Mercy Kill / He Knows Too Much: To Liz's dying adoptive father (and one of Reddington's old friends). He wanted to die quicker and he was going to reveal a secret regarding Reddington's role in Liz's adoption.
  • He does it again to one of his friends, Mr. Gregory Devry, who was Secretly Dying of a cancer.
• Nerves of Steel: Considerably. During "Anslo Garrick Part 1", he may have initially panicked as the attack on the Post Office commenced but when Agent Ressler is hit, he calmly outfits himself with some weapons and conducts an almost orderly tactical retreat with the wounded agent to the bullet proof holding cell. However, it breaks when Luli and Dembe are threatened with death.
• N.G.O. Superpower: He's basically a Byronic Heroic James Bond villain.
• Nice to the Waiter: Almost unfailingly polite to most of the working- and middle-class people he interacts with.
• Noble Demon: Perhaps his key character trait; he's one of the richest and most powerful criminals in the world, a Consummate Liar, and a stone-cold killer. He also has an unrelenting and burning hatred for anyone who uses their power to abuse those weaker than them.
• Noodle Incident: The "incident" in Cairo that was discussed in "The Courier" which led to the death of several of Reddington's assets.
  • This becomes a habit with him. Random examples: a rival (female) intelligence broker tried to strangle him in Paris after they spent a night together, and Blacklister Madeline Pratt feels he betrayed her by abandoning a job they were planning to carry out in Florence. His history with Anslo Garrick seems to compromise more than one murderous Noodle Incident.
  • Red brings up at least one Noodle Incident per episode, sometimes many more
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: His decision to spare Vesco after deciding he's a changed man leads to Vesco stealing from and humiliating him.
• Papa Wolf:
  • As demonstrated by actions towards the end of "The Stewmaker." Harm Liz, and he will get you for it. According to the Season 4 finale, he is in fact her biological father... or at least, the original Raymond Reddington was. The current Reddington was Liz's biological mother.
  • This applies to any of his associates as well. He makes it very clear that if someone he is working with harms anyone that works for him, he will not stopped until everything you have built is completely destroyed, then he will kill you.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: It's when he has to deal with other criminals, who generally are worse than him, that he's at his cruelest. He's not above inflicting a Karmic Death to those he finds particularly repulsive.
• Pet the Dog: In "The Courier", Reddington reveals that he bought the house of a struggling writer and let him live there for free after his mother died.
  • Reddington is usually a sarcastic and unhelpful Jerkass to everyone, but when Luli, Dembe, and Elizabeth's lives are threatened in "Anslo Garrick", he cracks pretty quickly.
  • In the same episode he goes out of his way to Save Donald's life ,even performing a blood transfusion for no reason other than that he truly respects Donald.
  • Reddington promises to take care of Grey's family before he executes Grey for betraying him.
  • Reddington also provides the needed funds for Julian Assange^note The episode "The Alchemist (No. 101)" strongly suggests this. in order to afford defense lawyers.
  • A major one in regards to Dembe saving him from Dying Alone on a street in Kenya, paying for his medical bills and financing his education.
  • Because of her connection to the Fulcrum, Red needs Elizabeth, but it's clear that he has a specific fondness towards her even besides that.
  • Red secured the WITSEC list in "The Harem" since he wanted to make sure Mr. Kaplan's sister was safe from anyone who wants to get her.
  • Red is the one who talks Cooper into forgiving his wife and trying to repair their marriage.
  • He befriends Vontae after he stands up for him in prison and secures his release from the facility.
  • While it is a blatantly obvious bribe, he decides to name an inspector's girlfriend his new restaurant's chef.
  • When getting Marvin Gerard out of prison, he also brings his girlfriend and sends them both to a house he owns in a tropical island.
  • Even Knowing that Cooper is considering Revealing that he is an imposter he decides to save him from his old army friend. After their adventure ends with Cooper's friend dead Red assures him You Did Everything You Could and tells him he is a good man now so he shouldn't dwell on any of his past mistakes. After this Cooper decides that perhaps Red isn't as bad as he thought and choses to keep his secret.
• Popcultural Osmosis Failure: While Reddington is Wicked Cultured, modern pop-culture and technology is completely lost on him not having the foggiest idea what Star Wars is about. Liz at one point refers to him as a "walking anachronism" and Lampshades the irony that he doesn't know what a Jedi Mind Trick is despite being a certified master at it.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: What he occupies himself with during "The Good Samaritan Killer". No slick suits, charm or suaveness. Just him, a gun and a desire for revenge.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: In the second episode, when they bring him out of the boat and he looks up, his sunglasses light up with a pure white glow that then flickers in one lens.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Oh, yes.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: If it's a two-handed weapon, chances are it's a shotgun.
• Sinister Shades: He seems very fond of them, wearing them so often inside.
• Sin Eater: In Season 2, Red tells Elizabeth that he is a sin-eater; he absorbs the misdeeds of others, darkening his soul to keep theirs pure. Elizabeth challenges him to tell her what she's done in life that requires him to act like he's absorbing sins from her. He refuses to answer the question at the time, but she does find out later on.
• The Spook: His real identity is the Driving Question in the later seasons, but he is certainly not Raymond Reddington, although in an In-Universe case of Grandfather Clause, he kept the alias anyway. Who he is literally makes him "International Man of Mystery"!
• Stepford Snarker: He nearly always acts mocking, but it's noticeable the sarcasm is a facade for something, be it manipulation, sadness, guilt, anger, or whatever. Lampshaded by Anslo Garrick.
• The Syndicate: He runs one, even when working with the FBI and can call on resources such as well armed mercenary units in situations where he needs to get around Keen and the others stonewalling him or refusing to play ball.
• Tranquil Fury: His reaction upon coming face-to-face with the Stewmaker. Also his demeanor during "The Good Samaritan Killer". Red is awfully (outwardly) calm while killing several people.
  • In the climax of "Mombasa Cartel" Red has a chat with the main villain about how screwed up Dembe's early years were (the man had indirectly caused them when his subordinates sold Dembe to sex traffickers). And while affable, the undercurrent of pure outrage at what happened to his subordinate just bubbles below the surface.
• Troll: Reddington clearly delights in constantly playing small scale mind-games with his FBI captors and making fun of their intelligence (or rather what he sees as a lack thereof) every chance he gets.
  • Reddington proceeds to mock the FBI agents for taking the wrong photos in analyzing evidence after the general's daughter gets abducted by Serbian-speaking mercenaries.
  • In Montreal, he's already communicated with his contact. He then gets up and walks out of the restaurant, causing Ressler to panic and storm the restaurant, convinced that he's escaped. Instead, Reddington goes to the surveillance van.
• True Companions: With Luli and Dembe.
• Villain Protagonist: As Episode 2 shows, he might be a protagonist, but he's still a villain. He ordered an assassination on Floriana Campos and played the FBI and the Freelancer against each other.
  • Take note of his Roaring Rampage of Revenge in "The Good Samaritan Killer". While he's no less affable, every single person who had a direct involvement in his kidnapping—the man running the surveillance outpost, the paramedic who removed his chip, the doctor who provided the interrogation drugs, and Grey, who betrayed him—ends up dead by his hands.
  • The lines become increasingly blurry as the series progresses, as it's often suggested that his goals are ultimately noble; his methods, however, are still frequently abhorrent.
• Waistcoat of Style: He's rocking one throughout the pilot and much of the series.
• Wicked Cultured: Reddington is a very classy criminal, fluent in many languages, knowledgeable about art and culture, and very intelligent.

Ressler

Donald Ressler

"My job isn't to trust my gut. My job is to uphold the law."

Played by: Diego Klattenhoff

A veteran FBI agent who was in charge of the Reddington case. He is now included in a secret task force alongside Liz to follow through Reddington's blacklist.

He left the FBI after Season 8. But he came back in Season 9.

---

• Accidental Murder: He accidently kills Laurel Hitchin when he shoves her and she hits the back of her head on a kitchen counter.
• A Day in the Limelight: "Brothers" centers on Donald and his brother to find out who manipulated the death of his cop father.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Being a FBI agent and all.
• Being Good Sucks: As an FBI agent who has to work with Reddington, the man he's spent years hunting. He brings it up again when Gale realizes that Reddington cut a deal with the FBI, describing how sick he felt.
• Clear My Name: Briefly made a fugitive in Season Six, after the Reddington Task Force is placed under arrest.
• The Corruptible: As if Reddington's influence isn't enough, Hitchin gets him to promise to drop his pursuit of Wright's murder, and Prescott briefly forces him into the role of Dirty Cop.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He was a delinquent as a teenager, and upon discovering that his father's partner in the police, Tommy Markin was a Dirty Cop and the one responsible for his father's murder, confronted him at his house and shot him, seemingly killing him. However, Donald's older brother Robert went to a remote area to bury the body and it turned out he was still alive after being shot, upon confirming that Markin did indeed kill their father, Robert finished him by impaling him with the shovel he was going to bury him with.
• Determinator: A bit unpleasant but the man does not give up in the face of the master-criminals he goes up against on the show.
• False Friend: His old teammate Julian Gale saw him as this after Gale realizes Ressler was working with Reddington. Naturally, Gale accuses Ressler of being Evil All Along and being an Evil Former Friend since he suspects Ressler accepted Reddington after being gifted with a severed head.
• Good Is Dumb: The first time he tries to refuse Prescott's orders, Prescott basically tells him this, saying Ressler isn't the first of his clients to grow a conscience but they usually all fall in line. Reddington also loves doing this since the very beginning, although he does remark it's because good cops tend to have to work in predictable patterns.
• Honor Before Reason: Ressler is constantly being needled by Reddington, and is constantly chafed by having to work with a criminal he chased for years. But in "Anslo Garrick", Red encourages him to just go, saying Ressler would probably be glad to see him die. Ressler replies, "You're an FBI informant. That means you're under my protection.", putting his personal feelings for Red aside.
  • In Season 3, at a Presidential Commission hearing, Ressler states that he believes Liz is innocent, and that he will catch her because that is his job.
• Internal Reveal: The audience knows from the beginning that Ressler is working with Reddington, Gale did not and only gradually starts to suspect Ressler as the series progresses.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's arrogant and condescending, but he'll also try his best to save everyone, even the people he bickers with (such as Reddington himself).
• Lawman Gone Bad: He's posed as one twice so far. In "The Stewmaker", he pretends to be a double agent who's actually Reddington's inside man at the FBI. At the beginning of "Anslo Garrick", he plays a similar role, this time at the State Department.
• Made of Iron: It became a running gag to have him suffer a preposterous amount of physical damage and then shrug it off with a minor thought. At least until "Anslo Garrick", where a merc shoots him in the leg with a shotgun. He would have bled to death if Reddington hadn't performed emergency treatment, and even then, he needed surgery in a proper hospital.
  • Then he got an addiction to his pain meds.
• Meaningful Name: It could be coincidental, but his name draws similarities to that of Ronald Kessler, author of The Secrets of the FBI.
• The Mole: In Gale's investigation of the ice rink bodies, Cooper specially placed Ressler there to do so.
• Morality Pet: He turns into this for Liz when in "Ounces" that she gets worried after she found out that Ressler got caught in a bomb attack meant to take out Red.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Because "Frank Sturgeon" knew so much about the investigation into Laurel Hitchin's death, Prescott realized Sturgeon was actually a cop.
• Not What It Looks Like: When Liz and Ressler tries to stop an assassination attempt on the president, the man responsible for the attempt is secret service. Naturally when The Cavalry arrives, the agent accuses Liz and Ressler of the assassination attempt, and they are arrested.
• Number Two for Brains: Seems to be his relationship with both Cooper and Reddington.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Ressler is a tough, competent FBI agent who's brave and pretty smart. It's just that, unfortunately, he's nowhere near Reddington's intellectual league.
• Pretty Boy: Prescott reminds him that cops don't do well in prison, especially ones that look like Ressler does.
• Refuge in Audacity: When Liz approaches him and sees the car he is driving for his Prescott, Ressler admits that there was a dead body inside. She laughs and backs off.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Goes on one after Mako Tanida kills his lover.
• The Resenter: As the series began, he openly distrusted Reddington, and whenever they work together, it's Teeth-Clenched Teamwork.
• Sarcastic Confession: Ressler does tend to make them, although sometimes it's played more as Cassandra Truth as he sometimes does seem to genuinely want to be believed, only to be laughed off. He once told Gale he was brainwashed into shooting a secret service agent, only for Gale to laugh it off. Later, after Gale confronts him about his absence, Ressler tries to repeat the truth, but Gale clearly doesn't believe him.
• Sanity Slippage: Has gotten darker and a less restrained after Tanida kills his lover mid-first season and Malik dies in the first season finale.
• Screw Your Ultimatum!: When he decides to turn against the Prescott, despite knowing he might go to jail.
• Sin Eater: In Season 2, Red tells Elizabeth that he is a sin-eater; he absorbs the misdeeds of others, darkening his soul to keep theirs pure. Elizabeth challenges him to tell her what she's done in life that requires him to act like he's absorbing sins from her. He refuses to answer the question at the time, but she does find out later on.
• Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Becomes this in Season 3, leading the Task Force to hunt Liz and Red, even though he believes that Liz is innocent, because that's his job, and he believes he can clear Liz's name by working through the system.
• The Unfettered: Becomes this near the end of the first season, though it's strongly tempered with his By-the-Book Cop tendencies.
• You Are in Command Now: After Cooper is Reassigned to Antarctica, Ressler is placed in charge. However instead of sitting behind his desk like Cooper, he's a Frontline General in the hunt for Liz.

Cooper

Harold Cooper

Played by: Harry Lennix

The FBI's Assistant Director for Counterterrorism, he's the man responsible for leading the FBI's taskforce for hunting down the criminals and terrorists in Reddington's blacklist.

---

• A Father to His Men: As seen in several episodes, most notably "Luther Braxton-Conclusion" where he decks the assistant director of the CIA to save his agents from death by bombing and "T. Earl King V" where he straight up spoiler:threatens to kill a man to rescue Liz. While there were some cases of him acting as this in Season 1, it is far more prevalent in Season 2, where he is not only concerned with his subordinates' lives but their general wellbeing. This may have been initially motivated by the fact that he believed he was dying.
  • He's outraged when he first found out about the Osterman Umbrella Company, and takes it personally when he finds out Mossad sent a hit on Samar. To the point he allows Reddington to abduct another Mossad agent in exchange, hoping to force his counterpart in Mossad to call off the hit.
• Big Good: How many of the characters see him.
• Celebrity Resemblance: Deliberately or not, his appearance and voice evoke Barack Obama.
• Da Chief: To the task force as a whole.
• Good Is Not Nice: While it was a Sadistic Choice (either risking Reddington's death or someone else's), his utter callousness towards Garrick murdering of one of Reddington's associates in cold blood can be quite jarring. He may have reasonably considered that Garrick might have simply killed everyone once he got what he wanted; in the event, Garrick did not, but by that time the FBI backup were about to appear, so it's possible Garrick was planning to kill everyone originally but simply no longer had the time to do that. We later learn that Cooper has no problem beating the shit out of a terrorist to get him to confess to mass murder. He gets a pass mostly because he rightly believed the man really was guilty (and in fact, he was). Nevertheless he admits after the execution that they should have gotten the confession legally.
  • While unclear how much he approves, he lets Reddington abduct one of Mossad's prized agents despite Reddington's history of murder. Sure enough, Reddington kills the agent, and in their next interaction Cooper makes no mention of this.
• Handicapped Badass: Spends several episodes walking with a cane.
• Mysterious Past: Reddington suggests that the two had a common history together. The two are on a first name basis as well. Since both men were in the Navy, they likely met there.
  • Confirmed in "Mr. Kaplan" when he mentions that he worked with the Pentagon in the 1990s when Reddington was doing counter-intelligence work.
  • Further confiremd in "Kuwait" when Reddington a.k.a. the actual one debriefed him on an op he participated in Kuwait back in 1989.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: How Reddington sees him, and how he ends up viewing his counterpart in Mossad.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: The most level-headed of the FBI agents.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: After Liz shot the Attorney General, Cooper was demoted to a cubicle in nowhere doing busy work. He takes advantage of this to hunt for Karakut off-book.
• Sacrificial Lion: Almost becomes one in "Berlin: Conclusion". However, he lives and now walks with the use of a cane.
• Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: He was this to Reddington before they started working on the same side (more or less).
• Trapped in Villainy: Privately admits that he sometimes feels like this when he has to turn a blind eye to Reddington's criminal activities.
• What You Are in the Dark: In Season 6 at Red's trial he calls on Cooper to confirm the immunity agreement, betting Cooper would put his decency before his career. Red was right and Cooper does exactly that.
• Your Days Are Numbered: In Season 2, it's revealed he has a previously un-diagnosed brain tumor. He was originally planning to retire, but Reddington convinced him to come back and do some good while he was still able. It turns out that he was being gaslit by Tom Connolly and the Cabal, and there's nothing wrong with him.

Aram

Aram Mojtabai

Played by: Amir Arison

A FBI agent working in the task force, he's in charge of technical matters such as surveillance, hacking, understanding computer codes and electronics. He has also seen little action in the field since he works behind the scenes.

---

• Action Survivor: Initially he's not really trained for combat, nonetheless he participated in a number of fights.
• Anger Born of Worry: He will start yelling at the rest of the team if he believes they're being overly stubborn.
• Ascended Extra: Initially, he was just a tech guy who got a few lines in a couple of episodes. Then "Anslo Garrick" happened and he had to take a level in Badass and help fight some mercenaries.
• Big Damn Kiss: With Samar, in the Season 4 finale. At long last.
• Birds of a Feather: Seems to think this regarding Samar (as depicted under the But Not Too Foreign entry below), but disregards that beyond their cultural background, their overall personalities (mild-mannered Non-Action Guy vs. tough-as-nails Action Girl) aren't really that much alike and she (initially at least) seems to be more attracted to more hands-on types like Levi or Ressler. Granted, they do wind up together (at least for a little while), so Aram wasn’t that far off.
• Blackmail: At one point he pulls this on Reddington of all people, telling Reddington he won't return the stolen money unless Reddington takes him to where Samar is hiding.
• Break the Cutie: Sure, at times he does get emotional, but after he learns Reddington helped hide Samar from him he's devastated. He takes the Beware the Nice Ones route when he briefly stole all of Reddington's money.
• But Not Too Foreign: In his conversation with Samar, he claims that his American family has some Jewish and Muslim lineage. Of course, he may be just trying to impress her; though it's likely that he's just covering all bases here (his name basically gives it away that he's of Iranian descent, like her, but he isn't hostile towards Jews, also like her).
• Clear My Name: Briefly made a fugitive in Season 6, after the Reddington Task Force is placed under arrest.
• Deadpan Snarker: Often after achieving something.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Certainly qualifies as this when it comes to Samar.
• Fake Guest Star: Like Dembe, he has appeared in almost every episode after the pilot. He usually gets more to do as well. Season 2 promotes him officially to main cast.
• Frame-Up: What Fitch's party tries to do with Aram as a decoy in the aftermath of the black ops compound raid. Luckily, Reddington saw through this and saved him before the FBI can falsely arrest him for being a double agent.
• Heroic BSoD: Does this after he killed the mercenary who held Liz at gunpoint. This is due to his position in the task force, which doesn't require him to be out in the field and the fact that he told Liz that he only used a pistol during target practice. He only snapped out of it after Liz told him to get a hold of himself.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Of the whole FBI task force, he seems to actually be the one (except for Liz) who has some positive impact on the missions, i.e. he does something that Reddington does not have to help with. Especially comparing to Ressler who usually just gets heroically beaten up.
• Nice Guy: He does seem to be one of most easy-going of the group and doesn't have a mean bone in his body. Unlike, say, Ressler's subtle Good Is Not Nice tendencies (though these refer more to his demeanor than to his moral compass), he actually is that mild-mannered and well-meaning.
• Non-Action Guy: And actually very scared of gunfights, especially when Anslo raids the black ops compound.
• Omniglot: Can speak several langauges aside from English. "The Wellstone Agency" has him go undercover using his knowledge of foreign languages.
• The Smart Guy: His function in the task force.
• Took a Level in Badass: Goes through this over the course of Season 5 to the point where he is able to actively to stand his ground against Ian Garvey's threats to him at one point.
• Villain Respect: Despite one being an international criminal and the other an FBI agent, Red has shown repeated confidence in Aram's computer and hacking skills. Aram in turn is usually more nervous around Reddington than afraid, not to mention being the only character who calls him "Mr. Reddington".
• You Are in Command Now: Is placed in charge of the unit by Cooper during the last several episodes of Season 9 when Cooper is considered a murder suspect for his neighbor's death. Aram relinquishes the position when Reddington and the Task Force find the evidence proving Cooper's innocence.

Park

Alina Park

Played by: Laura Sohn

Another FBI agent brought in to replace Samar after she goes AWOL from her Mossad superior. One of her last posts was in Anchorage, Alaska before she got recruited to the post office.

---

• But Not Too Foreign: Alina's Asian-American of Korean origin.
• Dark and Troubled Past: She previously lived with her mom who got together with a boyfriend who get her hooked to drugs.

Dembe

Dembe Zuma

Played By: Hisham Tawfiq

Reddington's bodyguard and long-time friend. An ex-guerrilla fighter with the Sudan People's Liberation Army prior to being recruited to work with Reddington.

As of Season 9, he's recruited into the FBI as a special agent and is someone responsible for briefing the agency on who to go after based on Red's blacklist.

---

• Best Served Cold: Averted. After 29 years he has the chance to kill the man ultimately responsible for the deaths of Dembe's family and Dembe's childhood as a sex slave. He forgives the man. Red doesn't.
• Black Dude Dies First: Averted. It was Luli who was killed onscreen by Garrick before he turned his gun to Dembe.
• The Brute: A huge behemoth of a man.
• The Comically Serious: Much comedy can be mined from his dead serious personality. Such as munching on ice cream while surrounded by weed.
• The Dragon: Dembe to Reddington.
• The Driver: For Reddington when he needs a drive around.
• Determinator: Shot in the gut and left to die manages to track down Red and Lizzy hours later and gun down their kidnappers despite suffering internal damage. And this is after enduring Cold-Blooded Torture at the hands of Matthias Solomon.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Does not think twice about trading his life for that of his daughter and granddaughter.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He didn't like the fact that Red was willing to off Mr. Kaplan.
• Et Tu, Brute?: "The Apothecary" suggests that he may be the culprit who administered the poison to Reddington. Although "Dembe Zuma" confirms that he went off the grid to hunt down the culprit himself.
• Face Death with Dignity: Unlike Luli, he remains calm when Garrick puts a gun to his head and calmly says a prayer with Reddington. Luckily, he survives.
• Fake Guest Star: He first appears in Episode 2 and, while he doesn't get too many lines or much screen time, he has been in pretty much every single episode since that.
  • Word of God has it that Season 3 will see him (finally) Promoted to Opening Titles. Later than expected, but better late than never.
• Forgiveness: He forgives the type of people who are responsible for the hellish circumstances he lived in, Reddington does not.
• Hidden Depths:
  • He has an university degree in English Literature and is fluent in multiple languages.
  • "Gaia (No. 81)" - although we don't see him go bowling, he apparently knows how to, given that he critiqued Glen.
    Dembe: Your release point is off.
    Glen: Well, the ladies love to talk to me, so it doesn't really matter.
    Dembe: Keep your elbows in. (Red gives him a WTF expression)
  • He's an accomplished cook. One time, his idea of interrogating a source isn't torture, it's to bond over stir fry.
  • A Season 5 episode reveals that he's bizarrely good at mini golf, enough to beat Red in a tournament.
  • Thanks to a Khan Academy course, he also knows quite a bit about electrical engineering.
  • Him joining the FBI in Season 9. Ressler lampshades this early on.
• I Owe You My Life: Dembe considers this to Reddington since he funded his university education and hospital bills after he was saved in Kenya.
• Like a Son to Me: Red sees him this way, remembering every wrong done to Dembe before Red took him in. When he he's captured in Season 3, Red spares no expense to find him.
  "Dembe is more than an associate to me."
• Made a Slave: Considering the mark spotted on his back, he was a slave for the Everhart Cartel at some point.
• Made of Iron: Takes a gut shot and left to bleed out and die, manages to power through the pain and show up hours later to save Red and Liz from Solomon.
• Omniglot: According to Reddington, Dembe is fluent in multiple languages thanks to his university education.
• One Name Only: Dembe's full name.
  Cooper: Just... Dembe. Like Prince or Madonna.
  • In "Mombasa Cartel", it is revealed that his last name is Zuma.
• The Quiet One: Rarely utters a word to outsiders. He speaks more freely with Reddington.
• Scary Black Man: Terrifyingly so.
• Sex Slave: After his family were murdered in Sierra Leona, he was sold as a child sex slave. He was 14 when Reddington rescued him in downtonwn Kenya.
• The Stoic: His only expression is grimacing. He does smile when he greets Reddington, though.
• Undying Loyalty: He may not always agree with Red, but he always sticks by him.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: In "Boukman Baptiste", Dembe took over some parts of Reddington's organization because he was grieving Liz's death. He led an operation to prevent Baptiste from taking over Red's racket. However, the gunfight resulted in the death of Baptiste's child. This made Dembe quit and join up with the FBI instead.
• Villainous Friendship: Is genuinely friendly with Reddington, and comforts him just before he's about to be executed. Luckily this does not happen.

Former:

Liz

Elizabeth "Liz" Keen née Milhoan aka Masha Rostova

"Why involve me? I'm nobody. It's my first day. Nothing special about me."

Played by: Megan Boone, Aria Kane as young Liz

A rookie FBI agent, having just graduated from Quantico a month ago (apart from several years working for the Bureau in other capacities). She's been trying to start a family with her husband (through adoption).

Liz is later assassinated by Vandyke at the end of Season 8.

She's the daughter of Katarina Rostova and the actual Raymond Reddington.

---

• Action Girl: After one episode as a psychological profiler (see The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything), Liz took this role. Although noticeably a rookie in the early entries, she leveled up rapidly to badass by "Anslo Garrick".
• A Day in the Limelight: The episode "Misere" shows what was happening to her ever since she got Skip to defect from Reddington and work with Townsend to hunt down Reddington and at the same time, wonder if she'll be way worse than Reddington is.
• Anti-Hero: Starting to become one after the death of Tom. After Navarro dies of an injury, Liz disposes of his body using The Stewmaker's MO.
  • In "The Capricorn Killer", Liz's therapist is revealed to be the mastermind behind several murders, and sought out Liz as her patient in order to recruit her. Liz later lets her go and covers her involvement in the murders, and in return she agrees to join Liz's own personal network of shady allies.
  • As of Season 8, she's willing to resign from the FBI to go after Red for killing Katarina. This is despite Cooper's warnings that whatever she'll do, her long-term prospects will be ruined eventually.
• The Anti-Nihilist: In Season 3, she's on the run and labeled a fugitive, one of the Most Wanted terrorists pursued by her friends and colleagues, and yet she still tries to remain good.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: From sweet and innocent newcomer to the type of person who would cover up murders and intentionally let criminals escape.
• Batman Gambit: In "Thrushes", she leaks the rendezvous point with Kirk on purpose so that Reddington's mercenaries can close in on him on his actual meeting place.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She's usually very soft-spoken and polite. But as "Berlin" shows us when she poisons and blackmails Vogel, you do not want to be on her bad side - she can be just as dangerous as Reddington if you piss her off.
• Blood Knight: It takes her time to acknowledge this, but she finally admits as much in Season 5, when it's killing and planning that brings her out of her depression. It's implied that's what reconnects her with Tom, as they resume their relationship after she held him captive as revenge for manipulating her.
• Brainy Brunette: She's an FBI profiler, after all.
• Broken Bird: After Tom's death, she declines returning to the FBI and even gives away custody of her daughter, retreating to rural Alaska. When she realizes criminals have entered her house, she straight-up kills them all.
• But Not Too Foreign: She's revealed to be Russian-American.
• Career Versus Family: In the first episode, Liz and her husband are attempting to adopt a child when Reddington enters her life. Though considering that Zamani almost kills her husband, who is then later exposed as some sort of world-class criminal (assuming he's not being framed), those plans are apparently on hold... and later end up permanently so when she discovers that he really is dodgy.
• Character Death: Dies after giving birth while wounded. Subverted; she faked her death.
  • This is played straight in the Season 8 finale "Konets" after being shot in the back.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Never allows for an innocent to be hurt, even if it means a criminal can escape.
• Clear My Name: Became a fugitive in Season Three and briefly again in Season Six, after the Reddington Task Force is placed under arrest.
• Corrupt the Cutie: As the series progresses, she goes from naive newcomer to taking elements of the Dark Action Girl.
• Daddy's Little Villain: With Sam, she learns to be very good at pick-pocketing. With Reddington, she learns to think like a criminal. With Kirk, she learns her Russian heritage.
• Damsel out of Distress: At first she does require rescuing, but it didn't take long before she becomes quite capable of resolving conflicts on her own.
• Didn't Think This Through: Most of her plans when she attempts to act on her own have disastrous consequences that cause nearly everyone trouble. First seen in Season Two when she secretly imprisons Tom that leads to an innocent harbor inspector's death when he stumbles upon it, and more blatantly in Season 6 when she intentionally gets Reddington arrested and facing the death penalty, believing he can get out of it in time, but becomes horrified when he can't.
• The Dog Bites Back: Ian Garvey tortured and killed Tom in front of her, she comes after him and his associates with a vengeance. An argument could be made that she does this to Reddington too, his frequent lies may have contributed to her decision to tip off the police, so that she could investigate without him sabotaging her.
• The Dragon: Liz also kinda-sorta takes on this role as as second Dragon to Reddington in Season 3.
• Driven to Villainy: After multiple hardships that ended with her in a coma and Tom dead, she declines rejoining the FBI, because she knows what she's about to do won't be what a good or even lawful cop would do.
• Every Scar Has a Story: Liz has a burn scar on her hand that she initially presents as the result of a childhood accident. However, we later find out that the scar was given to her by her father. The scar's shape later appears on the box her husband had hidden under the floorboards.
• Eviler than Thou: She crosses multiple lines when interrogating the criminals she suspected of being responsible for Tom's death.
• Expy: Liz is blatantly the Clarice Starling to Reddington's Hannibal.
• Fair Cop: Given her actress.
• Faking the Dead: So far, she's done this twice that we've seen.
• Frameup/Scapegoat: What happened to her courtesy of the Alliance/Cabal at the end of Season 2. She is forced to go on the run, dying her hair blonde. It isn't until Season Four when she gets a pardon from the President of the United States that she is reinstated as an FBI agent.
• Friend to All Children: She's very good with kids and is notably less merciful when a Blacklister uses children in their operations.
• Great Detective: She's certainly a very skilled investigator.
• Heartbroken Badass: She definitely Grew a Spine after Tom's death.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Destroys her professional life in the Season 2 finale by murdering the Attorney General in order to prevent him acting on his threat to have the entire Task Force framed and jailed on false criminal charges.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: In the first parts of Season Three, she's branded as a rogue FBI agent. Though she was "cleared" thanks to Red's intervention, some people don't agree that she's not a double agent working for the FSB.
• The Hero Dies: She's shot in the back by Vandyke and dies in Reddington's arms at the end of Season 8.
• Hyper-Awareness: She very often notes things that are basically invisible to everyone else.
• Idiot Ball: Grabs this quite frequently. Two major examples would be the time when Frederick Barnes was able to make her give up her gun, violating protocol and letting the man get away (though this is arguably a case of Honor Before Reason as she did save Barnes' hostage's life) and when she lets her emotions get the better of her when she has her husband dead to rights, with her attempt to do a Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique blowing up in her face when he breaks free and goes for her gun.
• Important Haircut: Gets one at the start of the second season.
• In the Back: At the last part of "Konets", Liz is shot twice in the back by Vandyke.
• I Warned You: Many criminals underestimate and dismiss her, the later ones realize she wasn't kidding.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: She might not have intended to, but she has no regrets killing Navarro.
• Love Makes You Evil: It's what started her on her Roaring Rampage of Revenge
• Maternity Crisis: The stress of being pursued by armed men led by Mattias Solomon himself caused her to go into labour.
• Mathematician's Answer: On the question of whether she doesn't have a criminal record because she wasn't a career criminal, or because she just hadn't been caught, she answers "Yes."
• Meaningful Name: Keen means "eager/enthusiastic, interested, intelligent, insightful." All terms that apply to our agent.
• Morality Pet: To Reddington. Based on the conversation she had with Tom, he claims this too.
• Ms. Fanservice: Frequently found wearing tight, somewhat low-cut, short-sleeved T-shirts under her jacket.
• Mysterious Past: She claims her foster father Sam was a criminal, which shocks her employers because that never came up when she was being recruited (it could have been a serious obstacle). It seems like Sam didn't have a record simply because he was never caught...and it seems that Liz might also not have a record for precisely the same reason with hints that Sam passed on some skills to her and that she spent some time as a Con Artist before joining law enforcement.
• New Meat: She's not completely new to the Bureau, but she's barely a month out of Quantico after she spent three months stationed in New York with the FBI's Mobile Emergency Psych Department. Julian Gale himself lampshades the peculiarity of a new agent suddenly being placed in such an important Task Force.
• Not Helping Your Case: Singleton suspected the former FBI agent to be lying about the circumstances surrounding Tom's death, as he learns about the things she's done in her investigation, he grows increasingly suspicious.
• Not What It Looks Like: When Liz and Ressler tries to stop an assassination attempt on the president, the man responsible for the attempt is secret service. Naturally when The Cavalry arrives, the agent accuses Liz and Ressler of the assassination attempt, and they are arrested.
• Parental Abandonment: She was raised by a foster father. She only has fuzzy memories of her real parents, but she has started to suspect that her real dad might be Reddington. A DNA test at the end of Season 4 confirms this. Before this, Alexander Kirk claims to be her real father, though a blood test proved it to be false. He was the husband of her mother though.
• The Profiler: Part of her formal skill set. She trained and was about to become an official FBI profiler, but after Reddington dragged her into his game, she's now more of an Action Girl. Her profiling skills still come up occasionally, though.
• Properly Paranoid: Thanks to the events of "Berlin", Liz is paranoid to the point that she changes residences and keeps her Glock 19 in case someone wants to off her. She even oversaw the lockup of Tom in a secret location.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Megan Boone's pregnancy was written into the series.
• Rogue Agent: At the end of Season Two, law enforcement/intelligence agencies branded her after she assassinated Tom Connolly.
  • Liz goes entirely rogue in Season 8 just to take down Red for killing Masha. She's been warned by her colleagues that she can get arrested or killed.
• Sherlock Scan: Once per Episode to trace a criminal down.
• The Unfettered: In Season Two, Liz is willing to intimidate or hurt criminal/terrorist suspects just to get the needed answers.

Tom

Tom Keen AKA Jacob Phelps and Christopher Hargrave

"You think I murdered a KGB defector. Like I'm Bond. Tom Bond and just between Social Studies and recess I go around assassinating people."

Played by: Ryan Eggold

Liz's husband, a grade school teacher who at first appears to be warm, loving and sensitive. However, he's been hiding something from his wife; he has an Emergency Stash of guns, money and passports secreted inside their house, and he's somehow involved with the murder of a Russian defector in Boston. Or is it all a Frame-Up? With Reddington's help—or, perhaps, in spite of it—Liz searches for the truth...

---

• Ambiguously Evil: He may or may not be a ruthless international assassin. Reddington insists that he is, but no evidence has yet to emerge that can't be explained as a set up. Turns out Reddington was right. Although after being discovered by Liz, he claims to her that he's one of the good guys.
• Character Death: Dies in Episode 8 of Season 5 by Ian Garvey.
• Consummate Liar: He's able to lie and play his role so well, Liz truly believed he's just a normal school teacher. He's not. He's an operative of an organization that seems to be opposed to Reddington.
• Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: Episode 8 reveals he has links to Reddington
• Embarrassing Tattoo: After dropping his role as a Tattooed Crook, he still spots the markings for a few episodes after that. Until Liz comments that she isn't really into that type, and the next episode they're gone (also qualifies as Artistic License – Biology because there's no way in hell you'd get rid of tattoos that quickly).
• Evil All Along: "The Judge" confirms that he was hired to spy on Liz and implicitly that he really is the assassin Red claimed him to be; however, it's "Mako Tanida" that shows just how evil he is when he brutally murders both Jolene and the Cowboy in cold blood.
• Frameup: This is his excuse, and all evidence points in this direction. Until "The Judge," when it turns out he really is a villain.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: He can't possibly be called a good guy, but by the end of Season 2 it seems like he's throwing his lot in with Liz for better or worse.
• Honey Trap: But of course.
• Honor Before Reason: When he was told that Liz could be arrested for killing the harbormaster, Tom risks being arrested in America in order to testify that he was the culprit for his death.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: He's patient and understanding, especially when Liz's job keeps them separated (at least until he realizes that she's found his stash). This may or may not be part of his cover. It looks like it is.
• In Love with the Mark: Possibly. He claims that he only loves her because "that's my job", but his employers seem worried. This trope is very much confirmed in season 2. Reddington eventually admits he placed Tom in Liz's life to watch out for her - but that was all. Tom/Jacob fell in love with her of his own accord - much to Red's chagrin.
• Living a Double Life: At least, that's how it looks. When the FBI questions Tom, he claims he's innocent and that somebody is setting him up. He isn't innocent.
• Nerd Glasses: But he might not need them if they're only part of his disguise. He takes them off before he kills Jolene and the Cowboy.
• Never Found the Body: Tom is shot by Liz in the first season finale. However, by the time the police arrive, the body has disappeared. He survived his gunshot wound in "Mombasa Cartel".
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: His murder of the pristinely innocent harbormaster not only goes unpunished, but also largely uncommented on - he's unwaveringly team Liz, and that's enough.
• Tattooed Crook: Poses as one later on and gets some neo-Nazi tattoos for that role.
• Unholy Matrimony: According to Reddington, "Tom" was in a relationship with corporate terrorist Gina Zanetakos, a.k.a. Blacklister #152, and served as her partner-in-crime. Both he and Zanetakos deny knowing each other.
• Wham Line: Not said by him, but to him.
  Jolene: Elizabeth Keen is not your wife; she is your target.
  • He says another to Reddington in "The Decembrist":
    Tom: You know, for what it's worth, I spent four months on that ship chained up. And I never told her about us. Not one word.
  • Another said to him in "Tom Keen":
    Judge Renner: You're in love with her [Liz].
• A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: His general demeanour is dorky, and the glasses just drive the point home. It's all an act, of course.

Malik

Meera Malik

"Obviously good-cop/bad-cop isn't working here. So let's try bad-cop/worse-cop."

Played by: Parminder Nagra

A CIA agent who's part of Reddington's security detail after being activated from retirement, though she tends to spend more time working with Ressler and the other FBI agents than Dembe or Luli. Prior to her retirement, Meera was stationed overseas for most of her professional career and has worked with the DOJ in 2006 in a multilateral operation energy and non-proliferation.

---

• Action Girl: Very handy with a shotgun.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: She's very quiet and cooperative, but she can deliver a world of pain when the situation requires.
• Brainy Brunette: She seems to be the most worldly and experienced member of the team when it comes to dealing with international criminals and terrorists. She is consistently portrayed as highly intelligent in general.
• Character Death: Her throat is slit in "Berlin: Conclusion".
• Hidden Depths: She reveals in the "Pavlovich Brothers" that she can cook.
• The Mole: Seemingly so in "The Alchemist." Averted ultimately in "The Cyprus Agency."
• Nerves of Steel: During Anslo's raid in the compound, she is the most calm out of the entire team. She reacts pretty much stone-cold to having a gun pointed at her or death threats of any kind, as well.
• Sacrificial Lion: She is pretty prominent throughout the first season, but she is killed after she gets her throat slashed in "Berlin: Conclusion".
• The Stoic: The woman does not display many emotions.
• Torture Technician: Disturbingly so. In "The Good Samaritan Killer," she actually turns the tables on her FBI interrogator, contemptuously telling her that if she's the mole, a simple chat isn't going to out her.

Samar

Samar Navabi

Played By: Mozhan Marnò

A Mossad agent recruited into the FBI's task force.

---

• Action Girl: Another one in the task force with Liz.
• Assassin Outclassin': She manages to survive multiple operatives from the Osterman Umbrella Company sent to kill her.
• Badass Israeli: By default due to being a Mossad agent, but she also shows her capability with weapons when she holds off several Polish BOA operators while Liz and Ressler escape.
• Big Damn Kiss: With Aram, in the season 4 finale. At long last.
• But Not Too Foreign: An Israeli of Iranian heritage.
• Contract on the Hitman: After her resignation from Mossad, the organization who first trained her to practically be a Professional Killer, she realizes they've voted in favour of a state-sanctioned hit on her. After all, Assassins Are Always Betrayed, and she's forced to go on the run.
• Crazy-Prepared: Like all proper agents, she was Properly Paranoid and ready with an Emergency Stash when she realizes the Osterman Umbrella Company has been sent to kill her.
• Cultural Rebel: A born Iranian who turned her back on the Islamic Republic and not only joined Israel (in itself already an extreme move), but even became a Mossad agent. Also, her stance regarding gender issues.
• Depending on the Writer: Her relationship with Aram, particularly in season 4; where she constantly seems to flip-flop between whether she thinks he's the nicest guy and best friend ever or whether she feels slighted by him over some perceived shortcoming of his. This goes well beyond the random-but-consistent Love-Hate Relationship Lizzy has with Red, but is rather arbitrary instead. For example her being appreciative of his willingness to bridge the wage gap between them out of his own pocket without telling her, but then getting into his face because he suggested her as a candidate for an FBI program - again without telling her - because he didn't do it soon enough.
• Double Agent/The Mole: Appears to be one for Mossad, the task force and to the NCS Director. Subverted since she's a double agent for Mossad/The task force and for Reddington.
• Do with Him as You Will: After realizing what her brother Shahin has become, she lets Reddington have him.
• Elites Are More Glamorous: Is in command of a kidon team in Virginia, which was responsible for nabbing Reddington.
• Good Is Not Soft: She's a lady who's a member of the FBI's task force in hunting down criminals and she's a Badass Israeli who can use things to trap her targets such as doing a Honey Trap for an Iranian scientist to walk into. She's also not afraid to use torture to get information from her interviewees and she won't be easily bogged down by torture as a certain New Martyrs Brigade operative learns the hard way.
• Heroic BSoD: Suffers a massive one when she finds out her brother is alive and is leading a Terrorist Organization that supports the regime that killed their parents. She remains in this state for most of season 3.
• Honey Trap: Uses this in a Mossad operation in Dubai to take out an Iranian scientist.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: After Ressler learns Samar helped cover up an illegal Mossad raid on American soil, he angrily confronts Levi for putting Samar in a position where she had to lie to her FBI colleagues. Levi had to correct him, Samar wasn't lying to protect her countrymen, she was lying because she was part of the raid. Afterwards, Cooper calls her out for prioritizing Mossad operations when she was now FBI.
• Nerves of Steel: She never shows panic even when held at gunpoint or imprisoned by enemies. At one point when being menaced with a knife by a New Martyrs Brigade operative, one of Mossad's enemies, she simply waits until he's close enough for a headbutt.
• Put on a Bus: She is forced to go on the run after Mossad marks her for death after considering her a liability due to her progressing vascular dementia.
• Ship Tease: She has one with Aram.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: She becomes one with Malik after Malik's death in the season 1 finale.
• Statuesque Stunner: Aram is immediately smitten with the beautiful Mossad agent, stammering, "Wow, you're tall..."
• The Unfair Sex: After Aram was suffering from a case of Unrequited Love for 2 seasons, she suddenly changes her mind on that particular matter... only to find out that he (equally suddenly) has a girlfriend. She doesn't take it too well and plans on requesting a transfer from the taskforce (also for other reasons, though), naming "you never know where you stand with people here" as a reason.
• Torture Is Ineffective: Despite pressure by the Corrupt Corporate Executive, the New Martyrs Brigade operative realizes early on that Samar is a 'true believer' who won't give in to torture.
• Torture Technician: Her main specialty in Mossad outside of her agent duties. She uses this to torture a POI in "Quon Zhang".

---