The Blacklist will revisit Red and Cooper’s “little secret” in Season 7, so get excited! Cooper and Red have always had a fascinating relationship. However, up until recently, Cooper thought he was carrying on a relationship with a man he used to know – Raymond Reddington. That is, until Liz (finally) revealed the truth.
That truth being that Red is actually an imposter, having long ago taken over the identity of the real Raymond Reddington. A revelation that changes everything about all of the personal history that Cooper thought he had with the FBI’s top-secret informant. Cooper and faux Red presumably share no similar history. Now, The Blacklist is set to revisit Cooper’s past with Reddington.
Learning that Red is not really Raymond Reddington changes things for the upstanding Harold Cooper. Asked what impact Red’s true identity will have on the Task Force’s leader in Season 7, The Blacklist’s creator, Jon Bokenkamp, told EW:
It’s going to impact the show in a meaningful way, and quite soon. We have a great Cooper story that we’re telling this season. Even all the way back to the first season, we talked about Red and Cooper having a little secret about Kuwait. We’re going to revisit Kuwait very soon, and the nefarious things that happened between Reddington and Cooper back in Kuwait are going to bubble back up and influence how Cooper is feeling about Red not being Red and the task force moving forward with this stranger, this Russsian operative. Cooper is the guy who does the right thing. He’s a moral figure, and he is going to be saddled quite soon with making a decision about what to do with the task force. Cooper and his past are going to get dragged into that decision-making process in a really emotional and personal way.
OK, who is excited? Same! The Blacklist sort of teased that it would once again explore Cooper and the real Raymond Reddington’s past in the Season 7 premiere. Cooper used info only they would know to verify it was Reddington, who was being held captive. How Red knew that info (among other things) is anyone’s guess. I cannot wait to have Cooper ask him about that!
It appears that The Blacklist will be wasting no time in digging deeper into the “little secret” that Cooper and the presumably-real Raymond Reddington share. An upcoming episode of Season 7 is entitled “Kuwait” and promotional pictures from it show a flashback-era Harold Cooper. Check out this picture of actor Ruffin Prentiss taking on the role of Cooper!
Based on this, it would seem that The Blacklist is going to be flashing back to the past again. Could this be the episode where the show gets to the bottom of what happened between Cooper and Red in Kuwait? If so, what brings it on? Check out the synopsis for Episode 4 ("Kuwait") from NBC:
Cooper's moral compass is tested when an officer whom he served with as young man, long presumed to be dead, resurfaces as a POW.
Interesting! How does this potentially connect to Red and Cooper’s secret? It is tough to know. This plot synopsis does seem to relate to what The Blacklist’s creator said about Cooper’s past getting brought into his choice regarding the Task Force and Red. Could this situation be the one that helps him decide?
Since Liz has revealed the wild truth to Cooper and Aram, everyone in the Task Force knows Red’s secret. According to Liz (by way of her grandfather, Dom), Red is really Ilya Koslov, a Russian operative and long-time friend of Katarina Rostova. The friend bit may be out the window now, though.
The future of the Task Force is now in Cooper’s hands. What will he decide? I cannot imagine The Blacklist without the Task Force, so we will have to wait and see!
Tune in to learn more about Red and Cooper’s “little secret,” when new episodes of The Blacklist air Fridays, at 8 p.m. ET, on NBC, as part of this fall's premieres. You can catch up on all things Cooper/Red via past seasons of The Blacklist that are streaming on Netflix, along with lots of upcoming content.
