To most of us this is ridiculous but I see this theory getting more and more play. It seems several people who used to be daddy-gaters are switching to this theory since DG officially died both in canon and per Jon Bokenkamp.

It appears that many people believe that the only kind of love that Red could possibly feel towards Elizabeth is paternal. This totally ignores the fact you can love your friends, or your partners, or your significant other, someone else’s child who grew up into an unrelated adult, or even your pets intensely.

But let’s get to the evidence shall we?

First let’s talk about the physical differences between Katarina and Red:

Lotte Verbeek who played Katarina is 5′6″. James Spader is 5′10. Gender reassignment surgery does not add 4 inches to your bone structure. If TPTB were going this route, it would have been very easy to find an actress who is also 5′10″ to make this problem moot.



Lotte is about 120 lbs. James (when he was younger) was about 160 lbs. He has a larger bone structure too. Lotte is very slight. James has a very broad chest and shoulders. Their physical structure is too different and can’t be explained by gender reassignment surgery or hormone therapy.



James also is known for his very deep voice, even compared to other men. They really chose the wrong actor to play a transgender because most would find it hard to believe a former woman could get that deep of voice after hormone therapy. Same thing for a transgender to grow as much chest hair as James has. Would be very difficult.



In addition Red is shown adjusting the family jewels in 04x14 (gif by factoseintolerant)



Moving on to relationships with others. Katarina certainly appears to be a heterosexual woman. She was married to Constantine Rostov and had an affair with the real Raymond Reddington. Probably fell in love with him too.

Now let’s look at Red’s relationships. We have never gotten any hints at all that he likes men and Katarina sure did. In fact Red truly loves his women and they love him:

Madeline Pratt

Red: “He told me all about that delightful thing you do with a trouser belt, which was a bit hurtful, since I was pretty sure it was our thing.”



Doctor Lauren Kimberly:

Josephine Moliere

Naomi/Carla:

Even though Naomi knew Red was an impostor, she still told Liz this about Red. “And there’s no one on earth who can make a woman feel like the center of his universe more than Raymond Reddington. I’ll tell you this, though. He’s not who you think he is.” . We can assume Naomi is heterosexual having been married to Raymond Reddington and then her current male significant other. She sounded like she was talking about a man and we know she is referring to impostor Red from her last line, not the real Raymond Reddington. And why the heck would she want to help Katarina pretend to be her husband?

Let’s move on to things said by Red and others that disprove Red is Katarina. I will insert my thoughts into ( ):

Episode 01x03 Red to Liz: “That’s what they said about Deep Throat … and the G-Spot.” This was weird enough for a “father” to say to a daughter, but doubly weird for a mom to say it to her daughter.

Episode 01x08 Red to Ressler (part of larger speech) “I want to sit in the garden and read one more good book. Most of all, I want to sleep. I want to sleep like I slept when I was a boy. Give me that. Just one time.” (Red said boy. He could have easily said child if he wanted to be vague. He didn’t).

Episode 01x08 Dembe to Red “Raymond! Ours is a friendship forged once in this life and again in the next. Goodbye, my brother.” (Dembe definitely feels like he has a brotherhood with Red. Brotherhood would be very hard to achieve if one party was a woman).



Episode 03x01. Not a line but a reaction to seeing Liz turn blonde:

I mean it is pretty obvious that Red’s reaction to Liz is one of attraction, excitement. Liz picked up on it right away. Obviously Red is not her father, but even more so, Red would not act that way if Liz reminded him of herself (Katarina). Or Katarina had the hots for her daughter. In either case, this is strong evidence Red is not Katarina.

Episode 03x20 Dom to Red as Red is playing with glitter: “You have no right to go through her things.” ( Dom knows the truth about who Red is. If Red were Katarina, those would be her things and Dom would know it)

Episode 03x20. Dom to Red: “No, not just like me. She’s gone because of choices you made for both of them. First Katarina and then Masha. As far as I’m concerned, you killed my entire family! No, you’re not like me.” (Dom is talking to him about Katarina, saying Red killed his entire family, including Katarina. Don’t you think Dom would react differently if Red was really Katarina? He would know she was very much alive and standing in front of him. And even if he “knew” Katarina was Red and was very upset by it, he would have said something like you ruined my entire family, not killed them)

Episode 03x20. Dom to Red: “There was nothing complicated about it. We had to back out of Masha’s life to keep her safe, after you made a colossal mess of everything. Only you couldn’t stay well enough away, could you? Now you… you come to my house with this sorry tale of loss, like you’re the only one affected by this. You’re the only one whose feelings matter. Well, guess what, Raymond? Masha was my granddaughter, and now she’s dead without even knowing I existed! All my sacrifices shot to hell. I could’ve spent the last 30 years just being her grandfather… You selfish prick…. I loved that girl enough to let her go, which is more than you can say.” (If Red was Katarina she would have made the same sacrifices Dom made to protect her child. In fact in Cape May she inferred she should kill herself to protect Masha. Obviously Red could not walk away because he did not have a parental mindset towards Masha. The second piece of evidence here was that Dom called Red a prick - a term only used for men, certainly not a word to use on his daughter.)

Episode 04x08 Kaplan to Liz: “Please, do what your mother never had the courage to do until it was too late. Walk away from Raymond.” (Clearly Kaplan is talking to Liz about about her mother and Red as two separate people. She is telling Liz that Katarina could not break away from Red and doesn’t want Liz to have the same fate as her mother).

Episode 04x22 Dembe to Red: “Raymond I’m not sure Elizabeth will ever be ready to learn about what you did to Katarina.” (Sounds like Red did something to Katarina. And if Red were Katarina, then Katarina should be the one apologizing for what she did to herself).

Episode 04x17 (observations): When Katarina brought Masha back from the fire in Requiem, she did not appear to have been severely burned by the fire except for a hole in the upper left side her blouse.



Above you can see the fire damage was not enough to burn off her bra strap

And below notice that most of her shirt is unaffected by the fire.

Compare to the extensive scarring on Red’s back



A couple of other things:



We saw Katarina writing in her journal with her left hand. Red is right-handed, signing documents right handed and holding his gun with his right hand.



Hisham is 48 so let’s assume Dembe is 48. Since Red rescued him at age 14, that would have been 34 years ago or 1984 when Red still would have been Katarina. Have you EVER gotten the impression that Katarina cares for anyone but herself? And again Dembe thinks of Red as his brother and probably developed most of those feelings when he was young - when he would have been living with a woman!



Also some say Cape May proves Red is Katarina as he is talking to the ghost of himself. With that logic, then Liz is really Tom because she was talking to his ghost in 05x22.



And in Cape May Katarina says she is a danger to Masha so she needs to exit her life. Does it make sense that she would reenter her life by taking on the identity of a man who may be even more dangerous to Masha? Talk about contradictions.



Hope this helps alleviate some of the fear about Red being Katarina. Feel free to add to this blog with more evidence. Thanks.