The Blacklist: Every Main Character’s Worst Trait

The main characters on NBC series The Blacklist are pretty complex. A mix of FBI agents and other team members as well as criminals, they each have their good and bad traits. As Raymond “Red” Reddington, one of the FBI’s Most Wanted criminals, helps the FBI take down some of the world’s most dangerous (and smartest) criminals and criminal enterprises, the characters’ journies evolve.

Each episode follows a different case and “blacklister” that Red brings to the attention of the team. But there are bigger side stories going on, many of which bring out the best, and the worst, in each person.

10 Elizabeth Keen: Can’t Decide On Allegiances

Elizabeth comes across as fiercely loyal, and she is. Yet she flip-flops in terms of her allegiances, clearly unable to make a decision. Sure, there are circumstances that make it difficult for her to know what to believe, and she has been through quite a lot. But one day, she’s 100% on side with the FBI. The next, she will lie to get Red the access he needs.

Then all of a sudden, a switch flipped and she was anti-Red and totally on side with her biological mother. She needs to find someone to trust and stick with them, through thick and thin. Many of her relationships, it seems, are quite toxic and based on lies and deception.

9 Donald Ressler: No Backbone

Ressler loves to play by the book, which is an admirable quality. But he also sometimes has no backbone and people take advantage of him because of it. He isn’t willing to go against protocol in order to get something done and is rarely able to make a tough decision without someone else making it for him.

He has every quality one would want in an FBI agent but it’s difficult not to sometimes feel bad for Ressler because he lacks the personal confidence to go above and beyond what the job might require at times.

8 Harold Cooper: Too Forgiving

At first, it was sweet to see how forgiving Harold could be when his team made blunders or went against his orders. But at times, he can act too much like a friend and father figure versus a boss. He could stand to be more authoritative with his team at times.

He runs the FBI team well and always makes the right decision. But he’s often too soft, with Red as well, when he could be pushing his position as leader better by being tougher on them all. Meanwhile, Harold gets along well with everyone, which can be at the expense of the effectiveness of the team.

7 Raymond “Red” Reddington: Relentless in Pursuits

While viewers still don’t quite understand what the big secret is that Raymond is hiding, what they do know is that he will stop at nothing to protect it. He has killed innocent people, torn families apart, and even driven Liz to the brink of sanity, forcing her to break the law time and time again in order to keep this secret.

Despite Red being the best character by far on the series, he is completely relentless. At some point, he must realize that the secret isn’t worth everything he’s sacrificing to keep it.

6 Dembe Zuma: Loyal To A Fault

Dembe is one of the most trustworthy and loyal people but this can sometimes be to a fault and at the expense of intelligence. He was willing to get Red killed, for example, in order to protect his Imam, even if Raymond understood that he had to make a choice.

It seems Dembe knows the truth about Raymond and could reveal it to Liz, ending all of her pain and heartbreak. Yet he is so loyal that despite seeing how it is taking a toll on Liz, he won’t help her.

5 Aram Mojtabai: Not Enough Self-Confidence

While Aram has gotten more confident throughout the show, he still lacks the confidence as an agent that he has clearly earned. While his primary job is working back at the office, guiding the team via the computer and technology, and investigating from behind-the-scenes, he has proven that he’s no slouch with a gun in his hands either.

He could be an even bigger force to be reckoned with if he sat back and realized his true worth.

4 Glen Carter: Sloppy Eater

While Glen often provided much of the comic relief the show desperately needed during some really intense scenes, he also had an important role on Raymond’s team. Working at the DMV, he had access to information that Raymond often needed.

And while he was always jovial and resourceful, Glen was also constantly eating. And he was a slob when he did, spilling food on his clothing or chewing grossly. It was all part of his charm, but aside from his constant desire to beat around the bush and procrastinate, it was his worst trait.

3 Tom Keen: Sneaky

Tom was very sneaky, even inserting himself into Liz’s life and marrying her when he had originally only been sent to keep an eye on her. Sure, he did eventually actually fall in love with her and she learned the truth about who he really was.

Nonetheless, his life as a con man represents his worst trait, which was being sneaky and underhanded in his dealings, making him difficult to trust.

2 Mr. Kaplan: Can’t Separate Work And Personal

Mr. Kaplan had a job that seemingly required no emotion, going to murder sites and cleaning them up, then burying the bodies. She had a natural talent for this. But despite her ability to completely separate emotion from her job in these cases, she couldn’t do it all the time.

She became way too close with Liz and wanted to help her discover the truth so badly that she betrayed Raymond.

1 Katarina Rostova: Untrustworthy

Was Katarina Rostova telling the truth? Was it a lie? Was she innocent all along? Sometimes, it seemed as though she was totally believable while other times, it seemed she was a really talented liar and was completely manipulating the situation.

Even Liz had trouble figuring it out. It was difficult to trust Katarina given what she was accused of, what Red said about her, and the fact that she did some pretty heinous things in order to get answers.

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