Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Liz enters the season knowing from the bones that the man called Raymond Reddington is an impostor, but she hides that knowledge while she and Jennifer investigate his past. Red is arrested, tried for treason and acquitted on that charge, but his other crimes leave him facing execution. The task force and Cooper work to save him as the trial exposes both the limits of Red's immunity deal and the danger of his ties to foreign powers. Red's schemes buy time, but he ultimately depends on the task force's efforts and a White House appeal to restore his agreement and keep him alive.
The personal investigation grows more tangled when Ressler identifies Dom as Liz's grandfather. Dom tells Liz that her mother, Katarina Rostova, survived her apparent suicide and that childhood friend Ilya Koslov helped her disappear by taking on Raymond Reddington's identity. The episode presents this as Dom's account, not an independently confirmed answer. In the finale, Red speaks with a stranger who questions why Dom chose to tell that story, leaving Red's own identity unresolved. Samar’s illness makes Mossad view her as a liability; assassins pursue her, and she flees abroad with Red’s help, leaving Aram behind.
A second arc draws the team into a conspiracy involving presidential adviser Anna McMahon and President Robert Diaz. The task force uncovers Diaz's plan to have his wife killed before she can reveal that he killed two people while drunk. They stop the assassination; the First Lady survives, Diaz resigns, and Dembe kills McMahon. After learning Katarina's location in Paris, Red goes to meet her. They kiss, then she injects him and has her associates carry his unconscious body away, ending the season with his fate and her motives unsettled.