The Blacklist seasons 9 and 10 divided fans like few other serial TV dramas ever have. Changes to staple characters and increasingly bizarre plot twists in the show’s final two seasons garnered mixed reactions from its core audience, arguably undermining what came before them. Perhaps the most prominent example of The Blacklist provoking the ire of longtime fans was its dramatic transformation of the character Dembe Zuma in seasons 9 and 10. Dembe had been a stalwart guardian to Raymond Reddington for most of the show’s run, but its final stretch of episodes turned him into something else entirely.
In fact, The Blacklist’s ending did so much damage to Dembe Zuma’s character arc that we’re better off remembering him without it. What set Dembe apart as a character in The Blacklist throughout the show’s first eight seasons was his unwavering loyalty to a friend he’d known for most of his life. Even when he was suspected of betraying Red by trying to kill him, it turned out that he was actually hunting down the real culprit behind Red’s poisoning. Yet, in seasons 9 and 10, Dembe’s decades standing by Red’s side are suddenly transformed into something sinister.
The Blacklist Seasons 9 & 10 Ruined Dembe Zuma
Dembe Joining The FBI & Turning Against Red Was A Bad Choice
The warning signs that Dembe Zuma’s character arc was heading in a controversial direction began with the very first episode of season 9, The Blacklist’s weakest season overall, as Dembe was revealed to have become an FBI agent. This move ran contrary to his role as Raymond Reddington’s personal bodyguard and confidant throughout the previous seasons, and it created a conflict of interest between the two characters at several critical points during the show’s last two outings.
Dembe’s eulogy of Red in the show’s closing moments takes nothing away from his betrayal.
Things come to a head in season 9, episode 5, “Benjamin T. Okara,” when Dembe finally breaks his formal association with Red in The Blacklist. This twist wasn’t such a letdown in itself, as Dembe wavers in his support of the FBI task force against Red later in the season, and ends up returning to the side of his lifelong friend. There was worse to come in The Blacklist’s final season, however, with the show’s finale ruining Dembe Zuma’s character arc for good.
The Blacklist’s double episode ending saw Raymond Reddington save Dembe twice, first from prison, then from certain death. Yet Dembe himself betrayed Red without a second thought, pointing FBI Counterterrorism Director Harold Cooper and MI6 special agent Siya Malik to Reddington’s location at his villa near Carmona in Andalusia, Spain. Dembe’s eulogy of Red in the show’s closing moments takes nothing away from his betrayal, which meant that James Spader’s central protagonist would have been apprehended by the FBI and put on trial if he hadn’t been killed by a bull near his villa.
Dembe Was Raymond Reddington’s Loyal Right Hand For 8 Seasons Of The Blacklist
It Seemed As Though Nothing Could Break Their Bond
Prior to Dembe’s decision to turn against Red in seasons 9 and 10 of The Blacklist, he was Reddington’s unshakable right hand. It seemed Dembe would have done anything to protect Red, and his loyal support for the master criminal-turned-informant was almost never in doubt. It was only in the season 4 episode “The Apothecary” that Dembe’s loyalty was briefly called into question, when he was suspected of poisoning Reddington in one of The Blacklist’s most shocking moments. However, it turned out that he was far from responsible for the attempted murder — and was instrumental in bringing down the person who was.
Red’s introduction of Dembe as a main character in The Blacklist’s season 2 episode “The Mombasa Cartel” revealed the basis for their special, seemingly unbreakable, bond. Red saved Dembe from a tortuous existence and imminent peril in a Nairobi brothel as a 14-year-old boy. From that moment on, Red mentored him into the adult he became, an inimitable force for good in Reddington’s life and his faithful protector, who rescued him from danger countless times during the course of The Blacklist.
As Red later told Liz Keen, Dembe’s protection wasn’t repayment for Red saving him. It was based on the steadfast belief that somewhere inside Reddington there was a better person than his crimes suggested. Right until the very end of The Blacklist season 8, when Dembe helped Red escape the scene of Liz’s death before the FBI task force could catch him, he remained the person who kept him safe. Even when Dembe disagreed with Red’s actions, which happened on numerous occasions throughout The Blacklist, his support for him never wavered.
It feels like the ultimate betrayal of Dembe Zuma’s character for The Blacklist to have negated his decades of loyal service to Red in its final two seasons. Dembe’s sudden change of heart also makes no sense. Red was a cold-blooded killer working against the U.S. state long before the events of The Blacklist, and none of his immoral actions during the first eight seasons of the show led Dembe to turn against him. His sudden decision to join the FBI, stop working with Red, and ultimately betray him went against everything we thought we knew about the character.
What Happened To Dembe Was Symptomatic Of The Blacklist’s Decline In Its Last Seasons
The Blacklist Completely Lost Its Way In Seasons 9 & 10
Rather than being a regrettable anomaly in The Blacklist’s story, though, what happened to Dembe Zuma was just one of the most outrageous examples of the show turning its back on longtime fans. The series began a decline following Liz Keen’s death at the end of season 8, meaning that The Blacklist seasons 9 and 10 are almost universally considered the least popular in the show’s history among audiences and critics alike. Viewers continued watching in the hope that Raymond Reddington’s real identity would be confirmed in the show’s finale, but even that climactic revelation never came to pass.
Instead, The Blacklist continued undermining its own character arcs and internal logic until an admittedly engrossing and moving finale saw Dembe Zuma exact the ultimate betrayal. Raymond Reddington was certainly no hero in the typical sense. A lesser right-hand than Dembe would have given up on him long before the show’s last two seasons. But one of the things that made Reddington special as a character — that gave him many of his redeeming features — was the exceptional sense of kinship that he shared with Dembe. The Blacklist ultimately throwing this aspect of his character away is unforgivable.
