The Blacklist Bosses on the 'Incredibly Fun Tension' of That Katarina Rostova Twist

The final moments of The Blacklist Season 7 Episode 2 added a scary new twist to the Katarina Rostova (Laila Robins) saga, as the menacing former KGB agent moved into an apartment down the hall from Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone). Using the pseudonym Maddie Tolliver, Rostova is going to insinuate herself into her daughter and granddaughter's lives, without Liz knowing her true identity, in order to spy on them and use them to get the secrets she wants from Raymond Reddington (James Spader).

"I think that it's a hopefully incredibly fun tension for the audience, the fox being in the hen house," executive producer John Eisendrath told TV Guide. "Will Liz find out? When will Liz find out? And until she finds out, what kind of risk does Katarina living across the hall pose? You know, she obviously wants something. She's obviously willing to eavesdrop on Liz to find it and to insinuate herself into not only Liz's life, but to the life of her child. Which is hopefully so Hand That Rocks the Cradle creepy, weird that people will really have the hair on the back of their neck stand up while they're watching it."

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"Keep in mind, nobody has seen this woman," adds executive producer Jon Bokenkamp. "Katarina Rostova has not been seen nor heard from in decades." And Liz has no idea what her long-lost mother looks like now. "Nobody in our show other than Dom (Brian Dennehy) and Red really have a present day awareness of who this woman is. So again, as John says, there hopefully is a lot of fun for the audience being in on the secret that most of the rest of our cast is not in on it."

Liz will surely find out at some point, but will it be before or after Rostova has done something to harm her or Agnes? That's the question.

The Blacklist airs Fridays at 8/7c on NBC.