What will Siya do with this newfound information?
Siya Malek (Anya Banerjee) has already put away quite a few criminals on The Blacklist; it’s definitely safe to say she’s earned her keep as the newest member of the Task Force.
That said, she has some questions. For one, why does the FBI so willingly trust Raymond Reddington (James Spader), a man with a criminal empire? Also: There are hidden circumstances surrounding her mother Meera’s murder while she served in the Task Force that need to be addressed.
The latest Blacklist episode, “The Man in the Hat” (Season 10, Episode 11), took a closer look at Siya’s complicated past. Once a viral video surfaces of an armed man holding a group of people hostage at a gas station, the Task Force becomes concerned when one victim looks exactly like Red. While Agent Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff) and Dembe Zuma (Hisham Tawfiq) go to the rural gas station to investigate, Siya holds down the fort at the post office.
Siya admits to Harold Cooper (Harry Lennix) that she previously attempted to look into some of her mother’s cases, specifically her last one. Cooper tells her that he got approval for Siya to gain secure access to all the Task Force’s records to see what damage Red did with Hexroot (alongside recruited Blacklister the Troll Farmer). That includes records about her mom’s role in the Task Force.
Remember, the primary reason Siya joined the Reddington Task Force was to seek the truth about her mother’s highly-confidential demise. For context: Meera was tragically murdered in the Season 1 finale while going against the nefarious Blacklister, Berlin. Siya isn’t shocked when she finds this out. After all, she’s a former MI6, so it’s not too insane for her to imagine her secret-agent mother meeting her maker on the job. That said, a small detail in Meera’s FBI personnel file does blindside Siya.
Siya is referred to as an “adopted child” in Meera’s records, which doesn’t align with what Meera told Siya growing up. But sure enough, after double-checking her birth certificate, Siya sees she was born in a health clinic in Kolkata despite being told she was born in the U.K. Even worse, Siya’s research concludes that the Kolkata health clinic never existed. Stunned by this discovery, Siya shares her concerns with Task Force forensic analyst Herbie Hambright (Alex Brightman).
“If I was adopted, she would have told me,” Siya theorizes while noting her genetic similarities to her family. “It has to be a mistake, right?”
Herbie offers to run Meera’s DNA profile against Siya’s to verify the truth, and she reluctantly agrees. Herbie completes the DNA test and places the results in an envelope. By doing so, he says Siya can choose whether or not she actually wants to see the answer. She can rip the envelope up and ignore it forever or find out once and for all. While hesitating, Siya asks Herbie what he would do in her position. After Siya reveals she always felt loved growing up, Herbie tells her to focus on the happy childhood Meera provided instead of the birth details.
“If your worldview is working for you, why take a risk in fixing something that isn’t broken?” Herbie asks.
“Because I need to know,” Siya admits while opening the envelope.
In a truly jaw-dropping scene, Siya opens the results to learn she and Meera are a 0% genetic match. Siya was adopted, and Meera took that secret to her grave.
“That worldview?” Siya tearfully says. “It’s broken now.”
Cooper checks in on Siya at the end of their hectic day, aware she’s likely rummaged through the unsavory details of her mother’s murder. Siya says she is unfazed by Meera’s last mission; she expected the worse. But she didn’t expect the lack of satisfaction from discovering the truth. All Siya is left with is more questions about her mysterious mother than answers.
“I joined this team because I wanted to know what happened to her and why,” Siya tells Cooper. “This Task Force had the answers, so I wanted to be one of you to find out if her death meant something. She was my mother.”
Siya is clearly mourning more than her mother’s murder; she’s also grieving the childhood her mother built around a lie.
“Something important in your life is unknown, leading to a feeling of helplessness,” Cooper correctly guesses. “So you took a job in intelligence so you could take control of your life with knowledge. But in this job, the only real knowledge to be had is that most questions never find a satisfying answer.”
Cooper adds, “But if you need to know if your mother’s death meant something, more than what it meant to you, I can tell you. Meera Malik was a good woman and a fine agent. She saved lives, and her loss was immeasurable.”
He’s right, but here are our questions: Will Siya’s adoptive origins drive a wedge in her perceptions about her mother? Or is Herbie right: Meera created a happy upbringing for Siya, so why fixate on the small
