“The Blacklist” is a show that revolves around a character who’s so awesome, it seems there’s nothing he can’t do. Criminal and informant extraordinaire Raymond “Red” Reddington (James Spader) has been hatching his devious and not-so-devious plots on NBC for nine seasons, and survived all sorts of dangerous scenarios while dealing a good bunch of damage himself. Red has experienced his own losses — the death of Liz Keen (Megan Boone) in the ending of “The Blacklist” Season 8 in particular — but it’s rarely been in doubt that he’s as capable and magnificent a character as they come.
Because of all this, it seems obvious that no other character can hope to hold the proverbial torch to Red when “The Blacklist” fans gather to list their favorites. However, it appears that some fans have their own take about the greatest character in “The Blacklist” after the obvious one … and it might not be who you’d expect.
Dembe has emerged as a strong fan favorite
Sure, “The Blacklist” is essentially “The Red Show,” but that hasn’t stopped many fans from loving another character — one that, as it happens, hangs around Red even more than your average “The Blacklist” character. Dembe Zuma (Hisham Tawfiq) is Red’s bodyguard and right-hand man, who stands by his boss through thick and thin … at least, for most of the time. Dembe has proved his worth as a bodyguard many times, but he’s also demonstrated all sorts of hidden depths over the course of the show. Evidently, this well-rounded character is also extremely well-received, considering the love Dembe gets on Reddit.
“No matter how things end, if there’s one character who deserves a happy ending on this show its definitely Dembe,” u/jayt00212 wrote. “His backstory was inspiring,” u/LlBlueDevil_7 opined, referring to Dembe’s extremely tragic childhood and the way Red helped him rise from his awful beginnings to a well-learned, multilingual and highly capable person with hidden depths to spare. Other fans in the thread agreed that Dembe’s indeed great, with many pointing out particularly enjoyable and funny interactions he has with Red over the course of the show. Another Reddit thread outright proclaims Dembe one of the best supporting characters ever, while yet another considers him one of the outright best characters in any show at all.
Dembe’s character is extremely tied to Red, and much of the love stems from the interactions between the pair, so it would probably be an overstatement to call him the most popular character in the show. Still, it’s clear that fans rank him very high.This probably isn’t exactly hurt by the fact that Tawfiq is an American hero in real life, as he’s a former Marine, and a firefighter who worked at Ground Zero following the 9/11 attacks. “He’s a true hero & friend. On & off screen, I’m sure,” u/pkgetz1088 wrote.
