Drag Race and feeling euphoria being Willow

[Jin Wah]

When Red wants answers, he’ll do just about anything to get them. In this EXCLUSIVE preview of the March 4 episode of The Blacklist, he comes face-to-face with a woman who may have the answers he wants. When the mysterious woman asks who Red is, he simply replies, “Who I am is not important. What matters is that you are Helen from apartment 3B.”

Helen says if this has something to do with Ken, then she had “nothing to do with it.” Red doesn’t want to know about Ken. “Charles VanDyke, you’re here to tell me about him,” Red says. After a brief pause, Helen claims she hasn’t seen him in years.

“No, I’m sure. Probably not since I killed him,” Red quips. Helen pleads with Red and says she’ll work with him. “I don’t know what it is you want, but whatever it is I’ll give it to you,” she cries.

Red replies, “I want names — friends, colleagues, acquaintances, and anything VanDyke left behind. Papers, books, bank records, computers… you look like you collect things. I want what you’ve collected from Charlie.”

When he brings up the name Elizabeth Keen — a name we know all too well — Helen gives Red a look and quivers, “I don’t know who that is.” Red asks, “He never mentioned her?” Helen says Charlie never said anything about Liz and swears by it. “We’ll see,” Red says. The interrogation is far from over, and Red has something planned with a camel’s urine. Helen better start talking and fast.

Meanwhile, the task force investigate a black market company called Arcane Wireless. The organization makes untraceable phones for criminal organizations and is run by a man known only as The Seer. While investigating the case, Aram meets up with his former mentor, a man named FJ Powell.

Eventually, FJ tells Aram that he is the creator of Arcane Wireless. The organization is secretly run by the FBI in order to track criminals and the Seer himself is an FBI agent. Ressler and Dembe learn this information too late. They arrest the Seer and blow his operation. The task force later learn that this was Red’s plan all along, as Arcane Wireless’ true target was Red himself.

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"It's taken me a long time to come to terms with my transness because so much space has been taken up by my illness," Willow wrote in a post, which touched on their diagnosis with the kidney disease cystinosis. "My condition has caused me so much physical and emotional pain that my body became something I always wanted out of. Eventually, hating my body for failing me and hating myself for not being a girl was so constant and intertwined that it felt totally normal. I know it's not my fault, just the way I've learned to survive."

Willow, who explained that their pronouns are they/she, said they explored "feelings about illness, medical PTSD, and self-hatred" in quarantine during the coronavirus pandemic, and eventually came to learn that they were "not happy" with their gender identity, either.

Much of that is due to being on Drag Race and feeling euphoria being Willow for the first time since quarantine and being around a bunch of queer and trans friends on set," the post continued, referencing Willow's fellow season 14 contestants Kerri Colby, Kornbread "The Snack" Jeté, Bosco, and Jasmine Kennedie — all of whom came out as trans before, during, or after the show.

Willow added that they are "still not sure" where they fit on the spectrum of gender, but: "For now, I just say trans femme, but I also don't have to know now." The queen also opened up about having surgery in November to make their face "a bit more feminine" as well as to counteract some effects of "long-term medication" ahead of discussing a "low dose of hormones with a doctor" on their journey.

“RuPaul’s Drag Race” invites comedian Nicole Byer, of “Nailed It,” to guest judge when season 14 returns for episode 9 on Friday, March 4 (3/4/2022).

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