Toby Rieper

***Toby Rieper*** is the leader of the Special Ops group, The Blacklist (Group). He's in a relationship with Shaunna Royalsden up until the end of The Blacklist. He is best friends with Ralph Lindsay and also close friends with Amelia Jersey, who is the final member of the group.

Toby is a very strong leader and would give his life away for any of his team members. He is often seen as overly serious when on the job, especially as he holds the leader position and feels responsible for everyone else's lives. Due to having a difficult childhood and harsh upbringing, Toby has always had to improvise and get through tough situations, which makes him perfect for his role in the group. He takes his relationships and friendships very seriously - as well as his job - as they are the only loved ones he has left due to him losing his parents and brother when he was just a child. Because of this, Toby is somewhat depressed and harsh on himself; he always takes the blame when anything goes wrong and he finds it difficult to move on when his friends are hurt. He is strong minded and has a strong sense of will, which allowed him to get through his life successfully despite the many obstacles he faced.

## Biography

***Toby Rieper*** was born on the 17th March 1987, in Manchester and lived there all his life. He was brought up in a working class area of Hyde by his two parents. He had a great, happy childhood with his older brother Anthony Rieper, until his parents were killed in a terrorist attack in France when he was 11 years old. Toby became an orphan as he had no other family closeby and his brother was away in Afghanistan. It was only two years later that Toby was informed that his brother had been killed (which is later found to be false in The Blacklist and The Blacklist: Reunited, where we find out that Anthony is Toby's brother.) He was offered a small flat in Dukinfield and went to college in Ashton in 2004, where he met Shaunna Royalsden for the first time when they shared maths and English courses. They became good friends, although nothing came of it at that point in time.

Toby wanted to become a pilot, therefore after finishing college in 2006, he applied for a pilot training programme with a passenger airline as he could not afford University. In 2007 as Toby was in training, he dated a girl named Alex. They had a weird on-and-off relationship which was full of drama and secrets, but Toby fought very hard for it as she was the first person he had loved since he was a child. Consequently, he had no knowledge of Alex's involvement in dangerous activities and her brutal death by shrapnel came as a huge blow to him. Having lost the only close person he had, Toby broke down and completely stopped doing his pilot training. He dedicated the rest of that year to finding out who killed his girlfriend, only to be led to a nameless terrorist organisation.

With all hope gone, Toby channeled his anger into training physically. He met Shaunna Royalsden again when they coincidentally signed up at the same gym in Hyde in 2008, and they became even closer friends quickly. Toby at this point was working a regular retail job, but he wasn't satisfied. He put all of his earnings and efforts into completing online and physical training, ranging from unarmed combat, to firearms, to military tactics and more - and due to also having a small amount of flying experience on the side - he managed to get an office job in a special ops company. By 2011 at the age of 24, he had climbed up the ranks and continued on with more specialised agent training, and was able to branch off into his own special ops group known as The Blacklist (Group). He asked Shaunna to join him, which she eventually did one year later and they mostly did small security events and ran errands for the main company.

A few years into working together, Toby and Shaunna developed romantic feelings for each other. They tried dating in 2014, but it didn't go very well for them as they struggled to balance work life with their romantic endeavors. They broke up after only four months which had an impact on their careers. To ease tensions and maintain a healthy environment, they decided to hire two more agents in 2015, Ralph Lindsay and Amelia Jersey, to also help them out and expand the team. The four of them quickly became close friends and found a perfect balance between work and friendship. Toby especially created a bond with Ralph, as his own leadership and tactical skills matched perfectly with Ralph's abilities and need of a leader.

Toby fell in love with Shaunna once again, and he told her that he hadn't stopped developing feelings for her. After a few months, Shaunna agreed to dating again. This time, they got along much better and were very happy together. This led on until the events of The Blacklist in 2018, at which point Toby was 31 years old. Toby is thought to be dead at the end of The Blacklist after Ralph is forced to shoot him to escape a sticky situation. He is later revealed to be revived by a certain chemical used by the International Assassination Agency in 2023 at the start of The Blacklist: Reunited.

Toby is aged 31 in The Blacklist, and aged 36 in The Blacklist: Reunited.

## Appearance

### In The Blacklist

**Toby Rieper Appearance**
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## Role in The Blacklist

Although not the most experienced agent in The Blacklist (Group), Toby is the leader as he himself established the group and he has the best leadership skills. We see this throughout the book as he comes up with elaborate plans quickly when faced with difficult scenarios, a skill he developed as a result of constantly being placed in unfortunate situations since childhood. Toby is from the start committed to his job, and takes it very serious. He is aware that he is responsible for the other agents' lives, and he reacts very negatively to Shaunna Royalsden getting shot on a mission. Toby is overall honest with everyone, and tries to keep good relations with all.

Toby's relationship with Shaunna Royalsden is is tested when Toby and Ralph Lindsay break off from the team. Although Amelia Jersey is mad at Toby for making this decision, Shaunna Royalsden trusts him and instead tries to figure out his steps. This is because Toby has known Shaunna closely for 10 years now, and they met a whole 14 years ago; they have the longest relationship out of all of the agents, and have been through a lot together. Toby knows all about Shaunna Royalsden's past and bringing up, and she knows everything about him. They have a mutual understanding and respect for one another already at the start of the book. This doesn't change throughout the story, as they remain close together until the end.

However, Toby's relationship with Ralph Lindsay is fresher, as they've only known each other for 3 years, since Ralph Lindsay joined The Blacklist (Group) alongside Amelia Jersey in 2015. Toby trusts Ralph Lindsay greatly and overall sees him as the most skilled agent in the team, which is why he picks him when they break off from the group. Their dynamic can be weird as they are both pretty serious, especially when on the job, but their communications are clear and precise. As with everyone else, Toby would risk his own life for Ralph Lindsay; which we see happen multiple times in the book, and eventually this leads to Toby getting shot by Paula Smith when he saves Ralph Lindsay as he's being choked. Toby acts as a character who teaches Ralph Lindsay how to be more human, and to break away from his tendency to just act like a killing machine. This also comes through when Toby is pushing for Ralph Lindsay to maintain good relationships with his parents and with Charlotte Lindsay.

When the Strategic Support Unit turns on The Blacklist (Group), Toby isn't immediate to want to seek revenge. We can see his more mature approach through trying to keep peace whereas Ralph Lindsay would very much prefer retaliation. Toby takes more time to plan and to think things through, and he's not one to want to take chances. His focus is constantly on trying to re-establish The Blacklist (Group) and pull them out from their financial problems. We only ever really see him properly angry at someone other than himself when he storms The Blacklist Headquarters and requests a proper budget for the mission.

Toby changes during the book as he continues to realise that everything is a team effort and nothing can be achieved alone. He doesn't feel good when him and Shaunna Royalsden are left behind when the others are all engaged in the affairs in London. He stops taking chances, and always picks the plan that has the lowest risk of anyone getting hurt. He constantly tries to maintain a good status with all around him, even people who have gone against him in the past. But overall, he is the team leader who guides the other three throughout the book almost as a mentor.

## Role in The Blacklist: Reunited

Toby's death at the end of The Blacklist led to the agents splitting up and going their own ways in the 5 year period between the first and second installment. He is brought back by the International Assassination Agency by a chemical used by Diana Kerber which revived him and gave them full control over his actions. They trained him over the five years into a killing machine, his skills now matching and sometimes exceeding that of Ralph Lindsay and Amelia Jersey. He comes back as a heartless assassin, stripped off his whole personality and brainwashed into wanting to murder everyone in The Blacklist (Group). He begins by assassinating Crossroads first, and then terrorises the other members, eventually attempting to murder Shaunna Royalsden at the Warehouse in front of the others, but ultimately fails.

Throughout the book, Toby goes on a killing spree organised by Diana Kerber who is getting revenge on The Blacklist (Group) after the events in The Blacklist. However, when Penny Steiker goes missing and Toby can't find her and Diana Kerber refuses to tell him about her plans, he stops taking the chemical which leads to his fond memories coming back. He is contacted by Ralph Lindsay when everything is falling apart, and Toby starts gaining control over his body again. He reunites with the main characters and wants to help the Strategic Support Unit in finding Penny Steiker. He apologises for his actions and tries to make up for it to the others.

Toby's past is revealed during events in the book as he gains his memory back when the chemical starts wearing off. Although at the start he keeps taking the tablets to force the memories out of his head, he accepts them when he breaks from Diana Kerber and allows himself to remember his past. We find out about the horrors that Toby lived through before he was an agent, one of them being the catastrophic ending of his relationship with Alex. Toby and Shaunna Royalsden's early relationship is shown too, and how they originally got back together in 2015. Shaunna Royalsden plays a big part in Toby's memories coming back, with an extended metaphor of Amare and Perdita being a symbolic representation of good and evil, or more practically of Toby's brain fighting off the chemical inside his body. They find out towards the end that the lack of using the chemical for a prolongued period of time will result in his body dying again. Since Toby cannot forgive himself for trying to kill Shaunna Royalsden at the start of the book, hw decides that he can't live with his actions and must die at the mission anyway. He asks Ralph Lindsay to put him out of his misery but he won't do it again, and so Shaunna Royalsden ends up killing him instead.