There is not an episode of FBI that airs where I am not amazed by how fast the story progresses, draws you in, and keeps you wondering what will happen next. The FBI franchise keeps getting better, week after week, leaving you cheering, crying, and all in for more.
This week we got to see a different side of Maggie, which is something that I did enjoy. Though Maggie is a character that I love, I sometimes feel like she’s so robotic that it’s hard to feel like you have any attachment to her. At the same point, you are always rooting for her because she’s so good at her job.
And we’ve seen glimpses of the softer side of her. We’ve seen glimpses of the part of her that isn’t the job.
But this time – seeing her. It was a lot all at once.
THE ERIN OF IT ALL
Erin is Maggie’s little sister and there is not a part of Maggie that is not devoted to her sister. She took her sister to rehab, she has made sure that she stays on the straight and narrow.
But Erin shows up at Maggies, when she is supposed to be in rehab. Maggie has a lot of questions, but she doesn’t know if she’s going to get the truth from her sister. See, Erin has lied to Maggie a lot and she hasn’t earned trust back.
Erin tells Maggie that she was doing fine. She was good. But her and some of the people went out to celebrate a birthday and someone in the restaurant sent them drinks. Erin admitted to taking a sip, and then admitted that she drank like half. She says that one of the girls got really drunk and felt bad and told the people at the rehab what they all had done.
This resulted in Erin getting kicked out.
Maggie has always been there for her sister. She’s felt guilty for the times that she hasn’t been and so whatever Erin has needed, she’s been the person who has helped her. But that’s given Erin an out. That’s given Erin a way to know that no matter what kind of trouble she’s in.
I get the reasons why Maggie is there for her sister. I get the reasons why she thinks that she is helping. But sometimes the best way you can help – well it’s difficult. And Maggie is about to learn that the hard way.
THE CASE
There is a special place in hell for people who fuck with children. There is a special place in hell for people who traumatize children. There is a special place in hell for people who kidnap children.
A little girl named Lucia was kidnapped from her daycare. There were other little kids in the room, all terrified. The man who kidnapped her said that if they moved, someone outside would come and kill them all.
It doesn’t seem to make sense why this little girl was targeted. Her parents are young and that shave no money. Maggie and OA go to the Diaz’s house, where the mother, Jenny, seems a little distant, but also seems a little confused. She’s definitely hiding something.
And what she’s hiding is that her husband has been selling drugs. She only drops this bit of information after she robs an old employer at knife point and steals all of her jewelry. She had snuck out of the apartment, avoiding the FBI, and they had to find her. Did she get a ransom call?
No. What she did is get a call from her husband, who she is covering for. He needed her to get money. See, she thought he had been done selling drugs, but he wasn’t. And she flushed his drugs down the toilet, only he hadn’t paid for them. And not paying for them means that he owes the supplier.
His supplier, who turns out to be one of the heads of the Latin Kings, has told him that he pays the 80K he owes and he gets his daughter back.
I can’t help but be angry at the father, but also angry at the mom. Rather than let the FBI help, she lies to them. She makes excuses for her husband and doesn’t think about how her excuses will cause her daughter more pain. How can she not see that his decisions and hers are causing that little girl more pain. It just doesn’t feel right on any level. I actually yelled at my screen, because it just felt as if she was just as responsible for her daughters situation, but the person she was worried about was her husband.
The FBI tries to tell her they can help, but she insists that her husband can handle it. He can bring their little girl home.
Yet, we all know that shit is about to go wrong.
THE HUSBAND IS AN IDIOT
The team is able track down Hugo, the father. He’s at a park. Scola and Tiff go to look for him and find him as high as a kite. He legit went to score and get high.
Hugo was scared and nervous so he felt as though the drugs would calm him, but what he did was overdose. He’s lucky that Scola and Tiff went to find him, because they are able to save his life.
One of the best things about this season is that we’ve seen Scola and Tiff’s partnership grow. Both of them are important parts of the FBI team and they’ve felt a little distant from being in sync. Both are set in their ways and don’t see that what they can learn from each other.
Only now they do. Tiff is this strong, smart, independent woman who has a lot to prove. But what she has to prove is not to the world around her, it’s to herself. At least that is what it feels like. She doesn’t though. What Tiff can do is teach those that she knows about doing the job better. About being a better agent.
Tiff and Scola have a lot of strength. They each have a lot of things that Maggie and OA don’t have. But that’s the beauty of people, we all have different strengths and weaknesses and we can all work together to solve things. These four agents are a family and all learn from each other in order to solve cases.
They are able to talk the father into letting them help. He’s going to help them, but he’s well… Hugo makes everything go wrong.
Confronting the kidnapper in the park, he’s supposed to just hand over the bag and then let the team use the tracker to find his daughter. But, Hugo attacks the kidnapper and ends up getting killed.
CRUNCH TIME
Maggie had been stationed in a car, where her doorman had kept calling and she answers the phone. While answering she takes out her coms and that causes major repercussions. Now, granted, Maggie should have been taken off the case awhile ago, because she was distracted by Erin. But she didn’t allow that to happen and while in the middle of a sting, she dropped the ball.
The call that she got, her sister was overdosing. She was being rushed to the hospital and as Maggie is hearing this, shots go off. She dropped the ball.
She hadn’t paid attention and let the kidnapper run right by her. Tiff and her give chase, but Maggie dropping the ball results in a police officer being shot. It results in the suspect being free.
Of course she is distracted – her sister could die. OA asks her what happened and she tells him. He tells her to go to the hospital. She wants to stay, but he tells her to go. At least he had the sense to know that she would have been of no help, she was too distracted.
Maggie is devoted to her job and that is a beautiful thing. I love my job, but I also know that there are times that I need to pull away. We live in a world though, where we feel like we can’t. That work is supposed to be defining. Only Maggie needs to realize that there is no weakness in knowing you can’t do something, there is only strength in that.
Tiff finds someone who is willing to talk. The witness saw the kidnapper drop a phone while on the run. Scola and her go off to find it and she does quickly. I love her.
The FBI finds that one of the calls that the phone had made was to someone that they have in custody. They had thought that he may be the kidnapper, but Tito wasn’t. Only what this proves is that he was involved – he was a lookout.
Isabel is able to get him to give up the location of the kidnapper, where the team is able to recover Lucia.
Now, here’s my thing that I have always wondered. Why is it that when the swat team goes in they are all wearing a helmet, but the agents go in with no protection to their skulls. Maybe I don’t get police work, but I still would think that they need protection.
I will say this – OA in a beanie is my jam, but I still don’t see how that is protection for him.
THE OVERDOSE
Maggie is at the hospital, waiting for information on her sister. She’s still unconscious and Maggie is understandably scared.
Jubel comes to check on her.
I love Jubel, I do. I think that he’s got the best heart and he wants his team to succeed. He is a recovering addict and he has empathy for Maggie.
But he does need to tell her that dropping the ball can never happen again. Maggie was close to loosing her job, and he should have taken her off the case. However, he didn’t. He tells her that the NYPD officer almost died.
Maggie becomes vulnerable to Jubel and tells him that he doesn’t know how to handle this.
Maggie being vulnerable is an important moment. At least it was for me. I think that seeing her do this shows women that you can be strong, but it’s okay to not know what to do. And it is okay to ask for help.
Jubel tells Maggie that when he was drinking, it was the people who though that they were helping the most, weren’t.
I can’t even imagine what a slap that felt like. It’s a hard thing to feel like you are helping and realizing you aren’t. Maggie wants her sister to be sober, to have the life that she deserves. And so she tells Erin that they can’t see each other. She loves her, she just knows that she is not helping the situation.
Maggie tells Erin that she needs meetings and a sponsor. What I also hope is that Maggie realizes she needs those too. She’s taken on too much of her sisters issues and it’s hindering her life. People who have family or friends going through these things also need healing too.
I really do have to say, what Missy gives in this episode is an amazing performance that shows her range. She shows the complexity of who Maggie is and that is something that is important for all of us to see.
When Maggie tells her sister that she loves her and walks out, I broke. Such strength and such courage.
