Over this season of FBI: International we’ve seen a lot of growth in the characters, but this weeks episode showed us the many moods of Scott Forrester and his growth in this episode was all over the place.
But it’s definitely something that we needed to see. Why? Because up until now, yes, he’s been likeable, but he’s also shown little to no emotion. He’s lived a hard life and that life has made him stoic. But when he comes face to face with someone else having to make the same decisions that he has to and dealing with his own pain rises to the top.
Scott feels torn between country and family. How he’s dealing with it, just isn’t healthy.
In Los Angeles, parents are fleeing. They are leaving behind their kids after being convicted of frauding the government out of thirty million dollars from a Covid fund. Seeing these kids break apart as their parents make a run for it, and the cops coming in and storming the house and the kids holding on for dear life.
The fly team heads to Albania to try and find the parents, but it will not be easy. The mother is tied to a a crime family and it will make it easy for them to disappear. But Kellett stays behind, because someone needs to and Scott is being cold as fuck to her.
But he’s being cold to everyone. And it’s because he’s wrestling with the feeling that he let his Mom go and essentially betrayed his country last episode. But how is he supposed to explain this to anyone when he can’t really tell anyone.
Kellett is the one person that Scott can be however to and she’ll still be there. Because regardless of her breaking up with him, she loves Forrester. They are both hurting in different ways and she knows that she can’t help him. He needs to help himself.
But sometimes the thing is that people have to hit rock bottom in feelings in order to find their way. And Forrester is definitely on his way there. He’s always been a good guy but the fact that he’s become so closed off is hard to watch.
Forrester is willing to offer a reward to anyone with information that will lead to James and Fiona’s capture. You know what they say – everything is for sale. But as this all is happening Scott made a choice that really made me dislike him.
He brings the kids of the people on the loose to Albania as bait. Raines isn’t on board with this and well, neither am I. Bringing children to a strange country to hand them over to their family who are part of a criminal empire? That’s fucked up. And I legitimately can’t understand how it is that Forrester can put kids in this situation knowing what he’s gone through.
These kids arrive terrified. And yes, it brings out James to come and get his kids, but Jaeger knew that the woman that they bought the location from was up to something. She whoops her ass and is in the right place at the right time, in order to get James. And on the way to try and help her, Scott sees the kids, terrified in the back of a car, being driven to God knows where.
But as kind as he is to the kids, he’s vicious around them. He knows it too. He beings to understand that he’s being a dick, but it doesn’t stop him. Having to figure himself and his limits out isn’t an easy thing for him. Yet, he’s willing to press James, and make them be afraid. He yells back and forth with James, making these kids believe that they will not be able to stay together.
And that my friends, makes him an asshole.
These kids have been through enough and for Forrester to make them even more afraid isn’t a good thing. But pressing it even further when Fiona doesn’t turn herself in, and seeing Amelia so scared that she’s willing to give up her Mom so that her and her brother aren’t separated, is shitty.
He’s literally just been through the same thing and his struggle shouldn’t be put onto a child.
Kellett is the only one that is on the outside looking in – with pieces that no one else has. She’s seeing Scott fall apart, but also seeing the way that he is with others. It’s giving her the advantage that she needs. She’s got the time and the pieces to be able to find the right words to make sure that he hears what he needs to.
Jamie calls Scott and tells him that she heard that Amelia was willing to give up her Mom. And Scott tells her that he can’t do it.
Scott is expecting the worst reaction to that – you can see it in his face. But when Jamie tells him “then don’t” you see a part of him relax. Maybe melt away a little bit. And for the first time he sees that he’s not completely alone.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not lost on me that these two are apart because of the secrets and baggage that they both hold. But the truth is that they need each other more than they care to admit. They’ve understood each other.
While we’re waiting for Kellett to tell all her secrets, it makes me mad that she’s broken up with Scott and yet expects him to tell his. But I will forgive her a little because she is able to make him think before he makes Amelia turn in her Mom and really ruins this kids life.
When Scott tells Amelia that he will keep her and her brother together and she doesn’t have to say anything, that he doesn’t want her living with that, I am thankful. I am thankful that he realized the pain that he was about to put on someone else.
And it’s way too much to expect from anyone.
But seeing the relief in that girls eyes, knowing that she won’t loose her brother, but also that she doesn’t have to tell where her Mom is – I felt like Forrester and Kellett are really people who need each other. But we also get to see that Forrester is redeemable. He’s not a bad guy, he’s just in a lot of pain.
But how do you get help for that pain when you’re in a job like he is?
OTHER THOUGHTS
- The way that Raines spoke his mind and stood up to Forrester made me respect him even more.
- Blind spot, office sex. We applaud.
- Don’t fuck with Jaeger.
FBI: International airs Tuesdays on CBS.
