Fear is a natural part of life. You can say that you fear nothing, but if we’re all being honest, there is something in life that you fear. It could be something tangible and it could be something having to do with emotions. Either way you feel it and hope that it doesn’t consume you, but set yourself up with the knowledge that it could.
On FBI – any one of them – someone is always struggling with and facing a fear. It’s a matter of how you view things. But in this writers humble opinion – all of our choices in life have a root in fear of some kind. Sometimes its the fear of what will happen to you, sometimes its the fear of what will happen to other people.
And in this episode OA is facing a lot of his fears. The official description read as, “OA is forced to confront one of his biggest fears when the team discovers that deadly sarin gas may have been sold to terrorists.” And judging by the preview we knew that biggest fear was loosing Maggie.
FBI has teetered at receiving a failing grade at over its run, but especially this season, is developing characters outside of the job or showing how deep that the connection is inside the job. It has been trying. We’ve learned more about Tiff, we’ve gotten more of Scola, but we’ve all gotta admit that they have been playing a game with OA and Maggie. One that they attempt to be good at, but as my teachers would have said – there is room for growth.
The signs of OA caring about her have been there, sure. Maggie hasn’t realized, she’s kept her walls up and refused to let anyone in. But OA has never let that deter him. She’s his best friend and he cares. Maggie cares, even if she hasn’t let on to it completely.
And like we get it – caring is hard. It’s especially hard for Maggie.
This episode was intense and emotional. It did something that FBI has failed to do for awhile – make me care and make me feel hope that FBI has found a footing to stand on and are going to build their characters relationships inside and outside of the job. Please don’t prove me wrong. Give us this FBI!
Maggie and OA are completely different, but we get to see that in the way that they talk about Tinder, finding love, and their fears. It’s a moment we don’t get to see often with them.
But as usual with life, it’s disrupted. They catch a case. I am truly not sure why someone thought it was a good idea to sell sarin gas to anyone and I have to admit that my heart my broke when the man who made that choice was shot and his wife appeared at the scene.
Fears. Fears are coming true.
As the team tries to figure out everything, you know that they are doing the best that they can. As they talk to the victims wife, Scola is so soft, that I almost fell for him. I mean sure, I’ve always found him to be cute, but that’s a different thing. Seeing that he’s versatile, that he’s growing has been a pleasure to watch, but an even better one to see continue throughout episodes.
The victims wife tells Tiff and Scola that her husband, Tom, had started getting ideas that the revolution was coming and what they find is a locked stockpile of guns. This man was like a one man militia. And so Scola tells the wife, as he and Tiff find out that her husband had stored sarin gas, that she needs to come to 26 FED. She thought she wasn’t going to get in trouble or have to go, but Scola so calmly tells her, “That’s before we found out that you were in possession of one of the deadliest weapons ever made.”
You can’t not love Scola. Sure, he’s all over the place, but that’s part of who he is. Personally, I believe that it’s Tiff that has made him a better person. Now, do I ship them? No. And if you’re asking why, it’s because she’s too good for him. But I could write an entire thesis paper on that.
I have to admit that her interrogation was so calm that it kinda freaked me out. Tiff and Scola were so calm and sweet. Yes, the wife is calm too, but the story gets sadder when we find out that Tom, the guy that sold it, had pancreatic cancer. He had wanted to set his wife up to be comfortable and taken care of.
When OA describes what SAR gas can do to Maggie, even I am afraid. The thing about FBI is that it shows us what can happen, and all sorts of possibilities, but the thing is, I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.
It just makes me more afraid of things. With this episode, though, the thing I feared the most was something happening to Maggie or OA.
The buyer of the gas is a Syrian national, a scientist. Maggie and OA go to visit his sister, Zara, and she’s not shocked that her brother could be in possession of the gas. She says that her brother is not well, that he’s obsessed with the government and wants revenge for his sons dying in a missile attack.
I get wanting to protect family, but his sister, well… she needs to realize that even she just said that he’s not good. Like help your brother, before he does something that he can’t come back from.
We see the first real moment where it felt like Maggie wants to protect OA, like he wants to protect her, when she stops him from breeching the house that this man has apparently moved into. She protects him when she sees that there is an IED. Personally, I think that we should all applaud Maggie, because if something happened to OA, I would riot. I think we all would.
When they get into the house, they find out that the IED is from the American army. OA is surprised, but Maggie has a point when she says that you can learn anything on the internet these days. It helps them realize that the beef is with the US and that means that they will most likely deploy the gas in NYC.
The team of the FBI is always one step ahead. The entire team works together to quickly get to the place they need to be. They are able to locate the second man, Nassar. He’s got experience being an insurgent. And when the team goes to intercede, civilians are there to video the whole thing. Look if I see the FBI I am turning and walking the other way. They don’t need me videoing anything. They need to me to listen to them. When they tell me to do something I am listening.
Of course the guy escapes (not because the FBI does a bad job, but because this is TV). The men were going to make bombs, which is terrifying. The GPS on the car shows them that the car was at a biotech lab upstate. The basics of the second dude, Nassar, is that he served the purpose to get to the first guy.
This all reeks of a bad idea as Maggie and OA head upstate to look at the lab. OA is trying to explain to her that they need to wait for protection as he sees the look on her face.
Maggie is headstrong, and that’s one of the best things about her. But when she wants to save the world, she also sometimes overlooks the people that are in her immediate circle. She tends to act fearless, but it is something that historically has gotten her in trouble. And it’s something that has made OA be put in the position of watching her in pain time and time again. It’s something that has made him be in pain time and time again – though I think to a point that’s not been pain, it’s been caring.
Maggie is reckless in that way. It’s aggravating. I wonder at what point that the writers will show that she’s learned from her past mistakes, instead of things that repeating them over and over again.
Scola and Tiff have issues of their own. Nassar has killed an FBI agent. He’s stolen a jacket. The team is able to locate him and if yo think that Scola and Tiff are gonna give up – that’s a fuck no. He shot at them and killed an agent. They will take him out, but he knows that. So he puts Tiff in the position that he she has no choice but to shoot him.
When they are able to scrub his phone, they realize that the team has to get into the lab. Again, Isobel makes shitty choices, neglecting the safety of the team and tells Maggie and OA to go in. Sorry, not sorry, Isobel as a leader isn’t something I can admire. OA has seen this gas deployed and knows its not a good idea, but gives in. And you know it’s a bad sign when they split up.
NEVER SPLIT UP.
The lab is a trap. There are trip wires, IED’s, but I am impressed that Maggie and OA have light sticks to mark their place.
If anyone is shocked that Maggie is the one that gets shot at, and doesn’t listen when she’s told not to pursue, you haven’t been watching FBI. She thinks that she knows what she’s doing. She thinks that she can talk anyone into giving up and use their emotions against them. But what Maggie fails to recognize is that she isn’t bullet proof.
She shoots the man and he goes down, a container is knocked to the ground and the gas is deployed.
I love Maggie, I just sometimes feel like Maggie gets in her own way, because she wants to be everyones savior, but doesn’t every one need to save themselves first? Maggies walls are high, but she deserves to be able to knock them down and allow herself to love and live.
Maggie deserves happiness, love, fulfillment, and joy. And it’s not say that she never has that, but she doesn’t have it enough and consistently. Why? Because Maggie doesn’t allow herself to know herself. But what she’s never seen is that OA really does know her, even though she does everything that she can to not let him in.
And that’s one of the most special things about them. They know each other better than they know themselves.
FBI has never made me cry until this episode and I full on am sitting her crying my eyes out. OA does everything he can to get her out, she’s BEGGING. He’s trying to talk to her, trying to tell her what to do, but she’s terrified. And we see her go down, with OA pounding on the glass and calling out her name.
I can’t say that I believe that Maggie and OA are in love, but there is nothing but love between the two. Even when she doesn’t listen to others and she puts him in the position that he has to see what it would be like to loose her, over and over again, he still stands with her. Maggie and OA are both damaged in their own ways, but it wasn’t really until that scene that I realized that the two of them want nothing more than to be there for each other and show that their damage is the defining part of them.
Everyone is telling OA to get Maggie out, like he’s not trying to. It’s all he is focused on. He doesn’t care about anything else. All that matters is her. Isobel is wanting him to wait for protective gear, because you know, now she wants to be a good leader.
They get a doctor in there who tells OA that he needs to find a mask. He doesn’t care about himself. But he is reminded that he needs to get a mask, because he will be of no help if he doesn’t.
The longest minutes of my life were OA finding a mask and getting Maggie out. Kudos to the music cause that only heightened the intensity and my tears. The way OA moved and ran and had such intensity to get to her, I found myself both cheering and crying. As he finds the mask and gets her out, carrying her out to safety, and getting them both the antidote in time.
And the next few minutes of my life, I have never been both so sad and happy. Happy because we finally saw just how much OA loves her, respects her and can’t live without her. He needs her. She needs him.
OA needs to see her. He needs to make sure she is okay. Jubel seems to want to keep him from the news for as long as her can. But even he sees that OA isn’t going to give up. He needs to see her, he begs.
“Room 481.” he tells OA.
The team is all waiting for her. There is a reasonable chance that she’ll make a full recovery.
OA goes into see her and the look on his face – that pain. Damn I felt that in every inch of my being. WHAT AN OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE. He can’t be without her, we all know it. She is his true north. She’s the person he needs. He’s the person she needs.
See, that’s the thing about these two – they need each other. And at the very end, seeing his FEAR of loosing her – my thoughts on how he feels changed. He is in love with her, even if he doesn’t know it yet.
FBI airs Tuesdays on CBS.