Change. Are you a fan of it? Sometimes I think that it is for the best, but at other moments, I am not sure that I am a fan of change. Will it happen, regardless? Yes. But the truth is when it comes to my favorite TV shows, I am not good with change.
I hate it.
But sometimes I can see that what change is doing is setting up the story for a future. And every story needs to have a goal, an arc – something that keeps us invested.
While I admit that I did not understand (and really didn’t care to) in the first episode of FBI: International, why they didn’t give us a slow burn to Kellet and Forrester, I would like to take a moment to admit I was wrong. They gave us a ship, but have showed us why ships aren’t always meant to be together, just because we want them together.
Relationships take time.
Relationships take growth.
And sometimes that is not growing together, but growing individually and figuring out who they are. Kellet and Forrester have to figure out their road. Both have their own shit to worry about and they haven’t been honest with themselves. Their relationship is complicated, but their relationship with themselves is almost non-existent. Both are in a state of denial about the realities of their lives.
And in order for them to find a way to be together, if they are meant to be, I believe that they have to get that out of the way first.
Now that I have gotten that out of the way, let me get back to change. Seeing Scott Forrester flirt with his Hungarian language tutor, made me mad. But when I took a step back and really evaluated what I was seeing, I was telling myself to stop being an asshole. He’s smart flirting his way with someone who doesn’t share the harshness of the job and his secrets. He’s allowed to have a life.
But will she understand that the job comes first? The team is called in to help Europol to investigate the death of an American in France.
I have always dreamed of moving to Paris. France is a beautiful country. The couples in this episode had the dream of opening a winery, and so when the pandemic happened, and jobs moved online, they bought a winery in France.
But the area that they bought it in, the locals opposed them being there. The harassed them, made their lives miserable, but Daniel (the man that was shot) wouldn’t move back to the states. He wouldn’t leave. This was his dream and he was staying.
The small French town that they moved into was also known as the center of a French right-wing organization called “CRAV”. CRAV is on a terrorist watchlist and they aren’t ones to mess with. It’s part of the reason that the fly team gets involved. Europol is afraid that this is the start of an escalation in a terror plot.
Guillaume Marais is CRAV’s leader, and well, putting it nicely, he’s a first class dick. It’s not that CRAV hasn’t been intimidating the Americans, even going as far as to run a truck of their wine off the road. But did he have Daniel murdered? I can see why he’s the perfect suspect, but I don’t believe that he did it.
CRAV seems like the easy explanation for this murder. Hell, Forrester believes they are involved and I have to say I don’t doubt him. But the thing is with him, he becomes so angry and has such a stoic face that I truly never know what he’s thinking. Everything is assumptions.
I do believe that Scott is a good man, but he’s definitely got Mommy issues. That’s a surprise to no one. But in a way that’s what keeps him motivated to always do his job to the best of his ability and not back down.
Ever.
When the team heads to a restaurant and Forrester talks to an American chef who has lived in France for most of his life. He knows that Daniel met with Marais, but didn’t know how the meeting went. Daniel had always been more willing to try and learn the culture and make his life in France work. His friend Henry, his partner wasn’t willing to meet.
Forrester misses nothing and caught a sous chef recording them. This results in one of two epic fights during the episode. The chef basically tries to gut Forrester and well, for a second, I would have believe that he was going to win. But Vo comes in and saves the day. And that, in my opinion, was a good thing. We need to see that team work is important. It’s important to be there for the people around you. It’s important to be a team.
And then when Kellet is heading to the winery to help Daniel’s widow, her home is broken into and Kellet takes him down. You can’t help but cheer for Kellet, because you get to see just how badass she is. She doesn’t flinch trying to get control and is able to take him down.
What the team is able to find out over the course of the investigation is that Daniel’s best friend had hired someone to intimidate him to get him to go back to the states. The paperwork that they had set up when they bought the winery, says if someone moves back to the states, they get paid out at what they had bought it for. And the winery was worth 20 times that now.
Henry is digging in, but Forrester is able to crack his wife. She swears that they didn’t want Daniel to die, the plan was just to scare them back to the states.
Look, friends are supposed to lift you up and be there for you. But arranging for them to be terrorized? Nope. Not friendship. That shit is pure evil. Daniel’s wife is pregnant, that baby is never gonna know its Dad. These “friends are the lowest of the low.”
And they should burn in hell.
There is change all around, but change isn’t always easy and it isn’t always good. This change wasn’t something this family asked for. This is something that was pushed upon this family, because their friends were selfish assholes.
There is change back in Hungary too, as Kellet tries to talk Scott into a bottle of wine, but he has plans. Look, I am glad that he’s learning the language, but my ship heart doesn’t want him with someone else. Yet, the other part of me knows that this is the best thing, because Scott is going to grow, and with growth, comes a new love for characters.
So am I glad that he’s going to hang out with his tutor? Short game answer – no. Long game answer – yes.
And well, I am into this show for the long game.
FBI: International airs Tuesdays on CBS.
