FBI: International 3×11 Review: TOUTS

FBI: International, I am going to just say it – I am mad at you. I am mad because we know that soon there will be no more Forrester and you’re not giving us a lot of him. You’re actually not even writing him out – you’re setting us all up for the disappointment of a plot hole that we will never be able to fix.

And that angers me.

I know that we have two more episodes left and those two episodes are going to give us something. But hey, who knows what they will give us. What I do know is that when it comes to Forrester leaving this show, I feel cheated. I feel like they were lazy.

Yet, they were lazy with his Mom’s storyline too.

What I will say is with this episode we get a look at Smitty and her life. This is something that we’ve been looking forward to, so I am not complaining about that.

I think that sometimes with procedurals, we don’t get to know the characters. We only get to know the surface level of who they are. As loved as Smitty is, we don’t know a lot except she’s very distant from her family and she is very good at her job. This show is understanding that we need to have a connection to the characters and that is what keeps us watching and also rooting for the characters on the show.

The Fly Team is brought to London, after a man and his son are shot. They are US citizens (the father, a duel Irish/American citizen) traveling for soccer academies for his son. When sitting in the stands Daddy O’Brien sees a man with a bag and on it, in red is the word TOUT.

Now, I had no idea what that meant but Smitty will teach us about that (the way she does in so many things). Basics? It’s an insult from the days of the IRA and means that you are a snitch. Though we don’t know what O’Brien snitched about, we do see that it had the UK government relocating him to the USA.

When the team gets involved, they need a connection to the IRA. Smitty says that she may have one but this will lead her to her Mom. Smitty tries her best to always avoid her Mom and after meeting her we understand why. She’s just a miserable person. She’s mean to Smitty – almost to the point of cruelty.

You can tell that she’s always hiding something from Smitty, but we don’t what it is. When Smitty asks about an old friend of her Moms – Niall. You can see that her Dad is visibly upset when the name comes up. Her Mom doesn’t want to give her Niall’s information, but she still gets it.

Smitty puts the job first and that is going to end up destroying her. She’s strong and she’s always there for everyone, but seeing her have to struggle between the job and her family is a lot.

You see, MI5 decides that they are going arrest Niall to get to the head of the Irish terrorist group that is targeting touts in London. Seeing Niall agree to wear a wire and get on tape that his old friend committed crimes, you know that something is up. The way that he so easily agrees to Smitty’s ask I had to wonder why.

Smitty actually looks in pain having to ask. She’s forgiving of everyone for putting her in this situation and doesn’t question their loyalty. She, instead, does what is asked of her. I both hate and love that about her. I think that sometimes what she does to herself is doubt herself because of her trauma and the distance and abuse that she suffered in her life.

For her, she starts coming to the conclusion, because of how her Mom is acting that there is a lot more. Her Mom doesn’t want to tell her what is happening, but when Smitty is open with her, she still becomes angry with Smitty. The way that her Mom treats her and the way that he Mom acts as though she isn’t a good daughter is frustrating.

When Niall is arrested, he agrees to wear a wire. He doesn’t want to be a “tout” but he also says that he’s made a lot of mistakes in his life and this is his chance to make things right.

The team is right there for him – Vo, Raines, and Smitty. Forrester is at MI5 or wherever he is. I feel like he’s shooting scenes on a soundstage or an office building somewhere because it’s easiest for him. I hate feeling like Luke Kleintank would have been disconnected at this point, because it’s easier for him. I feel like he would have given the show the send off that it deserves from him. But the reality is maybe the show didn’t give him that.

It’s always a tricky thing when someone leaves a show, because you never know why it’s happening. I don’t really always believe statements from actors, because a lot of the time they aren’t from actors. They are from their representatives and PR people. Everything feels so crafted and if we’re being honest, his departure felt just like that. It felt like why he is leaving – well at least why he says he’s leaving – is a lie.

Knowing that, it took me out of an episode that I would have loved.

Before you come at me for saying that, I will say this, you’re entitled to your opinion and I am entitled to mine.

While the team is able to get their person, what shocked me, is the part about Smitty’s life that was thrown in. She looks up a picture of Niall when he was living in Ireland in the IRA and she realizes she looks exactly like him. She even asks Raines and he sees it.

When she says goodbye to her parents, she makes sure that her Mom knows she knows, without saying it. She makes sure that her Dad knows he’s her Dad. She makes it known that everything has changed and yet nothing has.

When she gets in the car with Raines, he demonstrates what a good friend he is and he asks how he can be there for her. What does she need? And all she wants is a friend. He gives her just that.

I think that the strongest part of FBI: International has always been the relationships that it has built. It has made the fly team feel like family. It has made them feel like coming home each Tuesday night.

This week felt like that again, but it also felt like a disappointment. But isn’t that the dichotomy of life and television?