The great thing about FBI Season 6, Episode 12, “Consequences” is that it gives Jeremy Sisto more to do than pace around the bullpen giving orders. It’s Jubal Valentine who’s front and center in this story, which means Sisto is able to show much more range than usual. From a character standpoint, this feels like some of the great work he previously did to help reinvigorate Law & Order.
Unfortunately, that’s pretty much what the episode has going for it. Plot-wise, “Consequences” is the prime example of “smart people doing dumb things because the story says they have to.” That happens over and over again, up to and including the predictably tragic ending featuring guest star Benito Martinez (whom TV procedural fans will recognize from many things, most recently playing crime boss Raphael Tarquenio, Catherine Willows’ archnemesis, in CSI: Vegas Season 3).
The case of the week starts with the murder of a truck driver, who was killed by members of a biker gang so that they could get their hands on the chemical he was transporting and use it to make the lethal drug fentanyl. Jubal enters the picture when four girls overdose on the fentanyl pills at a club, and the FBI realizes that they got the pills from a kid named Nate Becerra—Jubal’s godson and the son of a vaunted ex-agent named Jose “Joe” Becerra. When Jubal and Scola turn to Joe for help, this is when the plot starts to fall apart.
Having conflict between Jubal and the man who literally saved his life is fine; that could, in a different script, lend itself to more nuanced scenes of emotional strain and actual discussion. However, for someone as great an agent as Joe Becerra is said to be, the character behaves like someone who’s never held a badge. Even allowing for the fact that he’s trying to protect his son, he goes way past that and any common sense. He expects Jubal to destroy evidence to protect Nate, holding the belief that Jubal owes him for covering up Jubal’s past problems. He complains when his son still faces prison time for being the one who handed out the lethal drugs. Joe goes to pick up Nate when the latter calls, instead of informing the FBI. And the climax of the episode is that he behaves in an absolutely boneheaded manner, not only showing up at the scene wher Jubal and Nate are held hostage, but rushing the building. And after the resulting chaos causes Nate to be shot and wounded, Joe still blames Jubal for the entire situation.
If this man were at any point a competent FBI agent, he would not be behaving like essentially a petulant child. And there could still be great scenes in that, if Joe was more conflicted about his son being caught up in five deaths, and perhaps looking to Jubal for guidance. Or both of them working together to try and help Nate, and Nate learning from his mistakes. But of course, that’s not as dramatic as Joe telling Jubal to hand him the pills so he can flush them down the toilet, or Joe yelling at Jubal that he’s no longer invited to his daughter’s wedding. FBI makes the characters into caricatures for entertainment, when there could’ve been an even more meaningful story if the script had gone just a little deeper.
Sisto is great with what he’s given, showing how the situation wears on Jubal, but even he’s held back somewhat because Jubal never fully speaks up in his own defense. He tells Joe on several occasions that he’s wrong, but there’s never that explosion of Jubal’s own upset or frustration. Even when they’re disagreeing he’s relatively calm. As a result, even the scenes in “Consequence” that are supposed to be the most tense aren’t as impactful.
By the time FBI gets to that concluding scene in the hospital waiting room, Joe scolding Jubal again just feels sad—and not in the way the show wants. It’s sad because Joe is a broken record and Jubal ends up being his punching bag. There was a wonderful story idea here, but “Consequence” never serves it, leaving behind missed opportunities for meaningful character exploration. And that’s a shame, because Jeremy Sisto can knock those deeper episodes out of the park, as seen in his Law & Order debut “Called Home.” Sisto is better than this FBI episode, and Jubal Valentine is, too.
FBI airs Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. on CBS.
