SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for FBI Season 8, Episode 5.
FBI Season 8, Episode 6 continues the education of new agent Eva Ramos, as well as the show’s attempt to ingratiate her with viewers. “Falsetto” is more successful at the former than the latter. But this doesn’t even necessarily feel like an Eva-centric episode, partly as it brings back a character who’s already irritated the audience once this season.
The CBS series tells a relatively straightforward story of sex trafficking, just taking an understandably roundabout way to get there. The man stabbed to death in broad daylight owned a charter company used for said trafficking ring, which happens to revolve around a very important person in an Arab country. Audiences have seen the broad strokes of this story before; it’s another instance of the team’s search for justice being impeded by political interests.
Those interests are once again represented by Anna Vorpe (played by Claire Coffee). Audiences will remember Anna as the agent who told Jubal Valentine that the government actually wouldn’t be helping out after all in FBI Season 8, Episode 2, “Captured.” She does the exact same thing in this episode and then some. Anna convinces Isobel Castille that all the Bureau can do is let the International Criminal Court serve the villainous Crown Prince with a summons, which isobel knows doesn’t actually do anything. To reinforce this, the bad guy himself says it again later.
But that happens just before he dies—shot by one of his victims, using a gun that is revealed to have been supplied by Anna. Yet she’s not doing it for any altrustic reasons; the suspect’s death means that his more favorable sister will ascend to power instead. This is one more of those “gotcha” endings that FBI sometimes does, that Law & Order used to lean heavily on, and it doesn’t help “Falsetto” at all. Sure, the bad guy can’t do any more bad things, but it’s still Anna pulling the strings of the Bureau.
The episode is more successful in its appreciated attempts to develop Eva Ramos as a character. Stuart Scola and OA Zidan are both entirely absent from the episode (presumably a cost-saving measure to give both John Boyd and Zeeko Zaki the week off, though OA being gone at least is baked into the plot because of his near-death experience). In their absence, Maggie Bell takes on a mentoring role with Eva. It’s fun to see Maggie in that mentor spot, reminiscent of Missy Peregrym’s arc on Rookie Blue, in which her character Andy McNally went from being a new cop to training a new cop by the end of the series. Seeing Maggie give advice to Eva is an indication of how far Maggie has come over the near-decade this show has been on the air.
“Falsetto” also allows Eva a brief moment of cracking at the end, which is important because so far, the character has been entirely stoic. The rest of FBI‘s core characters all have a certain degree of warmth to them that allows the viewer to connect with them. Eva, on the other hand, is still stuck in one mode. For her to become a more interesting character, the writers have to show more shades of her personality. This is a step in the right direction. Plus, it’s always refreshing when any crime drama shows one of its protagonists going through a growth process, instead of having them be natural talents or just skipping over the unexciting parts.
This is a perfectly average episode. It won’t stand out as a great part of FBI Season 8, but it tells a mostly complete story. The one thing viewers might argue about is its ending scenes. Isobel tells Anna that the woman who killed the Crown Prince is being extradited back to her home country, where the local prosecutors are aware of her situation and have extended leniency. This is immediately followed by Maggie and Eva having to tell Salma—the woman who exposed the trafficking ring—that the U.S. government is still prosecuting her for the two people she killed. There won’t be any leniency for her (at least not that audiences know of).
The contrast between the two situations is noticeable, even if it’s not a direct one-to-one comparison. It’s one of those times when you wish a TV show would just give viewers the happy ending, even if it’s not the most dramatic option. “Falsetto” is not perfect, but the audience will at least be entertained.
FBI airs Mondays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. Photo Credit: Courtesy of CBS.
