SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for FBI Season 9, Episode 1.
The FBI Season 9 premiere, “Rendition,” unsurprisingly picks up not that long after the Season 8 cliffhanger. The clear intent of the episode is to establish a new normal for the CBS drama. But while it has its fun with that, the script mercifully retains the core elements that got FBI to nine seasons in the first place.
It’s been three months since OA Zidan was fake-fired so he could go undercover in Anna Vorpe’s terrible task force, and that’s just enough time for executive producer Aaron Ginsburg to shake up the status quo. But he does that in ways that mostly make sense. Smartly, the focus of the hour is Maggie Bell’s new partnership with Isaiah Green (played by Chicago Med alum Roland Buck III, miles away from his Med character Noah Sexton), and how it’s not quite working. This is understandable, because the audience’s emotional focus is on how Maggie will fare without OA. And having that dynamic be flawed respects the partnership and friendship she has with OA. It would feel wrong if she got a new partner and they were just fine, not to mention that would be much less dramatically interesting.
Ginsburg plays “this isn’t the same show” right at the top, with a flash-forward that shows Maggie holding OA at gunpoint, although she doesn’t initially know it’s him. That sets the tone immediately and it’s an example of how a pre-title scene can be more than just exposition. But there’s a price for that excitement; one criticism of the episode is that viewers then know a lot of what happens early on doesn’t matter, because they’re ahead of the characters. The audience is aware that this story isn’t about the murder of a “travel influencer,” so they’re waiting for the team to catch up. The visit by Nikki Reynard thus does feel like exposition—somebody has to connect the dots, so why not use a CIA character and get a crossover out of it? (And good on Jubal Valentine for pointing out how their meeting in an empty garage is a spy cliche; it’s a minor quibble but he’s right.)
Once FBI gets to its actual storyline, though, “Rendition” also has space to get back to what this show does best. The screen time that doesn’t have to be devoted to red herrings or keeping up suspense goes into character development. This is ultimately Zeeko Zaki’s episode to carry—because from the end of Season 8, everyone knew that OA would be asked by Anna to do things against his moral code. That’s the whole ethos of this task force and why they need to be taken down. And there are scenes in the Season 9 premiere that are so clearly and beautifully OA: not just his interactions with Maggie, but the moment in which he tells the nuclear scientist Anna has kidnapped that he believes him. OA doesn’t leave it there; he talks to the other man about the honest reality in front of him, gives him advice on how to withstand further torture from Anna’s henchman, and makes an effort to buy the man some time. All of this is why OA Zidan is such a wonderful character; he has a thoughtfulness and an integrity that stands out. When OA is pleading with Isobel Castille to let him come home at the end of the hour, it’s genuinely heartbreaking because Zaki conveys every ounce of why this is a different kind of torture for OA.
Elsewhere, Missy Peregrym is great at conveying Maggie’s uneasiness and also her continued love for her partner, and Maggie gets to shoot a gun out of a helicopter. (The added use of a helicopter and some explosive rounds spices up the near-obligatory FBI car chase.) And in her second season as Eva Ramos, it’s neat to see how actor Juliana Aidén Martinez has settled into the role. As far as temporary replacements go, Roland Buck III acquits himself well as Isaiah Green, even if it seems like Ginsburg isn’t quite sure who the character is going to be. Is the fact that he’s ADIC Green’s nephew going to actually matter this season, or was that just to throw a further wrench into Maggie’s day for this specific episode? And revealing that Isaiah knows how to fly a helicopter feels a little bit like a deus ex machina moment.
That’s an example of how there are relatively little things that the FBI Season 9 premiere could’ve tweaked or developed further. But what makes “Rendition” memorable isn’t the near-helicopter crash. It’s OA still being the best possible person he could be, not just the best agent. It’s fans getting their own relief out of seeing that hug between OA and Maggie. It’s them feeling OA’s pain as they watch him kneeling beside the body of the man he’d hoped to save. There’s definitely a new normal in the world of FBI, at least for a few episodes until Anna gets caught. But “Rendition” sticks to the welcome truth that this show is driven by character first.
FBI airs Mondays at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. Photo Credit: Courtesy of CBS.
