FBI Episodes 15, 16, and 17
Scorched Earth:
This episode follows the killings via bombing of multiple people. It was initially thought to only be women of power at first. Interestingly, the competence of the females of the show is brought into question as a male profiler is brought in to look over the bombings. He takes a seemingly personal problem with AIC Mosier, who spends the majority of the episode biting back at his comments. While the overall theme of the episode’s killings does not remain about powerful women, the overall team arc does.
Maggie tells OA about her first day at the farm. The staff there assumed she was dropping off her husband for training. Mosier’s reasoning is called into question multiple times, though anything Valentine says is not questioned. (The profiler did not even shake her hand when he first entered the room but addressed Valentine as if he were the boss. Poor assumption, of course.)
Themes and Thoughts
Eventually, they find their killer and he is put away. Mosier and our guest profiler come to an understanding and he seemingly leaves with the respect he did not have for her before.
Overall, I really enjoyed the theme of this episode. I think it’s important to highlight badass women in power. How often is it a woman in power is ultimately a bitch and a man who is dominant is great? I love too how the show didn’t try to force the men into understanding. You can see that Valentine and OA remain silent during the times it is addressed on the show. Sometimes, in TV shows, writers try and make “good” men overcompensate. But in reality, how well would someone like Valentine know how it feels to be treated lesser than someone else because of your gender? OA is a touchier subject, as I’m sure he’s faced plenty of discrimination because of his skin color and religion. Regardless, you have a woman take the lead and that further complicates it for minorities.
Great overall message of the episode!
Invisible:
I must say, this episode takes a turn I didn’t expect. A young girl is abducted following a dinner with her father. While they eventually find her alive, it is her captors that make the majority of the episode interesting. One jumps off the roof of a building (and no one sees it coming), but it leaves the question hanging: he has to have a partner, and who is it? Eventually, they figure out the dominant part of this partnership belongs to the person the girl used to tutor. He was infatuated with her, but she showed no interest—even turned him down for a date.
Our abduction soon becomes the foiling of a mass shooting plot. This is an interesting twist on what could be a potentially overdone topic. They are able to figure out where the boy is headed and in a shocking turn of events when he pulls the gun on them, OA dives for the suspect and the gun goes off. Luckily, because our awesome agents where vests, it does not do any real damage. It does hurt like hell, though.
Afterward, Maggie is not happy with OA. She says he could have gotten seriously hurt and it scared her. I like scenes like this—I think character bonding happens over high-stress situations. You don’t always appreciate what you have until it’s dangled in front of you. Regardless, it was badass of OA to dive on the suspect, albeit clouded with tunnel vision. All’s well that ends well, yeah?
A New Agent in Town?
An interesting part of this episode has nothing to do with our murderous duo! Kristen wants to become a field agent, but she’s afraid that Mosier doesn’t believe in her. When Valentine approaches her, asking why she has yet to talk to Mosier, Kristen gives him a lame excuse. The best part of this? At the end of the episode, she reaches out to her in the office. Mosier has her pushed through, so she immediately goes into the class. She tells her that she doesn’t always say much, but she notices everything. Kristen is thrilled, of course.
I think this is a great move on behalf of the writers. We have such little characters on this show we see every week. Our main five characters have done basically the same job since we started, sans an undercover op or two. Maybe if Kristen becomes an agent, it’ll give a new character the chance to take her role, or maybe she can even do both. Imagine how awesome it would be for Valentine and Kristen to be out in the field together! The possibilities are just beginning.
More Thoughts…
The question now is… do we see this before the season ends? FBI is one of the lucky shows that was renewed months back, so we know we’ll get a season two. Does this mean Kristen will come back in the first episode a full-blown agent? Or will this be something addressed now? Who takes her place in the absence? I have so many questions!
Secondly, Mosier is a hard to read character. We all have someone like her in our lives. Someone whose opinion we respect greatly but is often not forthcoming about their opinion of you. You get tiny little remarks that you probably obsess over, wondering if they really meant it, or it was a subtle dig instead. When they finally tell you that you’re awesome, it’s like you’ve won the lottery!
Apex:
This episode had some serious Criminal Minds vibes. Yes, we do have a profiler on the show, but I really enjoyed this episode. Maggie takes the lead early on (taking the case without consulting Mosier), but I mean, can you blame her? A guy who is paralyzing women, raping and strangling them and then posing their bodies in photographic setups in highly visible areas of Manhattan? I mean… that kind of seems like an important case to take.
Oddly, about midway through it looks like we have our killer… but alas! Like any good Dick Wolf production, it’s a cop-out. Our creepy plastic surgeon is still a creepy mofo and he just likes weird pictures of dead girls. Good to know. He leads us to another person, a filthy rich younger man who has similar kinks to creepy plastic surgeon guy.
While Mosier struggles with the political aspect of having a serial killer on the loose in NYC (the Mayor doesn’t want bad press, of course), the team finds it just as frustrating trying to play by those rules. Eventually, as when she told her earlier in the episode, Maggie asks for Mosier to trust her and let her break down a door… because time is of the essence. Her gut proves correct and they are able to save another girl just in time before she would’ve been killed. Go team FBI!
More Thoughts
This episode probably takes the medal for the most creepy killer, which made for a thrilling, edge of your seat kind of episode. I love any time they get to profile anyone, and I love the bonding we see between Mosier and Maggie when this happens. AND, any time Maggie gets to go undercover and look a little sexier is awesome. She tends to look professional and clean cut, but when she goes undercover, she gets an edge. It really makes Missy Peregrym shine physically, and who doesn’t love someone who looks like a badass?
Overall, solid episode. I think this has been the most interesting one in a while. I’m curious about how they start to wrap up season one. We have five episodes left, including a backdoor pilot for the spin-off series starting next fall. We have several loose ties to wrap up, including several important plots that will hopefully truly give this show a chance to prove it is worthy of the Dick Wolf credit in its name. With five episodes left, it’s sure to be something you want to watch. Tune in Tuesday nights, 9/8 central.
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