FBI Episode Two: “Green Birds”

Ariel B

6 years ago

FBI Episode 2

What’s for Lunch?

The episode starts on a busy Manhattan plaza, where people are gathering for lunch and friendly discussions. We see two friends, or maybe colleagues chatting about work, when beside them a man drops to his feet, convulsing. The female friend turns to her male counterpart to announce her surprise, when he too is choking and gasping for air. The camera pans out and at least a dozen people are on the ground with the same symptoms.

Zeeko Zaki Photo: Michael Parmelee/CBS ©2018 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved

FBI title, and we return to the scene, where Agents Bell and Zidan now are. There is a fear of contamination and airborne spreading. Eight people are already dead, and over a dozen more have been hospitalized; the crime scene spans an eight-block radius, and for the first few seconds, both Maggie and OA seem confused. Maggie steps over the crime line despite protests from police and OA and asks where one of the victims got their discarded salad. The hazmat officer finds a receipt in the pocket of the man, and it leads the two agents to a salad bar where they discover at least five of the victims bought lunch.

Lunch is you’re DEAD.

Maggie and OA request the security footage and through an interesting video reversal, can see a young girl spray the salad bar with a bottle of an unknown substance. It is hard to get a clear picture of her face, but she is small and has dirty blonde hair.

We cut to the bull pen where Agent Valentine says that the substance is TTX, or tetrotoxin a highly potent toxin which can kill with minute amounts. Where on Earth would a girl get something like this? It is not exactly found at your local pharmacy, which is also joked about by the team.

Introducing our new Special Agent in Charge, who enters the scene by announcing her presence in the most interesting way a middle-aged woman can: the video footage the team has of the girl dumping her original clothing has her leaving in a band shirt. Special Agent in Charge, Dana Mosier (Sela Ward, CSI: New York) says that she is wearing a shirt of a red anarchist metal band. OA gives her a look, as if he didn’t expect her to know this, and she explains that her daughter’s school sent out a warning for this sort of music earlier that year. She’s charming, witty and lights up the screen almost immediately. This type of band is anti-Capitalism, which gives a motive to our female suspect’s reasoning, so we think.

Anarchist Metal: All the Rage with Teenage Girls

After eight people are fatally poisoned at a deli in New York City, special agents Maggie Bell and OA Zidan trace the crime to an unlikely culprit and conduct a sting operation to prevent further attacks, on FBI, Tuesday, Oct. 2 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Pictured: Zeeko Zaki, Ebonee Noel, Missy Peregrym, Sela Ward. Photo: Michael Parmelee/CBS ©2018 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved

As this is being discussed, Valentine tells the team that a young girl has just been admitted to a local hospital with symptoms of TTX. Her name is Caroline Subotic and she fits their description of the suspect perfectly. At the hospital, Bell and Zidan discuss with her mother how her daughter acts. She has struggled with bullying since her father left, has been burning things, listening to the music that is on the suspect’s shirt and it is unspoken, but logistically confirmed she is their suspect.

The two agents take her laptop to Kristen back at the office who finds out how unpopular Caroline is and how she was voted most likely to commit a school shooting.

They then discover her bag in the alleyway where the video footage came from, with a sprayer inside. It goes to the lab, where an analyst discovers it was rigged to inject the poison into Caroline on the fifth spray. She was set up. Dana calls and tells them that Caroline died.

Inside Caroline’s laptop, Kristen finds that Caroline spends a lot of time on a website that OA translates as “Dark Jihad”, and it becomes apparent that she is working with ISIS. This leads Bell and OA to ask Caroline’s mother about her daughter’s relationship with her Muslim father, where they discover how all this hatred started. Her father isn’t an extremist, but she harbors a lot of resentment toward him for leaving.

Giving New Meaning to Online Dating…

ISIS soon takes credit for the attack, and the team discusses what to do next. They use Caroline’s social media for hints, where they find a comment on one of her posts by a “Green Bird”. The Green Bird stands for “souls of martyrs are within the bellies of green birds of paradise” per OA; it is an icon of ISIS. The social media search also leads them to a friend of Caroline’s, Tara who they think knows more. She admits to also being a part of the same website. Then, she tells the two agents that the Green Bird is Caroline’s boyfriend and that he was going to move them to the middle east with Caroline. Tara has photos, OA and Bell prove them as a google search photo.

Maggie finds it disturbing that teenage girls are so easily drawn to ISIS. She says that she struggled in high school, but it would have never led her to this sort of thing. OA’s undercover work comes up for a moment, where he explains how this might happen. Maggie jokes she doesn’t need it to be “mansplained” it to her.

Kristen reaches out to Green Bird as Tara, trying to get more information. They are able to set up a meeting, but before this tells “Tara” that Caroline shouldn’t have died.

Similar attacks are linked to Khalid Barhom, a chemical weapons expert who was responsible for past attacks in the middle east. We see familiarity in OA’s face at his name mention. There is a definite past between the two.

Is it Me You’re Looking For?

The team sets up at Lighthouse Park where Green Bird and Tara meet. Tara must go because he has seen her picture, but it is a setup, Green Bird sent a woman in his place. It is seemingly a test of loyalty. They arrest the woman; her name is Nita Kayati and she believes she is Green Bird’s right-hand woman.

We see a BADASS interrogation scene between OA and Nita. He sets up a wonderful and honest representation of what real Islam is, and is able to get information out of her when she realizes she is not the only one Green Bird has promised things. She admits she has never met Green Bird but tells them there are three other girls who are going to do the same thing Caroline did in Manhattan.

Hello FBI…

Pictured: Missy Peregrym, Zeeko Zaki Photo: Michael Parmelee/CBS ©2018 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The original Dark Jihad site is down, and there is a disturbing message up for the team, a taunting “Hello FBI” to end the message. They can access some conversation between the site master and Green Bird (who we eventually learn is Barhom) where he admits he wants to do these attacks cross country, New York is just the starting location.

OA looks at the scene with a haunted expression, and Bell notices. He admits that Barhom previously bombed an apartment building in the Middle East while he was undercover, killing 39 people. They were not able to stop him.

The partners discover one of the girls at a Farmers Market, and luckily can stop the attack before too many people ingest the fruit. They take down the girl, Hakeema Bassey, and find she was not injected by the sprayer. She was on her way to meet Barhom when they catch her. They find out they were to meet at the ferry, and head there.

The Past Returns…

OA and Bell split when they arrive, and OA spots him. The intensity in OA’s eyes during this scene is intense. He calls out to him, and he takes a woman hostage with a knife. They exchange words, and you can hear the hatred in OA’s voice for Barhom. He shoots Barhom in the head, and he falls to the ground.

The episode ends with OA and Bell discussing how vulnerable these girls were, and we see Bell reaching out to Tara in an email as the screen fades to black.

What I liked:

I LOVED seeing a little background on what OA did undercover while in the military. Huge kudos to Zeeko Zaki for his acting in this episode. The anger and hatred he had for Barhom was evident and made me feel it too. I also loved his interrogation scene with Nita, where he discusses Islam; I think it was important for the show to detail that he is not just a token character. They did this well. You also see it in the scene with Caroline’s mom, when he tells her he’s asking as a man of Muslim faith. Overall, they’re doing a great job with the portrayal thus far.
Maggie’s quick comment to OA about mansplaining. I found it humorous and not necessarily a real dig. You can tell how the two of them interact that they’ve been a team for a little while and know each other well. You can see this in the very beginning when Bell steps over the police line, and when they share looks. I truly am enjoying their chemistry. It is not over the top, but it is very fitting. They look great on screen together, but it’s not a forced “romance” line where you feel like the writers want them together now

I Liked A lot…

Sela Ward’s entrance. It was awesome. She came onto the screen like a literal breath of fresh air. Not to speak badly of Connie Nielson, but the chemistry and overall feeling with Ward as Special Agent in Charge is much better. She has an ease to her, like the role was meant to be played by Ward. This isn’t surprising given her past track record with other shows like CSI. I found the scene charming and humorous.
The overall push and pull of the talks of ISIS and extreme Islam. I feel as if it is very easy in today’s political climate to write episodes like this with good intentions, but bad outcomes, and this is not one of those cases. It also makes you nervous for everyday living. The food was poisoned in a food court that people frequented in a Manhattan deli. As a New Yorker, that is scary. I think as much as it is scary, it means it resonates. If a show isn’t resonating with fans, it’s doing something wrong.
Maggie, all around. I was a little worried she might come off as this “false” hero after episode one, where we see cracks in her character. She seems to have recovered well from that case and she’s much clearer and sure of herself this episode. At the same time, we get a little hint into her own past to how she reacts to the teenage girls. I think that makes her real. She might be a FBI agent—a trained government official, but she still knows and remembers that time in her life. Again, it resonates with fans who have been there.

What I didn’t like:

Again, nothing is glaringly horrible to me.

Questions I have:

Missy Peregrym Photo: Michael Parmelee/CBS ©2018 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved

At the end of the episode, we see OA at his desk while he talks to Bell about the case. There are ample awards on a display there. I am not an expert in that sort of thing, but I’m assuming they are from his military service. We’ve gotten bits and pieces in episode one and two, and I’m dying for more. I hope we get a centric episode, sort of how Barhom got to him in this episode, where he deals with someone directly from his past. I think we’ll see a wonderful dive into his character there, and I think it’ll make Zaki as an actor shine. His eyes tell so much in dramatic scenes, and I need more.