Spoilers ahead for the Season 5 finale of FBI: Most Wanted, called "Powderfinger."
FBI: Most Wanted delivered a high-stakes case for the last episode of the spring 2024 TV schedule, with the task force on the clock to stop radioactive dirty bombs from killing a whole lot of people in New York. Ray was also in a time crunch for a much happier reason, as the hours were counting down until his planned wedding to Cora. Well, the case got pretty gruesome even by FBI: Most Wanted standards, with some close shots of a man slowly dying from radiation sickness, so it was a lovely surprise for the Season 5 finale to end on a beautiful wedding surprise. Read on for what Edwin Hodge said about it!
The lovely twist wasn't just the officiant declaring with unconventional phrasing that Cora was Ray's "wonderfully wedded wife" before pronouncing them married! Barnes showed up to fulfill Ray's wish for the whole team to be there despite recently being shot, Remy used the wedding as a first official date, and Hana's new friend Ethan may not have nefarious motives like I suspected at the end of the last episode. Then came the surprise from Ray Sr. (Steven Williams): a New Orleans-style second line at sunset, complete with dancing, instruments, and parasols galore!
Even Barnes couldn't help but attempt to dance along, and she was still on crutches. All in all, a wedding parade with no explosions, gunshots, or any of the other crises than tend to happen in FBI finales felt like a miracle. When I spoke with Edwin Hodge about Ray's wedding turning into a parade, he shared that it "was fun" and went on:
Culturally, I think it's definitely something that's needed to just solidify who they are. Most people they know were from New Orleans, and you can't have a wedding without having a second line. It was just on us to stay as authentic to the idea of what this would mean to a person from New Orleans even though he's in New York. And thanks to the lovely Steven [Williams], it happens.
Steven Williams joined Most Wanted in Season 5 as Ray Sr., and his first episode ended on such a lovely scene between the Cannon men, Cora, and Caleb that it really felt right that he brought the special taste of New Orleans to the finale wedding. Ray's dad also put a huge smile on everybody's face with the second line for a rare ending on Most Wanted that was 100% happy. I asked Edwin Hodge about the importance of such a dark show delivering the occasional happy ending, and he responded:
It's very important. In our daily lives, we deal with failure, we deal with success, we deal with tragedies, loss. We deal with a lot of things in our lives, and we scrape to find some type of levity sometimes. We look to others to find our inner peace, whether it be a book, a word, a hug. So it's important in shows like this, that we do show the human side of what it means to be a man in law, and also be a father, be a husband, be a brother, whatever it may be. Same thing for the women in law enforcement. We need more smiles. Love is out there. Weddings are out there, comradery is out there, compassion is out there. Who are we not to show that?
Most Wanted might not be too satisfying to watch if it was nothing but gloom and doom for every moment of every episode, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one happy to see a celebration after the drama with dirty bombs and radiation poisoning. Hodge went on:
These are real-life situations that people are going to be in and sometimes a lot of people like to see their lives reflected on TV. It gives them some sense of validation in a way. The more we can add levity to these dark episodes, I think the more people will actually be engaged because it's not always just focused on the crime and the murders and always getting the bad guy. They also want to see love, they also want to see happiness, they also want to see somebody bowling on TV because they like bowling. It's really simple things like that, that we need to just stay true to.
Viewers from home undoubtedly don't personally relate to most of what happens on FBI: Most Wanted when it comes to cases and criminals, but as Edwin Hodge noted, the show does find ways to add levity that reflects real life. Hopefully Ray and his newly-extended family will appear more on the show moving forward for more jolts of lightness in a pretty dark show. CBS renewed Most Wanted for Season 4 back in April, so the team will be coming back for more in the fall.
For now, you can always revisit all five seasons of FBI: Most Wanted so far streaming with a Paramount+ subscription and/or the first four seasons streaming via Peacock Premium subscription.
