Warning: spoilers ahead for the three-part crossover between FBI, FBI: Most Wanted, and FBI: International on CBS!
The three shows of CBS’ FBI franchise came together on April 4 for a global crossover event involving a threat so imminent that the agents across FBI, FBI: Most Wanted, and FBI: International all had to pitch in to prevent disaster. Even with all hands on deck, it was an extremely close call before they were able to stop terrorists from destroying JFK airport. FBI’s Agent Scola was key to closing the case, but he didn’t make it to the end without a betrayal that hit very close to home. Actor John Boyd spoke with CinemaBlend about the crossover, including that betrayal by Jubal and Isobel!
The crossover switched the order of the three shows, with International starting the night by sending Jubal (Jeremy Sisto) and Nina (Shantel VanSanten) to Rome to join the Fly Team while Scola was undercover back in New York City. The mission in Rome went sideways when the visibly pregnant Nina was shot, and Jubal had to return to NYC, leaving Forrester to remain by her side in the Italian hospital. With a lot riding on Scola getting answers while undercover, Isobel (Alana de la Garza) decided that they wouldn’t tell him about what happened to the mother of his unborn child.
Jubal was clearly uncomfortable with keeping Nina’s life-threatening injury from Scola, but he didn’t go against Isobel’s orders, and Scola ultimately found out from a criminal while undercover. He understandably didn’t react well, and spent the rest of the crossover more or less spiraling while trying to do what he could in New York while Nina was battling for her life across the ocean. When John Boyd spoke with CinemaBlend, he weighed in on whether Scola can get over Isobel and Jubal keeping that secret from him:
The short of it is no. That's an unforgivable breach. It's a betrayal [from] agent to agent. I don't care if you're an Assistant Special Agent in Charge [like Jubal] or a field agent undercover. You do not do that. Because of the case, it was something that they just absolutely had to do, and it's what makes it so interesting in these three hours.
On the one hand, keeping Scola in the dark about Nina being shot was a “betrayal” from Isobel and Jubal, particularly in light of what Jeremy Sisto said about Jubal’s concerns for having Nina in the field in the first place. On the other hand, they needed Scola's head in the game if they were going to stop mass loss of life. As Remy (Dylan McDermott) said at the end of the three-parter, sometimes the only high-stakes choices are between wrong and wrong. John Boyd went on to explain that the crossover drew upon a real-life resource for this storyline, saying:
We spoke to an FBI agent about that and he just confirmed that you do not do that. Absolutely it is not okay, which is exactly what we love to explore on this show. It's like, 'Oh, that's not okay? Let's go down that road.' It was just wonderful to play with them, and Jeremy and Alana were fabulous. It was a really interesting twist.
The performances made it clear that Isobel wasn’t happy about having to make this call and Jubal was even more uncomfortable, and Scola blowing up at them was all but inevitable. Would the agents have stopped the terrorist threat in time if Isobel and Jubal had told Scola? There’s no way to know for sure, and it should be interesting to see if there’s fallout.
But would Scola have done anything differently, if he’d been in Jubal’s place and received Isobel’s order to keep quiet about something important to the ASAC? John Boyd shared his thoughts:
No, absolutely not. That's what's so interesting about Isobel's character. Someone has to be the ultimate decision-maker and hold the line. For Jubal, even though it was so incredibly difficult for him to withhold that, and at one point he even tries to tell Scola, he has to hold up what needs to be done for the case, and that comes straight down from Isobel. I hope that Scola would do the same thing in [Jubal’s] shoes.
There was no black-and-white right and wrong in this situation, so it’s just a good thing that the terror threat was thwarted and Nina seems to be on the mend. It’s also a good thing that Remy was on hand to talk Scola down when he started to cross lines toward the end of the third hour, and the FBI: Most Wanted leader could probably understand Isobel’s decision to make the least bad of two awful choices (and not for the first time this season) better than anybody else.
Of course, the crossover established an absolutely massive threat to make sure that the decisions were understandable, even if not ideal. The agents didn’t even know until the third hour that the target was JFK airport, and tens of thousands of lives would have been lost if not for some very hard work… and Remy ultimately just picking a wire to pull and try and defuse the bomb. John Boyd shared his reaction to the scale of the crisis, saying:
I love our writers, and I absolutely just thought it was really interesting, the threat level that they chose. It was great. It's cool to read a script and be pulled in that way. Just when you sort of think you've read it all, then you get something like this and think 'Okay, wow, this really is the one.' It's a never-before-seen three hours of television with the biggest stakes they could possibly think of.
The FBIs definitely didn’t hold back in going above and beyond on the threat level to bring the three shows together with sky-high stakes. This was only the second three-part crossover in this franchise (and the first that wasn’t in service of launching International). John Boyd confirmed that working on the event didn’t feel like filming three separate episodes, and shared:
It felt like one big movie. It's so seamless. It was amazing. Working with Luke [Kleintank], I've watched Luke's work. He's wonderful on the show. It's such a cool thing to be working with the actors on these shows, and you just look at your scene partner and you feel like you're standing in their show. All of a sudden, you're like, 'Whoa, I'm watching their show right now, but I'm actually acting in their show.' It's really special to get to work with the other actors on these shows. I mean, they're so good. I just felt so lucky to get to bounce around like that.
The characters of FBI and Most Wanted don’t even operate on the same continent as the Fly Team of International, so it takes a special kind of case to bring the actors together. Scola and Forrester only had a brief scene together in the flesh before the end of the crossover, to follow up on a phone call in which Forrester joined Isobel and Jubal in lying to him about Nina’s status. Scola was grateful for the lie this time, though!
Only time will tell if FBI, FBI: Most Wanted, and FBI: International will come together for another three-parter in the foreseeable future. Jeremy Sisto previously shared with CinemaBlend that it was “extremely challenging” with the schedule, but the good news is that all three shows have already been renewed for the 2023-2024 TV season, so there’s at least one more full season for another potential three-parter.
For now, keep tuning in to CBS on Tuesday nights starting at 8 p.m. ET for all the FBI franchise action you could hope for, and revisit past episodes streaming with a Paramount+ subscription.
