FBI delivered one of its biggest twists to date when Maggie was exposed to sarin gas for long enough that she couldn’t just bounce back by the end of the episode. The good news is that Maggie’s predicament is due to actress Missy Peregrym going on maternity leave rather than because the character is being killed off, but that doesn’t mean her partner will have an easy time. Showrunner Rick Eid spoke with CinemaBlend about the aftermath of Maggie’s exposure to sarin gas, including how OA will react and how the team will move on.
Federal crimes won’t just stop happening because FBI’s leading lady will be off-screen for a while, and the team at 26 Fed has experience with powering through loss to keep fighting the good fight. Rick Eid previewed how OA will handle his job with Maggie out of commission, especially in light of the scene with him standing over her hospital bed in her final Season 4 episode (which you can rewatch on Paramount+):
Look, he cares about her. He's checking in on her, he's making sure she's gonna be okay. And you know, the show goes on. I mean, he still has a job to do and there'll be other people to fill that [role], to work with him and the team continues. But he obviously cares a lot about Maggie, and he will keep an eye on her.
FBI did something similar earlier in Season 4, with Jubal checking in on Rina after she was shot while the show kept moving forward with new cases. Missy Peregrym is expected to be back for Season 5, so Maggie’s story with the sarin gas won’t end as tragically as Rina’s did. Fans can rest easy knowing that this storyline has been incorporated just to temporarily take her out of the action, and that OA will still be “checking in on her” even if he won’t be standing over her bedside at all times.
This isn’t the first time that FBI has said a temporary goodbye to Maggie, as the show sent the character on an undercover mission toward the end of Season 2 for Missy Peregrym’s previous maternity leave. The second season was cut short due to production shutdowns, but not before bringing in an unexpected replacement as OA’s temporary partner: Tracy Spiridakos’ Upton from Chicago P.D., which officially connected the FBIs to One Chicago. Rick Eid weighed in on how FBI will replace Maggie this time around:
We'll definitely find a way to round out the team. There'll be somebody. It will not be Tracy.
If any Chicago P.D. fans were hoping for a surprise return from Tracy Spiridakos as Upton, then Rick Eid has officially ruled that out. (And Upton has had plenty of juicy storylines happening over on P.D. in its current ninth season.) But the team won’t just be short an agent for the rest of Season 4. That’s especially good for a team with a core four group of agents, as everybody always has a partner even when the show is mixing things up.
FBI has also revealed who will be filling Maggie’s spot moving forward in Season 4, and she’ll be a familiar face. Shantel VanSanten of The Flash and The Boys fame will reprise the role that seemed like a one-off when she debuted just one week before Maggie was exposed to sarin gas. Agent Nina Chase came in with some complicated history with Scola, so she could certainly be a great character to join the team for the rest of the season.
As for what’s coming in the rest of the season, Rick Eid teased some of the episodes that are on the way, and fans are in for some exciting developments for OA and Jubal. He shared:
We got a really exciting OA episode coming up that deals with his past when he was in the army, so that's a pretty intense episode. I think it's Episode 20. And we've got a really exciting finale that involves Jubal and his son that we're excited about.
The fourth season of FBI will come to an end with its finale on Tuesday, May 24, and it will evidently be a big one for Jubal. Another OA-centric episode can only be good news, although whether or not it’ll be as traumatic for him as facing his fear about sarin gas remains to be seen. This hasn’t been the easiest season for him already!
See what happens next with new episodes of FBI on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS, starting out the night of action that continues with FBI: International at 9 p.m. and FBI: Most Wanted (which also said goodbye to an actress for maternity leave this season) at 10 p.m. For some upcoming options once finale season is over, check out our 2022 TV schedule.
