After a summer hiatus full of game shows, live competitions, and reality TV dating, the fall TV schedule is bringing back the biggest hits in scripted network TV. CBS is keeping its three FBI shows grouped together on one night after they made Tuesdays hugely successful last season. FBI, FBI: Most Wanted, and FBI: International return almost exactly four months after their finales aired, so keep on reading if you want a refresher on what happened last season that will be important to remember this fall!
All three shows have been renewed for two more seasons, so the whole franchise has plenty of room to plan ahead for new storylines and try new things. FBI will be the first of them to premiere, so let’s start there!
What To Remember About FBI
Maggie was exposed to sarin gas. FBI delivered an intense twist for Maggie Bell back in April, when a case that was triggering for OA took a dangerous turn. She was exposed to sarin gas for so long that she was lucky to survive. She was in for a long stay in the hospital, and there was no sign of when she would be back when Season 4 came to an end. The real-life reasoning was for actress Missy Peregrym to go on her maternity leave, and she won’t be back right away when FBI returns.
Shantel VanSanten was filling in for Missy Peregrym. With Maggie down for the count for the final episodes of Season 4, FBI brought in For All Mankind’s Shantel VanSanten as Special Agent Nina Chase. She had a past with Scola, but that didn’t stop her from fitting into the team pretty well. She was still in the mix when Season 4 ended. With no sign of when Maggie would be ready to return, she seemed settled in to stay for as long as she was needed.
The Season 4 finale never aired. Despite actor Jeremy Sisto hyping a “really exciting” finale that could go very wrong for his character, CBS never aired the episode. Following the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, the finale (which would have involved a similar tragedy) was pulled from the lineup. Whatever FBI had planned to close out the fourth season never happened on screen. The penultimate episode became the finale, and dealt with some tension between Tiff and Nina, but no huge twist or cliffhanger.
Key points to remember for Season 5:
- Missy Peregrym will be back, but not right away when the show returns. Back in July, she revealed that she would be returning to work in September, which presumably means that she’ll be back in front of the camera before too late in the fall.
- Shantel VanSanten will be back. The actress confirmed that she had signed on for ten episodes of FBI, four of which aired in the spring, and she presumably appeared in the scrapped finale.
What To Remember About FBI: Most Wanted
Jess LaCroix died. The biggest twist in the FBI franchise last season was undoubtedly the death of Agent Jess LaCroix on Most Wanted. Actor Julian McMahon announced that he wanted to leave to pursue additional creative pursuits, and the show ultimately wrote him out of the show by killing him off. He won’t be coming back.
Dylan McDermott is the new leading man. Most Wanted brought in Law & Order: Organized Crime’s Dylan McDermott to replace McMahon, and his Agent Remy Scott is a very different man. He was open about his tragic backstory to his team by the end of their first episode as a unit, and he has a complicated family life with his sister and mother, the latter of whom has Alzheimer’s. He did have a happy end to Season 3, as he drove off with April in the final moments after an extremely stressful finale.
Barnes was on maternity leave. Roxy Sternberg’s Agent Sheryl Barnes bowed out of Season 3 early when the character decided to both take her maternity leave after her wife gave birth to their son and continue processing Jess’ death. She actually left right before Remy arrived, so fans haven’t seen them react to each other yet (although Dylan McDermott has shared his thoughts on how it could go). Her absence was due to the actress’ real-life maternity leave after the show got creative to hide her pregnancy.
Ortiz’s final episode as a series regular has already aired. News broke over the summer that Miguel Gomez was leaving FBI: Most Wanted after two seasons, having debuted back in Season 2. Ortiz also didn’t appear in the Season 3 finale, with the in-show reasoning that his father needed him back in Los Angeles. So, his final episode already aired, and it wasn’t the intense Season 3 finale.
Key updates to remember for Season 4:
- Roxy Sternberg will officially be back from her maternity leave for the fourth season, and fans will finally get to see Barnes interacting with Dylan McDermott’s Remy Scott.
- Chicago Fire alum Edwin Hodge has been cast as FBI Agent Ray Cannon, presumably to fill the vacancy left by Ortiz.
What To Remember About FBI: International
Jaeger was promoted. Agent Katrin Jaeger temporarily found herself in hot water with her boss because of the Fly Team’s tendency to go rogue. She was fired and the situation seemed hopeless, but Forrester and Co. were ultimately able to save her job. She even got a promotion, and the finale ended with the whole team going out for drinks to celebrate her moving onward and upward.
Forrester is still in danger. Even though he seemed to close the case after going even more rogue than the Fly Team would usually dare, Forrester wasn’t actually out of danger when the final credits rolled. Luke Kleintank had promised a cliffhanger, and that cliffhanger was an assassin following Forrester back to Budapest and watching from afar as he celebrated with his friends and teammates. Although he didn’t seem armed, it seems very safe to say that he doesn’t have anything good planned for Forrester and Co.
Forrester and Kellett are “ride or die.” By the end, the two characters weren’t quite as comfortable and close as they were early in Season 1 when they were in a relationship, but she had his back when he went rogue in the finale, and they were on good terms. Luke Kleintank shared that while “it becomes a little tough” romantically, they have a “ride or die” kind of relationship with each other.
Forrester has a complicated relationship with his mom. Angela Cassidy, a.k.a. Forrester’s mom, played by Elizabeth Mitchell, was an ambiguous character for much of the first season. She was said to be a traitor to the U.S., but there was clearly more to the story. After her son put pretty much everything on the line for her in the Season 1 finale, she ultimately left again, and sent him a message to forget about her, even after he asked her not to disappear on him again.
Key updates to remember for Season 2:
- After Christiane Paul’s departure as Jaeger at the end of Season 1, Deadline reports that FBI: International cast Eva-Jane Willis as Megan “Smitty” Garretson, a Europol agent and new liaison to the team.
- Tank should be back! Luke Kleintank told Deadline that the dog will “come out of retirement,” and he’s “not going anywhere” because he’s part of the Fly Team.
Fortunately, the wait to find out what's next for all of these characters on the three shows is nearly over. All of them return on Tuesday, September 20 on CBS, starting with FBI Season 5 at 8 p.m. ET, followed by FBI: International Season 2 at 9 p.m., and closing with FBI: Most Wanted Season 4 at 10 p.m. For some more ways to plan ahead for the fall TV season, be sure to check out our 2022 TV premiere schedule.
