FBI Introduced A New Character Who Could Be Just What Maggie Needs, But I'm Not Sure We Should Trust Him

Spoilers ahead for Episode 12 of FBI Season 7, called "Manhunt" and set to be available streaming with a Paramount+ subscription.

The FBI team was on the case of a crime worthy of Law & Order: SVU elsewhere in the Dick Wolf TV universe, with the clock ticking on saving a young girl and busting a sex trafficking ring. OA was nowhere to be seen this week, with Maggie partnered up with Scola after his recent breakthrough. She also made an unexpected connection in "Manhunt," and I didn't trust it at all for the majority of the episode.

In fact, it wasn't until the very last scene that I accepted that FBI wasn't about to pull and bait and switch to reveal the newcomer as a villain. Joel the 911 operator could be what Maggie needs at this point in Season 7... as long as I'm wrong about not trusting him.

Joel, played by Bill Barrett, didn't actually appear on screen until the very end of the episode. He was just a voice on the line to Maggie as he helped connect a young victim to 26 Fed so that they could try and save her before the worst could happen. It was an intense case, and I was half convinced that Joel was faking his compassion and using the open line to gather information and help the traffickers stay one step ahead of the feds.

Even at the very end, when Joel arrived in the hospital to check in on the victim they'd managed to rescue at the last minute, I thought that he might have arrived for the purpose of silencing her. Maggie has taken hit after hit this season, and giving up custody of Ella was devastating, so I just couldn't be confident that something good was going to happen for her.

But Joel seemingly really was just there to check in on the victim, and he was charming enough that his offer to buy Maggie some hospital coffee came across as very sweet. Assuming that he really is one of the good guys and not pulling a long con of some sort, I think he could be great for Maggie as Season 7 continues. Is it time for a new love interest?

After all, giving up on her attempt to be both a mom to Ella and a field FBI agent was a big loss for her at home, even if it was for the best for the young girl. And sure, an earlier episode dropped a hint that Maggie and Erin are spending time together again as sisters, but her strongest bond on the show has always been with OA.

And the OA/Maggie bond is one of my favorites on TV, but OA also has Gemma as somebody he can talk to outside of the job. Scola's personal life partner is also an FBI agent, but Nina works for another team (with Shantel VanSanten a regular on a different show). Tiff is gone after a sweet final scene with Maggie, and both Jubal and Isobel are superior officers and therefore not really peers to Maggie.

It just seems to me that Maggie could use somebody to talk to who isn't a boss or a fellow field agent involved in the same tough cases that she is. Could Joel be to Maggie what Gemma is to OA? We can only speculate after he appeared in a grand total of one episode with no guarantee that he'll be back, but I'm going to try and trust the character and hope for the best for Maggie to make a connection with him. She deserves a win in her personal life.

See if Joel returns with new episodes of FBI on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS, ahead of FBI: International at 9 p.m. ET and FBI: Most Wanted at 10 p.m. ET. Of the three shows, FBI is the only one that has been renewed beyond the 2024-2025 TV schedule, so fans can at least count of more of the original show for the foreseeable future.