Duty has to come before friendship, no matter how painful it can be.
After a case where they had to rescue a kidnapped child, the FBI: International team needed to help an old friend of Agent Vo’s out of a jam.
Sadly, like the last time Vo (Vinessa Vidotto) helped a friend, there was more to the case than met the eye, as she found herself becoming involved with a dangerous terrorist group.
Once more, Vo had to question her judgment being clouded by friendship as she and the team raced to stop an attacker.
While Forrester was busy handling things in Budapest, Vo realized the only way to break this case meant breaking a close bond.
Thus, the episode titled Call Me Anarchy was a test of Vo’s commitment to the team, which came at a rough cost.
FBI: International Agent Vo needs to help a friend
A man lighted a branding iron on fire, bringing it to a room where some thugs were beating a young man (Jacob Moskovtiz). They held him down as the first man branded the youth while his cell phone rang.
In Crete, a frantic Paige Taylor (Jade Harlow) was driving her car and telling “Kody” to call her back. She arrived at a school to ask about her nephew Kody, who had been attending an archaeology program for a month. The man at the site broke it to her the school had closed three years ago. Paige called Vo to beg her for help.
Kellett showed Forrester photos of Mateo Vasa (Mihai Arsene), the Albanian enforcer going after Zsolt. Kellett and Smitty were speaking with Forrester when they were interrupted by Vo.
Vo asked for the team’s help finding Kody and explained that Paige had mentored her when she was in the Navy and wanted to help her out. Forrester let her run point while he stayed behind in Budapest.
Vo and Kellett met Paige at a Navy base in Chania, Greece, with Vo surprised to find Paige was now a captain. She admitted she hoped she and Kody could bond at a new base, but she’d been too busy. She’d dropped him off at a museum under the belief he’d be picked up for school.
Kody’s dad was in prison and his mom was in rehab, leading to him having a troubled life. Paige knew he was clean but knew he felt troubled with her being so busy. Kellett and Vo searched his sparse room as Vo checked the computer to find a website for the school, but it had been created four months ago.
Paige was worried someone had tricked Kody into a kidnapping as he started withdrawing and had few friends. However, he did have a girlfriend who worked at the library.
Vo found Sebastian “Seb” Wilkes (Kat Cleave), who revealed Kody wasn’t her boyfriend and just used the library computers so Paige couldn’t spy on him. Raines called in to share Kody had been on some websites communicating with people protesting the arrest of Theo Ellis, leader of a left-wing anarchist group called the Typhon Faction.
One user, Griffin, had been organizing riots and the women were shocked to see Kody was at one of them. Kellett figured that the group was grooming Kody into a terrorist.
Paige wanted to keep this quiet and maybe his mom had lured him to the U.S. Vo told her it was more likely Kody was being used and needed to stop him before it got too far.
Sergeant Kostas Artino (Andreas Karras) welcomed the team to his office. Paige got a text from Kody that was a distress call. Thankfully, Raines was able to trace it to a location just outside the city.
Kellett and Vo tracked the signal to a farmhouse, where Vo found a branding iron and some fresh blood on the floor, along with a symbol colored in blood on the wall.
Paige figured Kody must have wanted out of the group and they punished him. Kellett and Vo found tracks from a vehicle with the signal leading back to Chania.
At the town square, Vo found a bloody Kody telling them his captors took off in a blue sedan. Paige was overjoyed to see him as they led him to the base to be checked out.
Vo knew firsthand how it felt to grow up a military brat and knew Kody was ripe for recruitment. But the women were suspicious, there was no sign of the sedan Kody claimed to have seen.
Can the youth be trusted?
After being checked out by a nurse, Paige encouraged Kody to open up. Kody said he’d met Griffin and the Typhon Faction and believed in their cause. He then showed them the burn mark as his “initiation.”
Kody said the Typhon Faction was planning an attack at a cultural festival in Heraklion. He’d thought this was just a protest, not terrorism, and when he tried to quit, they beat him down and tossed him into a car before he escaped.
Paige brought Vo outside as she blamed herself for missing the signs of this. Vo assured her this wasn’t her fault and Kody had a chance to break out of this cycle.
Kellett and Vo both agreed something was off, and Kody was lying about his “escape.”
Smitty arrived with Greek anti-terrorist officer Dinos Markovic (Fanos Xenofos), who shared how Smitty had helped the Greeks arrest Ellis.
He believed an attack was coming, but the festival might be a distraction from the real target as these groups preferred to hit police and government officials rather than civilians.
Forrester called in to say Vo could do this as she knew she had to hit Kody hard over Paige’s objections. Vo assured him she could separate her job from her personal feelings.
Back in Budapest, Forrester entered a building to confront Vaso. He told Vaso to back off Peter, or his bosses would have Europol take down all his operations, and Vaso would be blamed for it.
Vo knocked on Paige’s door, saying she didn’t want to do this but needed to take Kody to the police station. Vo interrogated Kody on where the real attack was coming and said Paige would be blamed with him. Kody insisted the attack was coming as Vo threatened him with a lie detector.
Vo pushed Paige on how she had to know something was wrong, asking, “how much are you willing to sacrifice in your personal life to protect the public?”
Kellett and Smitty spoke on Vo’s ability to break someone as Paige came in to talk to Kody. Vo entered with a polygraph machine, letting Kody know he had no chance of beating it. He finally broke on learning Griffin had been interested in the navy base, which was the true target.
Stopping an attack but losing a friend
Vo got Kody to confess he had planted a device inside the base to allow Typhon Faction inside. The team raced to the base as Chief Master At Arms Kevin Davis (Lawrence J. Hughes) got his soldiers working.
They found a car inside the grounds and evidence Kody had set off a grenade to open a gate for the others. The women soon found some downed soldiers just before they were shot at by the terrorists.
A gun battle erupted as Vo moved the wounded soldiers. Griffin set off a bomb that ignited a fuel tank as the battle continued. Smitty was wounded but managed to toss a flash-bang grenade, shocking the group before Davis and his soldiers arrested them.
As the terrorists were led away and the fire was put out, Paige arrived to learn what had happened. Vo said that aiding in a terrorist attack meant Kody was in serious trouble.
Paige begged her to help, but Vo responded that they both took an oath “to make the hard right, not the easy wrong.” Paige blamed herself for not helping Kody enough, and if their friendship meant anything, Vo could cut a deal.
Griffin turned out to be Petros Gazis, a local youth who had also been radicalized. And another member gave up nearly 20 other terrorists. Vo wasn’t sure what to do about Kody as Smitty offered to find a deal but had to know if it was worth it.
Vo told Paige Kody would be extradited to the U.S. to be deprogrammed. Paige groused about mentoring Vo and now regretted asking her for help. Vo yelled that soldiers nearly died with Paige just stalking off.
Back in Budapest, Zsolt handed Forrester a meal as he knew he’d done something to help his dad and was happy. Vo talked of once more losing a friendship over doing the right thing, with Forrester saying, “if you’re not willing to take risks on this job, go sell ice cream.”
Vo hung up even as she mused on just how much the job was costing her.
It was a tough case for Vo to remind once again how mixing friendships and this job is never an easy combination.
FBI: International Season 2 airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on CBS.