John Boyd is looking forward to exploring more of Agent Stuart Scola.
The FBI star has shared some of his thoughts on his character coming to the fore in Season 5 and what’s to come with him.
That includes Scola’s relationship with fellow agent Nina Chase and how their romance can grow on the job.
This will be a challenge for the pair as they balance romance with the dangerous work of the FBI.
Boyd also shared his feelings on the inevitable return of Missy Peregrym and more hints of how his character will change in Season 5.
It looks like an interesting season for Scola, which is good news for FBI fans.
Scola and Nina’s romance continues on FBI
For the first few seasons of FBI, Stuart Scola came off as a by-the-book but still passionate agent.
A former Wall Street broker, Scola lost his brother on 9/11 and joined the FBI trying to help others. His financial wisdom has helped investigations, while he’s adapted to action-oriented cases.
In Season 4, Scola ran into Nina Chase (Shantel VanSanten), a fellow agent on a case. The pair had a brief one-night stand a year earlier, but Scola never called her back.
The pair seemed to agree to try again, and Scola was surprised that after Maggie (Missy Peregrym) was injured in a sarin gas attack, Nina took her spot on the team.
The latest episode showed Scola and Nina are a couple, but he was thrown when she wanted to keep it quiet from others. Speaking to TV Insider, Boyd shared how Scola is still wrestling with this relationship.
“That moment where she wants to keep it on the down low and take separate cars, I think it catches him a little off guard, and as the episode progresses, he’s coming to terms with a feeling that he probably hasn’t had in a pretty long time, which is developing actual, real, genuine feelings for someone and his instinct to protect her more and look out for her. Of course, she’s a person that doesn’t need that or seek that in any way, so it makes for an interesting dynamic between the two of them.”
Boyd noted the scene where Scola tries to save Nina during a gunfight and her upset at him risking his life for there. “He 100 percent would be willing to risk anything. I think he knows enough about how he already feels that love will make you do things like that.”
That romance will play more into Season 5 as their pair face more challenges.
“They’re teetering on that place of, do we know what this is? Is it possible? This show asks the question of, with this job I do and the service that I do, is it possible for me to get to have those things? I think that Scola’s willing by the end of that episode to ask the question, and the way that it’s juxtaposed with the storyline between the two young lovers, Scola believes in his heart that that type of love and that type of closeness is reserved for people that don’t do what we do and that he’s not fully allowed or maybe fully capable of getting to have that. I think for the first time, we see the character in a position where he’s thinking maybe that is possible and seeing that thing in himself, that that could grow, and maybe it’s a possibility.”
How does Scola feel about Maggie coming back?
It is still unsure if Nina will remain with the team once Maggie returns. Missy Peregrym has been on maternity leave and is expected to return by midseason, yet VanSanten has said she’s willing to stay on the show.
Boyd is excited to see Maggie return and acknowledges the character will be different thanks to her brush with death.
“Of course, we know Maggie, so she’s rearing to go immediately. There’s a little trepidation around her about whether or not she’s ready, but Maggie always is ready to hit the deck and get down to business.”
Boyd is more interested in exploring how his romance with Nina leads to more changes for Scola as he embraces a more exciting life.
“I think he’s someone who’s experiencing what it’s like to lead with your heart for the first time in your life, and it’s such unfamiliar territory for him. He always had such good control over his quote-unquote love life, right? So I don’t think he really knows where he is going…I don’t think that he really knows or anyone knows, which is what makes it more interesting that they’re just gonna kind of follow their hearts.”
Whichever way Scola’s heart follows, FBI fans are eager to see him continue the journey.
FBI Season 5 airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on CBS.