The past can be heartbreaking to remember.
On this week’s FBI, Scola’s loss of his brother heightened the search for a group of terrorists threatening a new attack on the anniversary of 9/11.
Just as with Maggie last week, Scola’s issues threatened to cloud the case too much.
A new threat rises
Fire and Rain opened with a man toasting a group of other men, only for one to pull a gun and shoot him dead.
At a graveyard, Scola was sadly wishing his brother a happy birthday. Just as he was leaving, he saw his brother’s family arrive to pay their own respects before getting a phone call about the murder.
Scola met Wallace at the crime scene, brushing off questions on his personal life. A detective told them of a car racing away from the scene. The FBI was called in because the victim’s basement contained materials prepped for making a bomb.
The victim was Elliot Young, and it appeared he had made at least one bomb, although odd the buyers would invite police attention by killing him. Isobel stated there was no chatter on an event, but that didn’t rule out a small group.
Maggie and OA tracked down the car used in the getaway, finding it outside a home with blood inside. That gave them cause to check out the house, startling the owner, Hannah Thompson (Janel Moloney), who had been showering.
Hannah’s record seemed clean, although her husband had died on 9/11. Scola volunteered to talk to her, with Hannah providing evidence she’d been in Queens the previous night. The only person who’d have access to her car was her boyfriend, Alberto.
“Alberto” was really Felix Ramos (Diogo Martins), a member of an overseas terrorist group. Hannah was shocked to learn this, relating she’d met Felix off a dating app a months earlier, and he claimed to be a director. However, her confidence faltered when the tests showed the blood in the car matched Felix’s.
Hannah called him up only for no answer. She had only known Felix’s “production partner’ Ernesto (Christian A. Guerrero), and she was investing $30,000 in a short film with Felix upset it was taking so long. Jubal and Isobel believed Felix was on some sort of schedule and hated the delay.
The clock is ticking
Felix was about to “celebrate” the birthday of the infamous terrorist Carlos the Jackal. Still not believing this, Hannah was outfitted with a wire to meet Ernesto at a park with agents watching.
Hannah tried to put on a good face with Ernesto to give him the bag of money. Wallace and Scola raced over with Ernesto grabbing a random woman as a hostage before an FBI sniper took him down.
Ernesto’s phone showed text messages indicating the bomb was set, and the group needed the cash to flee the country after they struck a blow against “American capitalism.” That made finding Felix the priority.
Isobel sent a message to Felix on Ernesto’s phone with his answer detailing what he really thought of Hannah, who was devastated to realize she’d been used. Scola invoked his brother’s death to connect to Hannah and “people like you and I have an obligation to make sure nothing like that happens again.”
With the team watching, Hannah went to the meeting only for a strange man (Ramon Fernandez) to show up instead to bring her to him. Hannah knew if she did, she’s never come back alive, with Scola telling everyone to just let it play out.
Hannah tried to just give the money with the man grabbing Hannah and the team quickly arrested him. He was Carlos Velez, a true believer in bringing down the “corrupt system.” He boasted on how thousands would die and refused to give up either Felix or the bomb’s location.
Scola demanded to talk to Carlos alone and cut loose, the others knowing he was thinking personally yet they had to handle it the right way.
Scola presses the line
Carlos had been working as a delivery man, mainly by Wall Street, which meant a lot of possible targets. Photographs of him led the team to raid an apartment with blueprints of the building where Hannah worked.
Scola pressed Hannah, who insisted she knew nothing, and Felix stole her access card to the building. As the building was evacuated, the team found a massive motion-activated bomb capable of bringing it all down in less than four hours.
Scola was dismissive of Hannah being blinded by her emotions for Felix as she talked of never having said goodbye to her husband before his death. That won Scola over to press her on anything she could give them on Felix, including the snap chats he’d used to seduce her.
Felix’s own photographs ended up being his undoing as the team was able to track him to a warehouse. He took off running across rooftops, Scola tackling him and had to be pulled back by the rest of the team from pounding Felix himself.
With time running out and the building still not empty, Scola remembered something Hannah had said to him and tracked down a young man named Pablo (Brian Lucas). Dragging him to the bomb site with seven minutes to go, Scola called up Wallace to bring Felix the phone.
It turned out Pablo was Felix’s brother, who had no idea what Felix was up to and was horrified he was next to a bomb. Seemingly ready to let his brother die, Felix finally caved in to give up the defusing code.
Hannah was relieved the FBI believed her innocence to let her go, yet the irony that she’d felt more alive than in 20 years because of this.
Isobel was naturally furious with Scola and how he was in trouble with their superiors, only for Rina to announce she’d take responsibility for it. Rina also snapped at Scola that he got lucky and to never do anything like it again.
Wallace met Scola at a bar to talk about his brother, with Scola admitting he understood Hannah’s sense of loss. Scola confessed he was supposed to meet his brother on 9/11 but got drunk the night before to cancel and has long blamed himself.
Wallace pointed out that Hannah had pulled herself out of that hole, and Scola should do the same instead of using his brother’s death to avoid connections. Scola took her words to heart to finally meet his brother’s widow for a long-overdue talk.
While Isobel found a new respect for Rina, the focus was on Scola finally overcoming long-term guilt to move on with his life.
FBI Season 4 airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on CBS.
What kind of car is Scola driviing?