FBI Season 9, episode 5, focused on a prison van escape as Agent Stuart Scola prepared for a possible major family decision. Does this mean we might lose a main FBI cast member?
The episode began with female prisoners being transported in a van before a group of masked individuals used a trap to stop the vehicle and release the inmates. While six of the eight inmates were eventually found, only two were missing.
At first, the FBI believed Genesis Perez was the ringleader since she had been going on a tangent before the van was hit. Plus, her husband had ties to a gang. However, it soon became clear they needed to look into Laila Sarbani.
Laila appeared to be a low-risk prisoner since she had only been charged with embezzlement. However, according to Genesis, she was associated with the men who attacked the transport van.
The FBI learns Laila had been an SSE operational support contractor doing work for the government in Afghanistan during the war. She only had visits from a priest.
She spent time with him gaining his trust until he would leave messages for her at a party. He developed feelings for her and believed they could be together. However, when they tried to follow him where he was supposed to meet Laila, she never showed up and called instead.
They heard an alarm going off as the phone call ended before the FBI received an alarm notice from a bank in Greenpoint, where the call had been pinpointed.
Things only get more confusing when, after the robbery, the perpetrators escape and toss money down to people shopping in a small market. They deduce that Laila is attempting to make things right from what happened to Afghans during the war and returning money to those who deserved it.
After finding a refugee who knew about Laila’s plans, the team determined they were going to try to hit a bigger bank that would hold all of the money that was for cash deliveries that had been put on hold. However, when they went to the bank in question, they couldn’t get inside due to customers being used as a human barricade.
Having been in the vehicle that hit a woman who eventually passed away of her injuries, they get information that two of the men involved in the robbery are brothers Rastam and Tamim Sadiqui. Nikki Reynard of the CIA informed Jubal and Isobel that Tamim had been an interpreter, while Rastam worked for the CIA as an Afghan commando who worked as a hunter-killer. Eventually, the war broke him, and he wanted restitution for his community.
Many of the refugees the CIA brought back had been given promises that were not kept, so Nikki understood why they were so angry. The FBI decided to make it look like they would return the money by making a deal with Laila and Rastam in exchange for a hostage. They would let them leave with the money as long as no hostages were hurt.
However, they discovered through security cameras that they took the bank manager for insurance and eventually caught up with Laila. However, they figured out that Rastam and Tamim had acted as hostages so the FBI wouldn’t notice. Luckily, they caught Rastam, but Tamim was on the run, having transported the money while posing as a medic.
While the team may have lost Tamim, there were also personal things going on, mainly for Scola. His wife, Agent Nina Chase, had gotten a job opportunity that would take her to San Diego. However, Scola was reluctant to leave New York and admitted to Eva that he asked her not to take it, despite this being something Nina had always wanted.
Eventually, Eva, having seen how stressed out Scola was about making such a big sacrifice, told him not to stand in Nina’s way. He then called Nina and left her a message, telling her to take the job, and they would figure things out.
Does this mean the couple will work long distance? Or will Scola turn in his badge and follow Nina, thus being yet another exit for the series? We do know Shantel Van Santen will appear as Nina in the Nov. 16 episode of FBI, so we will have to wait a couple of weeks to find out what the newlyweds plan to do.
FBI airs Mondays on CBS at 8/7c.
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