FBI: International rehashed a plot with Jubal in "Remove the Compromise" that FBI covered better

FBI: International season 3 episode 8, "Remove the Compromise," is one that could have stayed in the chamber, at least in terms of Jubal Valentine's inclusion. The big draw of the episode, particularly for FBI fans like myself who were watching for him, was that the Fly Team was going to be working a case that involved the Durango cartel.

The crime organization, and their former leader Antonio Vargas, were infamous on the flagship not only for their interesting and high risk villainy that involved the team making hard choices to save lives but also the killing of Assistant Director in Charge Rina Trenholm. Admittedly, it's on me for thinking that the driving emotional beat of this episode would be about her loss, how it affected Jubal since they were dating, and the possible dissolution of the cartel as a means of avenging her. However, you don't invoke an inflection point like that and not deliver the pay off. Unfortunately, that's the case with this episode.

Jubal is relegated to the background of "Remove the Compromise," and the writing around him pales in comparison to the debate on whether the U.S. government should be declaring that drug cartels are terrorist groups so that their crimes can be combated through the use of military measures such as firing a missile to take key players out in a country that's an ally. It was a wild, continuous argument that was being had by Cameron Vo and the CIA agent Charlotte Linzer, who, for lack of a better word, was gunning for this change in tactics.

Uncharacteristically, Jubal's moral integrity went flying out the window. This would have been interesting if Jeremy Sisto was given more than variations of "Oh, well, our hands are tied. These are our orders, can't do anything about them." for his dialogue in the first two thirds of the episode. If you've never watched FBI, or you decided to start the show in the fifth or sixth season without paying the earlier seasons any mind, than you likely had very little idea why he was acting like there wasn't anything he could at least say to Linzer.

But if you knew the backstory, then you knew exactly where FBI: International was taking his plot and you, like myself, were disappointed. Jubal had no interest in deterring Linzer or standing up for what was right because he wanted the Durango cartel to pay for what Vargas did to Rina. With the drug lord's nephew, Byron Molina, believed to be the next head of the crime organization, taking him out would fracture the cartel and throw them into disarray. It would disrupt their influence and likely put them out of the game. This, however, could be achieved by arresting him not firing a strike missile!

What made this writing choice disappointing was that it had already been done in FBI and more effectively. In season 4, episode 9, "Unfinished Business," when Jubal and Special Agent in Charge Isobel Castille learned that Vargas had put a hit out on everyone involved in his arrest, including their family members, because of what happened to his wife and son, Jubal wanted to retaliate in kind.

They'd found out that one of the face recognition gun boxes that Vargas had had developed was placed 50 feet from the school Jubal's kids attended at the time. He wanted the drug lord handled so that he couldn't target them again and had said, "Vargas has a lot of enemies. If he hits the yard at MCC, he won’t survive a week," according to TVInsider's recap. Isobel said that that wasn't going to happen because they're better than that solution to their problem, they have to be.

Their discussion was far more compelling than Jubal being prodded by the members of the Fly Team for his silence and the implication that the only reason he jumped into help Blanca Rivas, Molina's girlfriend who also happens to be an American citizen, was because Scott Forrester went to go pull her out of the line of fire and he respects and cares for his colleague.

Sure, we have that moment where Jubal applied pressure to Molina's neck wound so that he wouldn't bleed out, indicating that he realized he wanted to get justice through the proper channels rather than letting him die but it was lackluster. There really wasn't a lot of meat on this bone for Sisto to dig into and, personally, it made me wish we got this closure on FBI instead of its sister show.

The proper deference likely would have been paid and the case might have been better, too. As it stands, this episode was generic right on down to the surprise twist that the asset the CIA had embedded into the cartel had fallen in love with Blanca and the two were going to run away together only for him to die in the shootout that occurred after Cam was able to convince Linzer to divert the missile. Molina had none of the charisma or criminal mastermind that Vargas did, and he along with "Remove the Compromise" is more of a footnote in the franchise rather than a shining moment.

But I did at least appreciate that the closing scene of the episode involved Scott and Jubal at a bar talking about Rina and how Jubal keeps her alive every day by singing in the shower...badly.

FBI: International airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS. Stay tuned to Hidden Remote for more news and coverage about the franchise.