Tiffany took well to the spotlight in this week’s case.
The execution of a wealthy accountant was at the heart of FBI Season 5 Episode 5.
Once the squad figured out who he was (Frank Leone), it didn’t take them long to determine why his luxury sportscar was all shot up.
As Nina soon learned from Frank’s “see no evil, hear no evil wife,” he only had one client. She didn’t know the client’s name, so she had an idea that he was trouble.
A cursory examination of Frank’s laptop soon proved that his client was the all-around gangster El Feo.
As for why El Feo would have his money man killed, it turned out that Frank had just testified to a secret grand jury investigating El Feo.
And, what a coincidence, El Feo and a jury member shared a medical provider. So he had a mole inside the grand jury.
In an even more outrageous coincidence, a cop that Tiffany used to work with was El Feo’s cousin. And he had reached out to her recently about a gun charge. Isn’t life funny that way?
Since the jury member was found quite dead, the team had little choice but to play Tiffany’s long shot.
Tiffany failed to reveal early on that Ralphie was a “flopped cop,” kicked off the force for a DUI while on probation. He was now running a hardware store.
When Scola met Ralphie, warning bells started ringing. Ralphie blamed El Feo for his brother’s death. Ralphie also didn’t like how El Feo was getting rich from his illegal activities.
Still, Scola did the right thing and backed his partner’s play to Isobel, despite his many doubts. He should have listened to that inner voice. Or somebody in authority should have asked more questions.
Ralphie did what he had to do, getting inside El Feo’s home, planting bugs, and cloning his burner. But it was apparent that he wouldn’t stop playing cop after a single afternoon, to everyone’s later regret.
It was a shame everything went sideways because the squad did everything right after Ralphie’s outing. They located one of the shooters and flipped him into naming the other shooter and giving up the location of the murder weapons.
Granted, the path went cold when the second shooter was killed off in an obviously staged overdose. But there was enough evidence to arrest El Feo anyway.
Only he was nowhere to be found. He had tied up most of the loose ends so there was little reason for him to have run. The FBI undoubtedly had a weak case that wouldn’t have survived El Feo’s lawyers.
Then, when they pinned down the directions he was last seen heading, Tiffany had another revelation, announcing that he was going fishing. There was little wonder that Jubal looked askance at that announcement.
And, what do you know, El Feo was at the fishing hole, along with Ralphie, who had decided to take care of the drug lord since the police were unable to.
Sadly, things went down exactly as would be expected. Ralphie wouldn’t relent on his plan, and Tiffany had to shoot him (why couldn’t she have just wounded him?).
The inexplicable thing was El Feo grabbing Ralphie’s gun. Did he have no faith in his legal team? Instead, he gave Scola an excuse to kill him. That didn’t make any sense.
What also didn’t make sense until the end was why Brittany stuck her neck out for Ralphie. Nothing throughout suggested that Ralphie’s being “flopped” was a loss to New York law enforcement.
Brittany finally admitted how she and Ralphie had been involved in a drunken prank, the act that resulted in his being fired, but that he had covered for her. She felt an obligation to offer him a chance for redemption.
Scola did his best to console Brittany. He recited all the changes he made after his brother was killed on 9/11 to explain why Ralphie had acted the way he did.
The big difference, however, was that Stuart became an FBI agent rather than attempting to plant a gangster in the ground. Ralphie had issues, so it was best that he hadn’t remained a cop.
This wasn’t much of a case. It was quickly apparent who the guilty party was, and they likely would have found some way to get El Feo convicted if Ralphie had intervened as he did.
No, this was an opportunity to focus on Tiffany, who has become the team member with the most heart as Maggie remains on the sidelines.
While the others remain more stereotypical cops, Tiffany is the empathetic one who can see all sides of a person’s actions. This can come in handy when trying to get inside a perp’s head.
The TPTB on FBI are to be credited for taking viewers inside of their characters, making them more well-rounded and relatable, whether it’s OA as a victim on FBI Season 5 Episode 4 or Jubal reaching out to his distant son on FBI Season 5 Episode 3.
To follow Brittany’s career, watch FBI online.
Did Brittany do the right thing for Ralphie?
Should Scola has acted on his hunches?
Did you see Ralphie’s actions coming?
Comment below.
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Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.
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