FBI Season 5 Episode 18 Review: Obligation

There had to be some consequences from the ballyhooed FBI crossover.

Even though Nina and her baby were apparently all right, Scola was still discontented on FBI Season 5 Episode 18.

You can’t blame him. Isobel handled things poorly during that terrorist hunt on that crossover, and Nina, then Scola, ended up paying for it.

It all came down to why Isobel sent Nina with Jubal to Rome in the first place. Initially, it appeared to be just an abduction, which sounded safe enough for a pregnant agent to work. 

But once the words “terrorism” and “mass casualty event” started getting tossed around, that wasn’t a situation in which Nina should have been.

Sure, it’s simple to second-guess Isobel’s decision after the fact. And Nina can be blamed for putting herself in the line of fire, ignoring Jubal’s instruction to hang back as the team invaded the terrorist stronghold without sufficient backup.

But that wasn’t why Scola felt betrayed. Isobel deliberately chose not to tell Scola about Nina’s being shot so that it wouldn’t disturb his crucial undercover assignment.

In retrospect, Scola’s undercover work was an epic fail as he could never make the connection he sought, and Remy was brought in to use his contacts instead.

Then Scola had to learn about an FBI agent being shot in Rome from the low-level thug he had been working with, then found out from Forrester that that agent was Nina.

So much for Isobel’s cone of silence. The result was that Scola spent the rest of the crossover feeling betrayed by his bosses and hellbent on seeking vengeance for Nina, causing all kinds of headaches for Remy.

It wasn’t an all’s-well-that-ends-well situation, as Scola’s season of discontent carried over to this episode. It’s only fitting that there were consequences for the mistakes of that recent case.

It’s impressive how tied-in Tiffany is that she knew about Scola applying for that white-collar job before he had a chance to bring it up to his partner. If he ever planned to, that is.

It made sense that he and Nina were reassessing their positions after what happened in Rome and New York during the crossover.

No one could fault Nina for stepping back, especially after being shot. And Scola, the ex-stockbroker, would have been a natural for the white-collar division.

But one of the suspects in this case spoke to Scola indirectly, as did his partner.

Ray Nichols was a low-level criminal who got in over his head. He was determined not to talk to protect his pregnant wife and their unborn child from the crime boss that employed him. Scola could relate to that philosophy, even if it made solving their case that made harder.

Nichols’ wife Mila even wore a wire, hoping to implicate his boss. However, that turned out to be a bad idea, as he was instantly suspicious and ran, getting shot and killed by Tiffany, which only complicated the investigation.

With Nichols the only one left of those who abducted the dead colonel, Tiffany and Scola had to get him to reveal what little he knew about the buyer of the missiles.

Tiffany got him to see that he didn’t have a magic wand that would enable him to protect his wife and child while he was in prison. Scola stressed the importance of spending time with his child.

Nichols giving up the buyer’s name and what he planned to use the missiles for was crucial to locating the Javelins. Isobel deserved credit for deducing who Santos’s target was, leading to Scola’s following a hunch and stumbling onto the criminals.

His being pinned down by gunfire while outnumbered could have incentivized Scola to move on. But Nichols’ regrets about playing it safe caused Scola to turn down the white-collar job instead.

All is not right with Scola. He really needs to have one of those Maggie-type confrontations with Isobel and Jubal to hash out his feelings over how they handled the news of Nina’s shooting. But that’s not his style, so he probably won’t vent.

But at least his knee-jerk reaction to move on to a “safer” position seems to have passed. Now the big question is when will the baby arrive: this season or next?

As for the case itself, it seemed like the dead colonel was a national security breach waiting to happen, as he regularly hooked up with different women at that same bar. It’s little wonder that Polat and his crew were able to pull off the abduction and resultant weapons heist.

It was interesting how the various representatives in the JOC worked together on this case. Polat was shown to be an ATF target, while the buyer used money marked by the DEA to buy the missiles, which helped to identify him.

Maybe in a future episode, some analysts other than Kelly, Ian, and Elise could come forward from the background where they reside.

It was surprising how short shrift was made of Maggie and OA discovering that armory hidden at Polat’s garment factory simply because the two missiles they sought weren’t there. Hopefully, some agency came in afterward and cleaned up all those weapons.

To follow Scola’s growth as an agent, watch FBI online.

Was Scola right to look around for a new position?

Are you glad he’s staying?

How significant a role did Tiffany play in that decision?

Comment below.

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Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.

You can view the original article HERE.