FBI: Zeeko Zaki Previews OA’s Attempt at Compartmentalizing in ‘Ghost from the Past’

As the FBI team tries to get to the bottom of a TSA agent’s death on the Tuesday, May 10 episode, “Ghost from the Past,” OA (Zeeko Zaki) finds himself grappling with dueling personal struggles.

“This is [equivalent to] OA’s finale for season 4,” Zaki teases about the pressure and stakes of the hour for his character.

Emotionally, in addition to the FBI agent still grappling with Maggie’s (Missy Peregrym) injuries from the sarin gas, the hour finds OA dealing with an important anniversary from his time in the army.

“We start the hour revealing a little Easter egg backstory for OA,” Zaki previews. “We get to meet and see him interacting with some buddies from the army. And a little bit of foreshadowing happens in our intros.”

“We start the episode wondering how OA is doing, and [when his friends from the] army are introduced, it gives the audience a nice opportunity to remember there are still other things going on in his life [in addition to] Maggie,” he continues. “Let’s see how good he is at compartmentalizing.”

FBI showrunner Rick Eid previously teased the hour would  “explore the emotional pressure” OA is under. “It comes back to [did this huge trauma] affect his judgment, does it not affect his judgment, is he under too much pressure?” he said at the time. “Does he need to talk to someone, a professional, to deal with some of the stress? Or are the other characters just imagining that’s what he’s going through?”

One thing that is going right for OA? His new, temporary partnership with Nina (Shantel VanSanten).

“A few weeks in time have passed [since the last episode] and Nina comes and picks OA up, establishing that we have become more comfortable as partners, which is nice,” Zaki says. “To some degree, everybody in the FBI is a super agent. Everyone is qualified, everyone is talented, and an expert in some field that can contribute to the larger [picture].”

With Maggie, Zaki notes, that dynamic has balanced between her mentoring OA and him having “this sort of protective and chivalrous energy.” But with OA and Nina, “at this point, [it’s] here’s a new agent. If she is getting moved in to be my [temporary] partner, I know that she’s great,” he says. “I know that she’s going to be two steps behind me on my six, wherever my head is at, especially with the sarin gas and the effect of losing my partner. It’s really nice to kind of lean into that and see how it translates.”

But the team, as a whole, is still dealing with the professional fallout from Maggie’s injury. “What’s really exciting is as complicated as our world is, it’s very clean cut,” Zaki says. “So there’s repercussions for things and it is nice that we see that at the end of the day. There are a system of checks and balances, and especially with the questionability of law enforcement in today’s world…someone [is having to take] responsibility and accountability at the highest level of decision-making.”

“It is just as important as showcasing our ability to get the job done by following our guide or going against protocol, so it’s nice, in moving forward into the other episodes, we see kind of that there is no such thing as a free lunch,” he continues. “No matter what. Everyone is has to account for their choices. And I think that’s really powerful, especially when it comes from the different characters, at different points of power. Just seeing that everyone can make mistakes, on the whole spectrum, is really powerful.”

FBI, Tuesdays, 8/7c, CBS

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