FBI Crossover Post-Mortem: John Boyd and Rick Eid Break Down the Fallout From That Big Betrayal

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Tuesday, April 4 FBI franchise crossover event.]

Things almost took a tragic turn during the FBI franchise crossover, “Imminent Threat.”

As FBI’s Nina (Shantel VanSanten) and Jubal (Jeremy Sisto) were tracking down a lead in Rome with FBI: INTERNATIONAL’s Fly Team, unexpected tunnels in a building they were canvassing led to Nina and INTERNATIONAL’s Vo (Vinessa Vidotto) being blindsided during the op—and a pregnant Nina was shot.

With FBI’s Scola (John Boyd) back in New York doing undercover work, his boss, Isobel (Alana De La Garza) made the difficult decision to keep it from him…and ordered Jubal to not reveal what had happened in Rome, because Scola would be distracted by his maybe-girlfriend and unborn child being in danger. The news, however, didn’t stay quiet for long, and Scola was horrified that Isobel and Jubal had betrayed him.

“Well, I think the mindset going forward is that’s just something that we will never recover from,” Boyd tells Give Me My Remote. “That’s just gonna leave a scar. It doesn’t mean that we’re not a team and we’re not a family. But that type of betrayal? You just don’t do that, agent to agent. And that’s what was so interesting about playing that: ‘I don’t care if you’re the SAC, the ASAC. You’re an agent. I’m an agent. And you do not do that. That’s too far.’”

“And, really, once you have that conversation, there’s no going back; the damage is done,” he continues. “So it’s just gonna deepen and make the relationship between Scola and his superiors more nuanced. It’s gonna make them closer. But you don’t recover from that type of betrayal.”

Though Scola was deeply angry once he learned about Nina’s shooting, “Scola’s anger over being kept in the dark was largely driven by fear of almost losing Nina,” FBI boss Rick Eid explains via email. “But he takes his responsibility as an agent seriously, and, in this case, there were thousands of civilian lives on the line. So I think deep down Scola knows Isobel made the right call—and that it wasn’t personal. It was just business.”

“Now that Nina and the baby are safe, his anger and sense of betrayal will subside a bit,” he continues. “But there might be some trust lost between Scola and Isobel/Jubal that will need to be rebuilt moving forward.”

Given the agents have to put their lives on the line every day, will this betrayal impact how Scola interacts with his team in the field? “If he was really interested in his personal well-being, he wouldn’t have taken the job,” Boyd notes. “He took the job because he felt a higher calling to do something. So he can still trust his superiors to keep him safe. But what he’s learned from this is that it will come at great cost, which is what we explore on these shows—the price these people pay for the job they do.”

“You may not get to have your child,” he continues. “You may not get to know when you have a family emergency. You may lose the woman you love, not even know she’s on life support. That’s the story that we’re interested in telling and that’s what we explore. So he still trusts them. But they’ve hurt him in a way only family can hurt you; only the people that you love and trust can hurt you.”



Though it initially didn’t look good, things did improve for Nina and the baby. Scola made his way to Rome—after the teams saved New York from a terror attack.

“Nothing like a near-death experience to put things into perspective,” Eid says. “Nina’s shooting solidified that she and Scola have a deep bond—which we saw at the end of the episode when they declared their love for the first time. We’ll be seeing more of Nina soon.”

But despite their first “I love you”s, things will remain complicated as the duo awaits the birth of their son.

“Well, that’s all sort of left up in the air,” Boyd says. “She still has hurdles to climb—we’re just not there yet. We don’t know what’s going to happen with them. We know that Scola and Nina really love each other. The question is, would this work? Is this what’s best? What’s best for the baby? I think that’s something that’s wonderful about their relationship is they always had a really special connection. And what does the job do to that?”

There was also a beat at the end of the crossover between Isobel, who had just given a press conference to acknowledge all the work the teams had done to stop the terrorists, and FBI: MOST WANTED’s Remy (Dylan McDermott), who was mourning the innocent death he unintentionally caused as he stopped a bomb. “Remy and Isobel can relate to one another about the heavy burdens of leadership and being forced to make tough choices,” Eid allows. “They’re both responsible for the safety of their agents, who trust them with their lives—but they must balance that against their even loftier duty of protecting civilians from imminent harm.”

With the crossover behind them, the next big franchise event is an important milestone: FBI’s 100th episode.

“We are very grateful that FBI fans have remained invested in our characters for the past 5 years and allowed our show to reach its 100th episode—an exciting milestone which happens to coincide with our season finale,” Eid previews. “All I’ll say is we haven’t seen the end of the challenges that Scola and Nina are facing in terms of their relationship and Nina’s pregnancy. We’re working on the episode now, so stay tuned for more to come.”

RELATED:

• FBI Boss Rick Eid Shares Insight into Co-Writing the Massive Franchise Crossover
• The FBI Franchise Stars Preview the Globe-Spanning Crossover: It’s ‘Three Hours of Awesome Television’
• The FBIs Crossover: ‘Imminent Threat’ Photos
• CBS Teases The FBIs Crossover Event
• FBI: INTERNATIONAL Post-Mortem: Heida Reed Warns of Trouble Ahead for Jamie and Ben
• FBI: INTERNATIONAL: Heida Reed Previews Jamie’s New Romance and a High-Stakes Case
• CBS Sets FBI Franchise Crossover
• FBI Post-Mortem: Jeremy Sisto on Jubal’s Emotional Roller Coaster in ‘Breakdown’
• FBI: INTERNATIONAL Post-Mortem: Derek Haas on Forrester’s Big Career Move
• FBI: Jeremy Sisto Previews Jubal’s Journey to a ‘Very Dark Place’
• FBI: INTERNATIONAL: Derek Haas Previews Forrester’s Approach to Saving His Job
• FBI Post-Mortem: Alana De La Garza on Isobel’s Closure and That ‘Exciting’ Stunt Sequence
• FBI: MOST WANTED Post-Mortem: Edwin Hodge on Ray’s New Connection
• FBI: Alana De La Garza Previews the Case That ‘Unravels Isobel’s World’
• FBI: INTERNATIONAL: Derek Haas Previews Jaeger’s Return in ‘Glimmers and Ghosts’
• FBI Recap: Nina Makes a Decision About Her Pregnancy
• FBI: Rick Eid Teases Maggie’s Return, Plus a ‘New Side’ to Isobel
• FBI Post-Mortem: Rick Eid on the Fallout From the Major Nina and Scola Twist
• FBI: Rick Eid Teases a Complex Kidnapping Case, Plus ‘Tension’ for Nina and Scola
• FBI: Zeeko Zaki and John Boyd Tease the Return of Missy Peregrym’s Maggie
• FBI: Missy Peregrym to Return in November
• FBI Post-Mortem: Zeeko Zaki Admits the ‘Victim’ Events ‘Has to Change OA’
• FBI: Zeeko Zaki Teases OA Going Through ‘the Entire Spectrum’ of Emotions in ‘Victim’
• FBI: John Boyd Previews Scola Supporting Jubal in ‘Prodigal Son’ and an Upcoming ‘Beautiful Moment’ with Tiff
• FBI Post-Mortem: John Boyd Breaks Down Scola and Nina’s Complex Relationship
• FBI: Rick Eid Teases the ‘Sky-High’ Stakes of the Season 5 Premiere
• FBI: Zeeko Zaki Reflects on OA’s Emotional Bedside Confession to Maggie
• CBS Renews the FBI Franchise
• FBI: Rick Eid on Prioritizing a ‘Grounded and Real’ Franchise
• FBI Post-Mortem: Rick Eid on the ‘Fear Nothing’ Twist and How OA Will Be Coping
• Jeremy Sisto Has an Idea for a LAW & ORDER and FBI Crossover
• FBI Star Zeeko Zaki Wants an AVENGERS: ENDGAME-Like Crossover Event for the Dick Wolf Shows
• FBI First Look: Zeeko Zaki and Missy Peregrym Pal Around on ‘Trigger Effect’ in New Photos

Follow @GiveMeMyRemote and @marisaroffman on Twitter for the latest TV news. Connect with other TV fans on GIVE ME MY REMOTE’s official Facebook page.

And be the first to see our exclusive videos by subscribing to our YouTube channel.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases made through links/ads placed on the site.