FBI Post-Mortem: Zeeko Zaki on OA’s Dangerous ‘Hitched’ Mission and His Hopes for OA and Gemma

March 11, 2025 by Marisa Roffman

“Hitched” – When a passenger train is hijacked and rerouted while at high speed with an unarmed OA and Gemma on board, the team races to wrest control away from the unhinged perpetrators and prevent a catastrophe, on FBI, Tuesday, March 11 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on-demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on-demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the episode airs). Pictured (L-R): Zeeko Zaki as Special Agent Omar Adom ‘OA’ Zidan and Comfort Clinton as Gemma Brooks. Photo: Bennett Raglin/CBS ©2024 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Tuesday, March 11 episode of FBI.]

OA (Zeeko Zaki) and Gemma’s (Comfort Clinton) planned romantic vacation took a detour when the train they were on was hijacked on the Tuesday, March 11 episode of FBI.

But as things escalated on the train—including Gemma getting shot and OA being tied up—the real motive became clear: They were trying to get justice for a train crash that harmed their friends, family, and neighbors and was largely ignored. However, the hostage takers didn’t have the same agenda, as the ringleader, Evelyn, was determined to make it a suicide mission.

OA was able to convince one of the hostage takers—who wasn’t okay with killing everyone—to untie him and help get everyone else to a different train car so OA could disconnect the cars in the hopes of saving the passengers and, potentially, stop the train from crashing.

Evelyn, who was grief-stricken over losing her husband, opted to end her life while barricaded in the driver’s portion of the train. OA, however, was able to stop the train…and while Gemma survived, he was still guilt-ridden over how close he came to losing her.

Here, Zaki talks with Give Me My Remote about filming “Hitched” and what it might mean for OA and Gemma.

We have spoken in the past about how OA has had to compartmentalize a lot of the trauma that he’s gone through. But he’s had a very tough year already. How much are we seeing any lingering trauma from this, and how does it change for him because Gemma nearly got killed in the process?
I think the style of our show is to really show the strength of these characters and of their skill level. So I think we just see, so far, some more compartmentalization. Especially when we move into different cases, you’re never really exactly sure how close in time these cases are to each other and things like that. So he’s definitely going to have a moment or an opportunity, I’m sure, to play the trauma from this, which will be really exciting. But, again, we just try to always make sure OA and these characters are heroes, they’re sharp, they’re tuned in, and hopefully that comes across.

Because it is so rare to get these moments of emotion, what did it mean to you to have that moment at the hospital where OA did acknowledge to Maggie that he was feeling guilt about Gemma being in this position? And what was it like filming that scene with Missy Peregrym?
Yeah, that was a great opportunity and a great moment because that’s sort of the biggest issue with relationships in these jobs, in these life and death jobs: Having to really be in a relationship when you can go to work and not come back the next day. And then your job [could be] putting your partner in danger, as well. It’s a really heavy subject to get to play with. So it was nice to finally get to do that one on my side. And then, especially, of course, every emotional scene I get to film with Missy is always such a pleasure and always super fun to play. So it was great.

This is a show that has killed off characters in the past, including significant others of the regulars. Did you know Gemma was going to survive the hour? Or did you get to that point in the script, see she was shot and go, “Oh my God”?
Yeah, I definitely knew that she was going to survive. Whether she wants to stay with me or not, I think maybe it’s still up for debate. But it was definitely…just reading the script and just knowing, wow, we’re really hitting all these super heavy moments. And it was just so, so much fun to play because that’s the real meat of acting, I think—playing the loss of someone you care about and the fear of that. It was really nice.

OA and Gemma have been through a lot in their relationship already. From what you’ve filmed so far, where do they go from here and what has this done to their relationship?
Where this goes from here and where I hope it goes from here are definitely two different things, because I have no idea where it goes. [Laughs.] But I really hope that this makes us stronger. I’m really excited to have the proper pacing in our relationship. We filmed a lot of things even this season that didn’t make it into the final cut, so I just want to make sure that our relationship gets the proper time to really breathe and for the audience to really fall in love with it as much as we are. And then, hopefully, it goes where it goes. But I’m excited for this opportunity, or for this moment…I’m hoping it makes us stronger. Maybe Gemma just turns into a real badass partner. Who knows, maybe we get caught in some sticky moments again, and it’ll be cool.

When you look at this relationship, is it something that you see leading to marriage, potentially children, etc.? Or do you think that’s something that OA may not want, especially given his job?
Well, I think that’s the biggest sort of dilemma that these people in life-threatening careers sort of find themselves in. So we’ll see how that plays. We’ll see where we kind of go with that. Because it’s tough to really throw yourself in front of a bullet when you have a significant other or if you have a family and things like that. So definitely something that I think we’re gonna have to take our time with, but we’ll see where it goes.

“Hitched” – When a passenger train is hijacked and rerouted while at high speed with an unarmed OA and Gemma on board, the team races to wrest control away from the unhinged perpetrators and prevent a catastrophe, on FBI, Tuesday, March 11 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on-demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on-demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the episode airs). Pictured: Zeeko Zaki as Special Agent Omar Adom ‘OA’ Zidan. Photo: Bennett Raglin/CBS ©2024 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

On a production level, you got to be an action hero at points. What was the process of filming the scenes, especially where he was disconnecting the train cars?
Yeah, that was super fun. I mean, we were on a stage for all of it, and we had these two train sets. We had one entire section of a train, and then these little movable sort of parts of a train for each end. So when we got to film the trains going apart, we had the crew moving the one side. We had the fans [to help mimic the elements outside]. We had the smoke. And it was just really exciting to get to play. And, in reality, the pieces of the train that we were on were really separating and they were really moving. So it really brought it to life. And it was just a lot of fun, because, again, it’s such an iconic sort of movie hero moment that we really got to do on the show. And it was such an honor, really, to get to play those beats.

So much of your stuff was in those train cars, which can be really confined, production-wise. How did it impact the way you approached the scenes being so limited in space?
It was fun. You start off and you go, “Okay, wait, the train would be rocking back and forth.” So you kind of put a little bit of that into your acting, but then you end up just…you’re just focusing on that. And then you’re like, “You know what? Let’s just pretend this was a really smooth train,” and we kind of abandoned that. So there were definitely some challenges, and the camera helps with it a lot. And I’m very excited to see the final cut; I hope it does read like we’re on a moving train.

But it was challenging. And then, of course, being on the same set for four days. Our show, traditionally, we’re never on a set for more than one day, usually. You definitely get that sort of delusional [mindset], you get a little it gets a little goofy, “we’ve been in this same room for four days,” kind of thing. But I think that also adds to the chemistry of the cast and it just brings sort of a cohesion to all the moments on the train.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

FBI, Tuesdays, 8/7c, CBS

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FBI Post-Mortem: Zeeko Zaki on OA’s Dangerous ‘Hitched’ Mission and His Hopes for OA and Gemma

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