[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the FBI Season 7 premiere “Abandoned.”]
The FBI team says goodbye to one of its own in the Season 7 premiere, with Katherine Renee Kane exiting the series.
There’s good and bad news in the episode. The good: Tiffany’s just leaving the team and moving to Georgia (near her sister) and even though Scola’s (John Boyd) stabbed during the case, he’s going to be fine. The bad: The team may have just made an enemy of a CIA officer. And the heartbreaking comes from Maggie (Missy Peregrym) throwing a birthday party for her late friend’s daughter (she’s now her guardian), but all Ella wants is her mom.
Below, Boyd and showrunner Mike Weiss talk about the premiere, saying goodbye to Tiffany, Scola’s new partner(s) to come,
Mike, how’d you figure out how you’d write out Tiffany?
Mike Weiss: The obvious thing to do and what we chose to do is to have her still grappling with the fallout from the really intense experience that she had at the end of Season 6. … Different cases affect people differently. The idea was that we saw in Season 6 just how rage-filled and kind of intensely she had been affected by Hakim entering her life, and she was hoping that when she caught him, if she killed him, if she had her revenge, that all of that kind of baggage would just fall to the wayside and it kind of didn’t. It’s not always the easy answer that you’re hoping for.
We got some great Scola and Tiffany moments from the coffee cup to him trying to get her to just take some time off to her helping him after he stabbed. John, talk about filming those.
John Boyd: Yeah, it was pretty emotional. In that scene, the stabbing scene at the top of the escalator, we were talking about how to make it work and what to find and how we deal with the tourniquet on the leg. And there was this interesting thing between Scola and Tiff where they never, they were always in lockstep with each other and knew how to move in a partnership and how to as a unit support their team. But they never touched, they weren’t a touchy-feely partner. They weren’t give me a pound, they weren’t huggers. And I had this idea at the end of it, well, what if I just put my hand on her hand? What if that was just how he reaches to hold her? And it was so interesting just the flood of emotions shooting that scene together knowing that that was going to be the end. And it was like working with Katherine always and on this show, the partnership, when it works, it works. And it was what felt right in the moment and it was a really great emotional goodbye.
How’s Scola doing without Tiffany? He has to adjust to her not being there and a new partner.
Boyd: I really love that Mike had such a great idea coming in to have this struggle to find [someone, to have] the rest of the team joking and making fun of me for speed dating and who works and doesn’t work. And it’s the struggle. And part of it is his own journey of finding out that he’s not necessarily ready for someone or [there are] people that are just not the right type, totally wrong for him. It’s been really fun to play. There’s a little bit of humor in there and yeah, I had a great time doing it.
Weiss: Yeah, I mean, Scola’s a really fun character to write because he’s very sure of himself, not in a cocky way, maybe a little bit of edge. He is so sure of himself, but all of a sudden, he’s got this kind of big question mark that’s on display for everyone to make fun of and comment on, but also for him to deal with. And I think deeper into the season we’re going to be able to address—I mean, a very, very underground subterranean theme of the character is also the fact that he is raising a baby with another FBI agent [Most Wanted‘s Nina, played by Shantel VanSanten], but they’re not married and maybe Scola’s got a little bit of a commitment-something issue that’s worth exploring. And so bizarrely this opportunity to explore that on a professional level without ever stating it, but just to have it kind of be there bubbling under the surface is interesting for us to play with.
Is that going to carry over that we’re going to see on the personal side for Scola and Nina?
Weiss: Yeah, there are some commitment topics that are going to be raised and we’re going to get to explore a little bit of Scola’s personal history, a little bit of his family history and just kind of help the audience understand how he wound up being in the situation that he’s currently in. Just little breadcrumbs are all it takes to help an awesome actor like John build out a character’s full life.
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Mike, you have Maggie dealing with Ella who of course still misses her mom and work. How is she going to be doing going forward? Who is she leaning on?
Weiss: I’m new to the show, but it is the best possible job that I could have hoped to find because the team is so fantastic. In general, we’re going to see Maggie relying on the team. But I think the great thing about that relationship specifically with OA [Zeeko Zaki] is that there is this kind of incredible strong, sturdy brother-sister relationship. OA’s absolutely there for her if she needs help. And I think for Maggie, the struggle is going to be, in Season 7, trying to figure out the balance between being a working surrogate mom and still protecting the city of New York and the people who are close to her and her team. That’s going to be kind of an interesting thing to see her have to figure out that balance now, which she never had to do before Ella came into her life.
We know that Syd [Lisette Olivera] as Scola’s partner. What’s that dynamic like? How’s she fitting in with the team?
Weiss: She’s newer and fresher and younger as an agent. She also has a BAU [Behavioral Analysis Unit] background, so she’s going to offer a kind of psychological insight to the team and to the casework that I think is going to be great. And then for Scola, because he is such an intense seen it all, New York City special agent, I think he’s the perfect person to pair with someone who can ask tough questions because you kind of know that Scola, he’s right there anyway thinking about things I think in the same really detail-oriented way and he’s got a partner who is going to be voicing some of those psychological aspects of the cases. I think it’s going to be really fun. And then also he’s just more experienced in the field. And so that dynamic is going to be very different from Tiff, who was obviously a total badass. She was a total badass in field, so that was one dynamic, and this dynamic is a little bit different. He’s got someone who was working indoors and has all of a sudden become an outdoor cat, and so Scola is going to have to be there to help her get her head around field work a little bit.
Boyd: How does Maggie’s team rally? How do we use the secret weapon and is this person a liability, an asset? How does Scola help her? There’s so much to explore there. That’s great. I mean, having someone that came up from the basement that has a brilliant mind that’s getting into a stack to do a SWAT raid and making sure that we’re not leading her to her death, that’s important. We got to make sure we look after her and it’s great. She’s a kid, she’s someone to care about, so it’ll be great to figure out how we need her.
Could we see Tiffany again this season?
Weiss: Never say never. She definitely needed some time off, but obviously she’s a trusted and beloved member of the show and we didn’t seal that door shut behind her.
Bennett Raglin / CBS
Will there be more conflict with that CIA officer?
Weiss: Maybe, is what I’ll say. … It’s not [a through line] like the Hakim storyline [was in Season 6]. But never say never. The team definitely did not make a new friend in the CIA in the season premier, that’s for sure.
Is there a season-long foe or any past foes coming back? Vargas [David Zayas] is still a threat…
Weiss: He’s still out there. No, we’ve toyed the idea of bringing back some threats. We’re introducing some interesting new characters who we think are definitely juicy enough to bring back later, but right now we’re mostly focused on interesting dynamic cases of the week.
Isobel’s [Alana De La Garza] going to be having a health scare of some kind. What can you preview about that, Mike?
Weiss: She’s been such a private character and it’s going to offer us a little bit of an opportunity to explore what her personal life away from 26 Fed looks like.
John, what else is coming up Scola?
Boyd: Just the Goldilocks theme of looking for the new partner is great. You get to see a different side of him. You get to see Scola in a more mature, taking on younger partners [role]. There’s an identity struggle, how he relates to the rest of the team and how he does the job and him grieving a loss of a partner.
FBI, Tuesdays, 8/7c, CBS