FBI Season 5 Episode 13 Review: Protégé

On FBI Season 5 Episode 13, “Protégé,” an opportunity for a deeper dive into Maggie and her PTSD is squashed by introducing a new, fleeting character. As we don’t know Maggie’s mentor, meeting her is new, but parts of this episode feel rinsed and recycled from FBI Season 5 Episode 12, “Breakdown.” 

Someone is hiding something; Maggie is the one to find out. Maggie or someone close to her is hurt because of this, and Maggie then must confront the person hiding things. 

She is a wonderful person — empathetic and loving. We all know she would do anything for her team and, quite possibly, for a stranger on the street. So when does she get to feel her emotions?

When she returned from her time off after the sarin gas exposure, it was clear Maggie was dealing with some form of PTSD. She’s shaky and nervous and has a prescription for her anxiety if she needs it. 

Then, twice in a row, she must be the one to pick up the falling pieces around her. People she looks up to and trusts are putting their lives ahead of her own and her partners in the field, and Maggie must be the one to handle that. 

The real problem with “Protégé” is that it doesn’t get us anywhere new. 

Maggie doesn’t get to deal with her trauma or new frustration with OA getting hurt in the field. When OA is shot, he gets angry at Maggie because her mentor isn’t there to back them up. 

This should be understandable, but for OA, who is consistently looking out for Maggie before himself, it’s odd. It’s like trying to put a square block in a circle hole. 

OA trusts Maggie implicitly. As we’ve seen before, he hates when Maggie blames herself for things out of her control. So why now, when something is wrong, does he lash out at her?

It’s unfitting, and it makes OA look like a jerk. 

Then, of course, there’s the lack of Tiffany and Scola. For several episodes, Tiffany and Scola have been placed on a backburner that feels 100 miles away. 

Every one of their lines feels manufactured and robotic, and we haven’t seen them talking for what feels like forever. 

“Protégé” could have easily centered on an old mentor of Scola’s; instead, they are thrown into the back corner again. 

The case of the week is simple, with little nuance or significance other than the drama of having OA face a bomb. (And how many times is that going to happen?)

A seasoned show like FBI has the opportunity to build on its characters. Yet, it consistently highlights characters that are either only there for an episode or repeating the same mistakes repeatedly. 

Unfortunately, FBI used to be a quality show, with cases that pulled you in and stories about our characters that mattered somehow, and now it’s simply not. Now, it feels like over-dramatic cases for the gasps instead of getting to know the characters. 

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FBI airs Tuesday at 8/7c on CBS.

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