Thus far this TV season on CBS’ FBI: Most Wanted and FBI, it’s been a bit quiet on the Nina/Scola/baby Dougie front. (How are things really going for the new parents?) But that will change when a two-show crossover kicks off with the Tuesday, April 9 episode of FBI: Most Wanted — and TVLine has exclusive first photos.
In the FBI: Most Wanted episode “Supply Chain,” a drug deal between two teens is interrupted when a middle-aged woman abducts them at gunpoint, sending the Fugitive Task Force on the hunt to rescue them. Meanwhile, Nina and Scola (played by Shantel VanSanten and FBI’s John Boyd) “bump heads over parenting styles.”
Previewing the April 9 FBI: Most Wanted episode and the reveals to come, Shantel VanSanten tells TVLine, “Parenting with two working parents, that have the same job and that are in the FBI, is a challenge in and of itself, and we see that. But it’s a little bit more about diving into Nina and her past and her upbringing. It’s about the way that that’s really affecting her and her feelings about herself as a mother — and the way that she’s showing up in the relationship [with Scola] as well.”
VanSanten says that the conspicuous lack of “baby talk” on FBI: Most Wanted, for one, had become quite a running joke on-set.
“When I joined Most Wanted, [characters] asked me, ‘How’s the baby? How are you doing? You look great!’ And then I don’t really talk about it again,” VanSanten shares with a laugh. “So we’ve had running jokes about where baby Dougie has been.”
For example: “I learned that Hana (played by Keisha Castle-Hughes) has had a revolving door of different roommates, so we made this joke that baby Dougie must be her next roommate!” says the actress. “We’ve found many, many jokes on-set, but I’m excited that we patiently waited [for this two-part crossover, continuing with the April 16 episode of FBI] — and hopefully the payoff is great for the fans.”
Any check-in with Nina and Scola should be greatly welcome, especially since as expectant parents they were almost dealt the worst of heartbreaks in FBI’s Season 5 finale, when a listeria (bacterial) infection threatened to cause damage to both Nina and her unborn baby.
At an early stage, the plan was for Nina to wind up losing the baby; but when it was decided to relocate VanSanten’s character to FBI: Most Wanted, the feeling that Nina joining Remy’s team in the wake of such a tragedy would be a hard place to start from.
“It was a very up in the air,” VanSanten recalls. “It was only really because I got the job on Most Wanted that Dougie gets to ‘be in existence,’ which is bizarre to say, but in show business that’s what happens.”
CBS’ FBI: Most Wanted continues Season 5 this Tuesday at 10/9c. The two-part #Scolina crossover airs April 9 (on FBI: Most Wanted) and April 16 (on FBI).
