Season 5, episode 4 of FBI: Most Wanted dropped its latest twist at the end of the hour, catching one of the show’s own castmates off-guard. Following the cold open, there is a clear disconnect between Barnes and her wife as Charlotte prepares to leave for a business trip. However, the underlying reason for the tension isn’t revealed until Charlotte confesses that she’s met someone else during the show’s final seconds.
Roxy Sternberg plays Special Agent Sheryll Barnes and has previously worked on projects such as Emerald City and Mars. Upon reading the script for “Hollow,” Sternberg admits she was heartbroken over the couple’s new adversary, even hoping the storyline may change. After talking with showrunner David Hudgins, Sternberg ultimately came to agree with the creative decision, but she remains unsure of what FBI: Most Wanted’s future might bring.
Screen Rant interviewed Roxy Sternberg about her feelings on Barnes and Charlotte’s new obstacle, the show’s most horrific cases, and her hope to tell more Black stories.
Sternberg Didn’t See The Barnes-Charlotte Twist Coming
Screen Rant: This is a big episode for your character. From the beginning, we see that there’s tension between Barnes and Charlotte. They’re feeling very disconnected. How much of that would you attribute to their jobs and the lifestyle that comes along with them?
Roxy Sternberg: I would attribute most of that to the fact that they’ve got very demanding jobs. I do think that Barnes pushes herself at work a little bit more than is needed. There are five agents on our team. I feel like me taking a little bit of time off or not coming in one morning, I think that is something she could ask for. But I feel like she doesn’t want to let the team down. She doesn’t want to slow down.
She still feels like she’s proving herself to Remy. Having worked with Jess for many years, I feel like I’m still proving myself. I think she’s a workaholic, whereas Charlotte’s job demands that right now. She’s still at the early stages of her career, so she needs to be at work, whereas I feel like I want to be at work. I think, partly, it’s down to the fact that we have very demanding jobs. But I think also the fact that Barnes is in denial and just a workaholic.
That touches on a really good point. Barnes says, “This is the life we chose,” while Charlotte says, “Not exactly, but it’s the one we have.” Why do you think they have such different views on the situation?
Roxy Sternberg: I think this wasn’t necessarily the picture that I painted. I think we’ve been together for many, many years. Even maybe when I was training to be an agent, I probably met her. I feel like things have become a little bit more demanding than they were when I sold this life to her, and I think I’ve become a little bit more obsessed with this life. I’ve seen so many changes happen at work, and me feeling like I really need to keep my foot down at work. I really need to stay grounded and stay present at work. I don’t feel like I can afford to miss out on work with all these changes constantly happening. I feel like it’s a choice, which maybe she hadn’t relayed and sold to Charlotte.
We have that curveball at the end of the episode where Charlotte reveals that she met someone else. Were you surprised when you read the script, or when the writers told you?
Roxy Sternberg: I didn’t see it coming at all. They usually give us a full warning when we’ve got a script coming up, and it’s a heavy character stuff. This next one’s a big one for Barnes or whatever. I didn’t get any forewarning that, “This next one’s going to be your family.” No one told me that. I just read the script. I was pleasantly surprised and happy. I love my family stuff, so I was like, “Oh, okay, cool. That’s great. We have a little fight at the beginning. We do that all the time. That’s fine. We know how to get through that.”
Then I got to the end and I cried. I thought, “Why would they do that?” I was in denial that it was happening, and I messaged Fedna [Jacquet], who plays my wife, and sent her a screenshot of the last line. She sent me all these crying emojis. And then I tried to get ahold of [our showrunner] David Hudgins, but we couldn’t speak. He’s in L.A. I needed to change this. Why is this happening? I felt very out of control, which I think Barnes feels as well. This curveball has just landed on her, and she can’t do anything to change it. It’s already happened.
Likewise, I’ve just been handed the script, and it’s been written. Obviously, things can change, but it’s going to be an interesting one to play, this challenge in their relationship. I’m excited about that, but very sad. When I spoke to David, I was like, “What’s happening? What’s in their future?” He explained to me, “I think it’d be great to have a little bit of adversity in this marriage,” and I agree with him, but I’m sad still. I felt really sad. I agree that the audience likes to watch that, we like to play that. Life is not easy-breezy all the time. Relationships aren’t. I think it’s a really interesting one to play, and an even more interesting one to watch.
Barnes Wants To Save Her Marriage
Knowing Barnes as well as you do, do you think this is something that she will be able to get past emotionally?
Roxy Sternberg: I think it’s definitely damaging to her ego. I think it’s a struggle to accept it. I think there’s a desire and a want to save this marriage, but I think she’s hurt and angry and experiencing lots of different emotions, but it’s something that they’re willing to try and save. Whether they save it or not, I don’t know. I didn’t want to ask. I don’t want to know what’s in store for the characters long-term. We’ve only got four more episodes to do. I don’t really want to know what the outcome is going to be for them. I was so sad saddened by it, but also I really feel it helps with my performance to know simultaneously as I’m doing it.
I feel that’s when it makes it feel real and alive. I feel like if I knew, “Oh, this is what their plan is for me,” it would feel a little bit more stale and stagnant, because I’d be like, “Oh, I can do it like this and do it like that and do like this,” and exhaust all the options. And then they’ll say, “action,” and I’ll be exhausted. I’ll have nothing to give because I’ve already gone through it in my head several different times playing it out, whereas actually, I think it was quite organic, the way we did it. We received the script, and we shot it a few days later. It felt like I was still hearing it and reading it for the first time.
I don’t know if you know yet, or if you can even say, but is it possible that the audience might meet this person that Charlotte has fallen for?
Roxy Sternberg: No idea. I don’t know that, and I bloody well hope not. I would hate that. For Barnes, I would hate that. It’s horrible. I don’t know what they have in store for us and in mind for us, but I see it as, “We’re going to try and work on this.” This third wheel being brought in makes it real, and actually, we’re trying to get rid of that. How I’m seeing it in my head is that we’re trying to work on us, and that means the elimination of that person. So, I bloody well hope not. I’d be devastated.
Sternberg Would Like To See The Show Explore More Black Stories
Barnes is actually the one who brings up in this episode how the homicide rate for Native American women is ten times the national average. Are there any real-world issues, in particular, you’d like to see the show help raise awareness about?
Roxy Sternberg: I want to see Black stories told more. We had a Black Lives Matter episode two seasons ago, but those are very dear to my heart—the telling of Black stories. I want to tell more of our stories, more of our struggles. I want to shine a light on the Black experience more, which we’re actually doing this next episode. There’s a story, which is linked to Africa, which is great and exciting. Even me reading it, I was learning a lot of things about Africa, and I’m African. My mother’s Ugandan. This is more so Nigerian, so West-African. More storytelling of the Black experience. That would be something that I’m more keen to see on our show.
The case in this episode is shocking, but a lot of them are wild. Is there one in particular that has shocked you the most?
Roxy Sternberg: This is really horrific. In terms of what we see, we don’t see things like that very often, so this is definitely up there. But they’re all horrific. When are they going to do FBI: Miami, or Puerto Rico, or anywhere that’s hot, basically, and just have us not chase any bad people because there are no bad people in the world? That’s never going to happen, unfortunately, because of the climate that we live in. There’s always something going on. But that would be a dream. They’re all horrific in their own right.
There was that episode last season where Dylan went undercover as a priest. There was this priest character who was demonic almost. It was a really dark, dirty episode, and he went undercover as a priest. There was also an episode where a guy had killed a woman and engraved something in her back. That was season 1 or 2. There was a young guy that was grooming all these young women. They’re all horrific. I don’t think one necessarily stands out above the rest.
They all, in their own right, are horrific. But this one, like I said, we see things that we don’t normally see. Those organs—that was shocking to see. He’s after a woman’s placenta, and he’s abducted a pregnant woman. I try to always see the humanity and see the humaneness in these bad people, if we’re going to call them that, but it’s quite difficult to. Of course, he’s ill. That’s ultimately the problem. He’s ill, and he’s trying to save himself and live, but in doing so, he’s killing other people. It’s all sad and dark, but it does make for great television, so I hope people enjoy it.
Outside of everything that’s happening with Charlotte, is there a storyline for Barnes that you would like to see explored?
Roxy Sternberg: Absolutely. Let me think. So. Hana’s character, Keisha and I, we’re the OGs on the show. We’ve been there for five years now. I’d like to see the two of those girls going to a bar and having a drink and having a chat and having a reminisce. That would be really cool. And getting drunk. I’d like to do more scenes with Nina. I’m loving the Nina-Barnes chemistry. It’s really fun. I really love working with Shantel. I’d like to do more scenes with the three of us girls. I love my family life stuff.
That character stuff, the stuff that goes a little outside of the procedural and isn’t following the case, that’s the stuff I live for. That’s the stuff I really find fun. And an undercover one. Season 1, I went undercover, and I would love to do that again. That was super fun. I went undercover, and I was a gangster, and it was so cool. So I would love to do more undercover work. That’s number one. That’s top. Forget having drinks at the bar with the girls. I would like to do more undercover stuff. That was really cool.
About FBI: Most Wanted
From Emmy Award winner Dick Wolf, FBI: MOST WANTED is a high-stakes drama that focuses on the Fugitive Task Force, an elite unit that relentlessly pursues and captures the notorious criminals on the Bureau’s Most Wanted list. The team’s charming but formidable leader is Supervisory Special Agent Remy Scott, who started his career in the New York FBI field office before rising through the ranks of the Bureau in Philadelphia and Las Vegas.
New episodes of FBI: Most Wanted air Tuesdays at 10pm ET on CBS.
