The following contains spoilers from the Season 4 finale — aka series finale — of CBS‘ cancelled FBI: International.
Listen, it is somewhat understandable. FBI: International clearly had a two-part Season 4 finale planned, the back half of which would be extremely Wes-centric and set in Tokyo.
Still, given that filming on it wrapped in early May — two full months after the series’ cancellation was announced — you’d think they’d have found a way to provide a bit more closure for fans, or at least to feature the agents back in Budapest a bit more.
Part 2 of the finale, “Gaijin,” picked up with Wes (Jesse Lee Soffer) arriving in Tokyo with local cop Reiko (guest star Yoriko Haraguchi), to continue the manhunt for the serial killer who’d been working with Kenzo Takeyama. Given a short, strict leash by Superintendent Kubo, Wes and Reiko saw their investigation heat up with another girl went missing, an American hostess named Heather. Leads were few, until Amanda (Christina Wolfe) worked her magic from Budapest to find a linguistic match between Redditor “Okamoto” and an American cab driver in Tokyo, named Lloyd.
Now, we as viewers know that Lloyd in fact drugged Heather once she was in his cab (and after he failed to chat her up in the club). But in the eyes of Kubo, Wes and Reiko didn’t have enough evidence for a search warrant. Wes got the idea to look for victims that predated Kenzo and his partner’s spree, and that led them to a girl who had filed, but withdrew, an abduction report. The dress she saved, with blood from her American abductor — coupled with DNA from a water glass Lloyd used — got Wes and Reiko a search warrant, and that revealed that in fact more than 50 girls had been taken.
Both incensed, Wes convinced Reiko to reach out to the Takeyamas, and the matriarch OK’d them to search an apartment building Kenzo had had specially upgraded. Though the space was empty, and Reiko got benched for contacting the Takeyamas, Kubo told Wes it was up to him to find Lloyd and Heather, and to that end he hooked up the Budapest crew with Tokyo CCTV. That enabled the team to put Wes on Lloyd’s scent, and that night he found and pinned down the cretin. Lloyd agreed to share Heather’s location if Wes gave back the cyanide pill hidden in a button. Wes proceeded to find and save Heather, but only gave Lloyd back the button — its secret compartment empty.
Listen, it is somewhat understandable. FBI: International clearly had a two-part Season 4 finale planned, the back half of which would be extremely Wes-centric and set in Tokyo.
Still, given that filming on it wrapped in early May — two full months after the series’ cancellation was announced — you’d think they’d have found a way to provide a bit more closure for fans, or at least to feature the agents back in Budapest a bit more.
In the aftermath, Reiko shared that she’d been demoted to desk duty and was inclined to quit, but Wes urged her to fight the good fight and keep being a good cop. Reiko in turn gave Wes the nudge he needed to introduce himself to his half-sister Delila, in Pittsburgh.
As for the Budapest crew, the only plot thread going on there involved the career board calling in via video, to reveal who earned a coveted GS-14 spot — Vo (Vinessa Vidotto) or Raines (Carter Redwood). The two held hands as they awaited the decision… but the episode ended without us finding out.
