FBI: International Season 4, Episode 16, “Little Angel” is not a bad episode — it’s just one that highlights a growing issue with the CBS show. One that it may not have a chance to fix, given the series’ recent cancellation. And unfortunately, some of the plot points in this episode might suggest why the show had its plug pulled too early.
“Little Angel” sees the Fly Team dispatched to help a cryptocurrency guru after his wife and son are kidnapped by the organized crime syndicate that he foolishly took money from. Although the latter part doesn’t come out right away, viewers can guess how the story is going to go, and it delivers in every respect. It’s in the personal elements that the episode falls on its face.
FBI: International Brings Back a Character It Doesn’t Need to
Ella’s Return May Be Dramatic, but That’s All It Is
At the end of Season 4, Episode 15, FBI: International had Wes Mitchell’s ex-girlfriend Ella Driscoll turn up in his office. It was clear that this was mostly just to pull on Wes’ heartstrings and create some relationship drama, since the show hasn’t had a romantic storyline since Jamie Kellett and Scott Forrester broke up in Season 3. But Ella’s return doesn’t add anything more to the series — even when her connection to the case of the week is revealed.
When Bryce Mayfield’s wife Marketa and their son Jacob are inexplicably dropped off unharmed, it only takes a little bit of research on the part of Amanda Tate to discern that Ella is an investor in Mayfield’s company. Mayfield confesses that Ella consulted for him and to essentially giving her a bribe to ensure the safe return of his family. But when Wes confronts Ella about this, the scene has relatively little tension, despite the best seething efforts of actor Jesse Lee Soffer. Ella spins some flimsy explanation about her stepfather being the investor, not her, and then hits Wes with an almost smarmy reminder that if he reports her, the Fly Team will have no case against the mobsters.
The character of Ella has always been flat, ever since her first appearance in the FBI: International Season 4 premiere. Even when she’s trying to cozy up to Wes earlier in the episode, there’s not enough chemistry between them to make it seem like a real possibility. Ella was fine as an ex because then the relationship was supposed to be not quite working. And she doesn’t even quite succeed as an antagonist, because all of the emotion and intensity comes from Wes. Sure, her being bribed is a dramatic plot twist, but it’s not groundbreaking and definitely not a huge shock.
FBI: International Season 4, Episode 16 Is a Solid Mob Drama
The Case of the Week Gives Fans All the Basics
Setting aside the Ella of it all, the investigation in “Little Angel” is an entertaining, if straightforward, mob drama. Regular TV crime drama viewers know the story of a rich guy getting involved with the wrong people. This season, FBI: International did a version of that in Episode 5, “The Future’s Looking Bright,” in which an affluent man unwittingly got involved with criminals via an online romance. The difference here is that Bryce Mayfield knew he was dealing with an organized crime syndicate, but the general premise is the same. And to the show’s credit, it serves up all the scenes that viewers want in a mob story.
There’s the one character who gets killed by his mob associates. The foot chase with the person who shot him, which is eventually followed by a shootout between the FBI and the criminals at their hideout. Megan “Smitty” Garretson being shot turns out to be much less dramatic than it was depicted as in the commercials for this episode; the bullets quite clearly hit her bulletproof vest, and because of that the scene moves on fairly quickly. There are also a few meetings with the head honcho, of course full of the usual cocky back and forth. Ultimately, the bad guys end up in handcuffs, a family is reunited, and after some advice from Amanda, Wes decides to keep quiet. Amanda gets possibly one of the corniest lines ever said on the show, but she’s not wrong.
Amanda Tate (to Wes, about Ella): She can have the money. We’ll take the justice.
Especially toward the end, it’s hard not to feel like the case of the week is just a vehicle for Wes and Ella’s conflict. Outside of Amanda, the other members of the Fly Team have relatively little to do. It’s particularly surprising that Cameron doesn’t have much screen time, given how much time the show spent rebuilding the friendship between her and Wes. She would seemingly be the first person for Wes to confide in, or to notice that something is wrong. But in terms of crime drama, Episode 16 does the job.
FBI: International Now Definitely Has a Wes Mitchell Problem
Wes’ Individual History Is Taking Over the Final Season
The biggest complaint about FBI: International Season 4, Episode 6 is what Ella’s return represents in the big picture of the show. The majority of Season 4’s personal subplots have been about Wes, and been about something or someone in his past. It’s not just overwhelmingly favoring one character, it’s going to the same well thematically. This is not a criticism of Jesse Lee Soffer or the character of Wes, both of whom have been fantastic additions and certainly filled the void left behind by Luke Kleintank’s exit. But why do the writers want to keep putting more and more on Wes’s shoulders?
The death of Wes’ partner Mike Brooks, played by Tyler Perry’s Duplicity star RonReaco Lee, made sense as an excellent motivator for Wes to move his whole life overseas. And of course that would shape both Wes as an agent and the way he approached his other agents as their team leader. But then there was the recurring arc with Wes’ former colleague Tyler Booth, and their cavalier tactics getting them in trouble. And then there was Riley Quinn being tasked with digging up dirt on Wes by his former instructor. Audiences have gotten the memo that Wes Mitchell has a complicated past, and it’s also not great for Wes as a character to keep him looking backward.
Wes Mitchell (to Ella): You don’t care about me, and you don’t care about my team.
FBI: International certainly didn’t deserve to be cancelled, but in a season when CBS was looking for schedule space for two other spinoffs of other franchises, it’s a bad time to be rolling out repetitive storylines. That also has the knock-on effect of making the show look more one-dimensional than it actually is, when stories about Wes are taking screen time that could’ve been used for another Andre Raines story, or more about Cameron. This series has so much more to offer, and if nothing else, Wes deserves a break from all the stress that isn’t him getting drunk in a bar.
