‘FBI: International’ Sees Powell Risk His Job and Lose Vo’s Respect
Physical violence is never the answer, Damian.
Special Agent Damian Powell (Greg Hovanessian) had better be thanking his lucky stars for his coworkers on FBI: International right about now. The CBS drama traveled to Bulgaria this week to take down an American criminal named Shaw, who was hiding out and holding a bunch of underage American women hostage, forcing them to produce content for OnlyFans. With a little bit of help from Bulgarian authorities and a local agent named Dobrev, the Fly Team managed to track down Shaw and shutter his operation, only to learn that around 20 women were still being held elsewhere. Shaw wasn’t willing to share the location of the other women, so Powell took matters into his own hands. Or fists, rather.
He locked himself in the interrogation room with Shaw, blocking the door from his colleagues with a well-placed chair. He and Shaw then fought it out, and while Powell took a few blows to the face, Shaw took a real beating and nearly lost a few fingers. Powell knew he was risking his career, and he told Shaw it was worth it to save the remaining missing women. Shaw, however, was not willing to help. Thankfully, Raines (Carter Redwood) managed to bust in, and the team held Powell back from possibly killing Shaw—but they didn’t stop Bulgarian bosses from seeing what happened, and it seemed that charges against Powell were imminent.
The team soon found out that Dobrev was actually working with Shaw and leaking information about the investigation because he had threatened her daughters, and she gave up the name of the guy running the second facility. They tracked that guy down and found a mostly empty warehouse building, with one room full of terrified and barely dressed young women.
The girls were reunited with their families, and that meant there was finally a quiet moment for Vo (Vinessa Vidotto) to call and turn Powell in to their boss. Despite their blossoming friendship and that Powell/Vo/Raines love triangle the show’s been teasing fans with, she didn’t even hesitate to pull out her phone. She was clearly furious with Powell and ready to report him for his upsettingly unprofessional behavior, and she only stopped because Smitty (Eva-Jane Willis) told her to.
Smitty had the idea to sit down with Dobrev’s boss and encourage him to drop all charges against Powell—unless he’d rather she turn his department into Europol for having connections to organized crime. They could pin Shaw’s attack on his cameraman, and the Bulgarian authorities could do with Shaw what they wished.
Forrester (Luke Kleintank) later broke the good news to Powell that nothing had happened as far as the bureau was concerned. He also made sure to remind Powell that he was “never alone,” and he didn’t have to feel like he needed to lock himself in rooms with criminals and risk his career by punching them in the face repeatedly (not his exact words, but that was the gist).
Now the question is whether Vo will be able to give Powell as much grace as everyone else seems to be doing, but that’s to be seen when FBI: International returns next Tuesday on CBS.
