On the FBI fall finale, a terrorist group who wanted to speed up society’s collapse attacked New York, taking down the city’s fiberoptic network with a deadly explosion. That left the team with no comms, and all emergency services and the cell network down. But worst of all for Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jubal Valentine was the fact that his son Tyler, who provided a valuable tip to the FBI about a gunman’s whereabouts, was near the explosion when it happened. As the first part of the two-hour midseason finale ended, a frantic Jubal cradled his wounded and unconscious son amidst the rubble of the attack.
When the second episode picked up after those horrific events, Tyler’s doctor revealed that the teen suffered a brain injury, so Jubal turned his attention to something he could control: finding the people responsible for what happened to Tyler. Isobel, however, had ordered Jubal to stay with his family at the hospital. Instead, Jubal went rouge and tracked down one of the terrorist groups’ followers.
“I didn’t want to do this the hard way. But now, it’s all I want,” Jubal said when the other man was uncooperative. Jubal then pushed his finger into the attacker’s bullet wound, and who knows how much further he might have gone if OA and Maggie had not shown up and talked him down. In the end, the team thwarted an even bigger attack on NYC, and Tyler woke up just as Jubal read his son’s college admissions essay about his hero father always doing the right thing.
So will Jubal face consequences for the unethical choice he made, even if it was for the greater good? Below, his portrayer Jeremy Sisto answers that question and many more.
Soaps.com: Watching the end of the first hour, when the explosion in New York happens, it’s so reminiscent of what happened with 9/11. What was it like shooting those scenes? Was it triggering for anybody?
Yeah, it was amazing what our production designer, our team, put together, and they really went above and beyond. It’s very moving to walk on to set when you have these artists that have used real life tragedy to create these sets that are really reminiscent of some horrible things that we’ve experienced. I was in New York during 9/11, but we’ve all experienced that imagery of people running away from the destruction, covered in ash. So to play those scenes and to sort of reflect on all those people’s experiences of knowing the family members are down there, it’s not something we take lightly. Obviously, the show is super exciting and fun, and it’s about seeing these heroic people, these people who are putting it all on the line to save lives, but we’re human beings. So yeah, walking down to a set where you are confronted with that kind of truth, and there is visual sort of representation of it there right in front of your eyes, it’s hard not to be moved by it.
Soaps.com: Was that filmed on a soundstage or out in the streets in New York?
A little of both. But the big set that they built of the post-explosion destruction was on our lot.
Soaps.com: This episode is also every parent’s worst nightmare coming true for Jubal with his son being caught in the middle of this explosion. How does it change and shape Jubal moving forward, given what he goes through?
We’re at a new stage with parenting, where his son is, unfortunately or not, interested in following in his footsteps. I know from my own experience with [my] kids, it’s not something I’ve kind of necessarily wished upon my kids, for them to want to be actors. I think whatever job you do, there’s some positives and some negatives. Obviously, as an FBI agent, your children going into that line of work means they’re going to be in danger, and so, that’s a concern. But there’s also a desire to really encourage their path in whatever way you can.
When there is an active threat, all agents go to, “OK, where are my loved ones? Are they in danger?” Alongside trying to save as many lives as they can and stop this threat, those personal connections are always present. So this is one of those times when the threat that you’re stopping, you’re working to fight against every day, is hitting close to home. And so, I think there is some PTSD, some reflection, some work that law enforcement agents have to put themselves through. They have to seek counseling and really talk about all of the stuff so that they don’t fall into a state where they are operating out of anger or an overly unclear sense of fear. Jubal is, obviously, extremely well versed in his own psyche because of his struggles. So he’ll get through it, but it’s definitely a complicated journey.
Soaps.com: He crosses some lines to get justice for what happened to his son. What was your reaction to that and those scenes?
Yeah, I was looking forward to them. At the same time, I was like, “All right, let’s see if we can find a version of this that feels true and feels right and feels like it doesn’t go to a place where the audience is expecting him to lose his job.” Because he is encouraged to to lean into that sense of retribution and revenge to kind of motivate his actions. And so, the scene kind of hovers on that line. We played it a few different ways, and we thought the stillness was interesting. Trying to get information out of criminals is kind of a big part of the show, but it’s not a big part that I do. I did it a lot more on Law & Order. And honestly, it’s not something I usually look forward to because there’s only so much you can do. There’s only so many kind of levels of, “Tell me!” or trying to manipulate them or trying to make them into your friend. But this one had a different energy to it, because, obviously, it was off the grid, and so, there was a higher level of danger, high level of unpredictability ingrained in it from its start, and given the emotional, the well beneath the surface for Jubal, it was really a matter of exploration to try to find the levels that would play right for the scene. From what I hear it, it plays well. I had Alex Chapple, who’s our director/producer, who’s great, with me, and we tried a bunch of different ways.
It’s definitely something that Jubal is not going to be proud of himself for after the fact. But also, the danger is pretty great. … I have to see the scene to see how I feel about it. We added that whole pushing-the-thumb-into-the-bullet-wound thing, and that’s, like, pretty bad!
Soaps.com: That wasn’t scripted?
That wasn’t scripted, and that’s pretty bad. [Laughs] That’s definitely not OK to do. And it’s also, we’re making a movie. We want it to be visceral and exciting. In real life, that would not be OK. In real life, FBI agents are not allowed to do that. But nobody was there at that moment… There is, obviously, certain liberties we take to make a fun show, to make an exciting show. But I think Jubal is going to probably, now that I’m thinking about it, he’s going to be pretty hard on himself for acting that way.
Soaps.com: Jubal and Isobel agree that they need to talk about what happened — but later. Is that a conversation that we’re going to see? Is there any fallout for him, professionally, from what happened?
I don’t think so, and I think that’s based on the fact that the situation was so bad, there was so many lives on the line. It really is a huge victory for the agency to stop this threat. And so, I think there might be some foggy memories of how we got there, perhaps, but we’ll see. I think the writers are always gauging sort of the response from the episodes and to see if there is going to be a fallout of some kind. But what we do know is, personally, Jubal is going to take it pretty hard. He sort of went out of his comfort zone in terms of ethics.
