Having Jubal front and center in an episode is always a good decision.
That’s even more true when 9/11 gets mixed in like the tragedy was on FBI Season 5 Episode 19.
Muslim terrorists have been a TV boogeyman staple in the 22 years since 9/11. At least this episode was pretty even-handed in its treatment of Muslims.
It was pretty clear that Jubal was going to be at the heart of the episode as soon as Isobel revealed that he would be receiving the Distinguished Service Award.
It was so in character for Jubal to downplay his getting the award as a measure of his longevity instead of the quality of his work.
It’s not just his modesty. He also can replay every mistake he’s ever made. He’s a glass-half-empty kind of guy.
He didn’t have time to savor his accomplishment (not that he would have) because the case of the murdered truck driver fell into the FBI’s lap.
That case quickly turned from solving a drug-smuggling driver’s murder to seeking a terrorist bomber. The urgency ramped up accordingly as well.
It also ended up taking Jubal and OA back to those days just after 9/11.
And the man who served as a wedge between Jubal and OA was NYPD Detective Joe Lombardo.
Jubal seemed genuinely excited to be working with Lombardo again. But he soon discovered they were approaching the case from two different directions.
While Jubal and OA could move forward from 9/11, Lombardo was still stuck.
At first, that appeared to be because his wife was dying from cancer contracted in the days following 9/11. But the real reason was something darker that didn’t become apparent until much later.
After the analysts established that Samir and his accomplice Hasan had met at a Muslim-owned restaurant, OA reminisced fondly about the place and volunteered to go in to learn what he could from Khan, the owner.
Lombardo and Jubal made their widely varying positions clear to OA, with Lombardo telling OA to entrap Khan and Jubal urging him to keep on the straight and narrow. So OA felt under the gun from the get-go.
Khan was too wise to fall for OA’s attempt to get a fake green card. So they had OA copy the security footage from Khan’s laptop.
While waiting in the surveillance van, Lombardo and Jubal recalled the days right after 9/11, giving the viewers context as to why each felt how they did now.
After the FBI brought in Khan, it took OA to get Khan to open up by approaching him as a fellow Muslim.
He appealed to Khan’s love of America. He found out that Khan was an unwilling participant in Samir’s scheme. He recalled just enough details to give the agents a description of the bomb-delivery vehicle and to allow them to work out his target, police headquarters.
While OA and Khan had found ways to fulfill their American dreams while keeping their Muslim identities, Samir had not. He had a secret about his loss. Like Lombardo, he was still suffering because of 9/11.
Once the team had a target, One Police Plaza, it was simple enough to figure out where Samir was setting up his car bomb. Lombardo raced in ahead and managed to separate Samir from his detonator.
Even though Samir tried to escape, it was all over for him at that point, his bomb and detonator lost to him.
It was telling how differently Jubal and Lombardo approached Samir’s holding a hostage. Jubal was still trying to talk him into surrendering while Lombardo urged the sniper to take out Samir.
Seeing Lombardo, Samir became incensed and told how the detective had dropped his father, a shopkeeper, off a roof to his death in the days following 9/11. He knew because he and his family were hiding on that roof.
After Maggie subdued Samir, it would have been easy to ignore his story as the ravings of a terrorist lunatic. The episode could have taken that easy way out, as many series have over the past two decades.
But OA kept digging. Hasan, who was also on the roof, corroborated Samir’s version. But the word of two terrorists certainly wasn’t enough to take down an NYPD detective.
The medical examiner’s report had an anomaly that matched up with their stories: bruises on the ankles of Samir’s father like he had been dangled off a building.
Jubal made the courageous move of putting truth ahead of a long-ago friendship.
He met Lombardo for a drink at a bar, the last place an alcoholic like himself needed to be. Lombardo was so oblivious to anyone else’s pain that he had no idea Jubal was in recovery.
Jubal wore a wire and got Lombardo to admit that he had murdered Samir’s father under the guise of “Hey, it was 9/11.” Lombardo even insulted OA, intimating that he may have switched sides.
Jubal could hold his head high afterward, even though it was evident how badly he wanted a drink.
To follow Jubal’s career, watch FBI online.
Who did your sympathies lie with in the end: Jubal, Lombardo, or Samir?
How did OA handle himself in this challenging case?
Did Jubal do the right thing?
Comment below.
Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.
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