4.10 Fostered
After the emotions lived in the last episode of 2021, in which we witnessed the attack against the team orchestrated by Vargas, their number one enemy, and that left Rina seriously injured in the hospital and everyone with a great preoccupation, we started this year with an episode that takes us back to the normal rhythm of the show, at least at the start.
This time we start the hour with a jewelry robbery that leaves two bodies, including a girl that had just said yes to her boyfriend’s proposal. This leads the team to a 16 year old boy, Jamal, that lives at foster homes and that becomes their prime suspect.
At the interrogation room, Jamal appears to be a scared kid that just wants to feel part of his foster brothers’ group and that seem to have been involved at the jewelry theft, so this is why the team ask him to wire and try to get some information from his “brothers” in order to bring some light on the case, so in spite of his concerns, Jamal gets inside but when their about to confess or at least give a clue, the signal goes off.
During this episode, we could see Maggie teaming up with Tiffany, which I liked because usually they share more time with their respective partners and we have very little opportunities to see them interacting together.
Something that draw my attention was that Maggie were so cautious with Jamal from the beginning, being that she’s normally very understanding, specially with it comes about vulnerable people, like it was the kid, but I found her very harsh with him, and I think it could be to state a contrast between her and Tiffany, though if we go deeper in the context of the story, maybe Maggie is reflecting here a bit the situation she lived with her sister, when she ended up betraying Maggie’s trust and endangering her life.
In the end, it turns out that Maggie’s instinct was right since they discover that the suspects run away while the signal was off, and very likely because Jamal warned them, but they eventually locate them at a bank they’re robbing where they also are keeping some hostages that finally are released and this leads to the apprehension of all of them, including their foster father that turnt out that was the one who was behind their crimes.
In the process, we discover that Tiffany wanted to believe so hard in Jamal and was softer on him, because she had killed his father when she was NYPD, in a very understandable situation to protect her own life and her colleagues, so she felt somehow responsible of Jamal ending in this situation since he was helping the gang just because he wanted to feel he was part of a family like he hadn’t have before.
4.11 Grief
Even when we are used to starting the case of the week with a surprise, that sometimes is not that surprising because we’re expecting something to happen, this time it took me off guard where the attack came from, just like the victim while she was wary of some people that had nothing to do.
This hour started with another surprise too, cause we soon found out, along with Jubal, that Rina had been removed from life support according to her parents decision and it was clear that, though Jubal was somehow prepared for this to happen, he was expecting to have a chance to say goodbye to her.
And even when this situation was painful for him, he tried to cover his emotions by doing what he and the rest of the team often do, focusing deeply on his work, and as it seems this isn’t an unknown situation for Isobel, she ask him to take some time off but, like everyone does, he rather stay looking for Angela Mullins, the victim, and her kidnapper.
It’s curious to notice that Jubal apparently doesn’t follow his own advice, considering that a few weeks back if I’m not mistaken, it was him who warned Maggie about the danger that carries leaving that personal problems invade their work, when her sister overdosed and that risked a team operation; and the same happened when Elise started to be affected in her life and work, after being about to die with the bomb she had attached to herself last season.
Regarding the case, the team continues with the investigation and discover that this isn’t the first time their criminal kidnaps a girl, cause they find him with another woman of very similar characteristics as Angela, who ends up dying after being hit by a car trying to escape from her captor. This leads them to contact this girl’s father, who is very hurt to know the fate of his daughter and feels desolated and impotent feeling that the police didn’t do anything to save her during the four months she was missing.
During the hour, we’re getting more clear that Jubal feels somehow connected with the father of Cassidy, the victim, and he sees himself in that man for the pain he’s feeling for Rina’s death so this leads him to put more and more pressure on Phillip, in order to make justice for the death of her daughter, though he keeps showing very uninterested, cause he knows nothing of this will bring her back.
I liked how they showed this situation in which Jubal appears more desperate each time and at some point intrusive, cause the first time that the meet they do it in the FBI headquarters, later they are closer at the family’s porch and at finally, inside of Phillips house, where he gets to his limit and ends up throwing Jubal out of there. It’s interesting too that, on this occasion, there’s a priest present that tells the agent to leave Phillip alone so he can start to heal through forgiveness and not revenge, words that may have an impact on Jubal.
Finally, and after some more inquiries, the team gets to arrest Doyle Buckler, thanks to his accomplice Beth, realizes after some time that the man wasn’t in love with her and was just using her to get girls who looked like a woman he was obsessed with, cause she had rejected him and he was looking to replace her. And I don’t know if I’m becoming more perceptive by following this show every week or it was way too obvious, but I have to say that the moment I saw Beth on screen for the first time at the beginning of the investigation, I knew she was somehow involved with the case.
And even when Doyle was in custody, Jubal is honest with Phillip by telling him that it could pass more time before he’s processed for his crimes and asks him to trust the system, words that trigger him to decide to take the justice in his own hands, and in a final twist he takes a hostage with the idea of exchange her for his daughter’s killer, and is Jubal who eventually convinces him that, even when he wants revenge so much, it’s not worth to risk his life or his freedom because that way he wouldn’t be honoring Cassidy’s legacy. I think by being in this situation, Jubal realizes that Rina’s case can’t be solved in that way and it’s better to wait for justice to do it.
Thanks for reading. What do you think of the first two episodes of 2022? Share your comments below.