After an Olympic/winter hiatus, it is great for us to be back with the fly team and a new installment of FBI: International this week. Let us check in to see what was happening with our fly team the last time we saw them in action.
The episode opens with some men playing a card game together and having a great time. Suddenly someone is pounding on the door and an angry man enters, demanding to know where Sabina is. One of the men tells him to relax and that everything will be okay. Then all the men start beating on him, and he pulls a gun, and shoots one of the men. The men get the gun away and are about to shoot him, when an older woman arrives and tell them to take it outside. They shove him in the back of a car, but the police arrive and the men take off, and we discover the man in the back of the car is a New York City police detective.
We then move to Budapest, and Jamie and Forrester are standing together outside. They are discussing the possible career ramifications of people knowing they are involved. It is nice to see that they are able to work and be near each other without any strange ackwardness at this point, as any relationship ending certainly has the potential to have a negative effect on the ongoing interactions of the characters. Scott receives an email with the title Acorn Court and it has a photo of him as a young boy attached, but nothing else. They then return to the office where Vo and Raines update them on the information from their new case. Mark Douglas is a 25 year veteran of the NYPD, and has been in Transnistria as part of the NYPD international liaison program, collecting information about possible terrorism. Douglas shot a man at a bar and the man is still in hospital. Vo advises that Transnistria is breakaway state on the border of Moldova and Moldova still considers it a part of their country. Forrester says Moldova is known as the wild west of Europe and Transnistria is the OK Corral. They are heading into a frozen conflict zone and they will be flying blind as they will have no leverage and they are to stick to their agenda. Katrin lets them know Europol is not recognized there, but there are Germans who are recognized there from Europol monitoring weapons trafficking. Forrester asks Raines to trace the email he received.
The fly to Transnistria and meet Lieutenant Timur Rusu, who ask him if he knows Douglas well, and he says no, he kept to himself. He indicates there are no written reports on interviews that have been conducted yet. He is frustrated that the FBI does not recognize Transnistria and now suddenly they are there and want everything immediately, and Scott asks that they just work together to solve this case. This conversation showed some of the wonderful growth in Scott Forrester's character this season, as he deals with this situation so calmly and professionally, which is certainly a change from some of the responses earlier in the season. However in those cases he was dealing with police forces that were known to be corrupt, so it may not be a completely fair comparison. However it is great to see how he works to develop good foreign relations with the Lieutenant in Transnistria throughout the entire episode. Lt. Rusu says that while the FBI does not recognize their country, they do have laws that he is bound to uphold, and he will not hesitate to do so if they step out of line because they are guests. The team begins looking for somewhere to work out of as they know they cannot stay at the police station, and Katrin makes some calls.
The team meets Florin, who owns the bar and he asks Scott why they have not arrested the New York cop yet. Scott says they want to get all of the information and facts first of what happened last night. Scott asks if he knew the man who was shot and he says his name is Marius and he is his friend. They ask how he is doing and he says he is back in surgery with more bleeding. Scott asks if he was also at the bar and Florin says he was, and that Mark Douglas is a bad policeman. He was hanging around the bar and wanted everything for free including drinks and women. He says he turned up last night drunk asking about some girl he is crazy about, and Kellett asks what he was doing in the back of the car, and Florin says they were taking him to the police station. Scott asks who the girl was he was crazy about and Florin says her name was Sabina or something and he does not know who or where she is.
They then interview Mark Douglas and ask why he is in Transnistria and he says he is doing intelligence as the Taliban is raising money for weapons by moving Afghani heroine through Transnistria into New York. Forrester asks how that puts him at a bar at 2am drunk with a gun in his hand and he says the reports only take him a few hours each day and he has had time to investigate other things. He says that he has uncovered a human trafficking ring where they are promising young women nanny jobs and then forcing them into prostitution in New York. He presented himself as having connections at the airport in New York and has been working his way up the ladder, documenting everything he has found, and was going to present it when he had traction. He says Sabina was one of the girls in trouble and he has not been sleeping with her. He tells them he has documented everything in his apartment as he does not trust the local cops, and they need to get the information as they are about to move another batch of women.
Scott and Jamie meet Deputy Inspector Rick Savrinn from NYPD, and he says the liaison program goes through his team in Intelligence and that Mark reports to him and he will get the information from Douglas. Scott and Jamie say he is not going near this, so Rick shares with them that Mark lost his wife in 9/11 and she was pregnant when she died. Mark was only 2 years on the job and never really got it back together after she died. He says he is a good guy and asks if they can cut him a break and Scott says they will do their best but he needs to stay out of it and Savrinn agrees.
Raines and Vo go with Katrin to the German Intelligence post, and they get to work with satellite images and database checks of the addresses and any players using those addresses, and Katrin says she will get them satellite access and encrypted radios for communication. Meanwhile Forrester and Kellett go to Douglas’s apartment and find a man watching TV inside. The man is Vadim Cerban, a police officer from Transnistria. He tells them the apartment has already been thoroughly searched and tells Jamie they did not find the laptop or any files. Kellett then gets a phone call and she tells Forrester and Cerban that the man Douglas shot just died in surgery, and Cerban tells them this is not good for their American friend.
We return to the station where Forrester is speaking with Douglas and he says he did not mean to kill the man he shot. Mark also thinks that the crew he was infiltrating probably paid off a cop to go through his apartment. Scott says that is one theory, but another is the one the local police have embraced, which is there was never an undercover operation and he is a bored cop who is looking for a good time and pissed off the wrong people. Douglas says that yes, he made a mistake going in to the bar to try to strong arm Florin, but it does not change what he and his crew are doing. Jamie asks how many cops are on the take and Douglas says he is not sure but it seems to be a lot. The local authorities did not embrace him but he has heard many stories. Jamie asks if he knows any names and he says no. Jamie gives him his phone and asks if there is anything on it that could help his case, and Douglas shows her a picture of Sabina. Mark says things in his life knocked him sideways and he did not amount to much as a cop but this is his one chance to atone for it all. He swears to them that there is a major trafficking ring going on and if they find Sabina, she will fill them in, but they need to find her quickly before she is gone.
Forrester says they need details about the trafficking ring and what he knows, and Douglas says it is run out of the tavern, and they take the girls in the back and feed them the nanny job in New York story, and then rape them. Lt. Rusu interrupts them. He tells them the prosecutor has charged him with murder, and he is being transferred for arraignment. Forrester asks Rusu if the reports he asked for had been written up yet and he says yes, but when Scott asks why he has not received them, Lt. Rusu says that Inspector Savrinn wanted to read them first. Scott confronts him and says he told him to keep his nose out of things, and he says he saved him some time and that there is nothing helpful in the reports. Forrester asks why he is so bothered and worked up about this case, and he reveals that Mark is his cousin, and he has looked after him ever since his wife died. Scott tells him if he interferes one more time he will have him arrested for obstruction.
Vo and Raines have been working and while the info is thin, they do have the names and photos of the crew Douglas was investigating. German intelligence does not have much to offer either, as they are not on the radar for weapons trafficking. They are able to get in touch with Jubal, and we enjoy a small crossover moment with our FBI team. Jubal confirms that they have a gang from Transnistria in New York who is suspected of bringing over and trafficking women into prostitution, but you have to be blood related to get in so they have been unsuccessful in getting a UC in or getting anyone to flip. He says if the ring is going to be broken up any time soon, it will have to be on the Transnistria end. Raines shows the team the surveillance of the tavern, which shows heavy traffic in and out of the back door mostly, and they decide to search the tavern without anyone knowing so that there is less chance evidence will be removed like in Douglas’s apartment. The only time that there is no traffic in and out is between four am and eight am. They show the team the photo of Sabina, and they decide to hit the tavern at 4:30am. Jamie asks Vo to find a picture of Douglas’s wife. In the meantime, Raines tells Scott that he tracked the email he received to Moscow and that there was tracking malware attached, and he will need to pull his SIM card and Raines will get him a new one when they get back. Scott says he is not concerned for the moment as who would come to Transnistria to find him, and they can deal with it when they get back to Budapest. Vo finds a photo of Douglas’s late wife, and they realize he is fixated on Sabina because she looks like his late wife.
The team enters the tavern at 4:30am, and searches the premises. They find forged passports and nanny resumes and airline tickets to New York. Forrester goes to see Lt. Rusu and says that Douglas was on to something and that someone is protecting Florin's crew and the tavern, and it could even be him, but whoever it is, it is going to be a problem. Rusu tells Scott he should go have a smoke by the tree out back. Out back and alone, Scott tells Rusu that if he assists them, it will show the FBI that Transnistria is willing to cooperate and would go a long way to securing training and supplies he needs. Rusu says he wants to help but not at the cost of his own life, and Scott says if he gives them the names or numbers of who is involved, he can look into them on his end. Rusu gets a message that Douglas was attacked. Scott goes to the jail and the officer tells him Mark was stabbed but he has survived. As the paramedics take him to the hospital, Mark tells Scott to find Sabina and save the girls.
Savrinn is at the hospital with Forrester and Kellett and says he brought Douglas across the world to burn off the last 2 years he needed to make it to his 25 years on the job, and had no idea this would be the result. Kellett and Savrinn go in to speak to Mark and Scott talks to Cerban, who says any number of people could have stabbed him, but he is coming to Forrester with a solution. He says he can help transport Douglas to an airfield, and get him out of Transnistria and back to the USA. Mark says that he made a promise to Sabina to get her out, and says he wants to finish the job. Scott believes Cerban is likely involved with Florin and they come up with a plan. Scott tells Cerban that they agree and are grateful and Scott says he has to get the correct Bureau medical personel and to put his mobile number in his phone and he will text when they are ready. They track Cerban’s calls, and hear him speaking to Florin about trying to get rid of Forrester. He goes to speak to Rusu and says he is going to grab a smoke. He plays the recording for him and tells him he needs his help.
Scott called Jamie and says Timur has a lawyer he trusts in the prosecutor general’s office and sends Jamie her number, and asks her to reach out and tell her she will have evidence to present to her soon. After he hangs up, Cerban stops him and holds a gun on him while other officers cuff him and they take him into a car. Cerban tells him he should have left when he had a chance. Scott finds himself with Cerban in an empty building. Cerban says that other countries have treated his country like a chew toy for centuries. Cerban says he will give him Douglas’s laptop and files if he promises to keep his name out of it along with any corporation he gives to them will have to remain a secret. Forrester says if he was going to kill him, he would have already, but he knows if he kills a fed, he knows he cannot hide anywhere. Scott says he knows him taking him in cuffs was a show for the other cops. Scott says the deal will be he gives him the files and laptop, and he testifies against Florin and any other co-conspirators including anyone in New York. Cerban says he will be a dead man if he goes against Florin, and Scott says they will protect him and his family and give them a generous resettlement package. Scott tells him he now works for the FBI and he has adapted and survived and that is what he needs to do again.
The team goes with Cerban to raid the tavern. They find the women and Vo lets them know they are safe, but Sabina is not there. Florin threatens Cerban as they take him out. They question Florin and ask him for the names of the New York contacts. Florin tells them they are in bed with a bad cop, and should not believe Cerban. Kellett tells him Cerban has told them what he knows and that it puts Florin on unsteady ground and if he gives them the names and proof of New York trafficking, there will not be an extradition. Florin refuses and Rusu tells them to go grab a smoke and he goes into the room with Florin.
Scott and Jamie sit together outside and reminisce about some time they had together, and Lt. Rusu comes to tell them Florin is cooperating and gives them the address for Sabina, and also that he is providing the names from New York. They go to Sabina’s house and find out she has a family, and find out she was just working Mark for money.
Jamie and Scott let Mark know they have dismantled the trafficking ring, and that they found Sabina and she is safe and free, and she is there to thank him in person. Mark tells her he did it all for her, and she tells him she will never forget him, and Mark and Rick leave for New York.
Jubal lets the team know they arrested 8 people on expired VISA’s, freed 10 women and have found 30 others who came through New York also, who they are locating to provide help too. Raines offers to swap Forrester’s phone but he says he will do it back in Budapest.
Scott and Timur have a drink together after the case, and they discuss a possible future with Transnistria and the FBI. Timur leaves after a toast, and Scott hears a voice behind him that says hello. He turns around and says “Hey Mom” as the credits roll.
Talk about leaving us on a cliff hanger as the Olympic/winter hiatus arrived as only the Wolf Universe can! It will be interesting to see where the writers will take us for the remainder of the season…what is to come with Scott and Jamie? What will contact with his mother mean for Scott and will contact continue between them? Will we see any further development of a possible relationship with Raines and Vo? Time will only tell, but we have many more episodes to explore cases with the Fly Team, and I for one cannot wait to see what is yet to come.
Let us know what you thought about this episode in the comments below.
