FBI: International – Copper Pots and Daggers – Review

This episode was a new take on the role of the FBI team, where normally they are working diligently to collaborate with foreign countries and law enforcement. However in this episode, they were asked to take a different role and when diplomacy fails, they are asked to break the laws of the country to get one of their citizens out.

We open the episode with Scott playing with Tank in the park with Zsolt and Scott asks him about when he picked up Tank and who the man was in his apartment. Zsolt says is it his Dad. Scott asks if he travels a lot as he has never seen him before and Zsolt says he is busy with his job. Scott tells him that he can talk to him about anything, especially if there is anything weird at home and he says that his parents have been fighting. Scott asks for his father’s name and he says Peter, and Scott calls Jamie and asks her to look run a full background check with her international contacts on Peter Tamasi. She asks if they have a new case, but he tells her this one is personal. It is so great to see that Scott’s character and the way he really cares about other people extends past his work, especially when it comes to protecting young people in danger.

We then see Megan is moving in with Jamie and Jamie offers to help her in with her boxes. As she moves in she begins moving some of Jamie’s things without asking and Jamie does not look too impressed. These two characters will be an interesting dynamic to have as roommates and it will be interesting to see how this affects their working relationship as they get to know each other on and off the job.

The scene moves to an airport in Istanbul, Turkey, where a woman and her partner and daughter are travelling together. Suddenly the police surround them with guns and a search dog. They demand for her to open her suitcase, but they tell them they have already been through security. They ask again and then get the dog to sniff the bag, it alerts and they demand again she opens the bag. She asks to speak to his commanding officer but they pull their guns so she opens the bag, revealing antiquities that she indicates are not hers, and says she has never seen them before. The police take her away.

Raines reviews the case with the team, and says that Emily Reid, an ex-marine, was detained in Turkey for smuggling antiquities. Garretson asks about this usually being handled by consulate affairs, but they have been asked to assist because although they are part of Nato, the Turks and the USA do not see eye to eye. Kellett asks if the military has been alerted, but Forrester says as soon as Turkey knows the military is involved the case will hit the headlines. Consulate affairs is also hoping that they can find alternative channels to gain entry into Turkey. Garretson quickly finds them a way in, as she had worked a narcotics case with Turkish intelligence and she says one of the agents was solid and arranged for them to fly in today. The team packs up and leaves for the jet.

When arrive at the US Embassy in Turkey, they meet with Jen Mercer, who is the legal representation for Emily. She says they have tried to expedite her release but the Turkish authorities are stubborn. They meet Leyla Kaplan, who is the local translator at the embassy, and used to work at the police station where they are holding Emily Reid, as she was training to be a police officer in the past. Raines and Kellett go to the hotel to meet with her partner while the rest of the team set up at the embassy.

Raines asks James Greer, her partner, if they packed their bags themselves and he says of course and he asks if the bags were ever unattended, and he says only for a minute for airport inspection. They asked what they were doing in Turkey and he says Emily has a small business exporting mugs to the US and goes there for business and he and daughter Zoey had just tagged along for vacation. Kellett asks if they are not married why Zoey calls her mom and Zoey says she is her mom. James explains that Zoey’s mom died when she was one and Emily is the only mother she has ever known, but Emily did not believe in marriage, which is why they never got married. Raines asks if he spoke to anyone after Emily was arrested, and he said that a police officer pulled him into a back room and kept asking him about a rush fee, but he said all he could focus on was if Zoey was safe. Kellett tells Zoey she was very brave and she asks if her mom will be okay, and Kellett promises that they will do everything in her power to get her mom back home.

Back at the embassy, Raines reviews the airport security feed and they see Emily, James and Zoe go through security and their luggage was clean when it went in. They then see a police officer take the bag off the rack, and it was returned 48 seconds later. Mercer asks why only target Emily, and the team hypothesizes that by separating the woman from their male travel companion, the man is more likely to pay a fee quickly to be able to see her then. Vo asks Leyla if she ever saw anything like this when she was at the station. Leyla tells them that certain groups in the Turkish police are not known for their honesty. She says that the police force is only 10% female dictated by law, and that she was hoping to make a difference, but they saw her idealism as prudishness and they disqualified her a week before graduation for an arrhythmia. They ask if she is okay to go to the station to translate and she says of course.

They go to the station and Leyla tells the officer at the desk they are FBI and they ask to speak to Mehmet Dogan, the “Directorate”. When they are waiting, some of the officers try to bother Leyla by asking her how her murmur is, but Cameron tells her not to give them the satisfaction. This was such a great scene as clearly Cameron has dealt with these types of situations before, and now as she is becoming a more experienced member of the team, it is so wonderful to see her character start to branch out and provide support to mentor others.

Dogan tells them his department is more than happy to cooperate with the FBI. He says their investigation should be completed by the end of the week, and Forrester says things seem pretty cut and dry and asks if they can wrap it up by the end of the day. Dogan says unfortunately not, as his team is still running the investigation. Forrester tells him that they know about the scam his officers have been running at the airport with putting items in a nice looking tourists bag and scaring them until they pay up. Dogan says that is a very serious accusation, and that investigating that would take time. Forrester says if he is looking for an expedition fee, that this will not go down the way he thinks and Dogan says he always follow due process. Vo tells him to watch the security camera footage, and it should not take long, unless he wants to be the center of the next big diplomatic incident. He says if the woman in custody is innocent, he will personally apprehend the officers involved himself. He says he will not halt the investigation, but as a sign of good faith, he will start the paperwork for her release. They ask to speak with Emily, and Dogan agrees.

Forrester and Vo speak with Emily and she asks if James and Zoey are safe and they tell her yes, and that they are under embassy protection. She asks if they are with the consulate, and when they tell her they are with the FBI, she says she takes it that the Turks are not making this easy then. The officers at the door are pulled away, and Emily asks Scott and Cameron to get her out now before they find out who she really is. The officers come in, cuff her and take her away, and Scott asks Dogan what about the sign of good faith, and he says they did not tell him she was a spy.

Dogan shows them a technology device and says they found it in Emily’s rented apartment, hidden inside the walls. Scott asks if they had a warrant and Dogan says they felt it was prudent to act quickly for due diligence to the request from FBI to expedite the process, but to feel free to file a complaint. Dogan asks them why would someone go to all the trouble to seal something in a wall, and Vo says they need to identify what it is, and that if might not even be from this decade. Dogan says he thinks it is spy equipment. Vo asks if he has he never moved into a place and found weird things the old tenants left behind, and why would you smash the wall and reseal it up in an apartment you barely used briefly. Dogan says he considered that but wondered why the FBI wanted to speed things up, especially considering it has not even been 24 hours since she was arrested. Scott wants to take the device back to the embassy to run a diagnostic, but Dogan will not let him have the device. He tells Scott they will keep him apprised of any developments.

As they leave and head back to the embassy, Vo asks Forrester if he is sure Emily is a spy and he says yes, that the device they found was a CIA transmitter, and that CIA started using them in 2018 with cyber-ops in Iran. Vo asks what happens if Dogan finds out and he says they will question Emily until she confesses or begs to die. Vo asks why Dogan would tell them instead of going to Turkish intel, and Forrester says Dogan seems to think this is a name-making arrest, and that the officers who pull this ruse all the time did not know who she was until James called the embassy. Kellett comes to find them and tells them that General Finley is on the line and she has it set up for them upstairs.

General Finley tells Scott and Jamie that he had hoped this situation would be resolved quickly without incident, but that he clearly underestimated the Turkish police. Scott says with all due respect that his team should have been briefed, and the General tells them that Emily in an agent with NSA and that anyone who knows her identity is a liability. Scott tells him they raided her apartment and found her covert transmitter, and that is their liability. General Finley says without her authenticator, it will never boot up and she will never hand it over, and that nothing will break her. Kellett says that does not stop the Turks from trying. Finley says now there is even more urgency to get her out.

Scott says if he is putting his team at risk he needs to know how much power is in this powderkeg. It is great to see that Scott is not prepared to risk his team until he knows the full depth of the situation. It is also wonderful how gives them all the ability to express their concerns or opt out of the mission when the time comes. He tells them her real name is Isabelle Yumans, and was working as an exporter of Turkish goods while compiling information about Turkish military capabilities. Her asset works for the military. He is so high level, that he insisted that his real name be scrubbed from all documentation, so they only know his code name, Redland. Jamie says they need to figure out who Redland is and then get Emily out, and General Finley says he will provide any resources they need. Scott asks about the partner, and Finley says everything should be need to know, but Scott says they need the partner because if she met with Redland, he might be the only one who can help them find this asset.

Scott goes to talk to James and he is upset and wants answers, but Scott says they have to focus right now as the most important thing right now is getting Emily back to DC. He asks if they met with anyone while they were there, and he says he did not track her every movement, as he trusted her. He says that one night she stepped away from dinner to meet a friend from university. He says his name was Sam. Raines pulls the names of everyone enrolled in her college program and that all her files were under the name Isabelle Velmaz, and that of everyone with Sam in their name, 6 have possible ties to Turkey, but none fit the profile for her source. They begin to dig in to the 6 people, and Megan says the code name is interesting and remembers that there used to be a road names Redland Road that was renamed around the time of the Queen’s Jubilee and as Andre to look it up, and see if anyone lived on Elizabeth Place. Megan finds Sammy Osman who was a visiting professor in Nuclear Physics when Emily was at Oxford, and is a logistics officer for the Turkish army. There have been rumors that Turkey was beefing up its nuclear capabilities. Forrester sends Kellett and Raines to secure Osman.

Jen Mercer comes in to tell Scott and Megan that Director Dogan is in the lobby. He apologizes for the intrusion, but he came to update them that Emily denied the device was hers as they expected. He tells them they had been tracing her movements since she arrived and that they have footage of her entering a hotel with a man named Sammy Osman, and he asks if that name means anything to them. Scott asks if he asked Emily and Dogan says she is refusing to answer any of his questions. Scott says it is not a crime to walk into a hotel lobby, and Megan says he seems to be spinning his wheels, and there is no proof of wrongdoing. Scott says they need to get back to work and leaves the lobby. Megan tells Dogan that Forrester is doing him a favour because her vote is to take this issue straight to Europol, and has Turkey not been waiting for membership with a keen eye on their human rights abuses. Dogan says his team will continue to investigate for however long it takes, and he appreciates their patience. As Raines and Kellett are about to pull up to where Sammy is, the Turkish police arrive and throw him in the back of the police van and take him away.

Scott says if they break Osman that they will bury Emily in a hole so deep she will forget what daylight looks like. He says that General Finley is getting James and Zoey out of Turkey and that they are to get to Emily in the police station before they can transfer her somewhere where they cannot get to her. Kellett asks if he is talking about a jailbreak and he says yes. He says it is a regional facility and not a supermax prison. He says that he, Raines and Vo will work on securing Emily and that Kellett and Garretson are to work on an escape route. He asks if everyone is good and if they have any doubts and Raines says they do not know the layout of the jail or what type of staffing may be on. Vo says they need Leyla’s help. Leyla assists them to understand the layout of the staff and cameras, and agrees to help them. She says 7pm is shift change and the night shift operates with a skeleton crew, so Scott says that is their window.

Forrester, Vo and Leyla go into the station while Raines sneaks around back. Forrester says he has urgent business with Dogan, and that the officer will have to explain it to him if he has to wait to give him important message until the morning, and says to call him and tell him they have intel on Osman. She calls Dogan while Leyla gives her an excuse to get into the locker room and Raines breaks in a back door.

They go to speak to Dogan, and ask to speak to Osman, but he says they are questioning him and Scott can watch on the screen. They take Vo to question Emily. Meanwhile, Raines breaks into the computer control room and Leyla meets him there with a radio. Vo meets with Emily and they know they are on camera, so they work together to play up the interview by saying Osman was a client and that they knew there were more transactions that were in the ledger, and she said it was typical practice for elite customers who paid in cash. She signals her to pretend to choke and asks the guard to get her water. Vo tells her to go when she says go.

Scott is in the office watching the interview with Osman, who says he is going to tell them everything and right then, Raines cuts the power. They use the radio and alarms and door locks to get Vo and Emily out of the interrogation rooms and then jam the radio signal so the police cannot communicate with each other. Leyla leaves and says the embassy will take care of her. Raines chains the door to the control room behind her.

An officer updates Dogan that Detective Akbas called and Osman broke and confessed to everything. He asks if they have the American secured, but they cannot get ahold of anyone on the radio. Dogan and the officers try to find Emily while she and Vo try to get out of the building with Raines helping them from the control room and police try to break into the control room. At one point, Vo and Emily almost get caught, but hide in an office and Raines uses the lights and door locks to help them to escape out of the station, where they get into a taxi van with Raines and Forrester. The taxi van exits onto the highway with dozens of others, and the police lose them. This was a very tense and action packed scene that really shows the level of skill of this team, and definitely kept the viewer on the edge of their seat.

They meet at the meeting point and split up to head to the rendezvous point in 3 vehicles, while the embassy helps get rid of the taxi. On the way to the rendezvous, Megan and Emily get pulled over, but Megan outsmarts the policeman and several police cars join the chase. She and Emily manage to outrun them and Forrester picks them up and they get Emily to the helicopter and evacuated out of Turkey. He tells her that James and Zoey are in Budapest and that James knows who she is as they had no other choice but to tell him because she had brought them to Turkey. James, Zoey and Emily are reunited in Budapest, and they all embrace, as a family should.

This was a very high stakes mission for the team to have undertaken and it will be interesting to see if there is any fallout or future effect from this case. In the meantime, this episode definitely proved to be an exciting journey for the viewers, and allowed us to see even more of the development of our favorite characters. If this is a sign of things to come, FBI fans will not be disappointed this season.

Let us know what you thought about this episode in the comments below.