FBI: International – Someone She Knew – Review

As the Fly Team deals with the reality that Forrester’s time may soon be up, they are faced with this very tense case. This episode revealed a lot about the importance and value of trust, and the importance of never giving up on what you believe in.

The episode opens with the team out together with Dandridge, who is telling a story and you can tell that the members of the team are not thrilled about being there, let alone listening to his stories from the past about his family. The basis of his story is that loyalty is foolish, and he then reiterates that Forrester will be gone soon. This scene definitely set up the episode in terms of the distain the team has for him and the uncertainty they feel about Zoe McKenna due to her arriving as his number two.

We then move to Ganserndorf, Austria, where a young girl goes into a store asking for help. She says her name is Katie Marsh and she was kidnapped. She asks for help and wants to speak to her mother. The shopkeeper does not speak English well and goes to get her granddaughter from the back when we see a van driving up. The girl takes off a ring, puts it in her mouth for a moment to put saliva on it and then exits the store. The shopkeeper and her granddaughter come back and the granddaughter goes outside just as the van drives away. The shopkeeper finds the ring on the counter and they call the authorities.

Back in the office in Budapest, Forrester arrives and he and the team discuss that he is working hard to fight the transfer. McKenna comes in and says they have a case and they ask Scott if they still include her because she is Dandridge’s number two, but Scott says she was assigned to their task force and she has given him no reason to doubt her abilities. This is a real testament to the leadership Scott demonstrates, and how he is fair and willing to base his decisions on performance and not affiliation.

The team reviews the case. Katie Marsh disappeared from in front of her home in broad daylight in Minnesota in 2012. Footage from the store compared to age enhanced photos of Katie are extremely similar and Forrester says they are doing a thorough check because of what happened with Nicolas Bordeau, a case where a teen disappeared and years later someone reappeared in Spain claiming to be him, but it was a serial imposter. The team heads to Austria to try to identify this girl and if she is really Katie Marsh.

They arrive in Austria and are met by Chief Kaufmann, who indicates that they should speak to Detective Keith Saunders, who has arrived and was part of the police department that worked the original case. Saunders tells them that they found a ring that matches one Katie wore and Raines tells them that DNA on the ring matches Katie, and that there were traces of phenobarbital also. The team heads out and Saunders asks what he can do to help, and Forrester asks for everything from his files that he has collected since Katie went missing. Scott also asks Jamie to look into Detective Saunders. It was clear in this scene that both Scott and Jamie did not get a good feeling from Keith, and they are suspicious of his arrival and involvement, which demonstrates their fantastic intuition when it comes to things not seeming to be what they appear.

Forrester and Garretson go to interview the shopkeeper and she tells them that the girl kept looking over her shoulder, but they did not see anyone else. The granddaughter says she saw a grey van driving away but was unable to get the license plate. As they are leaving, Smitty tells Forrester he needs to have a plan. She says this is his career and he can’t just wait it out, but Forrester says it is not time yet to make a move. Clearly Smitty cares a great deal for Forrester, which again makes one wonder how deep their past relationship was when they worked together.

Kellett, Vo and Raines review the video footage from the store and see an ambulance go by, who responded to an emergency at a hotel. Kellett also fills in Forrester and Garretson about what she found out about Saunders. Forrester confronts him about the fact that he was pulled off Katie’s case and fired by Minneapolis PD for misconduct and that he has not been a detective in years. Kellett tells him they spoke to his former supervisor who says he was fired with cause and is a head case. Saunders tells them that Daniels was convinced that Katie was abducted by a home invader they caught a month later and he could never prove it, but he felt Katie was taken by someone she knew based on the evidence at the home, and the fact that she had packed some of her favorite items. He says he was fired due to a difference in opinion and that he was the only one who gave a damn about finding Katie, but Scott tells him he is not part of this investigation. He says this case is his life and he lost his job and pension and never stopped looking for her. McKenna then comes in and gives Kellett more information, and they find out that he is now married to Katie’s mother. Saunders tells them she is in Austria too, and Forrester is furious and says that he knows there is a protocol for when you involve the family.

They interview Allison, Katie’s mother, who says Katie’s dad and her searched for a long time and then her dad shut down and shut Katie out of his mind. Scott asks if there is any resentment from her husband about her and Keith getting together, and she says they entered a relationship after he was let go from the force and after her husband had already remarried and let go of her and Katie a long time before. She tells them that Keith only wants to find her daughter, the same as her and them, and asks for them to let them help. It is clear from their actions and responses that Kellett and Forrester really do feel compassion for her and what she has been through.

Vo and Raines go to meet the Ambulance Attendant, Emil Hochberg. They ask him who was the patient at the hospital. He said he responded to a young girl who was dehydrated and malnourished, and it was her father who had called, saying they had been hiking for two days when the girl became ill. The father did not mention where they were headed and he had suggested that they take the girl to the hospital but the father refused and in Austria they cannot override parental consent. He says the girl he treated was only 6 or 7 years old. They go to the hotel and the desk clerk says he does not have a record when the customers pay by the hour and that they have no cameras. Raines notices that the clerk has a dash cam in his car and he says he always parks in the same spot. Raines looks at his laptop and pulls up the video, and they realize there is a second victim. Vo proposes that when he had his hands full Katie saw her window and took it. This was such a great scene, where we again are able to see not only the great investigative skills of these two agents, but we also the amazing technical prowess of Raines, which makes him such a phenomenal asset to the team.

They use facial recognition software and identify the man as Otto Lang, who was arrested in 2011 for soliciting an underage prostitute. He has dual citizenship between the USA and Austria as he was born in Austria, and they have an address for him. Forrester tells them not to loop in McKenna right now. They go to the home and do a search, and Smitty and Scott find a hidden room behind a wardrobe in the attic. Suddenly, they find out that Dandridge is doing a press conference and he shows the suspect, which is why they just missed them, as clearly Lang knows they are looking for him. Forrester orders checkpoints, door to door searches and says he will deal with Dandridge.

Forrester asks McKenna if she told Dandridge about the suspect but she says she did not, and Forrester tells him that if he had waited 20 minutes, they could have caught Lang and recovered Katie, but Dandridge says he followed protocol. They then get an urgent video call from Deputy Director John Van Leer and Senator Jenna Preuitt, and Forrester provides them with an update that they have identified the abductor and are sweeping the neighborhood to find him and Katie. The senator also congratulates Dandridge on his transparency. This was a hard scene to swallow as we see Dandridge not only taking credit for the rest of the team, but also seeing him be rewarded for doing something that likely put Katie and the other victim at risk and possibly caused them to miss catching the kidnapper.

Searching the house, they identified the second victim, Clara Brenner, who lived in a town 15 miles west of their current location. Allison arrives to try to identify if any of the items are Katie’s, and Forrester asks Keith if he went around his back to speak to Dandridge and he says that kind of cop only cares about the TV cameras and not Katie, and that is definitely not his kind of cop. Scott believes him that he is not the rat. However this gives Forrester further reason to be suspicious of how Dandridge seems to know his every move.

Allison identifies a blue teddy bear that she won for Katie, and that was one of her favorites, and in a book, they find a picture of her and Lang at a small cabin on a lake. Vo tells her they will find her and that she will need to give Katie all the love and support and counselling she will need. Allison asks if she thinks she remembers her, and Vo tells her that in the shop she had asked for her, probably because she knew that she would never stop looking for her. This scene showed how compassionate Vo is, but in watching her speak to Allison’s mother about what Katie may need, it almost seems like she was speaking from experience, and we are left wondering if there is some trauma in Vo’s past that has not yet been revealed to us yet.

McKenna presents to the team the full history of Otto Lang, how he grew up in an abusive household and how as an adult he tried to reconnect with his father and came to the USA and worked a delivery route in Katie’s neighbourhood. They also discuss Clara Brenner, who was taken at age 5, and that Lang was working at a shipping depot along her path to school. Clara’s mother was a single mother who overdosed shortly after she disappeared. Dandridge arrives and asks about Lang’s vehicle and Vo advises that there is a BOLO out but no reported sightings yet. As Forrester goes to leave, Dandridge asks where he is going and he says to speak to Keith Saunders, and Dandridge asks if he really feels the most worthwhile use of his time is interviewing the failed detective, and Scott says he has chased him for a decade and may have insight into his next move. This was a very clear demonstration of how Dandridge has very little field experience or skills with investigation, and only makes him seem even more smarmy than he already did.

Scott says he thinks the delivery truck is the key and Saunders says that by the time he interviewed Lang he had been reassigned to a route in Jersey and played it off that he could barely even remember the case with Katie, and did it well enough to fool him. Scott asks if there is anything he can think of and he says that during his time as a detective, he focused on pattern recognition and studying repeated behaviors, and with this guy there does not seem to be a pattern.

Forrester tells Kellett that he thinks instead of being on the run that Lang is trying to wait them out. Kellett says her search for any other property in his name came up empty. Forrester asks about the aunt’s name (who raised him) and they said no and that the lakeside cabin where he grew up was repossessed by the bank years ago. Scott says there is a pattern that isn’t a pattern, and he just can’t see it. Kellett is called away as they have found Lang’s vehicle. McKenna asks if Forrester is ok, and Kellett asks if she is checking in for Dandridge and she says no.

They stop the van and the young man driving is not Lang and says someone paid him to trade vehicles three and a half hours ago, and it was a man travelling with his 2 daughters. They get the information about the vehicle, and they ask if he left any personal items are in the vehicle. He says his mother’s bag was in the vehicle and she has a Fitbit. They track the location and find the truck but it is empty.

Dandridge says they should be close by, and he will have the Austrian police do a search. They discover that there is a train yard where Lang worked nearby with a train heading for a non-extradition country, and Dandridge says that is where is he and where the team is going to search. Forrester disagrees and Dandridge says he always flies by the seat of his pants and that is why they are making a change, and he can get on board or continue to look into Lang’s aunt. Forrester asks how he knew he was looking into her and he deflects and says he figured he would be on top of it. The team minus Scott head out to the train yard. It is clear though that Scott is still suspicious and trying to figure out how Dandridge knows what he is doing.

Scott pulls McKenna aside and says he knows she and Dandridge are close but asks for her to hear him out and tells her that some agents join the bureau to play the promotion game and some work cases. He asks her looking at Dandridge if that is really someone she would want to be in power, and that if she knows something about how he has been on top of his every move, she needs to decide what kind of agent she wants to be. Clearly Scott is still trying to give Zoe the benefit of the doubt and not accuse her of anything without proof, but he is rightfully suspicious given Dandridge’s level of knowledge that seems to coincide with her arrival to the team.

The team search the train but do not find the girls or Lang. Dandridge continues to insist they keep looking and review the cameras, but Kellett says they are not nor were they ever there. She calls Scott, but he has left his phone at the office and is at the Lakeside cabin where Lang grew up. He sees lights on and he goes inside and finds the girls. He and Lang fight and eventually Scott wins, and he is able to save the girls and police take Lang into custody.

Allison and Keith arrive at the station and Scott tells Keith they got him and they could not have done it without him, and thanks him. Katie is reunited with her mom and Katie asks about Clara, because she gave her hope and she stayed alive for her. Keith tells them that he and Allison will adopt Clara as she would otherwise go into foster care, and asks for the paperwork.

Deputy Chief Van Leer and Senator Preuitt arrive and congratulate Forrester and Dandridge says he was running point, but the Senator says she understands that it was Forrester who found Katie. Dandridge says it was a team effort under his direction. Van Leer tells Dandridge that he wants him on the next plane back to the USA and that he issued an unauthorized wiretap on a federal agent’s phone (Forrester), and was listening in like a weasel. McKenna says she found out how he bypassed the avadavat and told the Deputy Director. Van Leer says the office of professional responsibility would like a word with him in person upon his return. Van Leer asks Scott to continue to run the Fly Team and he says it would be an honor.

They are at Maya’s bar celebrating, and McKenna arrives. They ask her what is next for her and she says she is heading to Warsaw but will be back again, just not sure when. This was certainly a cheerful conclusion and it is great to know that Forrester will not be leaving any time soon.

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