Secrets have a way of coming to light at the worst time.
As FBI: International’s newest episode, The Secrets She Knows, detailed, deadly secrets nearly caused disaster.
Meanwhile, Forrester’s own secrets were distracting as he tried to hunt for his missing mother. Last week, Forrester was given a photo of his mother, who had betrayed her country years before in Russia, and he wanted to know more.
A disappearance could lead to war
In Paris, Bridget Rapp (Margo Seibert) chatted with a guy over drinks on how she was “basically a nuclear spy,” working for the PDB, which monitors the number of nuclear weapons in the world and if any go missing. As she got to her feet, she appeared ready to pass out.
The next day, two friends stopped at Bridget’s apartment to find blood all over the place and called the Pentagon.
In Budapest, Vo and Raines chatted about Vo using her grandfather’s old cup. Raines was amused by the coffee shop clerk clearly flirting with Raines. Kellett found Forrester trying to track down where the photo from his mother had come from.
They were interrupted by word of Bridget’s vanishing from General Finley (Moe Irvin), who said that, with Q-level clearance, Bridget had information on almost all of America’s nuclear secrets. She had been attending a high-level conference in Paris with plenty of foreign intelligence services around who could be suspects.
Jaeger summed up the problem of conducting a search without telling anyone why and that “there are a lot of eyes on me.” Tank was able to tell Bridget was still alive when she was taken.
Kellett talked to Bridget’s friends Deirdre (Cerris Morgan-Meyer) and Carla (Stacy Sobieski). They were surprised at the video of Bridget taking the stranger from the cafe home as security was so tight, they’d need to file monster paperwork just to go on a date.
Bridget had been upset over talks with Iran as the negotiator she had been working with, Ali Majidi (Cas Anvar), was suddenly replaced by a hardliner from the new regime.
Forrester and Kellett met Majidi at a hotel who believed Bridget was targeted for knowing almost all the secrets of the players at the conference. He also hinted his replacement might foul things up with the troubling words, “I won’t be retiring near any large city centers.”
Was it a kidnapping?
Studying the crime scene, Raines and Vo realized Bridget had been collecting her own blood for some time to plant it, and the crime scene was staged. Meaning this wasn’t a kidnapping but Bridget on the run.
Forrester cited MICE (“money, ideology, coercion, ego”) as possible reasons for Bridget betraying her country and admitted the irony of that coming from him. Jaeger found a video of Bridget leaving her bank. She also learned the man she’d been talking to, Holden Barnes (Dan Bitnner), was being held by police.
Finley arrived to give the team access (under heavy security) to Bridget’s computer. He also revealed that the military was authorizing deadly force against Bridget, given she could literally fire off a nuke from any base in Europe. He made it clear he was taking Bridget back on a plane “seated next to me in handcuffs or boxed up in the cargo hold.”
Raines and Vo were surprised to hear Bridget had withdrawn a million Euros from a secret account. Barnes couldn’t believe Bridget really was some spy, insisting he left after only two minutes in her apartment (where Bridget went from drunk to sober in a second), and she was fine. It was obvious Bridget set the guy up as a patsy as part of the plan.
Forrester and Kellett managed to banter about a Portugal trip before Kellett found evidence Bridget was looking into where to buy antipsychotic medicine, wondering if Bridget had suffered a breakdown under the pressure of nuclear negotiations. They then found a note in a book from Ali to Bridget.
It was all about the heart
Forrester got Ali to admit Bridget had given up a few secrets years before to get a deal made, and they’d had an on-off affair ever since. His replacement wanted Ali to turn Bridget into a full-time spy, but both refused.
Ali then had to break it to Bridget that she had unwittingly given up the names of two Iranians working for the U.S., and they were executed. It sent her on a tailspin, with her realizing she was in danger from her own government.
Jaeger tracked Bridget to an office building owned by Kim Ashenden, a dishonorably discharged Special Forces operative turned mercenary. He revealed Bridget and Ali had paid him half a million Euros to arrange passage out of Paris.
They went to find Ali only to discover a pack of men cleaning up his hotel room (which had been bugged) and telling them Ali was “reassigned” with the meaning clear to his actual fate.
Figuring that if Bridget knew Ali was dead, she’d kill herself, the gang tracked Bridget to a popular bridge in Paris. Forrester said that they could get her transported to an asylum for help with Bridget realizing they could never let her go because of all she knew.
Kellett pointed out that if Bridget was classified as mentally unbalanced, so she couldn’t be executed for treason. Bridget was at the end of her rope, unable to handle the pressure of such a high-stakes job before the agents pulled her from the ledge.
As Finley and the agents showed up to arrest Bridget, Forrester got a moment to talk to her, assuring Bridget she would get help. He did ask why she had done this, clearly hoping it could help him understand his mother, with Bridget insisting it was for love.
As Jaeger broke out the secret liquor cabinet in the HQ (which the rest of the team hadn’t known about), Forrester urged them to call a mental health hotline if they needed to, although Raines and Vo didn’t want that on their records.
Finley made a quick stop to warn Forrester that he was banned from looking into his mother, which made Forrester realize there was more to the story.
The parallels between Forrester’s mom and Bridget were clear yet also looked at how such a dangerous world takes its toll on people to make drastic choices.
FBI: International airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on CBS.