Knowing if you can truly trust the person you love is hard.
After a case where Vo tried to help a friend only to run into heartache, the Fly Team took on a romance gone wrong on FBI: International.
What looked like the kidnapping of a rich woman led to the revelation her boyfriend had some major secrets to hide.
That made the team wonder if this was a con and unsure who to trust.
Meanwhile, Raines was making his own romantic connection which had him wondering about his future.
Thus, A Proven Liar showed that trust in a relationship isn’t as obvious as it seems.
A proposal goes horribly wrong
The episode opened with Raines getting hot and heavy with bartender Maya (Stephanie Hoston). He found it offbeat that she was heading to church the next day, as the two were getting along well.
In Barcelona, Brent Remis (Sam Edgerly) was with his girlfriend, Tiyanna Lynelle (Maryam Basir) as she talked about bodyguard Sean Doxon following them. They passed a church as a wedding let out, as Gerald picked that moment to propose to her.
Before he could, a van pulled up with two masked men knocking down Sean and then grabbing Tiyanna. Brent tried to fight back but was beaten down as they tossed Tiyanna and Sean into the van before taking off.
At the office, Kellett and Vo teased Raines about Maya, so he was grateful to hear about the kidnapping. Brent owned an American construction company to make it the team’s case. Forrester had to stay behind as he was needed for a meeting in Budapest.
In Barcelona, Inspector Olivia Montoya (Tara Linke) welcomed the team as Smitty said there was no ransom demand yet. However, Raines noted, “When I see triangles like this, my mind goes to dark places.”
The team checked with Brent in the hospital as he thought Tiyanna was behind him and couldn’t offer more details. He and Tiyanna had only met a few months earlier on a dating app but fell for each other fast.
Brent admitted he had some threats now and then with his company in Rhode Island and hired Sean as a bodyguard. He mentioned the wedding party before a nurse kicked the team out.
The team got footage of the kidnapping from the wedding guests, which also clearly showed Brent running for his life and leaving his girlfriend behind.
The video showed the van was stolen from a local flower shop. They were suspicious of Brent, and Raines showed his company website was fake and the company didn’t actually exist.
Con man or kidnapper?
Vo shared news someone was trying to break into Brent and Tiyanna’s hotel room. The woman, Danita Gallardo (Maite Jauregui), claimed to be Brent’s girlfriend, and he owed her 94,000 Euros. Danita said that “Brent Johnson” had been through this before, and she was right.
“Brent” was Gerald Frederickson, a lifelong con artist with a dozen aliases who had spent years conning women. He was wanted in New York on multiple fraud charges and enough female victims to form their own blog.
Poor Tiyanna was nothing more than another mark for Brent to add to the 2 million Euros he’d already gained. They figured he and Sean had faked the kidnapping to get a bigger payday from Tiyanna’s rich parents.
Gerald was trying to play dumb when he saw the board of his numerous victims’ photos. Kellett pressed Gerald, who tried to make it sound like it was the women’s own idea to give him money.
Gerald denied the kidnapping, pointing out it wasn’t his style. At that point, they got a video call from Tiyanna saying the kidnappers wanted 170,000 Euros.
The team couldn’t figure out exactly who Gerald was playing as he seemed sincere but, then again, was an expert con artist.
The good news was they found evidence in the van that proved Sean wasn’t involved in the kidnapping. The bad news was it was his dead body.
It didn’t make sense for Gerald to kill Sean and the hit was too professional for one of his past lovers seeking payback. They got another video as a man speaking Spanish ordered Tiyanna to tell Gerald to bring the Euros. She added that the gunman had told her, “this is not about me.”
Part of the video indicated Tiyanna was being held in a church. It turned out the ransom amount was exactly how much Gerald had bilked out of Lydia Herrera.
Forrester checked in with Kellett on how his “meeting” was just filing some paperwork which seemed a waste of time. They talked about the case briefly before hanging up.
Raines and Smitty met Lydia (Andrea Vasiliou) at a rehab facility as she’d suffered a breakdown after learning she’d fallen for his con. She added her father had also liked Gerald and was just as outraged discovering the truth. As soon as they pressed for more, Lydia ended the interview.
Montoya identified Roberto De Garcia (Szola Pall) as it turned out Gerald had ripped off the daughter of the biggest crime lord in Spain.
Pulling off a final con
While suspected of everything from racketeering to murder, Roberto put on a good show of helping the community to avoid being arrested. He clearly wanted revenge for his daughter, which meant as soon as the ransom was paid, Tiyanna was a dead woman.
The kidnappers called again, with Gerald agreeing to the ransom drop. Kellett had to spell out that Gerald had picked the wrong mark.
To her shock, Gerald decided he was better off being safe in police custody. He claimed to truly love Tiyanna but not enough to risk his life for her…unless the FBI got those pesky charges against him in the States dropped.
As much as the team hated it, they knew this was their best shot to save Tiyanna. They gave Gerald the money as he revealed he’d lied about where he was from. “Dying men speak the truth,” Kellett snapped. “You want to wait until it gets to that point?”
The team scoped out the park as Gerald got the call from the kidnappers, using his skills to keep them on the phone so Raines could track them. They cut it off just before Raines could narrow it down.
Kellett, Vo, and Montoya headed to a church in the area for a quick shootout with the kidnappers before rescuing Tiyanna. Too late, they realized this wasn’t about money, it was revenge, and Gerald was the real target.
Smitty raced to Gerald just as Roberto shot him. The crime lord strolled right out to try again, forcing Raines to gun him down.
Gerald had been wearing a vest to survive, as his chief concern was the deal. Tiyanna was rocked to learn the truth about “Brent” and that he only agreed to help her for himself.
Montoya was happy to see De Garcia ended, as the team wasn’t pleased Gerald was walking free.
Tiyanna slapped him across the face as Kellett revealed that while the federal charges against Gerald were dropped, they did nothing for the state charges against him in New York. The team thus enjoyed watching Gerald be arrested.
The team talked back at the bar as they once more wondered where Smitty got her nickname. Raines chatted up Maya about being open about his past and a future relationship. Nearby, Vo watched the pair kiss with an uncertain look on her face.
While that last scene was an intriguing turn with Vo, it showed Raines open to a new turn in his own life.
FBI: International Season 2 returns with new episodes Tuesday, December 13 at 9/8c on CBS.