The newest episode of FBI: Most Wanted had the team facing a dangerous quarry plotting a huge attack.
Even more challenging was the team doing it with two members gone and a new agent joining up.
A dangerous ‘patriot’
Patriots opened in a Washington D.C. hotel as a man walked in to shoot the clerk and two others.
Sarah was trying to talk to Tali, who appears distant with Jess, and thrown that Tali was getting a ride with a school friend. Jess is troubled by Tali skipping breakfast and Sarah being intent on changing up the dining room to cover up the blood where her ex-husband was shot.
Jess tells the team how Hana is now with her sister and mother in Connecticut and should be back soon while Crosby was recovering from his gunshot wound. Gaines joins as a full member of the team to track the shooter.
As one victim was a former federal officer working security, the team is called in. They watch the video to see the hotel clerk was the main target and the other two were caught in the crossfire. Barnes and Ortiz were both surprised at how Jess let Gaines take point so quickly.
Talking to the father of the clerk, Calle Martin, the team learned he was a police officer injured in the January 6 Capitol riots. The shooter, Travis (Scott Deckert), was with his brother Cole Baker (Eli Bridges) on a road, pulled over by a cop friend who let them go.
The team checked with Jolene Baker (Sarah Hunt), who had stayed at the hotel on January 6 and claimed she’d simply left a subway pass there. Gaines showed how Calle was looking up people involved in the riots and realized she was trying to find out who had hurt her dad. They suspect that one of those attackers found her first.
Facing some inside men (and women)
Jolene was shown stealing a cart of guns from a local armory. She was Travis’ sister-in-law (and clearly much more to help him,) and Cole starts outfitting for an attack in Richmond against a “traitor.”
Jess and Barnes met with a local FBI agent who told them they had caught Milton Krabbe, leader of a local militia involved in the riots. Krabbe refused to give up his “brothers” as he truly believed his lawyer’s word that “as soon as the current illegitimate administration is ousted from power,” he would be pardoned.
The team soon found a link between the lawyer and Baker to coordinate with the local cops. However, the cop friend of Travis and Cole tried to tip them off that the feds are after them. In twisted karma, when he went to knock on the door, it activated a shotgun boobytrap that killed him.
Inside the house, the team discovered evidence that Baker had managed to track down Calle’s face which came from a local FBI branch.
“There’s a fox in the henhouse,” Jess noted.
Barnes and Gaines went to the Clarksburg office to talk to a tip line worker who confessed she’d given up Calle’s name to Baker, believing “they were supporting our President” and was trying to help who she thought were “patriotic Americans.”
Gaines and Barnes found a new respect for each other with Gaines saying she wasn’t out to shake up the team.
At their encampment, Cole found Travis and Jolene making out, leading to a fight where Travis strangled his own brother.
It’s a trap!
In their mobile command center, the team speculated the Bakers were going after the Virginia Attorney General who certified the election results and thus, in their eyes, a “traitor.”
Jess saw a green dot moving toward Ortiz’s head and yelled to get down just as the truck came under fire. It was Jolene, who took off in the woods on an ATV with Ortiz in pursuit.
Swapping to a regular car, Jolene drove off with the team following. They tracked her to an abandoned gravel company only to realize it was a trap with mines exploding while the Bakers opened fire on them.
Reinforcements arrived as the team realized that because the Bakers’ son, Brady was there, they couldn’t just storm in. Travis claimed the FBI killed Cole while the team found the body. Jess wanted to wait them out as it was clear Travis was in over his head with his “revolution.”
Travis sent Brady out to get a phone to call for help, figuring the feds wouldn’t shoot a kid. Gaines confronted Brady, showing him his father’s body to prove what happened.
Realizing it was over, Jolene stormed out to be with her son. Travis chose to charge out with his gun and was shot dead by Ortiz.
Jess told Gaines that she needed to work with the rest of the team rather than just go by her gut.
Back home, Jess learned that Talia was sent home from school for vaping with Sarah warning Jess his daughter was growing up and testing him with Jess realizing his daughter was dealing with seeing Sarah’s ex being killed.
It was obvious that as great as he may be chasing some killers, Jess is unsure how to handle the complex home life with his daughter and new love.
FBI: Most Wanted airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on CBS.