It takes a lot to put a partnership back together again.
Last week saw Maggie finally returning to duty after her near-death experience in Season 4. However, her uncompromising attitude rubbed OA the wrong way.
OA was worried Maggie was throwing herself too much into things and even turning to drugs to help her.
It led to a row between the partners that threatened their tight bond.
That came up this week as Into the Fire had Maggie even more intent on going undercover to stop a possible terrorist attack.
Once more, OA worried about her abilities and if Maggie had truly recovered with a daring move that could shake up the partnership more.
A deadly hijacking takes place
At a parking lot, a driver named Clay was looking over photos of his family when someone had him sign off on a shipment. As he drove his truck off, a car began following him.
A van suddenly cut Clay off as a pair of masked men pulled guns on him. Clay tried to open up the back of the truck, then fought back, only to be shot as the men robbed the truck.
Scola and Wallace arrived at the crime scene the following day as the truck was part of an interstate company, making it the FBI’s job. The truck was robbed of its cargo, over 20 barrels of ammonium nitrate.
A video camera caught the robbery and murder, but it was hard to figure out who the men were. However, the car matched the plates of the Norsemen Brotherhood, a militant group Maggie was currently trying to infiltrate.
Maggie was at a target range, passing Deke Ward (Michael Aaron Milligan) and his brother, Eric (Bradley Stryker), showing off some fancy guns. She talked to the gun shop clerk before getting a text from OA.
Maggie found OA in a van who brought her up to speed on the robbery and that Eric might be looking at more than just a pipe bomb. Maggie figured they needed to “hit the gas” on the investigation and figured on getting herself an invitation to the birthday party of Deke’s nephew.
Maggie showed off her marksman skills to score an invite to the party. She chatted with the gun range owner, Nick Foster (Kevin L. Johnson), about the guys being “posers” before sneaking off to try and plant some bugs in the basement.
Before Maggie could leave, she heard someone coming down and quickly hid. Deke was showing someone something while complaining about the direction of the country. They both heard a noise, but Maggie was able to keep hidden to see them hauling a box upstairs.
About to leave, Maggie found a hoodie matching the one worn by a shooter covered in fertilizer. She managed to sneak out with the hoodie.
The lab confirmed the hoodie was covered in nitrate but still needed to tie the Wards to the theft. In addition, Kelly found that Eric had just purchased a ticket to Canada, indicating something was going to happen.
Maggie said grabbing Eric might tip off his followers to set off the bomb early. Instead, she suggested planting a tracker on his truck to spot his location.
Maggie found the truck but had trouble planting the bug just before Deke showed up. She tried to play it was okay, but Eric was suspicious of finding her near his truck. Maggie called OA to follow Eric as he drove off.
While worried about Maggie on her own, OA followed Eric only for him to take off as he realized he was being followed. OA managed to chase him to an alley as the other agents showed up to arrest him.
Not a regular farm visit
In interrogation, Eric said he had no idea about any robbery, and the evidence wasn’t enough to hold him. However, they found he’d been visiting an abandoned farm outside the city.
Scola and Wallace led a team to the farm only to hit an alarm. A man took off on a motorcycle and managed to escape.
Inside the barn, they found the nitrate and evidence someone had already built the bomb and sent it out.
The bomb appeared to be too sophisticated for the Brotherhood as a video camera caught Nick Foster leaving the scene.
The team speculated Foster thought the Brotherhood was too weak and his build matched one of the shooters. He was also a demolition expert, meaning he could build the bomb.
Maggie was at the gun range when she got the call from OA about Foster being involved. Just as Maggie was saying Foster was in the wind, he returned to the gun range.
OA told Maggie it was suspicious to stay and “you don’t have to prove anything.” She took exception to that to ride this out.
Maggie asked Foster if she could stay for more practice. He asked about Eric, with Maggie playing dumb as he also asked her out for a drink. Maggie agreed as she saw Foster grab something from his coat.
Did Maggie go too far?
Maggie told OA to arrange for Scola to meet them at a bar to get at Foster’s phone. OA thought it was too dangerous but was overruled to let Maggie take the lead.
At the bar, Scola posed as a customer watching Maggie and Foster share a beer. He managed to palm Foster’s phone to get it to OA in the van. However, Foster realized his phone was missing to confront Maggie about who she really was. He was going for his gun when the agents came in to arrest him.
It turned out Deke was transporting the bomb to a fundraiser for refugee resettlement. Using the data from his motorcycle, they caught a video of Deke on the road headed to the fundraiser.
Maggie and OA quickly helped the cops hem in Deke’s van. He had a remote trigger ready to set the bomb off as Maggie revealed herself as an agent to talk to him.
A frantic Deke wanted a plane out of the country as he held the agents and cops back. OA was ready to take Deke out, but Maggie said she could talk him down. The two bickered about it before Isobel backed up Maggie.
Maggie confronted Deke in the van to say this was all about pleasing his brother and if Deke was willing to die for that. She finally got through to let Deke hand over the remote and surrender himself.
Back at the office, Deke had agreed to flip on his brother for a deal. Maggie addressed the tension between her and OA, and she wasn’t trying to prove anything but “I’m just being me.”
She appreciated OA being a good partner to protect her, but he was going too far. OA snapped that it went too far when he couldn’t save her from the gas attack. Maggie said he couldn’t blame himself for what happened and wanted them back as a great team.
OA agreed as they headed off for a drink together.
It was a tense hour, but it does seem that Maggie and OA are finally back on the same page as partners.
FBI Season 5 returns with new episodes Tuesday December 13 at 8/7c on CBS.