Trust is hard when you’re making the wrong assumptions about people.
After a case where OA’s gut feelings got him into danger, the FBI team handled the murder of a DEA agent that involved using a witness.
But last night’s conflict between Wallace and Nina had the title character of Kayla being the one who suffered in the end.
A DEA agent goes down
At a bakery, a man picked up some lunch and exited only to be shot dead on the street.
The victim was Thomas Webber, a retired DEA agent. The team was quick to look for any leads and took the death of a fellow federal agent personally.
Nina met Wallace at the murder scene, Wallace having worked with Webber on a task force. They checked with the owner at the club where Webber was now working security. Webber had hooked up with a dancer whose boyfriend had confronted him.
The man was Rafer Boggs (Sterling Jonatan Williams), a dealer. Following the inevitable attempted foot chase, Boggs denied shooting Webber and had an alibi; moving into his apartment.
With all the cases Webber covered in his twenty-year career, there were a lot of suspects. Isobel broke in with a masked man shooting a janitor at a church. The victim was Willy Lomax, a veteran handyman, but the feds were baffled as to what connection Lomax and Webber had.
It turned out Webber had run an investigation into a drug gang called LS-19, and the trial was coming up in just a few weeks. Lomax had been a witness in the case, so killing him and Webber was to ruin the case. Jubal immediately ordered protection for the other witnesses.
Webber’s supervisor, Jennifer Dern (Chantal Jean-Pierre), talked of how dangerous LS-19 was and it was likely the hit was ordered by Callum Brewster, head of the branch of the gang that would go down if the trial went ahead. As a former hitman, he could have been the shooter.
Nina and Wallace talked about the case, with Nina distracted by a phone call about a trust fund. They were told of Kayla Marsh (Melissa Saint-Armand), a waitress at the restaurant Brewster ran, who’d been busted for opioid possession. They found footage of Kayla buying drugs, giving them an in.
Nina wasn’t sure about using an addict as an informant but was outvoted. They saw Kayla dropped off at the corner by boyfriend Trey Cooper (Tobias Truvillion).
Wallace and Nina talked on the case, with Wallace focused on finding Webber’s killer. They arrested Kayla for possession of oxy.
Using an addict in a risky way
In lockup, Kayla claimed she needed help for a back injury but kept falling into using drugs. Kayla begged for a chance to get out of this and they offered it in exchange for her bugging Brewster’s phone. She was unsure because of how scary Brewster was but agreed.
Nina and Wallace argued about using Kayla, with Nina seeming sympathetic while Wallace stated they needed her.
Scola pretended to be a customer to talk to Brewster (Akim Black) about drinks as a distraction while Kayla palmed his phone. She handed it to OA, also posing as a customer, so he could fit in the bug program.
Kayla tried to return the phone with Brewster upset about her being distracted. Scola broke a glass to distract him as Kayla replaced the phone before leaving with OA.
A search of the burner GPS showed Brewster had been at both crime scenes, so believed he was the shooter. They found his phone at a nearby park only to discover Brewster shot dead. They were confused about how Brewster ended up murdered with his own gun.
Jubal surmised Brewster was working for someone else who was tying up loose ends. A search of a number showed Kayla had been in contact with the same person Brewster had talked to.
Kayla was annoyed at having to work for the FBI again but shocked to hear Brewster was dead. She identified the number as her boyfriend Trey’s, who she insisted was a simple towel salesman. Kayla wanted to leave, but Wallace snapped, “you’re done when we say you are.”
While Trey seemed clean, the team realized his company was actually laundering money for LS-19. Wallace suggested using Kayla to get to Cooper with Nina stating their duty was to protect Kayla and this was too risky. Isobel sided with Wallace to order Kayla in.
A deadly takedown
Kayla at first laughed at the idea of Trey being a killer but realized the agents were serious. She had to admit Trey owned a gun much like the one from the murders with Nina pressing she should know if her boyfriend was a killer.
Kayla was upset about having to work for the team more, with Wallace bringing up her possible jail sentence.
Nina once more talked about using Kayla, with Wallace bringing up how “where you’re from, you don’t see people circling the drain,” but Nina cut her off with “this has nothing to do with where I’m from.”
Trey was suspicious about Kayla coming home rather than being at school with her coming up with an excuse of class being canceled. Kayla managed to get by him to check the safe in his office for the gun.
On her way out, Trey was suspicious of Kayla’s bag, but she managed to slip by him. She brought the gun to the agents, having them openly state she was done while saying they were wrong about Trey.
The ballistics test confirmed the gun was a match for the murder weapon. The agents raided the house only to find it empty with evidence Trey had discovered the truth about Kayla.
The team realized Trey was going to take Kayla out of town only to kill her. They tracked them to a nearby heliport, where Trey held Kayla hostage as he fired at the agents. Wallace was able to drop Trey while Nina tended to a wounded Kayla.
Sadly, Kayla was under arrest for aiding and abetting a fugitive. When Wallace said she should have trusted them, Kayla snapped that she did and “today I have nothing.”
Wrapping up at the office, Wallace and Nina argued about Nina being a “privileged” person, only for Nina to reveal she grew up in a trailer park and the “trust fund” she talked to on the phone was for the daughter of a CI who was killed.
Feeling guilty for misjudging Nina, Wallace apologized, admitting she was driven by how Webber had helped her when she was starting as a cop and took the case personally. Nina admitted she had as well, as they found some common ground.
It was a notable storyline that shed light on Nina while showing Wallace’s own feelings on a tough case.
FBI Season 4 season finale airs Tuesday May 24 at 8/7c on CBS.