Missy Peregrym is ready to get back into action on FBI.
After months away, the actress returns on this week’s episode as Maggie Bell comes back to duty after nearly dying in a sarin gas attack last season.
Maggie jumps right into things with a case involving a murder of an FBI academy student that has her going undercover.
However, her partner OA (Zeeko Zaki) is worried Maggie may be jumping into things a bit too fast and not fully recovered.
The actress is excited about the return, and fans are just as eager to see Maggie back.
This will make this week’s episode an amazing thriller that also questions how fast Maggie can get back in shape.
Maggie Bell’s long-awaited return to FBI
FBI fans have had to spend a long seven months without Maggie Bell on screen.
The character was caught in a lab when a vial of sarin gas went off. While OA managed to rescue her, Maggie was badly injured and briefly put in a coma.
While she recovered, Maggie had to spend a long time away. This was due to Missy Peregrym needing maternity leave to have a child.
Peregrym gave birth to a daughter in July and announced she would be taking more time before returning to the series. This had Shantel VanSanten briefly stepping in as Maggie’s replacement, Nina Chase.
In the latest episode, Nina revealed that she was pregnant with Scola’s (John Boyd) child. She thus transferred to the white-collar division.
This week, Maggie is returning, and Missy Peregrym recently spoke to TV Insider about her big comeback.
“I had the baby at home this time…The whole thing was just to let myself really recover and be gentle with my body so that I also could come back to work earlier,” she revealed. “I did have three weeks where I had to work very hard to stay in bed and recover.”
The actress laughingly confessed that she didn’t require any extra conditioning to get back into shape as her newborn and her older son were “enough motivation for me to get moving.”
That will be needed as it remains to be seen if Maggie is truly ready for duty.
How is Maggie and OA’s partnership working?
Maggie will be jumping right into a tough case involving a law student murdered on her way to the FBI Academy at Quantico.
Maggie will be going undercover as a club owner with OA worried she’s heading in too fast even as she insists she’s fine.
“She’s really nervous about getting back into the job. But she’s also excited to get into the routine again. She wants to get going. Maggie returning to work is really difficult for OA. He’s overprotective because he doesn’t want anything to happen to her again. It was traumatic for him to go through that experience as well.”
Peregrym stated that this has changed the dynamic of the partners as now Maggie is more gung-ho while OA is more cautious.
“It’s really hard when your partner is too worried to let you do your job. It creates dangerous situations if you don’t trust each other. The rest of the team is like, “She’s got it. She’s fine.”
Peregrym added that it was difficult filming the scene where Maggie is nearly killed in the lab.
“It definitely was intense to shoot. I never want to ever experience that in my life. It’s pretty horrific. I didn’t watch any video of the effects of real-life situations like that to protect my head and heart over it. It was exciting to play though, because Maggie doesn’t usually get hurt like that. It was great to act with Zeeko in that story and to explore a different space.”
Peregrym hasn’t added more on how Maggie will continue to handle her problems as Season 5 continues. However, fans should be happy to finally see her back on duty as FBI’s top agent gets back on the job.
FBI Season 5 airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on CBS.