FBI – Season 6 Episode 4 ”Creating a Monster” Recap & Review

Creating a Monster

Episode 4 of FBI Season 6 starts with an assistant attorney and a federal judge walking to work when a suspicious person suddenly attacks them from behind, shoots the judge in broad daylight, and threatens the associate attorney, reciting some words before running away. Meanwhile, OA and his girlfriend have a confrontation with her friend Cate, and OA wants to know if Gemma uses illegal drugs. Gemma is angry at OA’s questioning and asks him to leave. 

OA and Maggie are the first to arrive on the scene to question the assistant attorney, and he mentions the quote the shooter told him before he left. OA recognises it as a quote from a book about Muslim moral guidelines confirming the assistant attorney’s assumption that the shooter might be a Muslim terrorist. The assistant attorney also informs the detectives that the federal judge had been receiving much hate, including hate mail. 

Analyst Kelly searches through the traffic cameras at the scene of the crime and finds an image of the shooter, but he is unable to identify him due to the hoodie and the mask. Additionally, analyst Elise shows Isobel and Jubal the threatening letters, five of which are sent by the same person telling the judge he will pay for the injustice he caused the Muslim brothers and sisters. Forensics pulls fingerprints from the letters that lead to a manager at an Islamic centre, Amir. OA and Maggie visit him, and he does not deny sending the letters to the judge but insists he played no part in the shooting. 

OA notices a janitor at the centre acting suspiciously, and he tries to escape when OA and Maggie go after him. The suspicious janitor is an undercover FBI agent with Hassan’s counter-terrorism unit. Maggie and OA visit the counter-terrorism unit and reunite with a long-time friend, special agent Jessica. They learn that Hassan has been undercover at the centre for three months investigating a terrorist cell. 

Hassan thinks that the suspect is a very outspoken and aggressive anti-American club owner, Yardan Qadir, who idolised the man the dead federal judge had locked up for hate speech. Jessica adds that the counter-terrorism unit thinks Yardan Qadir is working with a Saudi banker, Yusuf Asghar. Maggie suggests that the counter-terrorism unit team up with their team during the investigation. 

Kelly finds Yardan’s workplace, and Jubal sends Maggie and OA to investigate. At first, the bar owner is not very cooperative about giving out Yardan’s information, but a threat from Maggie and a warning from OA easily break him. Maggie realises that OA is not himself, and he mentions his fight with Gemma. Maggie asks him to get his head in the game before calling Jubal to update him on the address.

The FBI and SWAT team charge into Yardan’s location, and the occupants shoot at them. One of them is killed inside the house. Yardan tries to run, but OA is in hot pursuit, and after exchanging gunshots on the roof, OA kills him, but not before Yardan tells him that by the end of the day, everyone will know his name. The FBI ransack the place and find guns and a computer with a flash drive. Tiffany shows the image of the shooter to a woman in the building, and she says that she saw a boy leaving the building an hour earlier wearing the same hoodie. The FBI realises that Yardan is not their shooter and starts looking for Aadir. 

Analyst Ian needs more time to crack the encryption on the flash drive, but Elise finds a clean visual of Aadir in the hoodie. Maggie and OA show the image to the counter-terrorism unit, and Hassan recognises him but claims he does not know him. However, he is holding out information. Nevertheless, OA and Maggie head to the centre to ask Amir about him. Amir is confused about Aadir’s involvement in the case but gives them his name, and soon after, the FBI and the SWAT team storm his parents’ house, scaring the parents and his little sister. 

When Maggie questions Aadir’s parents, they find out that he had recently made a new friend who has been telling him terrible things, and the mother’s description seems to fit the FBI agent Hassan. The mother says that the new friend gave their son many things to read, which made him start asking questions about how America treats Muslims. Consequently, Scola and Tiffany find a manifesto under his bed with a note inciting him to act against those who do wrong against his people, signed with initials H.

OA figures out that the person the parents describe is Hassan. After questioning him, he finds out that Hassan is trying to recruit Aadir to be an informant by sending him into Yardan’s cell, but everything goes wrong, and he turns Aadir into a killer. 

Ian breaks the encryption on the flash drive, and the FBI finds out that Yardan texted someone about another potential attack that day. He then tracks the phone’s location and finds it belongs to the Saudi banker Yusuf. Maggie wants them to bring him in for questioning, but Jessica is confident that he will not cooperate, to which Isobel agrees. Hassan finds his chance to right his mistakes and suggests a covert operation with him approaching Yusuf as Aadir since he is certain Yusuf has not met him. Before going in, Hassan pleads with OA not to pull him out no matter what happens before he gets the information.

Hassan easily gets past security and passes Yusuf’s test, who hands him a gun to test his allegiance to Allah by asking him to pull the trigger and kill himself. Yusuf gives him the location of a celebration for an American soldier who served in Iraq. He says that the soldier killed their people and sends him to return the favour. The FBI has the evidence to arrest Yusuf, and Maggie sends Scola and Tiffany in to get him. 

When the FBI arrives at the location, Maggie and OA try to get the congresswoman to reschedule the celebration, but she is adamant, saying that the soldier they are celebrating would never give in to terrorists. The ceremony starts, and the FBI have their eyes peered looking for the shooter. Hassan is the first to see him, and he slowly approaches Aadir and asks him to put his hands up.

Aadir reacts, feeling betrayed by Hassan, and shoots him and another person in the crowd before escaping. OA and Hassan are in hot pursuit, and he hides out in a warehouse. OA goes in through the back while OA goes around the front. Inside, Aadir knocks over a shelf, which falls over who falls to the ground, and the gun is knocked out of his hands. Aadir comes around and aims a gun at OA, but fortunately, Hassan shows up and shoots Aadir dead. Hassan leans on a wall and slides to the floor since he is bleeding out. OA calls for an ambulance. 

At the end of the episode, OA visits Hassan at the hospital and thanks him for saving his life. However, forensics found out that Hassan gave Aadir the gun. In his defence, Hassan insists that he had no choice and had to do everything to build his case and tries to get OA to lie for him, adding that he is an FBI agent but not a Muslim FBI agent. Hassan tells him that when people look at him, what they see first is a Muslim. Their conversation is cut short when officers from the office of professional responsibility accompany Jessica. Hassan’s words seem to get to OA, and he asks Maggie how she describes him when people ask about him. Maggie mentions all the good things about OA but does not say anything about him being a Muslim. 

The Episode Review

Officers like Hassan make things harder for good officers like OA. Hassan ruined a boy’s life to build a career and did more harm than good. For the past six seasons, we have witnessed OA internally wrestle with his religion and being an FBI agent. No matter how tough it got, OA always did what was best. As he told Hassan, he knows he is an FBI agent, not a Muslim agent. It seems things will get tough for OA this season as he also deals with Gemma’s situation. The man never gets a break!

On the other hand, it was fun seeing Charlotte and Missy reunite on our screens. Fans of Rookie Blue must have been ecstatic about this reunion. Maggie finds Jessica’s journey as a mom and agent inspiring. This might make Maggie seriously question whether she is ready for motherhood.