FBI – Season 7 Episode 4 ”Doubted” Recap & Review

Doubted

Episode 4 of FBI Season 7 starts with a woman getting home after a long day. She hurries to unlock her door since there is a man outside her place trying to get her attention. She gets in, sets her alarm, and does her night routine. Sadly, she doesn’t realise there is a man in her house until it is too late. He wakes her up in the middle of the night and injects her with something. Before she passes out, she tells her attacker he picked the wrong house and to check the nightstand. The attacker checks the drawer and finds a police badge. 

The next morning, we see the police outside the woman’s house. It turns out the woman is Melanie Ortiz, sister to Sydney. Sydney is a profiling agent in the FBI, but no one believes Melanie. Even her sister finds it hard to believe Melanie was attacked. There are traces of a drug in her system, but she was not harmed. Melanie has a history of hallucinating and has not been taking her medication. She asks Sydney to drop the case. However, Sydney approaches Isobel and begs her to look into the case. Isobel agrees, as a favour to Sydney’s late father. 

Isobel sends Maggie, OA, and Scola to Melanie’s house. Scola is tired of having multiple partners and wants to work solo for a while. However, OA teases him, saying he is third-wheeling. The agents don’t find much, only a broken glass. They interview Melanie and deduce the suspect has been watching Melanie for months.

The only person that Melanie can think of is a man she always sees on her morning run. The team brings in the guy for questioning and he admits he was stalking Melanie. However, he was only trying to work up the courage to talk to her. In the end, he is not the guy they are looking for. Still, he gives them a lead when he mentions that he threw away some flowers that a secret admirer left outside Melanie’s house. 

The team starts looking into the lead and finds the store. They realise the suspect used the same card to buy another bouquet for another woman. Isobel asks Sydney to stay back since she has no field experience and won’t play well with others. However, Melanie ignores Isobel’s orders.

The team rushes to the second victim’s apartment and finds her missing. They start observing the crime scene to profile their suspect. As they talk, the woman, Jennifer, arrives at the house and faints. Later, Sydney and Maggie talk to her but Jennifer refuses to open up to Sydney. Fortunately, she trusts Maggie and tells her about the ordeal she endured.  

Based on Jennifer’s statement, they learn that the suspect wore a mask, raped her, and then made her shower before dropping her home. The suspect claimed that Jennifer is his first and special. However, after finally understanding the suspect’s modus of operation, they check their database and find 17 other victims that the police failed to believe.

Elise discovers that all the victims have the same security company. The team investigates the company and set their eyes on a former employee with a history of sex crimes. The man, Justin, tells the agents that his sex offender status was not a secret. It was also an unlawful charge because he fell in love with a rich girl when he was 18.

He also says that his boss Tom hired him because of the sexual offender status because he thought they were alike. However, Justin found out Tom was pulling the security system offline at night to survey the women. Justin was hoping to use this information in his legal suit against the company for wrongful termination. 

The team brings in Tom and he tries to commit suicide. Melanie fails to show him mercy, forcing OA to scold her. Unfortunately, they soon learn that Tom is not their guy. According to Melanie, he is a beta, and they need the alpha. She and Isobel agree to trick Tom into believing that the alpha set him up to take the fall.

Isobel also offers to make a deal with Tom and Sydney is not pleased. She decides to look into the case further and solve it before Isobel can break Tom. She finds one of the first victims of the suspect. Unfortunately, the woman killed herself. Sydney switches her approach and decides to speak to the witness who saved the girl. In the meantime, Tom finally tells Isobel who his partner is. 

It turns out that the culprit is a man who works as the super in the building where the first witness and victim live. The same building that Sydney is heading to. The man, Roy, kidnaps Sydney when he learns he is there to speak with the first witness. Unfortunately, Sydney ignored Scola’s call, which could have saved her a lot of trouble.

By the time the team gets to her, they find her tied up and Roy’s body lying next to her. Roy shot himself after learning his first victim killed herself after what he did to her. 

After solving the case, Isobel confronts Sydney about disobeying her orders. Sydney apologises and promises to do better. She thinks she is ready to be in the field and Isobel appoints her as Scola’s new partner. The episode ends with Sydney breaking her rules and drinking with her colleagues to know them better.  

The Episode Review

It looks like Scola will no longer be flying solo or losing partners. Sydney is a force to be reckoned with and though she has much to learn, she has the best group of people willing to teach her. I hope she and Maggie can get close. Maggie can help her learn how to navigate the social aspects of the job, like how to get a victim to confide in you. 

Once again, this episode touched on a sensitive topic. Sadly, many women aren’t believed when they report sexual crimes against them. Due to police negligence and bias, Tom and Roy were able to violate over 17 women for years. If the police had believed the first woman, she probably wouldn’t have committed suicide and found justice. As a society, we need to do better when it comes to how we treat victims of sexual abuse.