FBI: International – Season 2 Episode 16 “Imminent Threat: Part 1” Recap & Review

Imminent Threat: Part 1

Episode 16 of FBI: International Season 2 starts with a wedding party happening in Minsk, Belarus. Everyone is in high spirits and the father of the bride, a General, excuses himself to fetch his ceremonial knife to cut the cake.

The party rages on at the rooftop as he goes downstairs, and then suddenly there is a bomb explosion. The scene cuts to men dressed in military uniform fleeing the scene after launching the bomb. In the meantime, the general runs back to the rooftop and finds his daughter dead.

Three months later, two men walk the streets of Italy for a secret rendezvous with an industrial developer in the park. One of the men notices that some guys are watching them, they decide to double back but it is too late. One of the men is shot to death immediately and the second man is electrocuted and kidnapped. We then see the General watching with satisfaction as his men drive off the crime scene.

The next morning, the team in Budapest is informed of the case in Rome. The man kidnapped is David Laporta, CEO of a top industrial engineering firm. The man killed was his business partner Tomasso Costa. The Italian police have requested the team’s help to locate Laporta. Vo learns that the FBI requested a background check on Laporta three days before he went missing. It seems Jubal (from the FBI ) put in a request.

The team flies to Rome and meets with Chief Inspector Grannó and Smitty.  Chief Inspector Grannó is not exactly happy to work with the Americans but it is what it is. He briefs the team as he walks them through the crime scene at the park. Forrester asks a few questions but Chief Inspector Grannó insists on being abrasive with his answers.

So far, there has been no ransom request and Forrester requests to meet with Laporta’s wife. The wife is not much help as she is frantic and worried, she thought her husband was stressed. The agents learn that Tomasso and Laporta were close and Tomasso mostly ran the day-to-day activities of the company.  Forrester and Vo turn their attention to Laporta’s company.

Kellet and Raines meet with Tomasso’s secretary and ask her a few questions.  It turns out that Tomasso arranged the last meeting himself which was unusual. However, there was no bad blood between Tomasso and Laporta. The secretary can only remember an instance when Laporta got angry with Tomasso about a year ago.

Laporta got a call from Italian officials warning him that the Taliban was looking to kidnap him and use him to bring down buildings.  Laporta blamed Tomasso for being big-mouthed. The criminals were later apprehended and the situation blew over. Forrester and his team start thinking that Laporta was taken because of his skills. Chief Inspector Grannó disregards Forrester’s warning that a massive attack might be underway and Smitty is forced to step in.

Chief Inspector Grannó agrees to let the team look into Laporta’s latest project. Vo gets a lead with checking the surveillance of the park. She singles out the General as a person of interest. At the same time, Jubal and Nina arrive from New York to help with the case. They realized that their case in New York is linked to Forrester’s case in Italy.

Schola was working undercover to pin down a foreign buyer and Laporta’s name kept creeping up. Jubal thinks that the attack is imminent with the target being New York and Laporta being used for the attack. They brief each other and quickly join forces to investigate further. Jubal is frustrated with Chief Inspector Grannó’s interference with the case but Forrester urges him to be patient.

In the meantime, a worried  Nina calls Isobel to check on Schola. Isobel assures her that Schola is okay and that he will call when he has something.  Schola calls her back and is surprised she is in Rome. They promise to be careful and talk soon.

Forrester gets tired of waiting for a warrant to get phone records of Laporta and his company. Smitty is doing her best but Chief Inspector Grannó is a pain in her behind.  Forrester decides to handle it with Jubal and asks the secretary for help. She is happy to help and gives them all the records but it is time-consuming. After going through the documents they find a lead to the man Laport and Tomasso were supposed to meet. They visit the man’s house and find him dead.  It looks like he was executed just like Tomasso.

The only lead they have is that the killers took the man’s car. Jubal is pissed because Chief Inspector Grannó’s delay tactics lead to their only witness dying.  Forrester tries to calm him down but Jubal is losing his patience given the stakes at hand.

They start to investigate the second victim and realize he is tied to Belarus. After a deeper investigation, they get a lead to the General. They are shocked to learn that a Belarus official is involved in the kidnapping of an American on European soil. Jubal insists they need to bring in more agents from other branches so Forrester organizes a meeting with a CIA agent.

She reveals that the General is on a revenge mission after the General’s team and daughter were targeted and killed. According to Intel, the drone strike was mostly carried out by Ukraine using the weapons America supplied them in their fight against Russia. In other words, the General blames America.

Back at the office, Vo and Nina bond over some girl talk. It seems like Nina is thinking of Schola and is confused about their future. Forrester arrives and confronts Chief Inspector Grannó for his interference and they get into a fight. Forrester is clear that he doesn’t care about politics but wants to save lives. Chief Inspector Grannó gives him a lead and Forester leads the team to rush in and investigate. The lead is the location of the second victim’s car.

The team approaches the lead carefully but it turns out to be a distraction.  Forester and the team don’t know this and they decide to breach the building without waiting for Chief Inspector Grannó’s men as promised. This proves to be a costly move for them and they nearly take out an innocent family in the process.   Smitty loses her cool and gets into a fight with Jubal but Forrester steps in. Jubal apologizes and they settle the matter.

Kellet interrupts them and informs them that Laporta’s office was ransacked and they seemed to be interested in old files. The killers uploaded the files to a drive and Forrester hopes they can trace the digital footage.  They finally get a break and head to the house they believe the General is holding Laporta. Chief Inspector Grannó refuses to aid the team and Forrester’s team is forced to breach by themselves.

They get ready and Jubal asks Nina to sit out but she refuses. Vo promises to stick with her and they task her with securing the perimeter.  They get in and take some of the General’s men down but unfortunately, Laporta is dead. The General manages to use a hidden tunnel to leave the premises, and he encounters Vo and Nina on his way out and opens fire. One of the bullets hits Nina’s abdomen.

The Episode Review

I am so angry! What was Nina thinking choosing to endanger herself and the unborn child like this? She should have stepped down when ordered to. Her duty is to her unborn child first and that was a terrible lack of judgement on her part.

The only thing we can hope for is that both mother and child will be okay. I worry that Schola won’t take the news of her shooting well and it might impact his undercover case. We will have to tune in to FBI Season 5 episode 17 to find out what goes down.