FBI International – Season 2 Episode 19 “Dead Sprint” Recap & Review

Dead Sprint

FBI: International episode 19 starts in Stockholm, Sweden, where an American couple is coming from what seems like a sports game. The lady convinces her partner to go with her to a nearby bar, so they go.

They get, and the place is packed with people wearing a different-coloured shirt from the one the guy is wearing, meaning they support a different thing. They immediately begin harassing him, and one person even makes a racist remark in Swedish, saying the opposing team was so desperate that they brought in Syrians. One of the guys at the bar seemingly stands up for him, but the people at the bar get aggressive, so the guy leads the couple outside through the bar’s back door.

When they get outside, the guy who led the couple outside starts asking the other American guy if he’s from Syria. He tells him he’s not, but he doesn’t believe it. Suddenly, the guy starts beating this American guy, and other men from the bar join him and attack this American guy to death.

Back in Budapest, Vo updates the team on the American guy, Hugo Rojas’ murder case. Forrester suggests that this may be a racial hate crime as Sweden has recently taken a huge number of Syrian refugees.

The team arrives in Stockholm, Sweden, gets settled in the local police department and begins investigating Hugo’s murder. Vo and Kellet interview Hugo’s girlfriend, Vera Bloom. Vera’s grandparents are Swedish, and she spent a good part of her childhood in Sweden, so she brought Hugo to Sweden to experience her homeland. She also took Hugo to that bar because she used to go there with her dad when she was young. Vera gives Vo and Kellet an account of what happened, including the racist remark the guy at the bar made.

Raines and Forrester visit the bar where Hugo was murdered, and the bartender doesn’t seem interested in answering questions about what happened. He even hid the tape containing the surveillance camera footage from the night Hugo was killed. As Raines and Forrester are exiting the bar, Forrester notices a familiar face on one of the pictures set up at the bar.

Smitty informs the team that the bartender does have a criminal record. Vo tracks his whereabouts and notices he goes to a particular abandoned brewery on Tuesdays at 10:00 pm. Meanwhile, Forrester voices his suspicions about Vera since she’s from that area and used to go to that bar with her dad. So, Forrester suggests she may have a connection to the people at the bar.

Raines and Forrester go to spy on that abandoned building and realize that people from different football clubs are there. So, Hugo’s murder isn’t about him supporting a different football game.

Forrester enters the building and discovers it’s an illegal fighting club. He looks at one of the fighters suspiciously. This fighter looks like the guy in the photo Forrester was looking at earlier at the bar. It turns out it’s an FBI agent, Damien Powell, who’s also Forrester’s long-lost friend.

Forrester asks Powell if he knows anything about Hugo’s murder, and he tells him he was there when Hugo was being harassed. He then tells Forrester and Raines that what is happening there is way beyond violence between rival Swedish football teams.

Later, Smitty informs the team that Powell is an undercover FBI agent investigating a terrorist group in Sweden. And judging by their attacks, it seems they have an issue with minority groups. They also learn that the terrorist group recruits violent football supporters by having them fight each other, just like what was happening at the abandoned building.

It turns out the leader of the terrorist group’s branch in Stockholm is the guy who pretended to help Hugo but was among those who beat him to death. But the team doesn’t know that yet. The agent in charge of Powell’s case tells Forrester and Kellet that Powell hasn’t been giving him updates on the investigation of the terrorist group as he should.

Forrester later meets Powell and pressures him to tell him who killed Hugo. Powell tells him it’s the leader of the terrorist group’s Stockholm branch. Forrester tries to convince Powell to join them in arresting that leader, and he can get out of this case against the terrorist group.

But Powell refuses and tells Forrester he’s very close to exposing the terrorist group, so he can’t back out now. He tells Forrester that the terrorist group is planning something big, and he wants to expose it. He then tells Forrester that the terrorist Stockholm branch will meet later that night to discuss that. So, Forrester asks Powell to partner with the team so they can arrest the leader during the meeting, and he agrees.

Later that night, Forrester, Vo, and Kellet put a camera and microphone on Powell before he attends the terrorist group’s meeting as they wait nearby to arrest the leader. As they’re preparing Powell, he starts flirting with Vo. Interesting!

However, when Powell goes to the meeting, he alerts the other terrorist group members that the police are nearby, so they all run. Forrester, Vo, and Kellet run to arrest them, but they find no one, and the camera and microphone they put on Powell are abandoned there. Does this mean Powell’s tricking the team?

The next day, the team is investigating Powell, but Forrester thinks there’s an explanation for what he did. However, Kellet calls him out on defending Powell. Meanwhile, Vo informs everyone that the terrorist group’s top leaders landed in Sweden, and two Americans suspected to be members of the terrorist group are on their way to Sweden. This may be due to the big plan Powell was talking about.

Forrester receives a text from Powell with some information about the terrorist group, but it isn’t reliable. So, Forrester finds Powell and confronts him about what he did.

Powell tells him that the terrorist group’s Stockholm branch leader knew something was wrong that night, so he abandoned the microphone and camera to avoid him being discovered. He then tries to convince Forrester that he knows what he’s doing, but Forrester doesn’t believe him.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team discovers that the terrorist group is starting a riot to lure protesters so that they can attack them. The team and the local police go there and manage to arrest the two American members. The Stockholm terrorist branch leader escapes, and Powell follows him. He realizes Powell may have been siding with the police, and he begins attacking him. Fortunately, Forrester comes and rescues Powell.

Later, Raines and Vo question the Stockholm terrorist branch’s leader, and he tells them he can give all the information about the terrorist group if they let him go. But Smitty informs them that Hugo’s DNA was found on the leader’s shoes at his house, proving he killed him. So, the team settles on arresting the leader on manslaughter charges, which is a lighter sentence for him to agree to reveal all the information about the terrorist group.

The episode ends with Kellet giving Vera an engagement ring found on Hugo’s body and Forrester asking Powell to join the fly team.

The Episode Review

Hate crime is a major issue, especially in predominantly white countries, as we’ve seen in this episode. It’s sad that Hugo and Vera, who only went to genuinely experience Sweden, were caught up in a twisted hate crime group, which led to Hugo’s death.

I must say Powell has been introduced to this show in quite an interesting way. Now that Forrester has asked him to join the fly team let’s see how well he’ll settle in and blend with the rest of the team.