FBI: International – Season 2 Episode 9 “Wheelman” Recap & Review

Wheelman

Episode 9 of FBI: International Season 2 starts with a black man walking into a bar and approaching Smitty. He asks her where Charles is and she responds that her father sent her. The man says that is a shame as he only does business with Charles.

Smitty tells him it is a mistake to walk away from her and wishes him luck unloading his merch in Europe. Smitty leaves and the man soon follows her and shows her the painting he stole. Smitty radios it in and the team move in to arrest the man. The man, LeDee tells Smitty that he has useful information on a big heist taking place in the next 72 hours.

Elsewhere, Raines and Maya are enjoying their date when he gets an alert about a new case and he is forced to leave. He promises Maya that he will make it up to her. He is the last one to arrive at the office where Vo and Kellett have an ongoing bet about his love life.

Smitty briefs the team about the case. She shares the information she got from the LeDee, apparently, a well-known robber Michael Semien is planning a heist in Budapest.  He is looking to hire a getaway driver and Smitty thinks Raines fits the bill. LeDee will vouch for Raines and bring him into the heist group.

Meanwhile, Forrester is being pushed around in a bureaucratic game by Dandridge. He sent Forrester to Warsaw to handle paperwork, receipts and corporate security filings like an analyst when he is a field officer. Forrester thinks he is being punished but he doesn’t know why. Kellett offers to look into it and asks him to stay low for a while. Kellett is hoping to get some insight while working with Dandridge who is in charge of the team while Forrester is gone.

Kellett brings up the issue of Forrester being away and  Dandridge tells her that he is exactly where he is supposed to be. He asks the team to keep him updated on the mission in real-time Kellett is also worried about Raines going undercover and the fact they have to trust LeDee.  Vo is also concerned and tries to help Raines prepare for the mission.

LeDee introduces Raines to Semien while the team watches his back from afar. The introduction goes smoothly and Raines learns that the heist is not in Budapest but in Antwerp, Belgium. Kellett asks him to be careful and briefs the team that they will be heading to the diamond district in Belgium.

Dandridge thinks that it is a bad idea for the team to fly to Belgium. He wants Raines to coordinate with the FBI office in Brussels. Kellett respectfully tells him that the team will be going according to protocol.

Forrester calls Kellet to check in and tells her he might be able to join them in Belgium. He asks Kellett to do everything by the book so as to not give Dandridge any excuse to hurt the team. He asks about the case and Kellett tells him they are still waiting for Raines to check-in.

In  Antwerp, Belgium, Semien finally reveals the heist to the gang. They will be robbing the vault of a diamond exchange in two days. He has been planning the heist for over a year and planted cameras that helped him steal codes to restricted areas in the diamond exchange. They will be stealing uncut diamonds worth 200 million.

Semien used the blueprints of the building to recreate the vault and wants the gang to train for the next 48hrs how to get into the vault. Raines asks about the address but Semien refuses to divulge that information. Raines calls the team and gives them an update. Kellett asks him to be careful and be ready to pull the plug if anything goes wrong.

Later that night, Semien wakes up the team and informs them that his contact at the Belgium Federal police has told him he has a mole in his team. Semien suspects Raines but he is able to maintain his cover.

At the police station, Kellett gets a weird call from a friend at the headquarters. The friend informed her that Dandridge has been in contact with the Deputy Commissioner regarding the team. Vo says she has a bad feeling about Dandridge and Forrester being away but in the meantime, they have no choice but to wait.

D-day arrives and Raines drops a pin on his location while the heist team leaves for the job. Kellett and the team get to the house the heist team was using and find one of the members dead (Semien thought he was the mole so he killed him). They are able to use pictures of the vault replica to find the location of the heist.

The heist team move according to plan until one of the members shoots LeDee on Semien’s orders.  He found out LeDee was working with Interpol and leaves one member behind to kill Raines. Raines fights back and the team arrests the rest of the heist members as they are about to leave.

The team returns to Budapest and is glad to see Forrester back. Forrester confronts Dandridge about his plans. Dandridge tells him that the team is sloppy because of their leader. Dandridge is planning to transfer Forrester to the Admin Division in Alabama within two weeks.

The Episode Review

Raines truly shown in this episode that he is a brilliant undercover agent. Unfortunately, I am not sure his relationship with Maya will work out. She was already sad that he didn’t call her for the past couple of days and he keeps leaving.

The team has survived bureaucratic power moves against them before and hopefully, they will pull through this time too. I can’t imagine the team without Forrester, he is the glue that keeps them together.