FBI International – Season 3 Episode 3 “Magpie” Recap & Review

Magpie 

Episode 3 of FBI: International Season 3 takes us to Monaco at the Lambert Estate, where a party is happening. The party is to celebrate Emily, who is turning sixteen. As expected at an elite party, everyone is having fun.

However, trouble arises when Emily leaves the house to meet her secret boyfriend. Her mom is nowhere to be found, and people start looking for her as she is expected to make a speech. The secret boyfriend runs after a few people come outside to search for Emily’s mom, Diane. Emil joins the search and finds her dead.

Elsewhere, Damien harshly ends things with Vo, citing she is Raines’ girl. Raines finds them arguing and alerts them to the new case. Since Diane is a wealthy American widow, the Monaco police and the family call the team to wrap up the case quickly. 

The team hits the ground running, with Forrester hanging back and sending Raines, who is finally cleared for fieldwork. The team interviews Diane’s best friend, Melissa and the two videographers the family had hired for the party. Melissa doesn’t offer much, but the videographers reveal they have audio footage of Diane being shot. They promise to send all their footage to the FBI team. 

Vo interviews Emily, who is overwhelmed with sadness and guilt. She feels like her mom was constantly questioning her choices and is sad they kept butting heads. She tells Vo that everyone at the party was vetted but fails to mention her secret boyfriend who ran. Police are already looking into the footsteps he left behind, and it is only a matter of time before they get to him. 

The investigation leads them to Armand Lambert, Diane’s brother-in-law. He lies that he was not angry with Diane after she inherited most of his brother’s wealth. He says there was no blood blood, but Vo and Raines don’t believe him. Their suspicions are heightened when they learn he threatened the videographers and took all the footage from the party.

However, after digging deeper, they realise he didn’t kill Diane. He was trying to hide his fraudulent activities from being discovered. He had been using his charity to commit fraud, and if this were discovered, he would lose his share of the inheritance now that Diane is dead. 

As the investigation escalates, the FBI realise that the videographers uploaded all their files to the cloud. They subpoena the footage and begin to review it. At the same time, they start looking into Emily’s boyfriend after a former driver brings him up. He was fired because he lied for Emily, and Diane found out that he helped Emily meet with Theo. Theo is from a poor background, and Diane is against the relationship. 

Upon interviewing Theo, he says he saw a man, but it was too dark, and he couldn’t identify him. The audio footage from the videographers backs up his statement. In the audio file, a man is clearly heard talking to Diane before she is shot. The man refers to Diane as Magpie, and Damien gets a hunch that it must be someone who knew Diane before she moved from Monaco. Melissa confirms that Diane used to date a man called Connor. He was problematic and took nude pictures of her. He used the pictures to threaten her, and she paid him every time. 

However, after Diane’s husband died and she got the inheritance, the photos were no longer a threat to her. She refused to pay him, so  Connor flew to Monaco. He confronted her, and she held her position. He then snapped and killed her. They quickly try to track him down after realising he is still around.

Unfortunately, they are late, and he is already holding Emily hostage. They quickly coordinate with the Monaco police to save Emily, whom Connor is holding in a local store. 

Vo takes over the hostage negotiation while Raines and Damien look for a way to de-escalate the situation. Damien makes contact to give Connor a phone. The man states his demands, which include being able to flee. He is keeping Emily close, and they can’t risk entering the store just yet. Raines suggests they trick Connor into thinking Emily needs her insulin. They use a speaker phone to communicate in French with Emily and ask her to play along. 

Raines hides a gun in the first aid kid and sends in Vo to deliver the insulin. The insulin is not real but just saline water, which is safe. Connor agrees to let Vo administer the insulin but insists she drops the first aid bag and approaches only with the insulin. This leaves both ladies defenseless as the gun is in the bag.

Vo changes strategy and starts talking to Connor in an effort to humanise Emily and Theo’s story. She points out that Emily is also in a relationship with a poor boy but is fighting to keep it going against her parent’s wishes. However, this only triggers Connor more. 

The team switches strategies again and uses Diane’s final video message to Emily to distract  Connor. Vo finds her chance, lunges for him, and saves Emily. She struggles to fight him, but he is too strong. He starts choking her, and Raines is the first one through that door to save her.

Damien was hoping he would be her hero and feels jealous when Raines hugs Vo after everything settles. The Monaco police promise they will have someone look after Emily until she is old enough to get her inheritance. 

At the office, Forrester congratulates Amanda for a well-done job, and we learn she has a child. 

The Episode Review

This episode was much better compared to the previous episodes this season. It had a more believable storyline, and it was good to see Raines back in action. 

Damien’s response to Vo calling things off took her off-guard. It was a low blow, and Damien is messing things up further. While we can’t deny that there is something between Vo and Raines, none of them have ever crossed that line. Will they admit they have feelings for each other?

Either way, Damien could have responded better or kept his mouth shut. I am sure he is hurting, but that doesn’t give him an excuse to hurt her back. I might be wrong, but it is not too late for Damien to win over Vo’s heart! Are you guys ready for a love triangle? Who will you be supporting?