FBI: International – Season 4 Episode 5 Recap & Review

The Future is Looking Bright

Episode 5 of FBI: International Season 4 starts with Raines giving Wes some advice on online dating while in Budapest. However, Wes seems flustered by seeing a colleague’s dating profile.

Elsewhere, an old man, Gilbert, logs into a dating site to speak to a woman, Natalya. The two are planning to meet in two days when the man flies to Warsaw. They are both excited about the upcoming trip. However, once Gilbert arrives in Warsaw, he meets the young woman, and they are shortly kidnapped. The Fly Squad is called in to deal with the case since Gilbert is an American citizen.  The team starts looking into Gilbert and realises he is a victim of a romance scam. His daughter, Melissa, is convinced that the young woman her dad met with is part of the scam, too.

The team flies to Warsaw and is welcomed by the local police. It seems the local police are not so keen to wrap up the case quickly. It has been three days and they have no leads. Vo talks to a few witnesses and gets the make and model of the kidnappers’ vehicle. Melissa also joins them and claims she has not received any ransom. Even though the police report that Natalya was taken, Melissa doesn’t think she is innocent. Natalya and her dad have been talking for 8 months. After learning that Gilbert is travelling to Poland, Melissa froze his accounts out of concern. To help with the case, the sergeant gives the Fly Team Constable Adam.

As the case heats up, the Fly team traces the IP address of the dating site administrator to an apartment in town. They move to make an arrest and find Piotrek. Wes and Smitty are shocked when Adam assaults Piotrek while he is in custody. They interrogate Piotrek and he reveals he oversees or poses as the girls on the site. He admits that he knows Natalya, but she hides her chats with Gilbert. He also mentions that he works for someone named Patrick, but has never met him in person.

The police have Piotrek contact Patrick and give them access to his spreadsheet. They find more victims going back years. They find one victim still in the country after he lost his passport. The team realises that the dating site is designed to trap old men and make them spend money on the girls. Once they arrive in Warsaw, they jump the men and take everything from their bank accounts. Out of shame, most victims don’t report the cases.

The team takes a surveillance van and checks out the bar mentioned by one of the victims. Wes goes undercover and finds Natalya. The team brings her in for questioning, but she is rattled and scared. They offer her security if she helps the case. Natalya directs them to a heartless man, Andrich. They flag a message sent from his phone and realise Melissa got a ransom message. They circle back to Melissa, and she reveals the kidnappers sent a ransom video and demanded 10 million.

In the video, Gilbert begs his daughter to pay the ransom while Andrich pulls his teeth out. The team analyses the video and convinces Melissa to let them take charge of the ransom. Raines asks her to text Andrich and inform him she only has 5 million at the moment. Raines tries to trace Andrich, hoping he will take the bait.

On the other hand, Amanda and Vo narrow down possible places Andrich might be keeping Gilbert. They arrive too late but manage to find two fingers thrown in the fire. The Fly Team worry that Andrich is escalating and implores the local police to give them more resources. In the meantime, Adam salvages a burnt external GPS monitor.

Vo also finds footage of Andrich and his accomplice leaving the site. The team starts looking at all locations loaded on the GPS monitor. At the same time, Andrich agrees to receive the first payment within the hour. Raines asks Melissa to demand another proof of life, and Andrich sends a voice note of Gilbert crying. Unfortunately, Raines is unable to trace the location, but roughly narrows down the area the kidnappers might be in. The police also identify Andrich’s accomplice as Kosh.

Thanks to the GPS monitor and their knowledge of the suspects, they find the address. They move to save Gilbert, and an intense shootout ensues. The team saves Gilbert, but DNA tests from the fingers reveal that Andrich has another victim. Thankfully, the team arrests Kosh and threatens him to get Andrich’s new location. Although it is no longer their mission, the team agrees to help Smitty rescue the other victim. Once Kosh snitches on Andrich, they rush in to save Keith and return him home.

The episode ends with Vo showing Wes a secret apartment in the building that has a golf simulator. Wes is grateful since he loves golf. Vo promises to help him find his feet in the Budapest dating scene.

The Episode Review

I hope and pray we won’t be getting another Forrester and Kellet situation with Wes and Vo. We have been there, done that, and it didn’t turn out well. It would be best if these two dated different people. Once again, we see the Fly team rally around each other to help, and it is nice to know that some things will always be the same even after all the changes. Wes fits in well as a leader and has the team’s best interest at heart.

It is unfortunate how romance scams ruin people’s lives and how shame keeps the victims from reporting such cases. In Gilbert and Keith’s cases, they only wanted love. Natalya wanted a fresh start and was forced into trapping these men. Men like Andrich prey on desperate people for personal gain, and they deserve to be in prison.