Spoilers ahead for Episode 4 of FBI: International Season 3, called “Cowboy Behavior.”
The Fly Team of FBI: International headed to Bulgaria in the latest episode of the 2024 TV schedule, hunting for a criminal who was exploiting underage girls for a twisted version of OnlyFans. While Forrester and Tate stayed back in the office to work the case from there (with some help from Jeremy Sisto‘s Jubal Valentine from afar), Vo led Raines, Powell, and Smitty as the boots on the ground investigators. By the end of the hour, Powell had crossed so many lines that he may now be doomed to fail, but I’m still laughing at one mistake made by the Fly Team that is surprisingly relatable.
Is Powell Doomed To Fail?
Play by Greg Hovanessian after debuting in Season 2, Powell was on edge from almost the very beginning of “Cowboy Behavior.” One of the bad guys of the week reminded Powell of his time undercover in Bolivia on the narcotics case where he met Forrester years ago. The bad guy, an American named Shaw, wasn’t going to give up any information easily, and Powell was triggered enough that he risked everything for a violent interrogation.
In fact, it was so violent that both men were definitely worse for the wear by the time the other agents got the door to the interrogation room open, and Vo in particular was furious. Not only had Powell crossed some huge lines as an FBI agent, but he did so in Bulgaria where the consequences would be out of the Fly Team’s hands.
Vo seemed just fine with letting Powell take the heat and possibly lose his job, although Smitty used her Interpol connections to help him out. Forrester decided not to report Powell to the higher-ups at the Bureau, but it seems that Powell pretty thoroughly burned his bridges with Vo. She can’t unsee what he did when he attacked a prisoner in their custody, and I can’t really either.
It remains to be seen if FBI: International ever revisits his very firable offense as Season 3 continues on CBS and streaming via Paramount+ subscription. The show is mostly procedural, so it won’t be a huge surprise if this storyline isn’t continued in future episodes.
Based on his actions, I honestly thought International was going to surprise fans with the second Fly Team departure of the season after Heida Reed’s departure as Jamie Kellett back in the premiere. The characters bent the rules to keep Powell in the mix, for better or worse. I’m not convinced that this wasn’t the beginning of the end of Powell as part of this particular FBI team.
How FBI: International Called Me Out
Okay, FBI: International may not have called me out in a particularly specific way, but one of the Fly Team’s obstacles in “Cowboy Problems” was so relatable that I had to laugh. After a temporary win in the form of getting somebody behind bars, the Fly Team learned that a mistake in the paperwork meant the young woman could go free. To explain, the Bulgarian officer in charge simply handed over a folder of papers, and it only took Smitty a moment to glance down at the date on the pages to realize what went wrong.
Instead of the date being written as day/month/year as to be expected in Bulgaria and across Europe, it had been written month/day/year in the American style. And I’d be lying if I said I haven’t rewound the moment of Smitty’s exasperated realization about the issue more than once! In a lovely moment from actress Eva-Jane Willis, Smitty said:
Oh come on! They’re Americans!
Unfortunately, the man overseeing the case for the local authorities couldn’t be swayed by the reminder that Americans stylize dates differently, or by the suggestion that they just quickly fix the typo rather than go through the whole refiling process. Obviously the moment wasn’t a joke, but as somebody who stylizes dates as month/day/year on a daily basis without even thinking about it, I had to laugh out of the knowledge that I easily could have made the same mistake.
Plus, the error could almost pass as a punchline when compared to how dark the episode would get once Powell locked himself in with the suspect! Of course, it’s not quite as dark as the FBI: Most Wanted case of the week that involved a serial killer consuming the organs that he harvested from his victims directly after FBI: International on March 12, but Powell’s brutality will certainly make me see him differently as Season 3 continues. It seems safe to say that Vo sees him differently as well, despite their fling back in Season 2 that ended agreeably enough between them.
See what’s next for the Fly Team with new episodes of FBI: International on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET, between FBI at 8 p.m. ET and FBI: Most Wanted at 10 p.m. ET, all on CBS.
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