The FBI Season 7 premiere “Abandoned” doubles as the last episode for Tiffany Wallace, and it balances those two commitments incredibly well. Tiffany gets an almost fully realized goodbye arc, but there’s also a completely fleshed out and engaging case of the week for her and her colleagues to solve before she heads out the proverbial door. Fans of the FBI franchise will be satisfied with the episode on almost every level, as the original series continues to be the best of the bunch.
“Abandoned” focuses on the assassination of a Brooklyn plumber, who is revealed to have worked for the CIA to take down an Iranian police official. The title refers to how he and his family were left out in the cold by the Agency after they were brought to the United States. But it can also refer to the feelings Stuart Scola has about Tiffany’s departure, which is what makes the episode feel like one cohesive hour of great TV.
How Did Tiffany Wallace Leave FBI?
Katherine Renee Kane Gets a Fitting Sendoff
Audiences have known that Tiffany was leaving FBI since actor Katherine Renee Kane’s departure was announced by Deadline in August, with Kane saying she was ready for “new creative endeavors.” They’ve even known how Tiffany was going to leave, because the blueprints for her exit were laid in Season 6 — particularly in Season 6, Episode 8, “Phantom,” when she began to spiral in the wake of her colleague and friend’s death. Almost a full season later, “Abandoned” pays off that emotional through-line, although it doesn’t devote an immense amount of time to its conclusion.
The episode begins with confirmation that it’s Tiffany’s last day on the team, and there’s one key scene between her and Scola after a bullet passes between them to kill the second victim. The scene is near-perfect all the way around: wonderfully acted by both Kane and John Boyd, but also scripted well so that it doesn’t feel like it stops the entire narrative. Scola’s feelings over losing his partner are heard and given room to breathe, yet Tiffany has a very valid point about no longer feeling comfortable in the field and thus being a liability to him. Viewers can debate whether or not the writers really needed to stab Scola later on to drive that point home — but the dialogue between him and Tiffany through the whole episode is exactly what a mature, supportive partnership looks like.
Tiffany Wallace: Have you ever talked me out of anything? Ever? Once?
Kane had some big shoes to fill when she replaced original FBI cast member Ebonee Noel (who is still missed), but she grew into the role of Tiffany Wallace. And now what “Abandoned” shows is not only her growing out of that role, but Tiffany growing out of it, too. Because of all the precedent, this feels like a natural progression that respectfully runs its course. There’s no big, melodramatic emotional moment, and no need by the writers to kill Tiffany off or otherwise traumatize her for dramatic effect. She leaves the show on her own terms. The only downside is that because of the stabbing, Tiffany’s last scene winds up being with Maggie; she doesn’t get a goodbye with Scola. But otherwise, this is how TV character exits should be handled. It’s certainly better than other FBI franchise departures.
FBI Season 7, Episode 1 Unites the Whole Team
A Common Enemy Makes the Episode Stronger
The best thing that “Abandoned” does is not take its eye off the entire FBI team. The show is aware that everyone will be invested in Tiffany’s swan song, but unlike the FBI: International Season 4 premiere, the character change doesn’t overwhelm the episode. It happens within the context of the team — which is appropriate because that suits who Tiffany is and what the show has always been. One of FBI‘s major strengths is that almost every episode feels like a group effort. Certain characters get more of the spotlight at times, but the writers are great at not leaving anyone behind. The premise of the team versus the CIA is a clever way to reinforce that.
It’s a definite procedural trope to have an outside agency be “the enemy,” causing problems for the protagonists as they try to close a case. The FBI has been cast in that role on a number of cop shows, and the CIA character here couldn’t be more one-dimensional. Yet he doesn’t need to be, because the episode is not about Peter Bradford specifically, but what he represents. He’s the institution that dehumanized Tariq Amini, his wife Nadia and their friend Cyrus Kayed by using them as weapons and then tossing them aside. In contrast, the FBI characters are the good government agents, who go out of their way to give Nadia and her daughter Sarah their lives back. The episode shows how the whole squad works together to right this wrong. It’s not clear if they’ll actually face any consequences — probably not, since it ends with Maggie Bell giving a piece of her mind to Bradford — but the underlying sentiment is clear. This unit doesn’t just talk about being a team; they are a team.
Stuart Scola: Your classified report. Can’t wait to read that. Oh, wait, no one ever will.
“Abandoned” is a particularly strong episode for Missy Peregrym as Maggie and Zeeko Zaki as OA Zidan. While it’s Scola and Tiffany who have the personal subplot and deservedly so, there’s also a strong ideological back and forth between Maggie and OA that is why their partnership is so interesting. The two have regularly had different ways of looking at their cases and the people in them, and here Maggie judges Nadia while OA has a different opinion. Their dialogue provides a thoughtful layer to the plot beyond just trying to stop Iranian assassins and the CIA; it’s a way for the script to explore the ideas and issues that created that situation. The premiere even finds a way to get Jubal Valentine in the field again, giving Jeremy Sisto a chance to poke fun at how much time his character spends standing around, looking at screens. It’s a well-rounded episode.
FBI Season 7, Episode 1 does right everything that FBI has been doing right for a while, which is more impressive given that the episode is penned by new showrunner Mike Weiss, who has never written for the series before. He already has a clear sense of what makes the show work, and among his previous credits is one of the most underrated TV shows of all time — the CBS medical drama Code Black. That series was remarkably able to be a great medical drama where the personal storylines complemented the cases. FBI is already on that same path, where episodes like “Abandoned” give life to the characters, but not at the expense of the story or the topics underneath it.
While putting Scola in the hospital is overdoing it just a little, and it would’ve been great to see the conversation between Maggie and Isobel about defying the CIA, the premiere hits the mark in every way that matters. It gives Tiffany the exit she deserves after the change that she’s experienced, tells a crime story that is about more than just wins and losses, and highlights what makes this particular group of law enforcement officers different… not just from the CIA agents, but from all of the other cops and agents on TV. Some viewers may be surprised that it doesn’t offer much of a hint about what’s coming in the rest of Season 7, but it doesn’t necessarily need to tip its hand plot-wise as long as it maintains this standard of quality.
