Spoilers ahead for the Season 3 finale of FBI: Most Wanted on CBS, called “A Man Without a Country.”
FBI: Most Wanted ended its rollercoaster ride of a third season with “A Man Without a Country,” which pitted Remy Scott and the team against an oligarch whose attempts to flee the country resulted in a terror spree in New York City. Sarkov made things personal when he targeted the agents’ families while they tried to connect the dots to the mole who was leaking their information. By the end of the hour, Sarkov was dead, the case was closed, and another season of Most Wanted was over. Dylan McDermott opened up to CinemaBlend about the “executive decision” that his character had to make for the greater good, plus how the finale ended for Remy.
Sarkov unleashing terror attacks on New York created some sky-high stakes for the agents even as they could only hope that their loved ones were protected at the safe house, and many lives could have been lost if the agents were even a few seconds slower than they were. They were just in time to make it to the subway and find a backpack that began releasing deadly gas; they just weren’t in time for everybody. When a homeless man was slow to get to his feet, Remy had to decide whether to keep the doors open for him to escape but risk the gas getting out, or close them on the man and guarantee his death.
Remy didn’t hesitate once it became clear that he had just those two choices, and he ordered that the doors be closed. When Dylan McDermott spoke with CinemaBlend about the finale, he addressed his character’s decision to shut the doors before the man could escape:
I know that I was trying to save the homeless man but it was too late. I was grabbing at him when the doors closed, and then of course, the gas was there. So the decision was, I couldn't let other people die. If one was going to die, that was a tragedy in itself, but to have hundreds of people die, was something that Remy couldn't live with, and he had to make an executive decision.
Remy’s choices were basically between a bad scenario and a much worse scenario, and he went with the one that saved the most lives, even if he couldn’t avert tragedy altogether. He did try to help the man up until the very last moment and the subway doors closed. It was an “executive decision” that saved countless lives, including Remy’s and those of the other agents and law enforcement officers on the scene.
When I noted that Remy not even hesitating to make a life-or-death call that might have given other agents pause showed his strengths as a leader, McDermott concurred, saying:
I think that's true. I think that he's been doing this a long time. He knows what to do and how to do it. I think he's good with people. I think he's empathetic. I think that he makes people feel important. Even when he's dealing with the bad guys, he gets in there with people. You know, I think that's something about him that's so fun to play, that he listens and he's involved. He's really involved with people.
Dylan McDermott joined FBI: Most Wanted as the new leading man in the second half of the season following the departure of Julian McMahon and death of Jess LaCroix, and really established Remy as a character who connects with people within a relatively short span of time.
The bonds with the other agents have certainly helped him to settle in, even though Barnes has been absent (due to actress Roxy Sternberg’s real-life maternity leave) for weeks and Ortiz was missing from the finale. McDermott weighed in on whether Ortiz’s absence played a part in Remy’s anxiety in the episode:
Yes, because it really was just the three of us in the end. We brought Art Crimes in to help us, but it was thin. It was really a thin team on this last episode, so a lot of it fell on Remy's shoulders. And he was well aware of what he had to do to save the day and to save our families. So it was definitely a lot of additional stress.
The finale was packed with so much stress for the agents, and so much intensity from almost the very beginning, that Most Wanted could have been building to a major cliffhanger, like what FBI: International star Luke Kleintank previewed was on the way for his show. In fact, I spent the last minute or so of Remy happily reuniting with April expecting for a shot to ring out or Remy’s car to explode after she sat down or something else to go wrong for him, instead of the uplifting ending of the duo heading out for a date.
When I noted that I was expecting disaster to strike rather than a lovely final scene after the intensity of the hour, Dylan McDermott shared his reaction to Remy getting the ending that he did:
I thought it was great because I think you were not alone in that reaction, that everybody was kind of expecting something horrible to happen and to leave us with this crazy cliffhanger, if you will. I kind of liked it because I just thought it was really sweet and innocent in the fact that although he's going through so much, he still has this woman on his mind. And his heart is available and open and he's thinking about taking her out on a date. I just thought that that was really beautiful. Juxtaposed to all the violence and craziness of the episode that here's this man who just wants to be with this new love, and I just thought it was a really cool way to end it.
Who needs a cliffhanger when there’s the culmination of an episode that was rough for the agents on professional and personal levels? The Remy who was eager to hit the town with April wasn’t quite the same Remy who was added to the team following Jess’ death. He got a happy ending to offset his tragic backstory with his brother and complicated relationship with his mother. The actor weighed in on his character’s growth after the third season:
I think he's evolving. I think he's changing. Remy has his own psychological demons that he's trying to work out and repair, and coming back to New York I think is a big part of that. He knows he has to change and he knows that he has to fix his relationship with his mom, and be there for his sister and to be more present. I think that he's aware of that, and he's working on himself.
Fans only got six episodes with Dylan McDermott as SSA Remy Scott in Season 3, but there’s no need to worry about whether he’ll be back on CBS in the fall. FBI: Most Wanted (along with the original FBI and FBI: International) earned two-season renewals, and McDermott was celebrating with his co-stars in the video announcement of the good news.
If you want to revisit some earlier episodes during the hiatus until Season 4, you can find Most Wanted streaming with a Paramount+ subscription. For some additional viewing options for the summer months, be sure to check out our 2022 TV premiere schedule.
