Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD for Episode 18 of FBI Season 4, called “Fear Nothing.”
The latest episode of FBI may have been called “Fear Nothing,” but the story was enough to keep the characters and fans on edge for much of the hour. The threat of a sarin gas attack on American soil already forced OA to confront one of his fears from his days in the army, and his paranoia on that front ultimately may have saved his life and his partner’s life. Still, Maggie is in bad shape after being exposed to sarin gas, and there’s no 100% guarantee of a full recovery. Speaking with CinemaBlend, showrunner Rick Eid broke down the twist and actress Missy Peregrym’s future on the show.
When the FBI was running out of time to prevent a sarin gas attack, Maggie and OA had to race into a booby-trapped building with no protective gear. While they did manage to stop the man who wanted to use the gas on the public, Maggie was exposed to sarin and then trapped in a room with it, and OA wasn’t able to break in to rescue her and administer them both with the antidote needles until damage was done.
Maggie survived and was in the hospital by the end of the hour, but will Missy Peregrym be back? Luckily, Rick Eid had a short, sweet, and very clear answer to that question:
Yes.
There is actually a perfectly good reason for this twist for Maggie: Missy Peregrym is pregnant with her second child and it was time for her maternity leave. While “Fear Nothing” was her last episode of the season, she will be back.
FBI had no trouble writing her out and bringing her back for her previous maternity leave (which involved the first-ever FBI/One Chicago crossover). That doesn’t mean that Maggie is in for an easy recovery, however. The showrunner explained why sarin gas was the choice to take Maggie out of commission:
It just presented itself as an idea that one of the writers, Joe Halpin, had pitched just as a general idea. 'What if sarin gas was on the market and it triggered OA?' And then when we knew Missy had to begin her maternity leave, it seemed like 'Oh, maybe we could build this interesting character story into that plot about OA and Maggie and play with this idea of their fears and just see that culminate with Maggie on the wrong end of a sarin gas leak.' So it kind of just was a great idea that we were then able to pair with Missy's real-life situation.
The sarin gas episode wasn’t designed as the means to say goodbye to Missy Peregrym for a time, but the story worked out as a way to explain why Maggie won’t be around and in action at 26 Fed. Of course, coming in the same 2021-2022 TV season that saw the death of Rina and even the death of Jess over on FBI: Most Wanted, it feels like all bets are off when it comes to the fates of major characters. Rick Eid addressed the sense of very high stakes heading into “Fear Nothing,” saying:
It's a dangerous job and you need to sometimes feel that the bullets are real and that our characters aren't impervious to danger. They can get hurt, and that's just a real thing. So I think it makes these moments feel real where you're not sure what is going to happen.
OA’s experience with sarin gas and palpable fear in the episode raised the stakes even before Maggie was trapped in a room with the leak, and he couldn’t even shoot his way through the glass. His desperate search for a mask and determination to get through and save her just made her fate feel all the more uncertain. While a lengthy recovery process isn’t ideal, it certainly beats Maggie being killed off!
All things considered, it’s almost hard to believe that the season is going to keep going after “Fear Nothing,” since it was such a huge and game-changing episode for both Maggie and OA. According to the showrunner – who also co-wrote the episode – that’s not a coincidence, as one of the goals of the episode was to feel like a finale. Rick Eid shared whether the writing process was different than usual:
It was a pretty normal writing process, but with a goal of making this a very intense episode, almost like a finale-like episode because it was Missy's last episode for a while so we really wanted to make it feel like a suspenseful, energetic action ride, and you weren't sure what was going to happen. We tried to write it like it was a finale. So I guess the short answer to your question is, yes, it was different. We made Episode 18 feel like a finale because it was her going away episode.
The actual season finale for FBI won’t air until May 24 in the spring finale schedule, but this was the season ender for Missy Peregrym in action as Maggie. That’s not to say that the show won’t mention her or address her absence, and OA took her fate very hard even though he’s the one who saved her. When I noted that Zeeko Zaki absolutely crushed his performance, Rick Eid concurred:
Well, I couldn't agree with you more. He was amazing. He was great. He had his A game on. I mean, he was great. And Missy was fantastic. It was a hard episode. It's hard to make all that feel real, you know, and not, quote 'TV.' And I think they both did an amazing job to keep it so emotional and real and grounded. And I think the director did a great job as well.
See what happens next on FBI as it builds toward its official finale with new episodes on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS, ahead of FBI: International at 9 p.m. and FBI: Most Wanted at 10 p.m. If you’re already missing Maggie, you can revisit earlier episodes with all four seasons so far streaming with a Paramount+ subscription. You can also check out the aftermath of Jess' death on FBI: Most Wanted as it moves on from losing its lead character, with Dylan McDermott stepping into Julian McMahon’s shoes as team leader.
