Warning: spoilers ahead for Episode 2 of FBI Season 6, called "Remorse."
FBI returned in the 2024 TV schedule to get Season 6 off to an intense start with a terrorist group. The threat in "Remorse" was smaller in scale, but still had sky-high stakes with a personal connection to Jubal to make the investigation all the more urgent. While the episode had as happy an ending as was possible for a traumatized kidnapping victim, Jubal was set to blame himself for everything that went wrong. Jeremy Sisto spoke with CinemaBlend about "Remorse" and what wasn't necessary for Jubal's journey.
In "Remorse," Jubal came to the chilling realization that two young women had been abducted as children, and his investigation into the case eight years earlier had concluded that the girls were dead and the case was closed. Instead, the girls had been held captive for all those years, before one sister was killed and the clock started ticking on the team finding Gabby before she was killed as well... or crossed a line that couldn't be uncrossed.
In true Jubal fashion, he was ready to blame himself for what happened by the end of the episode, but – like when he fell off the wagon in Season 5 – Maggie stepped up to speak with him. She bluntly told him that he's "not that powerful" and "not responsible" for everything bad that went down. In our interview, Jeremy Sisto explained what that message meant to his character:
I think he did need to hear that. Jubal – and all of these characters – but Jubal in particular is always trying to figure out how much he should bear. The weight, the mistakes, the weight of his actions. He believes in justice. He believes in owning up to your past actions. And so sometimes in the moment, it's hard to recognize just how much you should bear the weight of just how much you should owe. I think he did need to hear in that moment that you can feel bad about something you've done, but make sure you don't take more than your share because it's unnecessary.
Jubal's tendency to blame himself for more than he's responsible for is just "unnecessary," according to the actor, and he had Maggie's support in avoiding that. Isobel also had his back in "Remorse" when it came to not blaming him for the mistake about the kidnapped girls years earlier, as Jubal wasn't in the position of authority at the time that he is now, even if his marriage was falling apart. But the conversation with Maggie packed a punch at the right time, as Sisto continued:
Even if you want to live a life of full integrity that Jubal does, it's actually by taking on too much of a feeling of responsibility where it didn't exist, it is affecting the integrity of your reaction. So I think it was good for her to have caught that and helped him out in that way.
Maggie didn't have a grand speech for him to remind him that the girls' captivity wasn't his fault, but dropped just enough words to get through to Jubal. Sisto weighed in on why it made a difference for Maggie of all people to have this conversation with him:
Well, Maggie and Jubal have had past experiences on the job where they have been aware of some personal struggles and they've tried to help each other out, like they all do, but there has become some connection, some understanding between each other. Sometimes with people you've been through emotional experiences with, the amount of words that need to be said in order to affect you are less. And I think Maggie and Jubal have been through enough that they have a shorthand towards helping each other move through difficult situations.
Luckily, Gabby did survive her ordeal when she – due to her own trauma – went from a hostage to a hostage-taker in the climax of the episode. When other agents were willing to take her down rather than risk the civilians inside, Jubal made the choice to charge in and connect with her just enough to get her on the line with her father. The decision paid off, but could have gone very badly, so was it a bold or irresponsible move? I asked Jeremy Sisto that very question, and he said:
I think there are so many choices in this job that live in a gray area of right and wrong, but I don't mean like morally right or wrong, but the right play. In this job, there is oftentimes where you have to make very quick choices, and there's not one right choice, so you have to follow your instincts. And I think Jubal's instincts were definitely more surrounded by anxiety in this episode, that there was more tension perhaps than is ideal to make these kinds of decisions. But I don't think it was a mistake. I think it was a choice that was a risk that felt right to him, and it turned out all right. But yeah, I wouldn't say the choice was right or wrong, and I also wouldn't say that it was necessarily motivated by his own personal anxiety because of the past connection to the case.
Jubal's anxieties about the case certainly weren't helped by the news that his son had been suspended from school for drinking, particularly since he had concerns about Tyler inheriting a genetic predisposition toward alcoholism. But his personal burdens didn't stop him from making the necessary quick decisions. When I noted that I love how Jubal is still a solid agent even when his personal life might be going haywire, Jeremy Sisto responded:
Me too! I love that about him. He's definitely an impressive guy. They all are. I mean, listen, if you're an FBI agent, you have some impressive qualities. And Jubal [has] not just his ability to do his job, but his desire to grow as a person and to live a life of integrity and also be someone that is nice to be around, nice to work with. He has a lot of qualities I really admire.
Jubal has certainly been through plenty of sticky situations that required all of those impressive qualities, ranging from his son's seemingly terminal cancer to the death of Rina that was dangerous for him as a recovering alcoholic back in Season 4. (You can revisit Season 4 streaming with a Paramount+ subscription.)
Keep tuning in to CBS on Tuesdays for a night full of action, with FBI at 8 p.m. ET, FBI: International at 9 p.m. ET, and FBI: Most Wanted at 10 p.m. ET. While there's no saying at this point when Jubal will be back in the spotlight in the shorter-than-usual Season 6, the latest episode proved that he still has plenty on his plate.
