After Maggie Made An Emotional Decision About Her Future On CBS' FBI, Here's When Missy Peregrym Will Be Back

Warning: spoilers are ahead for Episode 16 of FBI Season 8 on CBS, called “3 Up, 3 Down” and available streaming now with a Paramount+ subscription.

The FBI team was missing a member in the milestone 150th episode last week, with Maggie still absent from 26 Fed on bereavement leave following her sister’s murder. She was back in “3 Up, 3 Down,” and really seemed to be doing okay back at OA’s side in the thick of the action. She’d gotten the stamp of approval from the grief counselor, the go-ahead from Isobel, and the support from her partner. All seemed well… at first.

But before the hour was over, she realized that she really wasn’t as ready as she thought, which raised the question: are fans in for another span of episodes without Missy Peregrym, like when Maggie went undercover in Season 2 and then was affected by sarin gas in Season 4? Fortunately, we do know when Maggie will be back in the not-too-distant future, although it remains to be seen if she’ll still be dealing with her demons by that point.

Maggie’s Big Decision In Episode 16

It was clear almost immediately in “3 Up, 3 Down” that Isobel had some reservations about Maggie declaring she was ready to get back to work after her sister was murdered. The SAC had to sign off if the agent was going to return to the field, and Maggie’s speech about being good to go felt a little bit too neat and rehearsed for Isobel. Maggie told her:

Kudos to Missy Peregrym, because her performance in the first scene came across as Maggie truly believing that she was ready to be back, while also pretty clearly not quite ready to be back. Isobel clocked it, pointing out that she said “the exact same things after losing your husband, verbatim.”

As heartbreaking as it was for Maggie to have to think back on the loss of Jason, I honestly was excited right away to get a callback to the very beginning of the series. But she wasn’t going to be thrown off track, insisting that she got as much justice as she could for Erin because DiStefano was dead.

Sadly, by the end of the hour, Isobel’s suspicions that Maggie wasn’t ready to come back were proven correct, as the case forced the agent to face that she still feels empty inside aside from the grief and anger. She opened up to Isobel, admitting that she’d been trying to push past Erin’s death the same way she did with her husband, and she couldn’t convince herself that it wasn’t her fault when she had to watch her parents “sob at Erin’s funeral.” She went on:

Isobel promised that the rest of her team has got her, and her job is where she’s meant to be. Those weren’t empty words either, as OA was waiting just outside the office to support his partner no matter how high her walls were. This was actually a great episode for their partnership, which has been one of my favorites in primetime for years.

So, Maggie made the shockingly self-aware decision to not only acknowledge that she’s never going to be the same person that she was before Erin was killed, but to admit it out loud to Isobel. And honestly, if not for Isobel immediately assuring Maggie that they’ve got her covered, I was nervous that the storyline would lead to Maggie extending her bereavement and Missy Peregrym missing more episodes.

When Missy Peregrym Will Be Back

For any who shared my fears that we were about to lose Missy Peregrym for another span of episodes, don’t worry! This isn’t a situation like how FBI wrote her out in Season 2 (and set up the very first connection between the CBS show and NBC’s One Chicago) and Season 4, both of which were to accommodate her maternity leave. Maggie will be back in the very next episode, possibly to support OA like how he supported her in “3 Up, 3 Down,” although ideally without the death of a family member.

First-look photos from the next episode, called “Shahadah,” reveal that Maggie is out in the field with her partner, and they seem to be back to crime-solving business as usual. Check it out:

The case of the week will kick off after the body of a VA psychiatrist is found tortured and dead under an overpass, leading the agents to focus in on a religious leader with a curious presence online. For his part, OA will find himself connecting with Special Agent Zara Ushruf, played by Pardis Saremi of Death and Other Details fame. (FBI showrunner Mike Weiss co-created and executive produced that show for Hulu prior to coming to CBS’ crime drama.)

It sounds like OA could make his first genuine attempt at romance after the split from Gemma, and I just hope that Maggie is feeling better to at least the extent that she can tease him a little bit. There hasn’t exactly been a lot for Maggie to laugh about lately, but her acknowledging that she’ll never be the woman she was before doesn’t mean she’ll never get back to her easy friendship with OA… right?

We can only speculate at this point, but there is just a little bit of bad news to go along with Maggie getting back in action in the very next episode, and that is because FBI is taking an extra week off to start April. On April 6, the drama’s usual time slot will be occupied by The Neighborhood: A Farewell Special followed by a repeat of The Neighborhood.

You’ll have to wait until Monday, April 13 in the usual 9 p.m. ET time slot on CBS for the “Shahadah” episode of FBI’s eighth season. The network already renewed FBI through Season 9 in 2024, and one star recently opened up about the “huge relief” of working on the back half of Season 8 without having to worry about renewal or cancellation. One of FBI’s fellow Monday night shows wasn’t so lucky, as DMV and Watson have been cancelled.