The latest episode of FBI offered up an unexpected pairing which came as the result of the absence of one key member of the cast: Missy Peregrym.
Fans were quick to take notice of Peregrym’s absence as Agent Maggie Bell from the episode, “Unearth,” and understandably so. While Peregrym has missed a few episodes here and there over the years, including an extended stretch both in season 2 and season 4 when Peregrym took a temporary leave of absence for maternity leave, it’s not often she’s missed a one-off episode which is why so many fans were surprised when Maggie did not appear in the show’s Feb. 25 episode.
Interestingly, the show didn’t give much of a backstory or explanation for Maggie’s absence which is common for shows to do when a key character misses an episode. This often entails a quick conversation about the character being out of town or tied up with something that is keeping them away, which was the case in the episode – but if you weren’t paying close attention you might have missed the update entirely as it wasn’t very informative.
Early in the episode, we see OA and Scola shooting some hoops and while taking a break OA casually mentions that Maggie is getting some R&R before the conversation quickly moves on. At first, it seemed like nothing of note, but it turned out that the line was given early in the episode to explain why Maggie would not be appearing in the episode.
So it seems the reason Maggie did not appear in the episode was that she was enjoying some time off and thus not working the case at the center of the episode. As for why Peregrym was not in the episode? This is likely the result of what has become a common trend in TV which entails series regulars missing the occasional episode here and there throughout the season for financial reasons.
While we missed Maggie’s presence in the episode, this did allow us to see a dynamic we don’t get to see often on the show which was OA and Scola working together as the leads of the case. This offered up a fun change of pace in getting to see the two agents teaming up as partners throughout the entire episode, chasing leads together. It also gave the audience a chance to see the pair show up for one another in a way we don’t normally get to see including the opening scene in which we got a glimpse of the pair enjoying time together outside of work, and getting to see Scola opening up to OA about his personal life.
With ensemble series like FBI, it’s always nice when we get to explore unique dynamics outside the normal pairings and we definitely hope to see more OA and Scola team-ups in the future!
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