On the Season 7 premiere of “FBI,” Stuart Scola (John Boyd) had an extraordinarily bad day: He was stabbed in the thigh by a terrorist and nearly bled to death and he had to say goodbye to his partner, Tiffany Wallace (Katherine Renee Kane).
TheWrap spoke to Boyd and showrunner Mike Weiss about how Wallace’s departure affects Scola, his reaction to his new partner, played by Lisette Olivera , and what we can expect from “FBI” and the character’s crossover episode on “FBI: Most Wanted,” where he meets partner Nina (Shantel VanSanten)’s family, who don’t approve of the fact the couple isn’t married despite having son Dougie.
TheWrap: Not a great day for Scola. He’s down a partner, and he got stabbed.
John Boyd: It’s a tough day to lose a partner. But, there’s some interesting stuff in the pipeline about Scola finding a new partner and what he’s ready for and not ready for. We get to see him struggling with someone that’s really not right for the team. There’s definitely some fallout after Tiff’s exit. He’s devastated. I don’t think he’s really registered that [she’s gone]. They didn’t really get a total wrap up goodbye.
Mike Weiss: Lisette Olivera is joining the team and we’re really excited about the character. It’s a very different type of partnership for Scola. She’s not a trained field agent. Every FBI agent has some amount of field training, but she’s spent most of her professional life in the dungeon of the BAU (Behavioral Analysis Unit). She brings a profiler’s psychological insight to the cases, but on a tactical level, she’s got a lot to learn about intense, heavy-duty field work.
How is her profiler background going to affect her work in the field?
JB: It’s going to be really interesting to explore for him, how he comes to trust that, whether he thinks that that’s a liability or an asset. Scola is a seasoned investigator that relies on the methods that have proven to break cases and save lives, and there’s a part of him that doesn’t trust the hocus pocus of someone who’s so smart they can tell you what’s going to happen.
It must be fun to play that friction.
JB: Absolutely. He’s like, “Let’s see if you can X-ray me.” Maybe she’s partnered with the one person in the world that she can’t quite figure out.
What can we expect from the “FBI: Most Wanted” where Scola meets Nina’s family?
I get to help tell Nina’s story of her complicated relationship with her father, who comes to New York and his view of what his grandchild’s life should look like. It was fun to be the supportive partner trying to keep things calm, and keep the visit on good terms. It’s always a pleasure to get to go over “Most Wanted.”
MW: John keeps pitching that he goes undercover as a DJ in Ibiza on “FBI: International,” but they haven’t bit. [Laughs]
Is “FBI” going to feature more stories based on real crimes this season?
MW: Absolutely. There’s two different ways to do that. There’s the obvious “ripped from the headlines,” where a case was in the news last month. And then there’s also being inspired by interesting law enforcement victories or breakthroughs.
And we’re working always with FBI consultants to show cool new techniques and new ways of thinking or a piece of technology to be highlighted. Because what the FBI does day in and day out is astonishing.
Does that mean you have some new gadgets this season?
MW: We’re going to be rolling out some new gadgets in Episode 5. Our FBI consultants say, “Hey if you wanted to surveil that bad guy, there’s a new, weird thing that we do,” and it’s always fun to be expanding the toolbox.
“FBI” airs Tuesday nights on CBS at 8 p.m. and streams the next day on Paramount+
