Warning: MAIN SPOILERS are yet to arrive for Episode 4 of FBI Season 5, titled “Victim”.
CBS officers FBI they are used to going out of their way to get justice for the victims, but usually not when dealing with their own traumatic accident. In the most recent episode, OA was lured into a trap after hearing a woman scream, only to find that she was working with a partner to rob people who were trying to help her. At gunpoint, she was mugged and robbed, but tried to work on the team’s latest case without even telling her fellow agents. The attack OA assigned during the survey and, according to actor Zeeko Zaki, it cost him a layer of protection.
While trying to investigate the case of women being attacked and killed, OA also tried to dodge questions from his colleagues and avoid the detective who wanted him to look at a series of photographs. Eventually he had to clear up with Nina and agreed to look at the photos after learning that his attackers had escalated to the point of shooting someone. Finally, he was able to use his experience of him to make contact with a victim who, like him, had hidden the details of what happened in order to protect himself.
Zeeko Zaki spoke with Gossipify about the events of “Victim” and what OA went through in that hour. Because OA is a physically imposing agent and often the one who stalks and attacks suspects fleeing the team, viewers rarely see him in a situation where he could be overwhelmed. In fact, his two thieves were shorter than him, but they were armed while he was not. When asked if OA’s physical abilities and training prevented him from accepting being attacked, Zaki shared:
100%. I think shame is at the heart of all attacks, but when you’re older in stature and live your whole life feeling like it’s a layer of protection against things like that, when you spend your time building layers of protection, and then all of a sudden they crumble, it’s the same feeling of a “house of cards collapsing”. When these characteristics are directly related to your work, it makes you question many things. Kind of like a golfer losing his swing.
OA struggled with feelings of shame, to the point that she blocked out the details and projected her trauma onto one of the victims in the case. In the heat of the robbery, she did what was necessary to save her life and played a key role in arresting the assailants, but she couldn’t shake that sense of shame.
Victims who are embarrassed to the point of not wanting to move forward are a regular topic in programs like Law and order: SVU, but usually from the point of view of a female character. Zeeko Zaki spoke FBI address feelings of shame after an attack from a male character’s point of view, saying:
That was the challenge of the episode, and I think it really showed that there are multiple perspectives on why someone behaves a certain way and why someone compartmentalizes things, a certain way. They can be cultural, economic, regional. All of these things can affect why a person stops. In the proverbial battle for justice, there will always be an opportunity to close or open.
Usually, OA can compartmentalize her personal feelings to focus on the case, but on rare occasions, as in “The Victim” (and last season’s episode involving sarin gas, to a lesser extent), she can’t help but lock everything up. . Zeeko Zaki continues:
I think the OA perspective, both male and female, takes the religious cultural side and sees that there has to be a safe spiritual and religious space around traumatic events as well for people to feel comfortable talking about it, and I just think about recognize that it is important. When you take an aggressive point of view about a traumatic event, I think there’s really no way it can work. There must be a balance. There has to be a gentle approach to something traumatic, I think. We need to explore it.
OA didn’t take a soft approach throughout the episode, but ultimately made enough of a personal twist to be able to come to terms with what had happened to her and help the victim realize that she too could cope with what. it had happened to her. she had arrived. She was the key to solving the case and capturing the villain of the week and, according to Zeeko Zaki, she could not have communicated with the young woman without her experience of her with the attackers. He said:
I think his personal experience was definitely a key factor, because I think it’s identification. It is he who finds something to say to these victims. And to protect them, you know, I think you built these walls like, ‘Okay, I can’t understand what they’re going through. I understand what they are going through, but I can’t understand. Pure protection is the momentum in the face of that change when you have that “Oh shit” moment. “I understand it and I can relate to it,” and I think it then becomes something personal. When you can really relate to something, it gets personal.
Fortunately, OA got the catharsis she needed at the end of the episode, with Nina’s help. Although Zeeko Zaki explained why FBI fans should be happy with the return of Missy Peregrym Shantel VanSanten’s Nina has been an esteemed member of the team since Maggie was exposed to sarin gas and will continue to be around for a little longer .
Find out what’s happening for OA and Co. on FBI (opens in a new tab) with new episodes on Tuesdays at 8pm Paramount + subscription . Tuesdays offers a lot of action on CBS, with FBI: international at 21 and FBI: Most Wanted at 10pm For more viewing options in the coming weeks, check out ours Program of the first TV 2022 .
Source: Cinemablend
