Spoilers ahead for episode 7 of FBI Season 5, titled “Ready or Not”.
FBI finally has hosted agent Maggie Bell for the first time since April, since he’s recovered sufficiently your exposure to sarin gas to get back to work. “Ready or Not” also marked the return of actress Missy Peregrym, months after her maternity leave. The officer’s first case involved a double homicide that left her highly stressed, and she had a secret safety net in case the stress became too much for her. The OA affair ultimately fizzled, and the actress opened up to Gossipify about the secrecy and potential fallout between Maggie and her partner.
While Maggie seemed fully prepared to resume her activities upon her return, she grappled with some elements of the case, which led her to reveal that she had filled a prescription for anti-anxiety drugs she had received from a therapist. not related. to those at the FBI who approved her for active duty. He told OA that he had the pills in case her nerves got too rattled, and promised he’d let her know if she took one (or even seriously considered taking one), because she’d be fine, contrary to to Office policy. she agent to be in the field with such drugs.
So while Maggie wasn’t keeping the secret of her prescription from everyone, she was determined not to let the FBI know unless her anxiety was severe enough to assign her to work and she popped one of the pills. Missy Peregrym gauged her character mindset by completing her recipe but not officially reporting it to The Office, saying:
I think it made him feel safer to have him back up. I think she really wanted to believe that it was right to do it, that she was ready to come back. It was her choice to come back when she did, and she has to. This job is a very important part of your identity and purpose, so you don’t want to lose it. Sure, it’s a big deal to take Xanax, especially when you’re not supposed to be there at the office. Maggie doesn’t lie. She doesn’t live in a way where she’s deceitful, and she doesn’t really hide things, and I’ve always approached her that way, too, when I’ve played her. It’s more that she said she would be honest with her OA if she wanted to use it, but an outside therapist advised her to, and it makes sense to her.
Maggie never lied to the FBI about anxiety medications, but she wasn’t entirely willing to have a prescription for anyone other than OA. She clarified very clearly that she would tell him if she felt the need to take any of the drugs, and she clarified why she had seen a therapist who was not affiliated with the Bureau. She kept it secret to a certain extent, but she wasn’t deceptive. She made him feel safer when she came back, and the only person who really made it a problem was OA . Peregrym (who previously shared how he bonded with Maggie when he returned ) continuous:
[She had them] In case it didn’t go well. I mean, who else can protect her from the situation? It would make me feel better if I walked towards something knowing I have something that could help me calm down if I’m not doing very well. So it makes a lot of sense to me for Maggie to bring it in case things don’t work out. I think one of the things that really hurt him about OA, obviously, is that she’s been really honest with him. She immediately went to tell him why that was, and said he would tell him the truth, and he didn’t trust her. So even more than being overprotective, [that] she thought she would lie to him and it would hurt her more than anything.
Of course, OA didn’t break the news that Maggie had been prescribed anti-anxiety medication, and instead went out of his way to try and protect her. He stopped her from filming Criminal of the Week because she was supposed to have a blood test, and she thought she might have been taking some of the drugs in secret and wanted to hide it.
They were lucky to still catch the bad guy even though OA prevented them from shooting him but it left their partnership going the wrong way. When I asked Missy Peregrym if OA not trusting her was hurting her partnership with Maggie, he shared:
This has the potential to damage your partnership because when you don’t trust each other, that’s when things go wrong. Besides, we can’t afford it. We cannot afford not to trust each other and work together. So it’s very important to Maggie that they understand him, and it’s complicated because I don’t think even he really understands what he’s dealing with. So you think you’re doing the right thing.
OA has had a tough time in the months since she was exposed to sarin gas, including going through a trauma themselves Just a few episodes ago, Zeeko Zaki talked about how she could have handled this differently. if Maggie had been there . Missy Peregrym confirmed that OA had the best of intentions with the overprotective efforts, then she clarified:
You obviously want to protect your partner, you obviously don’t want anything bad to happen. He thinks he’s a good match for me to act like that, but really it’s out of fear of hurting me again and because he blames himself for what happened to me, and that’s what we have to do. Go through. That’s the conversation, and of course we ended up having it at the end of episode two of my comeback.
The good news is that their partnership is clearly not irrevocably damaged at this point, and fans can expect to see them put in a little more work in the next installment. Only time will tell what happens to their conversation, but Maggie is officially back in action, and that bodes well for the team’s future. We hope she and OA are back to their best before the end of the year!
Stay tuned to CBS Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET for new episodes of FBI (opens in a new tab) with Missy Peregrym returning as Agent Maggie Bell. You can review previous days of your association with the OA stream with a Paramount+ Subscription and start planning the new year with our 2023 TV premiere schedule .
Source: Cinemablend
