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FBI’s Jubal Valentine went rogue in the name of protecting his family on the two-part fall finale of the CBS series — but will there be consequences for his actions?
Warning: Spoilers below from FBI season 8, episodes 9 and 10.
“He’s definitely waiting for the call, but I think he might skirt this one because it was such a big win for the agency,” Jeremy Sisto exclusively told Us Weekly of Jubal’s headspace after his controversial actions. “And at the end of the day, we really saved a lot of lives and so I think, in reality, that is going to take precedence, and he’s going to not have to pay consequences.”
During the two-part fall finale, which aired on Monday, December 15, Jubal (Sisto) interrogated a suspect alone in a plastic surgeon’s office after his son, Tyler (Caleb Reese Paul), ended up unconscious in the hospital following an explosion in New York City.
According to Sisto, 51, the interrogation scene had a few ad-libs, including the moment Jubal pushed his finger into the bad guy’s bullet hole to get answers.
“That was something that wasn’t scripted, but that’s pretty bad. You’re not allowed to do that as an agent,” Sisto said, noting it was “definitely” out of character for ASAC Jubal, who has a strong moral compass.
The actor explained, “We’re making a show that’s exciting, and so we take some liberties,” adding that since the radical accelerationist movement group’s threat was “pretty intense” when Jubal found the assailant, his extreme tactics were somewhat understandable.
During part one of the fall finale, Tyler, who was in the city with a friend, was prompted to go back to the suburbs by Jubal after he learned a terrorist group was planning something detrimental in the Big Apple.
Before Tyler could get in a taxi to leave the city, he spotted two gunmen and called his dad to inform him. Tyler sent his friend home and proceeded to film the gunmen shooting at the responding police before an explosion went off and left him unconscious at the scene.
After rushing to Tyler’s side in the rubble, Jubal met up with his estranged wife at the hospital and she gave him the green light to do whatever was necessary to hunt down the people who hurt their son. That moment inspired Jubal to go a little off script, according to Sisto.
“I think part of that is he was encouraged by Sam … and that was a pretty rare [and] pretty surprising thing to hear coming from her,” the actor told Us. “And so it’s understandable that this person that he’s disappointed so much in, you know his life, you know, through his own demons suddenly is encouraging him to kind of follow some pretty bad instincts, which are using vengeance as a fuel. I think that encouraged him to go farther than he would have.”
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Sisto noted that Jubal didn’t take that torture sequence “lightly,” and was “pretty upset with himself for going that far.”
“I was on high alert when I read it to be like, ‘Alright, how do we figure out how to tell this story without Jubal losing who he is? How far can he go for the sake of the episode with still holding that character in place?’” Sisto recalled.
The writers seemingly had the same questions, because during part two of the fall finale, Jubal appeared to course correct.
He stopped himself from hurting the first suspect and eventually handed him over to his agents, before joining the team on the ground to find the ringleader, who was planning a gas attack on one of the city’s bridges.
Jubal ultimately is the one who finds the head villain, and instead of leaving him to die from gas exposure, the FBI agent chooses to pull him out to safety.
“That was a very important moment that he comes back around to deciding, you know, that he’s not a rogue crime fighter,” Sisto shared. “He believes in the system. He believes in what he does. He’s dedicated his life to it. It’s part of who he is. So he does come back around.”
That decision to go back to his heroic self — which his son used as inspiration for his college essay before he was injured — is why Sisto told Us Jubal likely won’t have any repercussions for his one bad act during the case.
Sisto added that in real life, an agent would most likely get into trouble for coloring outside the lines, but in Jubal’s case he doesn’t “foresee it” becoming an issue. Plus, Tyler woke up and is in the clear health wise, so Jubal has that positive to focus on.
When it comes to what will happen next for Jubal and the rest of the team when the series resumes in February, Sisto told Us that fans should buckle up.
“There’s one [episode] that was really cool, where the danger hits pretty close to home for all the agents, in a pretty unique way that we have not seen,” he teased. “So that was a really fun episode to shoot.”
The Clueless actor revealed that one episode in the second half of the season will show Jubal “out of the office and into the world” for a “kidnapping situation.”
“It is really reminiscent of, kind of a different type of story [that] might be a little bit more of a Law and Order kind of thing,” Sisto explained. “[I’m] very excited about the shoot.”
FBI returns on CBS Monday, February 23, at 9 p.m. ET.
