FBI: Most Wanted – Reveille

By: Mary Watkins

This episode begins with a school bus taking kids somewhere when all of a sudden, the driver comes to a stop because there is a car sitting sideways in the road blocking his view. As he is stopped a few gunmen jump out with masks and take the bus under control, the next thing you know twenty-six children are missing and the FBI are looking for them.

We see Special Agent Omar Adom (Zeeko Zaki) with his aunt studying for a test so she can become a US citizen. They are interrupted when he receives the phone call the children are missing. He heads straight to headquarters to see what he can do. There we are introduced to the FBI team, special agent Kristen Chazal (Ebonee Noel), special agent Stuart Scola (John Boyd), special agent in charge Isobel Castille (Alana de la Garza) and assistant special agent in charge Jubal Valentine (Jeremy Sisto).They are working quickly to figure out who took the children and if the children’s parents status would have anything to do with the kidnappings.

They’re trying to figure out if maybe the fact that some of the parents are wealthy might have something to do with maybe a ransom. Special agent Omar heads to the last place the bus was seen. As he and the other police officers are scanning the territory to see if they can find any evidence, they stumble upon a whole bunch of cell phones in the woods. It looks like the bad guys took all the children’s cell phones and threw them in a pile so they couldn’t be traced. Next thing you hear is the officer yelling that they found something. As Omar heads down the hill he finds that there is a body lying in the woods with a gunshot wound to the head. It is the bus driver.

Back at FBI headquarters special agent Kristen has recovered a video from one of the cell phones. It shows one of the students videotaping the bad guys jumping on the bus with their guns. While they’re examining the video it is pointed out that one of the gunmen is missing a finger, so they start looking up bad guys with criminal histories that could possibly be missing a finger. It doesn’t take them long to figure out that the man missing the finger is Sam Givens. He is a convicted felon who was just released from prison and the agent who put him in there was special agent Jess LaCroix (Julian McMahon). Jess and his team have decided to help out and join the original FBI to help capture Givens. Jubal introduces Jess to his team and they get to work. It doesn’t take long for them to find out that there is some tension between Jubal and Jess. Jubel is more by the books and he needs hardcore evidence. Jess goes more by his gut and his knowledge of his perps. So, you can already start seeing their styles clashing and kind of butting heads.

It’s not long until a video is sent to the governor’s office with a ransom showing the gunman in a mask with one of the children asking for a million dollars. Special Agent Isobel doesn’t want to negotiate a ransom with the kidnappers, but since it went to the governor’s office the governor is inclined to make the payment. He wants his child back along with the other twenty-five. We then see special agent Hannah Gibson (Keisha Castle-Hughes) and special agent Odom at what is believed to be known as Givens current address. While there they spot Givens and a shootout happens. Next thing you know Omar is chasing after Givens and Hannah is doubling back to try to cut him off. A car speeds out of an alley and they lose Givens, but he has been wounded during the gunshot and they’re out looking for him. Soon they find Givens cell phone tracker and once they track it down, we see that he is dead in the back of a garbage truck along with the only lead they would have had to find the missing children.

After talking to Givens’ girlfriend, we find out that he had joined a white radical group and he had spoken to someone on a phone named T. It’s not long till the team finds the missing car that they were looking for with the blood of Givens in it. After reviewing some surveillance footage from a building nearby they find that the person driving the vehicle was a woman by the name of Emma Kane (Samantha Soule). The teams soon learn that Emma Kane is married to Tyler Kane (Stephen Boyer), the leader of a white supremacist radical group. Once they compare his voice to the voice of the masked man on the ransom video it is soon discovered that Tyler is that masked man. Shortly thereafter another video is sent and Tyler says that he knows the FBI is involved and he wants the FBI to bring the ransom. So, the teams decide that Omar is going to be the one to drop off the ransom. 

While dropping off the ransom at the disclosed location that Tyler had said, the police helicopter can be heard on the cell phone. Tyler demands to see if it is the police. Once Omar shows him that it is a police helicopter, Tyler gets mad and says that the deal is off and hangs up leaving the lives of the kids hanging in the balance. With some savvy FBI work they soon find out that Tyler Kane has some family members that are part of the white supremacist group and one of them owns an old carnival that is closed for the season. So, the team decides to go and investigate to see if by any chance the bus, the children or Kane is there. Once the teams arrive and they start searching the area they soon come up on Kane and another person. Gunshots are fired. Kane then is shot and he says that it is just the beginning and it’s not over yet. The team continues searching and it’s not very long until they find the missing children. However, as the children are being sent home with their parents and questioned by the police, it is discovered that one of the kids is missing. Once the team discovers which child is missing, they go to the parents’ home to see if they can find out any information there. It is discovered that the parents of the missing child Owen had paid the ransom to Kane and his radicals and had already received their son. They were told not to contact the police. The father did what was in the best interest of his child, not the other twenty-five children.  

As Jess and Omar are leaving the home of Owen’s family, Jess receives a video call from his daughter Tali (Yaya Gosselin). As she is talking to her father about her being at a shelter and it being raided, her phone is confiscated. Jess now has no idea what is going on with his daughter. Jess, Clinton Skye (Nathaniel Arcand) and Nelson Skye (Lorne Cardinal) show up at the shelter trying to find out what happened to Tali. It seems that Tali has been taken by I.C.E because they thought she was an illegal immigrant. They tried to explain that she was an American and that her father worked for the FBI. However, I.C.E. said that because she didn’t look American tht she was going with the others. So, now the hunt is on to try to find where Tali is before she is shipped to a third world country where she knows no one and nothing. Jess and Clinton then go to the director of I.C.E. to find out what happened. The director Austin Stevens (Brian Hutchison) says that the raid has been on the books since before he took over the position. He is sorry and that he was going to find out what had happened. Jess tells him that he’s going to call every ten minutes and he expects for him to answer the phone until his daughter Tali is found.

Next thing we see is Emma Kane at a church with a bunch of Hispanic pregnant women where she pulls out again and kills them. Jess stays focused on finding Emma and stopping her from killing anyone else while the hunt for his daughter is still continuing. Jess, Omar and Sheryll Barnes (Roxy Sternberg) go to the hospital to talk to Tyler to see what he can tell them about where Emma is going. Sadly, he refuses to give any information to them. He just says that Emma is just starting their mission and it’s not about the money. Jess receives a call that Tali has been found, but it ends up being a dead end. It’s not his daughter and he doesn’t know where she’s at. Just finds out that Tali has been put into an immigration van and has been taken away. Jess loses his cool and throws an ice agent up against a cage yelling, finally Clinton calms him down and they leave.  Next scene shows Jess and Clinton talking to Stevens about how they had lost Tali. Clinton says he has a friend that he thinks might be able to help find her and he’ll see what he can do. The team finds a truck that Emma was seeing spotted in and soon it leads to a man that is believed to be helping Emma with whatever she has going on. While still on the hunt looking for Emma, they get a lead on where Tali may be. They find out that the order that was given to raid the shelter was actually signed and created by the current director Austin Stevens and not the old director. 

Very soon we find out that Emma Kane has bought a bunch of explosives from a man named Mark Vasco (Michael Ryan Segal) and she plans on blowing something up. While the team is just trying to figure out what it is that she plans on blowing up Jess is still on the hunt for Tali. That is when Jess receives a text message saying that if he does not read a white supremacist manifesto live on the news that they will send Tali to a country where she will never be found again. Director in charge Isobel does not want to do this but Jubal and Jess convince her. Just as Jess is standing in front of the live news reading the manifesto he decides halfway through he just can’t do it. It’s not right. He calls the kidnappers cowards and says that he refuses to read anymore and walks off. Not long after the press conference we discover that I.C.E. director Stevens has not been completely honest and to come and find out he has been a cohort with the bad guys. After a very intense interrogation Stevens gives them enough information for Jess, Jubel and their teams to figure out that Emma and her band of merry followers are on their way to the ceremony where new immigrants are becoming US citizens. This is where Omar’s aunt is currently at after passing her test. 

After the interrogation they are able to find Tali thanks to Stevens hints. They find her in a cage with other immigrants being ready to be deported. Now the team makes their way to the ceremony and they’re trying to find Emma and her cohorts before anything happens. They find the bomb that has been made and Cheryl with a bomb tech is trying to defuse it when Jess comes up on Emma. Jess tries to talk her out of it and tells Emma that Tyler left her to dry so that he could be with another woman who can give him children. When it is clear that Emma is not going to let Jess get inside her head and she is getting ready to pull the trigger to detonate the bomb, Clinton takes a headshot from a sniper position and kills her. Clinton kills Emma just as the bomb is being diffused at the same time. Emma is dead, her cohorts are caught, and the ceremony continues like nothing ever happened. Next scene shows Omar, Tali, and Jess at the ceremony as Omar’s aunt becomes a US citizen. A crazy, chaotic 2-hour crossover episode where the bad guys get caught, the good guys get to celebrate, and a little girl learns a little bit more about what it’s like to be judged. Dick wolf definitely out did himself on this crossover episode and it is becoming clearer and clearer that he’s not afraid to hit on touchy subjects. From kidnapping to rape to immigration laws, not only is he shining some light on sensitive topics, but he’s making it entertaining as well.