Thankfully, this week’s FBI: Most Wanted episode, “Pageantry,” had little to do with pageants. Dick Wolf, the writer/creator, regrettably follows a formula for plotting and storytelling. For instance, the show’s lead character, Remy (Dylan McDermott), consistently delivers the best lines. The whole team closes in on their target near the end of each episode, but McDermott takes down the criminal most often. The third act introduces a twist, yet the show’s predictability makes these twists straightforward to decipher. This predictability has rendered the show somewhat tiresome, offering a scant reason to continue watching. Want to hear more?
“Pageantry” – FBI: Most Wanted, Pictured: Keisha Castle-Hughes as Special Agent Hana Gibson. Photo: Mark Schafer/CBS ©2024 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Hana is enjoying TV with her boyfriend Ethan McPherson (Michael Raymond-James) as the episode begins. I’m thrilled when I see the women on Remy’s team experiencing romance. Why should Ray (Edwin Hodge) and Remy be the only ones happy at home? To make up for being MIA lately, Ethan shares his plan to take Hana to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. They are about to kiss when Ethan stops to take the dog out. The second he steps out, a message appears on his phone, and the agent in Hana can’t pass up the opportunity to read it. The message says, “Missed you tonight. I’ll be up late if you need me. XOXO” (hugs and kisses). Hana’s bliss didn’t last long did it.
After being crowned, sashed, and bouqueted, Miss Honduras (Susana Sierra) began her victory walk before dropping dead. Sarin gas, a chemical weapon, kills Miss Honduras, Miss Philippines, and injures Miss Canada, prompting Remy’s team to respond. The Fugitive Task Force (FTF) plans to interview all the contestants as potential suspects, and Remy says, “While we are at it, we can ask them how they would end world hunger.” Funny, right? I told you Remy gets the best lines.
Meanwhile, Remy and Special Agent Sheryll Barnes (Roxy Sternberg) went to the hotel where the pageant contestants were staying to review security tapes. Remy and Special Agent Sheryll Barnes (Roxy Sternberg) notice a woman using the employee entrance, who no one else recognizes but Remy. That woman was a contestant, Annalise Neilson, who had introduced herself to Remy as Miss Norway. The woman’s real name is Harper Dowar (Caroline Day). She’s not a beauty contestant; she’s not Norwegian, and this isn’t a simple murder case, but rather an international spy caper like the Bourne Identity.
Conversations with the Honduran embassy and Harper’s former law professor, Ben Lifkowitz (David Manis), slowed the show a bit. But I understand that the plot needed these characters to help establish Harper as an international assassin. The FBI discovered through the embassy that Harper had used a third fake passport to enter Honduras. Honduras should have deported Harper, but her case disappeared. How? Why? The Honduran government considered Miss Honduras an anti-government dissident who needed to be killed in a brazen manner—ala a live TV broadcast—to deter future dissenters. Harper was the girl to see the job done.
“Pageantry” – FBI: Most Wanted, Pictured (L-R): Roxy Sternberg as Special Agent Sheryll Barnes and Dylan McDermott as Supervisory Special Agent Remy Scott. Photo: Mark Schafer/CBS ©2024 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Harper’s professor felt hurt when she rejected his recommendation for a job
with the law firm. He does not give recommendations casually. Instead, Harper went to Paris on holiday for a couple of months and stayed there for a year. Why? She fell in love. The professor had photos of Harper with her love interest, Adrien Dubois (Nicolas Sellar). Presto change-o, the FBI discovered Adrien Dubois had several aliases and, like Harper, was an assassin for hire.
Harper continues her one-woman crime spree. She kills this Vietnamese guy while he is taking a selfie outside of a restaurant. Following this assassination, Remy’s team tracks Harper’s movements with the help of CCTV cameras. Harper ends up in New Jersey carrying a heavy bag, thought to maybe contain a bomb or a long gun. Ray spots a press pass attached to the bag. Coincidentally, the Argentinean soccer team has a scheduled photoshoot with their president. Sheryll calls an old friend, Chief Vincent Sayles (Colin Walker), who cheekily answers the phone, saying, “Special Agent Barnes loves Kim Carnes.” Remy interrupts, directing the chief to stop the photoshoot by any means necessary.
“Pageantry” – FBI: Most Wanted, Pictured (L-R): Keisha Castle-Hughes as Special Agent Hana Gibson, Edwin Hodge as Special Agent Ray Cannon, and David Manis as Professor Ben. Photo: Mark Schafer/CBS ©2024 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
The FTF rushes to the stadium. As they approach, Sheryll Barnes (Roxy Sternberg) spots the car Harper drives. As they break into the vehicle, they discover that the bag Harper had been carrying was filled with money! Harper must have been there to assassinate the president. While mean mugging, Remy orders the team to fan out. He barks, “Stay alert. Watch your back. Finger on the trigger.” Remy finds Harper first. They tussle. She loses the fight with Remy, but not the battle with the FBI. Later, the CIA acquires her with the intention of extraditing her to the Philippines.
Remy thinks Harper is there to assassinate the Argentinian president. The third act twist reveals that Harper is not the intended assassin. The CIA has hired her to dispatch the real assassin, her former lover Dubois. Remy is skeptical until Harper explains that she knows how Dubois works. To prove this, Harper says Dubois never works alone and works with someone in the President’s security detail. Remy isn’t swayed. Harper questions why the photoshoot was still taking place when the FBI ordered it canceled. Remy radios Ray to find out who cleared the threat. Ray locates the ‘inside man’ just as Dubois kills him. The FBI closes in on Dubois, and Remy wounds him during the shootout.
The story becomes delightfully soapy when Harper and Dubois start to quarrel. Harper taunts that she’s working for the CIA. Dubois accuses her of
loving money more than him. If she hadn’t, she should have returned to her life in the U.S. This caused Harper to scream, “What life? You ruined my life.” Fed up with them both, Remy tells Dubois, “The CIA hired her to take you down.” Live to die another day. Drop your gun, Frenchie.” Told you that Remy had the best lines. A woman scorned, Harper spit out, “It’s ironic; you’re the one person I would have killed for free.” Boom!
Dubois was just somebody that she used to know.
“Pageantry” – FBI: Most Wanted, Pictured (L-R): Dylan McDermott as Supervisory Special Agent Remy Scott and Caroline Day as Annelise/Harper. Photo: Mark Schafer/CBS ©2024 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
The episode returns to Hana and Ethan’s story. He canceled their date to the Christmas spectacular because he had to work. He told her he’d make it up to
her. “Sure,” Hana says with snark. “We can see a Christmas show any time.” Ethan met with the mysterious Jaimie. Later, Hana finds him passed out on his couch, high on oxycodone. She yells, “I knew I was right about you. I’m done with you.” Could it be that Ethan is now just somebody Hana used to know?
I adore Dylan McDermott and enjoy this show, but I want it to improve after reviewing it. My advice: shake up the cast with a high-profile guest star who hangs around for a couple of episodes; stop wrapping things up in one episode; or let the team do something morally ambiguous, but not illegal. I don’t know; just change it. Again, the FBI has lost some of its luster. However, its saving grace is the peek into the personal lives of the FTF members. As a self-confessed sucker for soap operas, that’s what consistently draws me back.
Overall Rating:
7/10
