FBI Season 6 Episode 8 Review: Phantom

So this is what Tiffany gets for a spotlight episode?

She spent most of FBI Season 6 Episode 8 running off half-cocked, which was so unlike her.

That’s because Tiff was still blaming herself for the death of Hobbs on FBI Season 6 Episode 1.

At the time, it seemed like the producers were simply following up on the promise of a big agent death. Instead, it was like “Who?” with the rest of the hour spent fleshing out Hobbs’ character so the viewers could feel something.

Has Hobbs’ name even come up over the past couple of months? If so, I missed it.

You’d think that the first agent on the scene during a fellow agent’s death would have had to undergo some extensive on-screen counseling.

Instead, it appears that Tiffany must have received an offscreen, monosyllabic session with Isobel:

Isobel: You good?

Tiffany: I’m good.

Isobel: OK. Get back to work.

They seem like a rub-some-dirt-in-the-wound bunch, don’t they?

There’s been no sign in subsequent episodes that, as Scola put it, Tiff was “struggling.” She was especially effective undercover on FBI Season 6 Episode 3. Then again, maybe they just weren’t her episodes to emote.

This is why she seemed so off-the-rails when she caught a figurative glimpse of Hakim, the terrorist who shot Hobbs and her white whale.

And this all started so innocently. A disgruntled Army National Guardsman was killed while selling explosives to a criminal so low level that he didn’t have a clue who his buyer was.

But you knew things had taken a turn when the buyer was a brown-sized man with an accent. Yes, it was time for this week’s terrorist.

Not that Amida wasn’t just any terrorist. He was part of the Somali cell whose leader, Hakim, was the target of Tiffany’s apparently offscreen investigation since viewers never saw it again. How convenient.

It seemed that Al-Shababb, especially Hakim, would be this season’s big bad. That’s as good a choice as any, I suppose.

Let’s go back to Hobbs’ death for a while. Tiffany is busy beating herself up, feeling that she caused Hobbs’ death in some way.

She did urge Hobbs to follow Hakim, the cell’s leader, into the bathroom. It wasn’t a unisex setup, so that she couldn’t do that herself.

Tiff doesn’t get to take the lead often, so it wasn’t surprising that she was too gung-ho that outing.

Hobbs should have followed his gut since he felt his charging in there would look suspicious. But what ended up getting him killed was that Hakim spotted his weapon.

Hobbs was undoubtedly a little rusty since he didn’t get out of the JOC that often. It wouldn’t have happened that time, except there weren’t many in the office who could blend in Harlem.

So what happened was more on Hobbs than Tiffany. But mostly, it was on Hakim. You’d think that his name would have popped up again before now.

It’s a heartwarming concept that Tiff wants to get justice for her friend, Hobbs. But that friendship was something that came out of the blue as well.

It was a minor miracle that Tiffany stayed on the case as long as she did, improvising as wildly as she did.

Still, what was Tiff thinking trying to change Isobel’s mind? Isobel was simply laying out her plan. She wasn’t there seeking alternative ideas from her underlings. And let’s not pretend the JOC is a democracy.

And her trying to fantasize Hakim into existence in New York City when all the actionable intel placed him in Africa was laughable. No wonder Isobel and Jubal questioned Stuart about Tiffany’s state of mind.

Trying to overrule Isobel in a meeting was one thing. Doing so in the field multiple times was another.

It was a simple, elegant plan. Go to the meet with Amida and arrest him. Tiffany did everything she could to repel him, mainly so she could plant a tracker on his car and they could follow him to Hakim.

And give Maggie credit. She was willing to back her teammate’s play, as ill-conceived as it was. She really should have foreseen it would go from bad to worse.

Tiffany wouldn’t believe Maggie and OA when they reported Hakim wasn’t inside the strip club when they went in. Instead, she had to go in herself, where Amida was bound to spot her, as she was standing a yard away to eavesdrop on him.

Not content to blow her cover, she kept badgering him with increasingly personal questions. There’s nothing male Muslim fanatics like more than bossy women.

Was there any question that Amida would end up dead, yielding absolutely nothing useful after being chased around town by Tiffany?

It was shocking that Isobel even bothered with a debriefing rather than just suspending Tiffany, who had defied her every step of the way on this case.

Scola did his damnest to cover for his partner, who had failed to cover herself in glory this time.

Fortunately, he got saved by the Jubal before having to answer if Tiff was mentally fit to be in the field. She got some vindication when new intel suggested that Hakim was back in the country.

But are we to believe he would come right back to his old stomping grounds? Or would he choose a less conspicuous location in which to lay low?