FBI Season 5 Episode 21 Review: Privilege

Again, Maggie’s moral compass gets spun on a pair of similar abductions.

That’s because she was offended by the two very different ways those two cases were handled on FBI Season 5 Episode 21.

A college student, who was also the daughter of a prominent senator, was abducted in a sketchy Brooklyn neighborhood.

Because of who Sen. David Becker was, everyone short of the Park Rangers got thrown into her disappearance.

It made sense that the FBI might believe the kidnapping targeted the outspoken leftist senator, who had made waves in a divided Washington.

But after the senator denied he’d made any severe enemies, they had to take another look at honor student Allison.

Unfortunately, the ex-cop turned PI who had been tailing Allison proved to be a red herring, just someone looking to damage her father’s reputation.

After the agents determined why Allison was in that section of the city regularly, the case took a dramatic turn.

Allison had been volunteering as a counselor at a halfway house for recovering drug addicts. Only when they looked into her activities there, Maggie and OA found out another young woman, Katie Ryan, had disappeared three days earlier.

The only difference was that Katie was a recovering addict, so the NYPD police gave her disappearance short shrift.

Maggie tore into Detective Nick Zito, who had taken the original report on Katie’s disappearance from her mother, only to let the case slide. That was department protocol, assuming missing addicts had relapsed and wanted to stay missing.

This excuse naturally infuriated the righteous Maggie, with the realistic OA again having to play peacemaker.

This left Maggie, OA, and, yes, Zito having to approach Mrs. Ryan to gather more details about Katie’s disappearance. It didn’t take her long to piece together that Katie’s case was getting another look only because a senator’s daughter had also been abducted.

At least Mrs. Ryan’s detailing that night helped the agents to find surveillance of Katie’s abduction at a bodega. However, Maggie pointed out to Zito that he could have located the same footage days earlier had he followed through.

OA rightly pointed out to Maggie that Zito shouldn’t be blamed for following protocol. Instead, the existing protocols needed to be changed.

But when Isobel asked the senator if he recognized Katie’s attacker, he offered little but a veiled threat that Isobel needed to prioritize Allison’s safe return instead of worrying about some missing drug addict. He essentially took the same stance as the NYPD.

Jubal’s sharp eyes picked up the next clue, spying Katie’s Air Buds, which could be tracked. Unfortunately, the agents were a step behind again, locating the Air Buds and Allison’s necklace but not the two abducted women.

But that ultimately revealed the whacko behind the two kidnappings, Caleb Vance, the building manager for the remarkably absent owner.

Vance, a former Bellevue resident, had been abused by his late drug-addict mother, who used to lock him into a giant toy chest as a punishment.

To get back at his mother the only way he could, symbolically, Vance, who owned an old gray van like the one used in Allison’s kidnapping, abducted two women who he thought were addicts who looked like his mother and bought two large toy chests in which to lock them.

But it’s a big city with many crappy old vans. So Isobel devised a clever plan to find Vance, having Sen. Becker plea over social media to have the public keep their eyes open for Vance or his van.

Wading through an inundation of responses, those in the JOC found him gassing up. Forced to ditch his van and flee, Vance escaped temporarily until the analysts could relocate him and have the agents scoop him up as he tried to board a bus.

An unapologetic Vance meant that Isobel had to have a battle of wits with a largely unarmed man. She got him to understand that Allison, one of the two “addicts” he had abducted, was a volunteer counselor and didn’t deserve to be killed.

Maggie was appalled at the tack Isobel had taken. Isobel made her understand that her approach wasn’t based on the captors’ status but rather on the likelihood Katie was already dead, but Allison could still be saved.

Sadly, that was precisely the case, with Allison tearfully reunited with her father, but Katie was found dead for several days in a chest nearby.

Realizing that Katie may have been saved if he had pursued her case more zealously, Zito braced for the worst from Maggie.

But she surprised him, telling him that she blamed a flawed system in place that placed different values on the victims of crime.

He volunteered to come along to notify Mrs. Ryan Katie had been found, but Maggie let him off the hook.

This meant she and Isobel took the brunt of Mrs. Ryan’s anger. She described how Katie had attempted to scratch her way out of the toy chest and rightfully said Katie just needed a little help, which never came, if she were to survive.

To follow Maggie’s outbursts, watch FBI online.

Was Maggie correct to be outraged by how these two abductions were handled?

Was Zito wrong to follow protocol so faithfully?

Was Isobel in an impossible position having to satisfy the senator?

Comment below.

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Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.

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