After making his old army buddy (Guy Lockard) his CI earlier this season on FBI, OA’s (Zeeko Zaki) going to be working alongside him in the fall finale.
In “Riptide,” airing on December 17, three customs officers are shot dead in a cargo heist. “Along the way, I run into Clay, and as he’s now currently my informant, I am going to work with him on this, and our trust and our sort of situation, there’s some twists and turns of that in this episode,” Zaki tells TV Insider.
He’s enjoying what bringing in the character of Clay has meant for the story this season. It’s “showing another layer that can kind of be personal,” he says. “It was personally just a great opportunity to work with him, and getting for the characters to work together in more of a case situation is exciting to see.”
That being said, how much does OA trust Clay? “Well, there’s definitely something fishy going on—[like] all of our episodes—but I like to believe that I trust him fully,” says Zaki. “I trust him with my life. He saved my life, so I trust him with it.”
That history, however, will “definitely” cloud OA’s judgment, and that’s where his partner Maggie (Missy Peregrym) comes in. “It’s really great to see Maggie there to sort of be the grounding force,” Zaki previews. “She kind of sees through that cloud and doesn’t have that veil up over her eyes in this episode. It’s kind of nice to see that OA’s human and we’re all capable of making mistakes.”
Maggie’s dealing with her own off-the-clock stuff at the moment, too: She’s decided it’s best that Ella, her late friend’s daughter, live with her uncle permanently. The aftermath of that is where what these agents do best comes into play.
“What’s really great about our show is we get to show how good these guys are at compartmentalizing and keeping the personal stuff the personal stuff and work at work,” explains Zaki. “And of course, there’s some blurry lines here and there, but so far we seem to be able to figure it out.”
FBI, Tuesdays, 8/7c, CBS
