Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers for FBI: International.
Earlier this year, fans of the CBS drama FBI International were hit with some unwelcome news: Luke Kleintank, an original cast member who plays Special Agent Scott Forrester, announced that he would be leaving the crime procedural.
This meant that the show’s writers would have to write him out, and on May 7, they did just that. Considering that Kleintank gave plenty of notice about his departure, fans weren’t too shocked when Forrester’s storyline came to an end. The character, who’s the Fly Team supervisor, actually hadn’t appeared on the show for weeks. In the episode “Touts,” he was announced as missing, but it wasn’t until the season finale that we finally found out what happened to him.
We’ll say this right off the bat: Forrester does not die. What happens to him is inextricably linked to his mother Angela Cassidy, played by Elizabeth Mitchell. The final episode is called “Tuxhorn,” and it opens with a bang. Brian Lange, played by Colin Donnell, discovers just where Forrester has been all this time: he flew to Norway to rescue his mother.
Because this is the Fly Team we’re talking about, both Lange and the unit decide they’re going to take a pretty big risk and try to help him. The truth is, it’s an extremely ballsy move, because not only are they risking their reputations by going, but they have zero support from the government of Norway. That means that if things go south, they’re on their own. Even the team’s own government told them that if they get caught, they’ll be labeled as “rogue” agents and the United States will deny all knowledge of any such mission. With this in mind, the stakes are set, and they’re pretty high.
Cut to Norway. There’s a woman in custody (Teri Polo) who’s believed to possibly be Forrester’s mom. Authorities want a secret file they think she’s hiding, but they begin to suspect they may not have the correct woman. The woman, very tough and refusing to answer questions, does something pretty cool: she sticks a guard in the neck with a fork, before she’s grabbed and dragged while she screams. Fun!
Lange makes a deal with the Russian coyote Nicolai and agrees to hunt down a woman wanted by the Russians, and in return he’ll get Angela. The Fly Team tracks down the woman and discovers why she went missing: she was hiding from an abuser. Coincidentally, it’s the same person who asked Lange to find her. That’s when Lange’s conscience kicks in and he and Nicolai get physical.
Things really get heated when Nicolai reveals a shocking piece of information: the woman they think is Angela is actually an imposter named Tess Chaplain, who disappeared 18 months ago. The Fly Team and Nicolai and his goons get into a big battle, and the team rescues Tess just as the Foreign Minister gives an order to arrest them all. It seems hopeless at this point, but Lange has a lightbulb moment: if Tess knows the password to the secret dossier, then they’ll have a way out of this whole mess. It turns out that Angela gave Tess a tattoo in prison and wouldn’t you know it, that’s the password. We still don’t know anything about Forrester and his mom, but Tess helps with that as well. She tells the Fly Team that both Angela and Forrester are long gone.
Back in the United States, the team figures out that Forrester and his mom are hiding somewhere in the great state of Alaska. This information is obviously very important and needs to be sent up the chain to the Deputy Director, but Lange, in a moment of clarity, tells the team to delete the file with the info about Forrester and never tell anyone they even found it. So that’s that. We don’t see Forrester, but we do know what happened. Hopefully he lives out his days in peace with his mom.
As for why Kleintank left the show, he told Deadline that his decision was “driven by my unwavering commitment to my family, whose love and well-being are paramount in my life.” He thanked the cast and the crew, and especially the fans. He will be missed.
