FBI Season 8 Episode 21 Puts OA On The Wrong Foot With a New Boss And I Love It

Critic’s Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

4.5

Here we go again.

Police dramas love to put brilliant tacticians at odds with bosses who have never been in the field but insist on obedience to orders that are going to do more harm than good.

FBI Season 8 Episode 21 pitted OA against ADIC Green for this reason, instantly making the case more interesting.

I Couldn’t Make Up My Mind About ADIC Green, and This Didn’t Help

ADIC Green is deliberately hard to read. He seemed like he wanted to read Isobel the riot act when he first met her, yet secretly agreed with her approach.

And now, on FBI Season 8 Episode 20, he sent OA on what was supposed to be a boring, meaningless assignment to punish him for using his own judgment during a raid, then was shocked and angry when OA continued to take initiative.

I mean, really, Green should have known that sending someone like OA on a surveillance assignment would do the opposite of teaching him to respect his authority.

Of course, the main point of this supposedly useless mission was for OA and Zara to spend more time together, culminating in her decision to potentially sacrifice her career — or at least get in trouble — so that OA could continue to move toward a leadership position.

Still, it also showed OA’s intuition, abilities, and tendency toward controlled impulsivity when he’s confident that he’s on the right track.

OA wasn’t at all careless about the way he went about bugging June’s bathroom, not counting almost getting caught. It always makes me laugh how the bad guys miss someone standing against a wall or behind a door, but it’s not surprising since it’s happened before.

He had the conversation with the AUSA covered before he set out, and only Zara was aware that he was doing it out of boredom as much as out of conviction.

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And of course, his hunch paid off — not that that mattered to ADIC Green.

I know he didn’t want to jeopardize his case, but once he found out that it was covered, it would have been nice if he had been grateful for the information. Everyone else certainly was.

It’s scenes like these that make it hard for me to decide where I stand on this new character.

I’m not a huge fan of the trope of new bosses who swoop in and make life miserable for field personnel who are making the world a better place. It seems to be a favorite of Dick Wolf’s, considering how often it’s happened on the One Chicago shows and on Law & Order: SVU.

Green seemed at first like he was better than most, but his treatment of OA suggested otherwise. Plus, he was too visible.

Usually, Isobel and Jubal are left to their own devices unless there’s a citywide emergency, but on FBI Season 8 Episode 21, Green was constantly in the office, barking orders about solving this quickly.

He felt like he was micromanaging, and then he messed with OA despite Isobel’s opinion that OA’s judgment should be trusted.

Go away and let Isobel and Jubal run their department, please!

We Need to Talk About The (Romantic) Elephant In The Room

I’ve watched enough soap operas to know what happens when two people who have romantic potential get trapped somewhere together. FBI isn’t a soap, so it moved a little slower and more realistically, but it still seemed like that was its intention.

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I’m surprisingly okay with that.

I never liked the idea of OA and Gemma. I tried to, because it seemed like FBI was selling them as true love, but it never felt right.

Something about them didn’t click, and although I wasn’t a big fan of the idea of OA and Maggie as more than friends, — talk about an overused trope! — it was far superior to this Gemma nonsense.

But I was quietly evaluating Zara for OA, and several things worked perfectly.

I especially liked that Zara got OA at his core. She saw his impulsivity, his desire to solve the case, and his need for movement, and called him out in a way that made me laugh.

OA didn’t listen to her, but that’s not the point. She saw right through him and knew he was acting out because he was bored.

Once OA made that decision, she was there, fully. Like any good FBI partner, she kept an eye out and had his back… and that extended even after the mission was over, when someone had to take the fall for what happened.

I’m still not sure how I feel about that sacrifice. I’m mostly okay with it, especially since I fault ADIC Green for not seeing what he had in OA more than anything else, but I’m worried it could destroy any chance of romance.

If Zara is suspended or fired from the FBI, there won’t be any more excuses to pair them on cases, making any kind of relationship much more difficult.

Or at least that’s how I see it. What about you, FBI fanatics?

Let us know your thoughts on Zara and OA’s relationship in the comments, and don’t forget to share this article with your friends so they can join the conversation.

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If you enjoyed this article, check out our coverage of CIA, FBI’s sister show.

FBI airs on CBS on Mondays at 9/8c and streams on Paramount+ on Tuesdays. The season finale airs on May 19, 2026.

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