The latest FBI episode had a shocking turn for Maggie Bell and Missy Peregrym is sharing how she’ll never be the same afterward!
Caution: This story contains SPOILERS for FBI season 8, episode 14, "Forgiven."
FBI fans know that Maggie has long had a strained relationship with her sister Erin (Adrienne Rose Bengtsson). Erin has had issues with drugs, and in her last appearance, Maggie accused her of relapsing, only to learn Erin was clean, driving a wedge between them. “Forgiven” opened with Erin being kidnapped by Ray DiStefano (Matthew Rauch), a serial slasher Maggie had put away twice before.
A cat-and-mouse game ensued as Ray escalated to murdering his parole officer before capturing Maggie. Ray mocked Maggie on a “savior complex” before she managed to escape. She passed a van with a locked trunk but concentrated on finding Erin in the woods. She and Ray fought it out, with him falling to his death while OA rescued Maggie.
But in a heartwrenching moment, checking out the van, Maggie found Erin’s dead body, meaning Ray had killed her long before. Speaking to TVLine, Peregrym opened up on how difficult that final scene was to film and capture its emotion.
“On the day, I was so nervous to do this the whole time, just with how dark it was and how deep I had to go and it's game time. You can practice all you want (which I don't really), we can talk about the scene, we can talk about what we want, we can talk about the tone and what the shots are going to be and what everybody wants. Everybody has a vision for it. And at the end of the day, I have no idea what's going to come up in my body. All I can do is show up and put myself there. I made sure that I didn't see anything. I didn't see how she was lying. I didn't see her [Adrienne Rose Bengtsson, who plays Erin] before shooting (which I explained after I was really sorry that I didn't say hi or tell her that I didn't know what's gonna happen), but she was amazing."
It was a stunning performance by Peregrym that makes Erin’s loss all the more shocking.
How will Maggie move forward following the death of her sister?
Peregrym confirmed Maggie will be absent in the next episode, handling Erin’s funeral and mandatory leave. She’ll be back, and to no surprise, she’ll be trying to overcome her loss and concentrate on the work. That’s no shock, as it’s how Maggie handled anything from her husband’s death to nearly dying herself.
Peregrym continued with TVLine on how this may be a mistake for Maggie, as the guilt over Erin’s murder and the fact it was all because of Ray’s vendetta against her is going to change Maggie forever.
“I'm off the next episode. I return [the week after] and think that the best thing to do is to come back to work. It's how I've dealt with loss in the past and it's the only place I know. It's my whole life. I just think I'll get back up on my feet and with time, I'll move on, and that is not the case. That can't be the case. I'd never experienced something to this level and it's not just about losing my sister and the shame and guilt of not being able to protect her. It's the fact that it's completely my fault. My lives merged into this horrible center and I lost everything. I didn't just lose Erin. I lost trust in myself. I lost trust for how I operate in the world and how I communicate and how I move, because that's what got me here in this position in the first place. There's no way I can just come back to work and be myself. I don't even know what that means.”
That Erin and Maggie never made up makes this even worse. Maggie loved her sister and confessed to Ray she wanted to help her and was afraid of losing her. The self-blame may overwhelm Maggie and make her second-guess herself in the field. That’s a bad attitude for an FBI agent and could lead Maggie to make a huge mistake. Just like Ray said, he gave Maggie "a scar you can never hide."
Clearly, this loss is going to be a turning point for Maggie, and as strong as she is, Erin’s murder will have an effect. As Peregrym states, Maggie will never be the same again, which will shift FBI big time.
FBI airs Mondays at 9/8c on CBS.