FBI Season 9’s Time Jump Confirmed After Shocking OA Twist In Season 8 Finale

Warning: SPOILERS ahead for FBI season 8, episode 22!FBI season 9 is going to be a very different chapter for the series.

The procedural TV show has gotten a confirmed time jump after OA’s shocking twist in the season 8 finale, with the series star and showrunner unpacking what’s next. FBI season 8 ended with ADIC Lawrence Green relieving OA of his duties after the agent refuses to fake a field report. This results in Anna Vorpe offering him a job, which would put him on duty for the Department of Defense. In episode’s final moments, he calls Maggie and Isobel, revealing his getting fired was a purposeful stunt so the team can continue investigating Anna’s crimes.

Speaking with TVLine, Zeeko Zaki, who plays OA, explained the importance of his character’s investigation into Anna, whose team was torturing truck drivers for information earlier in the FBI season 8 finale. He explained how the decision for OA to join Anna’s team will be a strain on his morality, while also being something he feels obligated to do in order to continue his investigation and seek justice. This ensures that he can keep investigating, even after the NSA covered up the events of the final episode:

I think the saying is: ‘If you can’t beat them, join them.” But with OA’s meteoric moral compass, it will be fun to watch how far we can bend it to save the day and do what is right. It’s always fun to see the team in a way you haven’t before, and I think this is a great way to do that and start Season 9.

In addition to Zaki’s statement, showrunner Mike Weiss confirmed that there will be a time jump of “weeks or months” before FBI season 9 picks back up. This will allow the story to continue with OA undercover at his new position, so much so that nobody has seen him since he got his job offer. It means the show can pick up with the team already making significant progress in the investigation. Weiss also explained what it would be like for characters who weren’t brought in on the plan to take Anna down:

We’re going to start Season 9 with OA having been gone for weeks or months. He’s deep undercover. No one has seen him. I don’t even know yet, because it’s early days, but we’ll have to figure out a way… how can you report back to your team when you’re embedded with, as we’ve seen, really, really dangerous, capable military operators. So that’s going to be difficult. Just to get him and Maggie in the same room will be a challenge in a fun way, at the top of Season 9.

There will be some fallout from some of the other characters who were not brought in on the plan, and I think getting to see Scola and Jubal be like, ‘Hey man, that sucked that you didn’t tell us that you were only fired for pretend,’ will be difficult, but fun for the audience.

CBS

OA has always been a character in FBI guided by his morality, which makes him taking the job from Anna of his own free will somewhat farfetched. Luckily, it seems nobody suspects a single thing, with OA having the perfect cover to get even deeper intel on Anna and her team. This comes not only after they inflicted torture on people, but also after the NSA tried covering up a deadly RNA virus outbreak, leading to the request for fake field reports. Of course, this is a rouse by the team to get more intel on Anna and her actions.

When FBI returns in fall 2026, the show will be quite different from how it was before, mostly because of OA’s new role by Anna’s side. As his investigation continues, it will likely turn up more questions and answers about how Anna’s team is operating, alongside a potential new story thread that will explain how the show’s focus will develop moving ahead. This will further lead him down a rabbit hole that can help bring justice to those Anna has wronged.

But the show may also feature some complications, since the setup might be for a storyline that lasts far longer than FBI season 9’s premiere episodes. If that’s the case, then it’s possible the show will include a number of new ideas that crop up in its forthcoming episodes, making for a compelling return that will challenge OA and the rest of the team in new ways.

Release Date

September 25, 2018

Directors

Dick Wolf

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  Missy Peregrym

  Maggie Bell

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  Zeeko Zaki

  Omar Adom OA Zidan