‘FBI’ Season 1, Episode 12 ‘A New Dawn’ Recap: Politics Under Fire

All hell breaks loose in this week’s episode of FBI, with politics holding the match and letting it burn. A war sparks between the left and right and the FBI seem to be caught in the middle. And although neutral grounds may be dangerous, it is precisely where they need to be. “A New Dawn” dips its toe to the much-heated predicaments of left-wing activism, drawing the line between the right to protest and terrorism. Power duo agents Maggie Bell (Missy Peregrym) and OA Zidan (Zeeko Zaki) take on the case of a horrific man’s gruesome murder. But as if the case wasn’t hard enough, things get heated between OA and his sister, who insists on being involved in her big brother’s dangerous case for all for a good story.

Nathan Bain can go to Hell

Nathaniel Bain, a right-winged speaker, received a mixed-feeling welcome when he arrived to speak at the Paul Revere University. Students protested against his appearance while the school’s principle shook his hand and led him inside the school. His speech spoke of white supremacy and protest against gender equality. He was driven back to a guest room where he read numerous hate tweets against him. Later on, an unknown assailant throws a bottle of gasoline that burned the entire room and killed him.

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Maggie and OA head to the principal in search for answers. He gives a list of organizations that the school has. They get to one suspect who tweeted against Bain one hour after he died. They got a list of activists from him. When they got outside, they were shot at by a car of vengeful students. One of the students nabbed in the incident said that it was just to scare the University students. It was also revenge for the death of Nathan Bain. He went on to claim that their organization was also responsible for the burning of their clubhouse. They search the burned area and find glass shards of a bottle. The same fingerprints were found on the bottle found in Bain’s room.

New Dawn, New Member

Now that they’ve got an arsonist/murderer on their hands, the team at the office turn to social media posts. They find a suspicious post talking about “New Dawn.” People who have used the hashtag all attended the same history class taught by Professor William Kelly (Rodrigo Lopresti), who they turn to for more information about the student Claire, who used hashtag repeatedly. The student they were looking for turned out to be in London. The good news is she was also part of the university press. And it just so happens that OA’s sister Amira (Cynthia Hamidi) was a student member of the press as well.

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OA and Maggie sit down with Amira to find out more about Claire and New Dawn. Amira says that she can introduce them to Heather (Celia Chevalier) who was part of the organization as well. Amira, with OA’s hesitation, becomes part of a sting operation with Maggie to infiltrate the organization. Maggie and Amira find themselves getting in the car with the group carrying AK-47 rifles.

OA and  Kristen Chazal (Ebonée Noel) follow them to neutralize the situation. Maggie, who is still undercover, tells OA and Kristen to back away. That’s code for “I can handle this.” With Maggie “scaring off” the cops, they get to New Dawn’s good side. Maggie buys one of the other members a drink and gets his prints from the glass. His prints matched the culprit. To their surprise, the prints belonged to Connor Whitman, the son of the school principal.

Hanging by a thread

After the risky sting operation, OA checks up on Amira. As a journalist, she was determined to follow the story through. This was concerning for OA, who lashes out on her. She spites back, saying that she was fine on her own.

OA and Maggie then track Connor’s location through a phone call made by his father. The duo found him in his apartment hanging on a noose. OA takes him down, Maggie revives him, and they send him to the hospital. Then they ask him who the person who sent him to commit such a crime was. He reveals that it was a professor.

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Immediately, they search for Will Kelly. In his house, they find gasoline and plastic that used to carry styrofoam, ingredients for a napalm bomb. They track and seize him. Kristen finds out that Heather took Amira to commit the next radical act with the bomb, which cranks up OA’s brotherly fury to full gear. The two find them in Nathan Bain’s funeral, where Heather handcuffed herself to Amira and was ready to detonate the bomb. OA and Maggie convince her to hand over the control. Maggie uncuffs them, and Amira runs straight to OA’s arms.

‘FBI’ Season 1, Episode 12 ‘A New Dawn’ Overall Verdict

The current political climate is extremely hot. That, we can all agree on. Society is crumbling over disagreements, hate is being spread, and protests against it are often left unheard. This episode truly presents a conundrum, because we get to see the FBI work hard for the justice of a murder of a malicious pig. People who claim to be activists who believe in equality and are against such intolerance become the villain of the story.

However, I don’t think the episode meant for it to be that way entirely. The point that the episode was trying to get across was, in the words of Dana Mosier (Sela Ward), “focus on the evidence, not on the politics. Our job is to protect free speech, not to police it.” Organizations meant to protect freedom of speech must also keep their bias, because essentially no matter what you believe in, everyone deserves justice. Everyone has a right to have and voice out their opinions. OA and Maggie’s stance on the issue was using violence against hate preachers is entirely hypocritical and won’t further a cause, even if it’s a good one. This episode is definitely a controversial one, especially with the need for activism in this age and Dick Wolf choosing to present it in this light.

FBI continues Tuesday, February 5th, at 9/8c on CBS.