[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for FBI: International Season 4 Episode 4 “The Unwinnable War.”]
Tate (Christina Wolfe) is put in a difficult position in the latest FBI: International. With her knowledge of Spanish and the fact that she looks like an agent who was killed, she’s the one to go undercover to help nab a dirty DEA agent.
That’s easier said than done, even though he falls for their trap and takes a shine to her. Once he realizes, however, what’s going on, Tate must fight for her life. In the end, the agent takes a deal (so no trial, which Tate was concerned about, given she had to kiss him to maintain her cover, which is against the rules), and while Wes (Jesse Lee Soffer) points out she has a knack for fieldwork, she’s happy where she is … for now.
Below, Wolfe discusses Tate’s big assignment, whether she’d do it again, and more.
Tate was worried about jeopardizing the case and breaking the rules with what she had to do with Lopez. But after that great moment in the interrogation room at the end—which I loved by—and the conversation with Wes, how do you think she’s feeling about how it all went?
Christina Wolfe: I think she’s very proud of herself because it wasn’t easy and she could have said no. She was given the option to say no. The case went right in the end. There was a point at which she felt very ashamed and afraid about how she’d conducted herself in this undercover mission, and had she broken the rules and what does this mean for the case? Had she kind of messed it up? And then when she realizes that she hasn’t, and that actually her involvement in the case has really helped, then I think she feels very proud of herself at the end of the episode. But she’s also relieved that it’s over and there’s maybe a little trepidation to go back there.
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I feel like we see her being proud of herself in that interrogation room scene. And I like Vo (Vinessa Vidotto) just standing there and watching.
Oh, 100 percent. It was great for both of them as well because I think their relationship in this episode really blossomed and they both kind of put this bad guy away, which was really cool for their working relationship and their friendship, too.
It starts off with Tate bringing her daughter over to Vo, and then we get to see the shift into the professional, I really like that dynamic. Are we going to be getting more of that?
Oh, you’ll have to wait and see. But I agree with you. I love that dynamic and I really like that this relationship with Vo is being explored.
Talk about filming those undercover scenes and then that Tate-Lopez fight.
Oh, I absolutely loved it. I absolutely love the action stuff. I just find it fascinating to watch how the stunt team puts together this fight and then you watch the fight with the stunt performers and you’re like, am I going to do that? And then you find out that you’re breaking it down and the way that they piece it together so that it flows together as if it was all you is incredible. I find it really exhilarating. I really loved filming that fight scene. And yeah, the undercover stuff is just so much fun. It’s just so different because Tate doesn’t normally get to go in the field, so every time I go in the field, it’s like a little holiday.
Do you think Tate has any regrets about saying yes to this assignment now that it’s over?
I don’t think she has regrets when it’s over. I think she has regrets during and self-doubt and feelings of perhaps having failed. But I think at the end, she doesn’t regret it because it worked out. I think it would be very different if it had ended a different way.
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Wes makes the pitch for her to go into the field more and she says she’s happy where she is for now. How does she feel about fieldwork now going forward? Is it something that she’s more apt to say yes to?
I think she’s torn about it. I think she has an aptitude for it and Wes says that to her that she’s ready. I think she knows that, but it might take her a little longer to find a way to marry that life with the life she has at home. And she says for now. I think she knows herself and that she has this side of her that perhaps can’t be silenced, which is a desire to work on these cases in the field and to put herself in these situations where she can really prove herself.
And I like that that conversation took place with her out with her daughter—she could look at her daughter and see why she would want to maybe hesitate.
Yeah, exactly. It is exactly what’s going on in her mind and we get to see it all visually on screen. So it works really well, I think.
Yeah, and I just like that we got those moments of them away from work in this episode to bookend it for Tate.
Yeah, it just gives you much more of an insight into who she is and what her life is like so that you understand her more when we see her in the office. You know this backstory, you know what’s going on for her outside of this world.
And then building the relationships within the team also.
Exactly. I think that’s just really compelling as a viewer. You want to know how they’re interacting, what their relationships are like.
What would it take for her to go undercover again? What would she be weighing when making that decision compared to what she did this time, do you think?
I think she’d have to have a real idea of how dangerous it would be and perhaps she’d need some more fight training or something or something that would make her feel safer in order to deal with things if they go wrong, because she’s been in the field twice and things go wrong, she does get in danger. So I think she would have to weigh it up to see whether it was something that she really felt was too dangerous. I suppose it also depends on her emotional involvement in the case because if something is really calling to her, it would be harder to say no to.
Do you think she should get in on that fight training now to prepare?
Absolutely! Count me in.
What was your favorite scene to film from this episode?
I loved my scenes with Lopez. Bobby Soto was so fantastic to work with and we really got on and I think we worked well together, so that was a highlight for me.
I also have to say I love that her nickname for her daughter was her distress word.
I know, isn’t that sweet? I like that, too. I think that really kind of anchors her. It gives her some kind of solid grounding in such a tumultuous.
As much as I love seeing Tate in the field, I also like watching her take command of the Hub.
Oh, I love it. My favorite episodes are the ones in the field, but I suppose that’s just because they’re so different. But she’s really in her element when she’s in the Hub, and I absolutely love that. And she loves working with her analysts who are just so brilliant, and we have such a great time filming there. I really love it.
FBI: International, Tuesdays, 9/8c, CBS