Justice has no borders.
"I don't understand. I thought FBI was domestic."
—Gary Milgrave, "The Edge"
FBI: International is a 2021 Police Procedural drama from CBS, created by Dick Wolf. It's the third spin-off show from FBI, which ties in the crossover from the former's Season 4 premiere episode and from FBI: Most Wanted's Season 3 premiere episode.
The show centers on an FBI International Fly Team, stationed in Budapest, Hungary.note Scott Forrester (Luke Kleintank), is in charge of the Hungarian-based Fly Team. Working alongside him is Jamie Kellett (Heida Reed), Andre Raines (Carter Redwood) and Cameron Vo (Vinessa Vidotto), who's the latest FBI agent to be stationed there. Assisting them is Europol officer Katrin Jaeger (Christiane Paul), who works with them as a liaison officer between FBI and Europol and helps them navigate various European law enforcement/intelligence agencies while reminding them not to do anything that would be seen as interfering in local affairs.
In Season 2, Jaeger is reassigned to another post for oversight of all Europol operations. Megan "Smitty" Garretson is assigned to work alongside the Fly Team as her replacement. After a joint operation investigating the Norseman Brotherhood in Stockholm, Sweden, former U.S. Army Special Forces and Deep Cover Agent Damian Powell joins the Fly Team at Scott's request. In Season 3, Jamie Kellett leaves the Fly Team and is subsequently replaced by Amanda Tate.
The series is currently airing it's third season, and has been renewed for a fourth to premier in the fall of 2024.
This show provides examples of:
- Battle Couple: Forrester and Kellett, The Hero and The Lancer of the flying team respectively, are secretly in a relationship. This broke up before the end of the first season.
- Bittersweet Ending: In "The Soul of Chess", the Fly Team and the Polish SPAP were able to protect an American journalist's local asset from being harmed by Russian-backed assassins. While the journalist's widow wanted to call out the FSB for tolerating it, she was told that doing so will force them to hunt down for other investigative journalists covering anything that Moscow may be afraid to let the world know. And considering the things that FSB have been controversial about lately.note
- Bottle Episode: Subverted in "The Edge". It is set in Budapest, so the team doesn't have to fly to their destination, and it is a very low profile case in the beginning (a parental kidnapping), but the boy is kidnapped again in the beginning of the episode and taken by car to scenic northern Hungary, finishing with a very actiony Car Chase.
- Bulungi: "Unburdened" concerns the Democratic Republic of Dondi where a corrupt diplomat is involved in helping an arms dealer escape being arrested. The country is likely a counterpart of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- Corrupt Politician: In "Pilot", the Fly Team arrests Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Fedir Rusnak for trying to assist Kent in entering Ukraine because once he's there, the US government can't officially request Kiev to extradite Kent back.note
- Cowboy Cop: Forrester has a tendency to push the boundaries of his jurisdiction, to the exasperation of Jaeger, the Europol liaison.
- Deconstructed in "Cowboy Behavior" when Powell's Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique of the Fly Team's fugitive puts them in trouble with the local police and nearly jeopardizes their case.
- Crossover: The Pilot is the third part of a triple crossover with the parent FBI series and fellow spin-off FBI: Most Wanted.
- Dirty Cop: In the Pilot, Forrester accusses the Croatian cop who appears immediately to expel the FBI from Kuprevic's home of being this for the latter. However, it is never confirmed; the cop denies any knowledge of Kuprevic being a pedophile, and when presented with evidence, he has no problem arresting him.
- Doesn't Like Guns: Justified for the main characters because the FBI is generally not allowed to handle firearms out of the United States.
- Double-Meaning Title: "The Edge" has the bad guy claiming to have been pushed over the edge by his ex-wife, then trying to commit murder-suicide by driving off a cliff.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After what Colin Kent did to give the New York-based FBI agents a headache, the Hungarian Fly Team apprehends him with help from OA. His blackmail evidence was obtained and used to nail influential persons worldwide for pedophile activities. OA was also able to rescue Sunny and bring her back to the US.
- Europeans Are Kinky: In a meta-example, Jamie is played by Icelandic actress Heida Reed, and she shows her bare back and side boob in both of the first two episodes. Not much for European TV, but notable for American non-cable TV.
- Everyone Can See It: The start of "American Optimism" confirms Vo and Raines have known all along about Forrester and Kellett being together. The pair openly laugh at how the two think they're fooling anyone by arriving at work exactly five seconds apart. By the final episodes of Season 2, Vo enters a romantic relationship with new team member Damian Powell.. This time around, Forrester, Kellet, and Raines have their suspicions about it.
- Exact Words: "A Proven Liar" has the team discovering a supposed businessman is a Con Man wanted for various charges in the U.S. He cuts a deal to aid rescuing his kidnapped girlfriend in exchange for having the federal charges against him dropped. He think he's going to walk free only for the girlfriend, now knowing who he is, to slap him and say she was happy to testify to more charges against him. When he says they have a deal, Kellett points out it was to drop the federal charges, but nothing was done about the state ones against him. Before he knows it, the guy is handcuffed and put on the first plane to New York, where the State's Attorney is more than ready for him.
- Fast-Killing Radiation: In "The Soul Of Chess", Russian assassins are using a new unidentified radioactive isotope to kill targets which is Hand Waved as being much deadlier than Polonium but with a much shorter half-life. Simply breathing it in is enough to kill a journalist and an unlucky housekeeper in a manner of minutes, and at the climax when Agent Kellett manages to inject the assassin whilst he's trying to kill her with it, the man drops dead in mere seconds.
- Forbidden Love: Forrester and Kellett are secretly in a relationship, which they shouldn't because of being coworkers. Powell and Vo also fall in this boat starting at the end of Season 2.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: The masked shooter in "Secrets as Weapons" has a long stitched scar on the back of his neck.
- Great Escape: "The Last Stop" involves the Fly Team rescuing an ex-FBI agent from a prison in Tripoli, Libya.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: "Fencing the Mona Lisa" ends with the Fly Team being told that news of them killing/arrest ex-Wagner mercenaries for stealing a 3M22 Zircon missile from the Russian military will not be made news. Possibly because it can increase further tensions between Russia and with countries that support Ukraine's right to defend itself.
- He-Man Woman Hater: The misogynistic organization "Dad's Pride" in "The Edge", that believes women abuse courts to take children away from their fathers and works to 'return' them by any means possible. One of their members can barely bear to be interviewed by female police.
- Heroes Love Dogs: The team has the unofficial canine member Tank, an ex-FBI cadaver dog that Forrester kept after his retirement.
- Honey Trap: Colin Kent uses this for blackmail, offering teenage girls to pedophiles in high positions and filming them to extort favors when needed.
- Human Traffickers: Colin Kent's organization from the Pilot (and carried over from the parent series) is this. He is obviously based on Jeffrey Epstein.
- In My Language, That Sounds Like...: In the Pilot, the Fly Team listens to Kent talking about meeting someone "in the Greek" on the phone. They later realize that he means the Grič, an anti-air gallery underground that was built in Zagreb during World War II.
- Interpol Special Agent: Averted with Europol agent Katrin Jaeger, who is a non-actiony liaison.
- It's Personal:
- O.A. joins the cast in the premiere crossover because he wants to personally apprehend Colin Kent after he escapes with a hostage taken under his nose.
- Kellett is shot during the investigation in "Secrets as Weapons", making this personal for Forrester. Lampshaded by millionaire Steve Webb, who is worried that by being "after blood", Forrester will screw the recovery of his stolen money.
- "Shouldn't Have Left Her" has Raines going on a solo mission to Kosovo to rescue his kidnapped sister.
- Jurisdiction Friction: Expectedly, with the FBI Fly Team to local law enforcement/intelligence agencies. Katrin has to remind Scott that any attempt to get involved in a local police/intelligence matter needs to get forwarded to their local counterparts.
- To emphasize this, "Pilot" has the Fly Team forced to leave Ivan Krupevic's mansion by Croatian police because they don't have any legal authority to be there, even though the team has suspicions that he's tight with Kent.
- The Pilot also has O.A. from the New York office (original FBI) joining the team to catch Colin Kent. Forrester believes this trope is at work and tries to get him out, but relents when O.A. says that he's there because It's Personal and doesn't want to direct or take over the investigation. They butt heads again when O.A. wants to arrest Kent on the first opportunity but Forrester wants him to provide evidence on other pedophiles first.
- Played with in "The Edge". Forrester has genuine conflicts with the Hungarian police, but his big, showy disagreement with Jaeger is actually a ruse to make the suspect lower his guard and lead them to the kidnapped boy.
- "Close To the Sun" has Jaeger forced to stay in Budapest while the rest of the team head to Northern Ireland as, thanks to Brexit, Europol and the United Kingdom are on very poor terms so her liaison position has no purpose.
- Made a Slave: What Kent intends for Sunny in the pilot, basically, as he 'sells' her for a contact with a politician who will give him shelter in a country with no extradition treaty with the U.S.
- Ms. Fanservice: Jamie Kellett has a bed scene or a getting ready for bed scene in all three first episodes.
- Myth Arc: One is being formed after "The Soul of Chess" when Scott's mother is being brought up that she was last seen hiding somewhere in Moscow.
- New Meat: Cameron Vo joins the Fly Team in the Pilot, after being transferred from Seattle.
- Put on a Bus: Jaeger is written out in the Season 1 finale as getting a big promotion at Europol, so she can no longer be the team's liaison. Jamie Kellett also gets written out in Season 3's premiere episode as transferring to Washington D.C.
- Ramming Always Works: An unusual variant in "The Edge", where Kellett rams a car to stop it, wrecking it and her own yet causing nobody in either car any harm (especially noticeable because one of the rammed car's occupants was a young boy in the middle of a stroke).
- Revenge Porn Blackmail: "Don't Say Her Name Again" see's the team dealing with a Hungarian cybercriminal and sexual predator who runs this on an industrial scale. Targeting vulnerable teenager girls by possessing a fellow America teenager he seduces them into agreeing to send him photo's or videos. Then once he has the material he uses it to blackmail them into continue creating increasing explicit and degrading videos and pictures for him under the threat of sending what he has to all their contacts. Having targeted over two hundred individuals, with some as young as twelve years old, he likewise shares his material on private chat rooms his antics disgusting even a convicted ephebophile.
- Rewatch Bonus: Knowing the true story behind the case in "Close to the Sun" will help understand the tension going on when the Fly Team goes to Belfast and investigate it.
- Ripped from the Headlines:
- "Trying to Grab Smoke" has a story arc that's partly inspired by the GirlsDoPorn scandal.
- "One Kind of Madman" is based on the Moscow theater attack that ended with the use of gas to knock out the hostages. Scott even warns the National Police Service against doing such a thing.
- "Get That Revolution Started" is based on the case with Jürgen Conings, a Belgian soldier who deserted and targeted Belgian public health doctor Marc Van Ranst as he was advising Brussels on COVID-19 measures.
- "Cowboy Behavior" has a suspect, Mark Shaw, taking advantage of underaged girls and promoting himself as a masculine figure on the internet is similar to Andrew Tate and his cases of supposedly sexually abusing women in Romania.
- "Remove the Compromise" is based on the debate on whether to consider Latin American drug cartels as terrorists or not, dating back from when Trump was president.
- Run for the Border: The Pilot begins with Kent flying to Croatia from the U.S., to the FBI's surprise because Croatia has an extradition treaty with them. They later find that he's using it as a stopover before reaching Ukraine, which does not.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: The Fly Team in "American Optimism" is not pleased that they got briefed that the new ambassador in Madrid is someone who has a career in pharmaceuticals and don't have any background/working experience in international relations. He just got appointed because he made a lot of contributions in the last presidential elections.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Kent invokes this when caught, claiming that he will use his fortune to fight extradition in the courts and muddle the waters further by suing Forrester's team. It falls flat and he's handed immediately to O.A. to take him back to America.
- Sequel Goes Foreign: A sequel to FBI, but set in Europe rather than New York (FBI) or the US (FBI: Most Wanted).
- Shown Their Work: “Glimmers and Ghosts” correctly mention that the Stasi made East Germany into a surveillance state and had multiple agents in West Germany.
- Spin-Off: From FBI.
- Spot the Imposter: When two divorced parents accuses the other of being abusive in "The Edge", Forrester asks them separately what their son loves most to do in their company. Obviously, he decides that the one giving a straight answer and actually being worried about the child's health is the one telling the truth.
- Terminally-Ill Criminal: In "One Kind of Madman", a group of terrorists led by Ivo Kostov takes a Concert Hall full of multinational students and their families hostage, demanding a fortune transferred for their safe release. The team's efforts to resolve the situation are further hampered by the discovery that Ivo, previously a minor member of an Albanian Separatist group known only for petty crimes, is dying of a fatal blood clot and is thus fanatically committed to doing something meaningful for his cause before his life comes to an end.
- Title Drop: Once an Episode.
- Tunnel Network: Zagreb's Grič Tunnel is a location in the Pilot.
- Villain Ball:
- Ivan Kuprevic presumably has big money given his big country home and estate, yet he answers the door personally both times the FBI comes snooping around, gets no in-place security, and keeps the kidnapped girl unguarded in his property.
- All Gary Milgrave had to do was wait for the FBI to arrest his wife and give him his son. But he wanted her to suffer more, causing their would-be fates to be reversed (she cleaning her name and winning full custody of the child, he going to prison in a foreign country).
- Kristian Hess lets a hostage see his face and tells his partner to kill her right in front of her, which pushes her to escape and allows her to identify him later. If he had just kept his ski mask on or killed her by surprise, he would have gotten away with it.
- Wham Episode:
- At the end of "The Secrets She Knows", General Finley tells Forrester to stop using his office as a means of investigating what happened to his mother.
- The end of "Chew Toy" has Scott meeting with his mom in Transnistria.
- "Copper Pots and Daggers" mention that the American woman arrested by the General Directorate of Security (GDS) is being arrested for ulterior motives. The GDS planted the artifacts in her luggage as a pretense in order to determine if she's working on behalf of the NSA. Which is true. And the Fly Team was forced by the NSA to launch a rescue op so that GDS can't find out that she's an NSA agent.
- "Fencing the Mona Lisa" end with the FBI Bucharest office being attacked by an improvised bomb.
- Wham Shot: The final scene of the pilot has Forrester coming to his apartment to find second-in-command Kellett in bed, showing they're secretly in a relationship.
- Writers Cannot Do Math: The boy in "The Edge" is said to be ten, then eight, then his parents are said to have married seven years ago and have him after.
- Yodel Land: Played with in "Secrets as Weapons", which is set in Switzerland and begins with the robbing of a bank transport in the Alps (the modern twist being that the currency is Bitcoin). One of the victims in the beginning asks sarcastically if people "still yodel over here". The local cop also invokes Swiss neutrality twice first when allowing Webb to negotiate with the robbers, then as Ironic Echo when he refuses to arrest Forrester for punching Webb.
