FBI Season 8 ended the first half of its season with a literal bang.

A search for a serial killer on the FBI Season 8 midseason finale led to the discovery of various terrorist plots by an organization that wanted to accelerate societal collapse to force change.

Along the way, Jubal’s son became collateral damage, which makes for great drama — but the story felt in some ways like it went big for the sake of having an exciting midseason finale rather than because the story truly needed it.

FBI’s Original Reason for Taking the Case Was Bizarre

Initially, it didn’t seem to be an FBI matter — in fact, the case of a serial killer targeting sex workers seemed more suited for Law & Order: SVU.

Since it’s long been established that all of Dick Wolf’s shows exist in the same universe, the witness’ claim that she had to turn to the FBI because the NYPD didn’t care made no sense — I couldn’t imagine Olivia Benson ignoring a case like that.

(Even ignoring that, since when is the standard for the FBI taking a case “NYPD passed on it and someone has to do it?”)

Similarly, when the terrorists took out the power grid, I remembered that Richard Wheatley did the same thing on Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 2, so there should already be a standard NYC protocol for this type of terrorist event.

I’m nitpicking, mostly, because this was one of FBI’s more interesting cases.

The idea of a terrorist manipulating sex workers into stealing things he needed from city employees, then killing the girls when the job was done, seemed far-fetched, but it did establish that the guy the FBI was after was the kind of person who went to extremes to make a point.

I also wasn’t expecting the twist of his ex-wife going all in on the plan, especially after she’d been so cooperative with the FBI.

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There was plenty to love here, but it could have easily ended in one hour instead of two.

Tyler’s Injuries Were the Entire Reason for the Second Half of the Story

FBI has had many episodes that included an exciting climax where OA needed to defuse a bomb or the team stopped a terrorist attack just in time.

If the writers had wanted to, FBI Season 8‘s midseason finale could have been another story like this.

The team was close to foiling the terrorist plot when the building blew up, so the writers could have easily made it go the other way.

However, we wouldn’t have had Jubal’s meaty storyline in the second half of the episode, so I’m torn about whether that would have been a better way to go.

The Second Half Had Too Many Gunfights

I know that shootouts with suspects are part of the brand, but it’s my second least favorite part after all of the unnecessary chases on FBI.

My mind tends to shut off during long sequences where the characters are shooting at the bad guys, and there were several of those.

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I loved Jubal’s role in this, though, even if Tyler’s injuries were somewhat contrived.

Tyler almost got out of the danger zone in time, but in typical overconfident adolescent fashion, he decided to stay behind to warn the cops… and then to hang around taking video after NYPD told him to leave the area while they took care of it.

As a result, Tyler sustained serious injuries, but I doubted FBI would kill him off.

That would be too tragic an ending for the midseason finale, especially considering how much real-world violence people are eager to escape from.

Plus, this was a kid who miraculously survived cancer. Putting us through that story only to have Tyler die in a terrorist attack would have made it feel like we wasted our time with that cancer plot.

Also, what happened to Kylie?

She was worried enough to try to convince Tyler not to stay behind, but after he got hurt, she disappeared altogether — no phone calls or attempts to visit.

Jubal Takes Matters into His Own Hands, but Tyler Lives!

That was a conspicuous loose end that FBI Season 8’s midseason finale forgot to tie up, though it made up for it with Jubal’s subplot.

The grieving cop who breaks rules has played out on TV many times, but somehow this trope felt fresh and new with Jubal.

It was easy to understand his frustration.

He couldn’t control whether Tyler would ever wake up; Isobel was telling him to stay out of the case; and the perp was spouting ideological nonsense instead of answering his questions.

Plus, Jubal has a history of breaking rules when it comes to his son.

No wonder Jubal took matters into his own hands.

It had only been a year since his suspension for demanding the cops let Tyler go without charges after a protest, and Jubal’s behavior here was more of the same.

However, I had to laugh when, after all that, Tyler woke up able to speak complete sentences — so far, there is zero evidence of cognitive impairment, and he woke up from a coma all at once as if he had just been taking a nap.