FBI is going to feature a major change for OA (Zeeko Zaki) when Season 9 begins, one that will take him away from the team for at least some time. TV Insider spoke with Zeeko Zaki about that shocking Season 8 finale ending. Warning! Spoilers for the FBI Season 8 finale ahead!
Maggie (Missy Peregrym), OA, Scola (John Boyd), and Eva (Juliana Aidén Martinez) find themselves opposing, then working with, then opposing again Anna (Claire Coffee) and her strike team after a biochemical is stolen and then released on a bus full of civilians. OA, in particular, takes offense with the fallout: Anna’s team fights him and Maggie for the serum and takes it, not administering it to the victims.
When OA pushes back against ADIC Green’s (Curtiss Cook) decision to back that, already on shaky ground with him after disagreeing about orders during a previous case, he’s fired. Everyone’s shocked when Green fires him, and OA says his goodbyes to everyone in turn. Before leaving, he tells Jubal (Jeremy Sisto) it’s been a pleasure and shakes his hand; hugs Scola as the other agent protests, then Eva, who can’t believe this is happening; and finally assures and hugs Maggie she won’t lose him.
Bennett Raglin/CBS
Since those weren’t “real” goodbyes for OA, “it was fun to play,” Zaki tells TV Insider. “I hope it never comes to that. It will be a little more than a quick hug and firm handshake.”
It wasn’t real because OA’s actually taking on a new assignment, as is revealed after Anna joins him at the bar and tells him he’d be an asset for her team. Once she’s gone, he calls Maggie and Isobel (Alana De La Garza) to let them know he’s in.
“Getting to see OA on a different team will be fun to watch and film. I’m excited to play something different, but I’m also eager to get back to the team,” says Zaki. “But it will be fun regardless.”
This opportunity also means that we’ll see OA and Maggie separated for a bit. They’ve worked cases without the other before — Maggie, too, has gone undercover without OA — but he won’t be able to rely on her like usual. “It will be tough,” Zaki acknowledges, but he points out, “At the end of the day, he knows she is always out there somewhere having his back.”
This opportunity also comes as something is developing with him and fellow agent Zara (Pardis Saremi). “I think they are cut from the same cloth. Culturally. Career wise. What more could someone ask for? She gets him. So I think OA is very optimistic,” says Zaki.
Looking ahead to Season 9, Zaki is “hoping to pretend, maybe, to be a bad guy for a little while – it will be something new to play with — as well as the relationship with Zara. Anything new is exciting, but most of all, I can’t wait to see the journey Maggie and I go on. That will always be my favorite part of the show.”