Spoilers ahead for Episode 13 of CBS’ FBI: International Season 4, called “You’ve Been Greenlit” and available streaming next day with a Paramount+ subscription.
FBI: International didn’t waste any time in adding some complications to Agent Riley Quinn after she arrived to Budapest to fill Tyler Booth‘s vacancy in the 2025 TV schedule. As far as the Fly Team knew, she was there originally to crack a particular case and then stuck around for a bit to pitch in. In reality, she had been sent with a mission that made her more of a mole than a member of the team: a section chief from the Bureau’s Inspection Division wanted dirt on Wes, and she had to deliver if she wanted to help her brother with his bind at the ATF.
Riley (played by La Brea cast member Veronica St. Clair) decided to defend Wes and open up about the real reason she was there by the end of “You’ve Been Greenlit,” and I’m glad she wasn’t torn for more than just this one episode. While she’d proved that she was a capable agent in her first episode and her conscience was clearly twinging at having to lie to the Fly Team, I wasn’t convinced that she would really flip to come clean before the end of “You’ve Been Greenlit” until she had a video call with her brother.
Considering that Riley defended her brother in the previous episode by saying that “he was framed for something he didn’t do by someone on his unit, someone he trusted,” I thought that he’d be pretty similar to his sister. Instead, his temper quickly rose when talking to her in “You’ve Been Greenlit,” when she didn’t do anything more than admit she felt like “some kind of a rat” on the Fly Team. He responded:
You are not a rat. They’re just trying to make an example out of your brother, and I’m not going to jail over this BS, so whatever Inspections is asking for, you gotta give it to them.
Riley went on to remind him that she has to find any dirt before she has anything to hand over, and wondered what if the Inspections section chief was wrong about Wes crossing lines and committing crimes. Getting angry, her brother started a rant:
Can I ask you something? Who are you worried about right now, hmm? This agent you’ve known for, I don’t know, three days, or your own brother? How many times have I been there for you? Huh? Fort Lauderdale, Boise. Stuff with Mom – ooh, stuff with Mom. I never said a word ’cause this is family. Now, I love you, Riley, but I am asking you to be there for me now, for the first time and the last, understand? If this goes down a certain way, I am looking at federal charges. You may never see me again! You know what? Do whatever you want, okay? Do whatever you want.
Riley didn’t pack her bags for this kind of a guilt trip! Her brother dropped plenty of clues that Riley has more secrets in her past beyond his problems with the ATF, but my biggest takeaway is that he escalated the conversation so much so quickly that there’s more than one red flag flying. And he hung up on her!
Between feeling like a rat due to her boss, a guilt trip from her brother, and the unwavering loyalty of the Fly Team – complete with an offer for pancakes from Wes – I would have been surprised if Riley didn’t decide that her loyalties were with the Budapest crew.
What’s not clear is whether there’s a way out of the mess for Riley… or Wes, for that matter. Her statement cleared his name for the shooting that went down in “You’ve Been Greenlit,” but there are legitimate issues on the record after Wes’ actions in Paris after Vo was shot, and Riley already passed those up the FBI ladder.
Plus, deciding that she didn’t want to be a mole on the Fly Team doesn’t mean that she’s ready to abandon her brother’s cause. All in all, for as much as I’ve been wishing for more of Jay Hayden in his first post-Station 19 gig, I’m getting invested in this Riley storyline.
Unfortunately, I and the rest of the FBI: International fandom have an extra week to wait to find out what happens after Riley reached out to Vo to confess that she’s “in a bind.” International (as well as FBI and FBI: Most Wanted) won’t be back with a new case until Tuesday, March 11 in the usual time slots. International and Most Wanted were also both left out of CBS’ recent renewal spree, with FBI as the only one of the trio guaranteed to return beyond the 2024-2025 TV season at the time of writing.
