The episode does check all the boxes as far as the bones of the story are concerned. There’s some technical wizardry, an interrogation scene, and multiple action sequences, including the climax that takes place on a stage at the fictional Hudson University. Fans get the drama that they are used to from this show, and all of the main actors are as reliable as they’ve ever been. John Boyd is a bit of a scene-stealer, as his character Stuart Scola offers up more blunt commentary, plus he gets involved in a shootout and then also gets to shoot at a speeding van. The core cast is doing their best.

But the guest characters are paper-thin. The most shading they get is the opening sequence seen through one of their eyes as they prepare the napalm — a gimmicky idea that FBI also used this season in “Doubted.” But one is shot by Scola while attempting to carry out another attack so he doesn’t even get a line of dialogue, the second just utters the typical angry speech in the interrogation room, and the show wants the third to feel like some sort of evil mastermind when he locks himself in the university auditorium (complete with a pre-act break shot of him smirking as he closes the door), yet that never happens.

And the main female characters are either victims or almost victims. Jericho and 24 alum Sprague Grayden is wasted as Aimee Fenway, the CEO of Scorch. She has one scene explaining why she created the app and identifying one of the suspects, but then doesn’t turn up again until she’s taken hostage. With as talented as Grayden is, it’s a missed opportunity not to give her character more to do than provide exposition and someone for Maggie to rescue. The best TV crime dama episodes of any kind are the ones where the supporting characters come alive to make the proceedings feel real, and “Blkpill” misses that mark.

FBI Season 7, Episode 18 Lacks Any Meaningful Character Development

Maggie’s Personal Life Isn’t Enough

Image via CBS

FBI Season 7, Episode 18 is also light on any kind of character development. The episode is bookended by scenes involving Maggie and the 911 dispatcher she’s been seeing since they met in Season 7, Episode 12, “Manhunt.” The first is him expressing that he wasn’t okay with her being undercover and out of contact for three weeks (a reference to the events of Episode 16, “Covered”). The second — after Maggie and OA have a too-brief chat about the events of the day — sees Maggie tell him that his feelings are valid and she wants to figure things out together. That’s a nice step forward for their relationship, but nothing that memorable after the credits roll. It also feels just the slightest bit repetitive, since Isobel and her new husband were also talking about the demands of the job in Episode 17, “Lineage,” albeit in a different way.

“Blkpill” delivers an action-packed tale in which the good guys stop the bad guys, and the day is saved. In that most basic sense, it works. But it doesn’t succeed when one steps back to look at the bigger picture of underdeveloped characters and a troubling premise. This show has done better both plot and character-wise. It can get audiences to sit on the edge of their seats, and even move them emotionally, with a whole lot less than this.