‘FBI’ Boss Teases Scola & Nina’s Personal & Professional Struggles in Special Sunday Episode

Shantel VanSanten and John Boyd in 'FBI'
Preview
Bennett Raglin/CBS

For those who have been wondering what would happen to Special Agent Nina Chase (Shantel VanSanten), whose been working with the team in Maggie Bell’s absence on FBI, and with Missy Peregrym’s return just one episode away, the special November 6 installment should give us the answer.

In “Double Bind” (airing on a Sunday because of coverage of the midterms election on Tuesday, November 8), the team works to rescue a five-year-old kidnapping victim, leading to a bit of friction between Nina and Special Agent Stuart Scola (John Boyd) on the job.

“Nina and Scola clash over how to best tackle the case of a missing child. When the child’s mother seems to be withholding information, Scola takes a hardline approach, while Nina treats the mother with more empathy,” executive producer Rick Eid tells TV Insider.

And it’s a big episode for them personally as well. Nina struggles to open up to him about their relationship. “Turns out there are personal issues between them that may be impacting the way they view this case and each other,” Eid teases.

Nina has been working with the team while Peregrym’s Maggie recovers from being exposed to sarin gas near the end of Season 4 (to account for Peregrym’s maternity leave). Working with the team brought Nina and Scola back into each other’s orbits, though they have yet to put a label on their relationship. They were faced with starting to deal with that earlier this season in “Love Is Blind.”

After struggling with seeing Nina put her life in danger in that episode, they were “teetering on that place of, do we know what this is? Is it possible? This show asks the question, with this job I do and the service that I do, is it possible for me to get to have those things?” Boyd said at the time.

“Scola believes in his heart that that type of love and that type of closeness is reserved for people that don’t do what we do and that he’s not fully allowed or maybe fully capable of getting to have that,” he continued. “I think for the first time, we see the character in a position where he’s thinking maybe that is possible and seeing that thing in himself, that that could grow, and maybe it’s a possibility.”

But is a future possible for Nina and Scola? We’ll have to wait and see.

FBI, Special Airing, Sunday, November 6, 8:30/7:30c, CBS