‘FBI: International’: Luke Kleintank on Saying Goodbye to Jamie, [Spoiler]’s Recovery & More

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the FBI: International Season 3 premiere “June.”]

The good news: The entire Fly Team survived that explosion that took out their offices. The bad news: FBI: International Season 3 still begins with them saying goodbye to everyone.

In the aftermath of the explosion and tracking down the man who planted the bomb (and getting him to turn on his boss), the agent most injured is Raines (Carter Redwood), who saved Powell’s (Greg Hovanessian) life and ended up pinned under rubble; it’s touch and go, and it looks like he might lose his leg, but thanks to a call from Jubal (FBI‘s Jeremy Sisto) to get a surgeon to the hospital, he just has a long recovery ahead of him before he’ll be back out in the field.

And that’s a good thing, since Jamie (Heida Reed) decides she’s leaving and transferring to the Washington field office. Though Scott (Luke Kleintank) tries to convince her to give him a few days, she says it’s done. “When my sister took her own life, at the memorial service, I made a promise I’d live my life for both of us, and even though I checked a lot of that list, served my country, traveled, fell in love, I ran away, from my mom, from my grief. It’s time to go back home,” she explains.

And so Scott sees Jamie off at the train. If she ever had to say goodbye to someone, she wanted it to be at a train station after seeing it in a movie, she admits. Does she want him to run along the platform as it leaves, bang on the window, and beg her not to leave, he asks. With that, FBI: International says goodbye to Jamie. (But hey, at least she’s still alive!)

Kleintank opens up about Scott losing Jamie, Raines’ recovery, bringing Amanda Tate (Christina Wolfe) onto the team, and more.

Scott was completely blindsided when Jamie announced she was leaving and asked her to give him a few days. Did he want to convince her to stay or did he just need more time to wrap his head around her leaving because of what she means to him personally and professionally?

Luke Kleintank: I think it’s a mixture of both. I think he’s gotten used to her as one, a part of the team, and two, just a person in his life to confide in and trust in. You don’t get that very often, especially in your work life or your personal life. So I think it was a part of him wanting to convince her to stay, but a part of him knew that she had to go. And so he respects her wishes, but ultimately, I think if it was his way, he probably would’ve had her stay. But he knows that she needed to do this for her, and it’s her journey in life.

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Talk about filming Scott and Jamie’s goodbye at the train station.

Yeah, that was bittersweet. It’s just one of those things, they could have been together. It’s sad, but I don’t know, it’s kind of that Notebook moment, I guess.

Speaking of their personal relationship, did he think they might have a future, might find their way back to each other?

I don’t know. That’s a tough question. I feel like maybe. There would’ve always been that potential. I don’t know if he would’ve been the one to push it forward, but if it happened, I don’t think he would’ve contested. I think that’s my answer: Maybe.

Jamie tells Scott to go easy on himself and that not everything he carries needs to be carried. Is that something he’ll take to heart going forward? Is he ready to do that?

I mean, it’s nice advice to hear, and I think he knows that deep down inside himself as well. But I think he thrives on carrying things. That’s just his nature, and I think there may be sometimes where he listens in certain moments. That’s just who he is. I think he carries a lot and he doesn’t know any other way.

There’s also what Jamie means to Scott professionally because she was the one he relied on. How big of an adjustment is it for him to not have her around in that capacity?

I think the relationships with Vinessa [Vidotto]’s character Vo, Carter’s Raines, and Smitty [Eva-Jane Willis]—they’ve all been together for a while now—all fill that void a lot. Had it been early days, Season 1, where Vinessa’s character was new, Carter’s character was new, and Smitty wasn’t around, I think it would’ve been hard for him. But I think now, because the team is picking up what everybody’s putting down, it’s okay.

But Jaeger (Christiane Paul) would’ve been around in Season 1, so that would’ve helped, too.

Yeah, absolutely. And it was hard for him to see Jaeger go, too. It’s definitely hard for him. I think it affects him professionally and emotionally, but he can move. He’s that kind of guy. He can compartmentalize everything and move forward.

Nelly Kiss/CBS

And the good news is that Raines is alive. He didn’t lose his leg. He is going to be back. But he does have this long recovery ahead of him. How much are we going to see of that? Or is there going to be a time jump?

Carter called me after he read the original script, and he was like, “Man, I can’t keep reading this. I gotta stop.” He had to put the script down and kind of have a moment to himself because he thought that he was either going to die or he was going to be a paraplegic for the rest of the season. But thank God he does recover, and there is going to be somewhat of a time jump pretty quickly. We can’t have Raines in a wheelchair the entire season. That’s just not going to work.

Also because it’s a shorter season.

Yeah, that’s true. It’s a shorter season, but also too, it’s a Fly Team and he’s an integral part of being out in the field and running around and being a badass. So I feel like we can’t have him in the hospital the whole time.

At what point did Scott realize he wanted Tate on the team?

I think after she kind of proves herself, she shows that she’s a solid agent, and she’s efficient at what she does within the chaos. It’s asking a lot of someone, especially after what they’re all going through as a team, and they were just literally blown up. So the fact that she holds her cool together and she can hold her weight and stay up with him toe to toe during all that, I think that’s when he realizes she’s Fly Team material.

FBI: International, Tuesdays, 9/8c, CBS