As CBS' FBI Chief Reveals the Spy Thrillers That Inspired the Season 7 Premiere, John Boyd Talks 'Saying Goodbye' to a Cast Member

The hiatus since the end of season 6 of FBI with some seriously disturbing moments is almost over, as the hit CBS drama is set to return in the 2024 TV lineup on October 15. Season 7 will be a new era in more ways than one, with new showrunner Mike Weiss taking on the role previously held by Rick Eid and the outgoing Katherine Renee Kane as Agent Tiffany Wallace. Ahead of the premiere, Weiss and star John Boyd spoke with CinemaBlend about elements of the upcoming spy thriller and the Tiff/Scola farewell.

The Season 7 premiere is called “Abandoned” and will see the team involved in the case of a Brooklyn plumber whose murder doesn’t seem to fit in with his lifestyle. The drama will only escalate from there, all with Tiff not quite over the events of the Season 6 finale. (You can revisit the Season 6 finale with a Paramount+ subscription.) It feels like a great episode like the first of Mike Weiss’ era as FBI showrunner, and he even wrote the script. When I asked the new boss about writing the episode, he shared:

It was a dream assignment because you have six phenomenal series regulars that you can write for. Whenever we cut to any of these six people, it’s interesting, dynamic and never boring. And being able to collaborate with Alex Chapple, our production director, who directed the first episode of the season, was also a pleasure. We went back and forth on a lot of movie nerd references while creating the story.

Although Mike Weiss was new to FBI with season 7, that’s certainly not the case for director Alex Chapple, who has not only directed over twenty episodes of this show, but also episodes of shows like FBI: Most Wanted, Law and Order: SVU, Chicago Policeand Chicago Middle elsewhere in the Dick Wolf TV shared universe. It’s also not every week that FBI offers an episode that could qualify as a spy thriller, and Mike Weiss went on to share that as a goal for the premiere. He said:

It was an opportunity to do what I hope will be a very FBI episode, but also a propulsive spy thriller that our team finds themselves in. We start with the death of a modest plumber from a peripheral neighborhood, which makes no sense. The way he was killed is very sophisticated. It looks like he was murdered, but who would murder the plumber? And, of course, it turns out that the plumber is not what he seems to be, and a spy plot unfolds. I can’t believe they let us film. (laughs) It was really fun to write.

There’s no shortage of spy movies in the history of cinema, so there was one in particular that inspired Mike Weiss as he wrote “Abandoned” as FBIseason 7 premiere? I asked the showrunner exactly this question and he mentioned some names:

Definitely The Bourne Identity… The 70s paranoid thrillers, which are my absolute favorites. Three Days of the Condor and The Parallax View-type films where you have intelligent people in situations that, no matter how intelligent they are, they can’t figure out. This is incredibly fun to write.

However, the episode won’t just have the agents focusing on the case from the opening to the end credits, as “Abandoned” also says goodbye to Katherine Renee Kane as Tiff. Her departure wasn’t specifically foreshadowed in the Season 6 finale in the spring, but she certainly had a rough go of it.

Scola and Tiff in FBI season 7x01

(Image credit: Bennett Raglin/CBS)

Tiff and Scola have been partners for several seasons, unlike Maggie and OA’s partnership. With season 7, Scola faces the loss of his partner on top of everything he went through last season, including the tension with Nina. Actor John Boyd previewed what his character will look like when the hit drama returns:

Scola is a little in denial. I don’t think he’s really ready for what’s about to change in his world. He’s thinking maybe Tiff, this is nonsense about her leaving and not wanting to do the job anymore. I don’t think he really fully understands what’s going on in his world, but he ends up losing his partner and saying goodbye to a partner.

Well, there are worse ways to say goodbye in FBI world than by someone deciding they don’t want to keep doing the work (case in point: Jess LaCroix in FBI: Most Wanted), but that doesn’t mean Scola has to like it when it means losing her partner. Boyd continued:

It’s a big change for him. From here on out, him figuring out who he is as an agent and who is right for him and who is wrong for him as a partner will be (fun). It’s a fun, fun thing to explore.

FBI Warner Bros. won’t waste any time introducing Scola to a new partner, as the Season 7 Episode 2 description reveals he’ll be working to welcome the newcomer. Quickly aside, I think fans can be grateful that Tiff is back for at least the Season 7 premiere. When I asked the showrunner if there was any risk that Katherine Renee Kane would not be available to appear in the premiere, Mike Weiss explained:

There’s always a risk and things happen, but we really keep our fingers crossed, because she’s a great character, a great actress too, and the dynamic is really important, we think, between Scola and Tiff. It would have been a shame if we couldn’t give them a proper goodbye.

Waiting to see what FBI What’s in store for a “proper goodbye” is almost over, as the Season 7 premiere airs Tuesday, October 15 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. Like always, FBI will be followed by FBI: International at 9 p.m. ET, which welcomes a new protagonist with Chicago Police former student Jesse Lee Soffer. FBI: Most Wanted will end the night at 10pm ET. If you want to revisit previous episodes from all three series, you can find them streaming on Paramount+.