Procedural dramas rarely bring characters back without a reason, and the return of a fan-favourite investigator within weeks suggests the writers had a storyline waiting for exactly this. Whether that plan was written years ago or assembled after audience pressure is less important than how it lands on screen. Reintroducing a familiar figure is easy, but making the return feel earned is harder. Audiences remember why they liked the character, and they expect the writing to acknowledge the gap rather than pretending nothing happened. The best versions of this pattern give the returning character something to want that conflicts with the team's current priorities, so that the reunion produces friction instead of a warm welcome. Fans will be watching closely for that. If the show manages it, the episode will feel like a payoff. If it does not, the comeback will read as fan service, which is a much cheaper kind of satisfaction and one that rarely lasts beyond a single week's conversation.
That's especially true forShantel VanSanten's Nina Chase, the lone agent from the Fugitive Task Force whose future was left open-ended afterMost Wanted's for obvious reasons. Chase's relationship withFBI's Stuart Scola (John Boyd) has given her plenty of reasonto keep crossing overinto the mothership series for business and personal reasons. Season 9 is now officially welcoming her back for a new mission that will team her up with her domestic partner in the field to catch a Most Wanted criminal. She'sset to return in Episode 7, "Posterity," airing on November 16.
Four of the largest communities on the planet, and four completely different reasons to belong to one. Here is yours, what it would give you, and the argument you would be having within a week.
You belong to the fandom that is really about comfort. Hogwarts works on people because it is a place rather than a plot, and the pull is not the wizard war so much as the corridors, the food, the weather and the sense that somebody is expecting you.
You belong to the deepest fandom on this list, the one where somebody has always read further than you and is quietly delighted to say so. Middle-earth rewards patience more than any other world in popular culture.
You belong to the loudest and largest tent of the four, the one where three generations are all watching the same thing and none of them agree about any of it. That disagreement is not a flaw in this fandom, it is the main activity.
You belong to the thinking fandom, the one that turns up for the argument rather than the explosion. Trek has always been a series of ethical problems in space, and the people who love it love being asked what they would have done.
To set the stage, CBS has released four new images from the episode that show "Scolina" back in action. Their investigation takes them from the field office into an art museum with guns drawn to capture an imminent threat. They're even shown questioning someone together in a workshop,looking like the perfect FBI pair. Their mission in question is to track down a killer who has murdered an online influencer, but was fortunately captured by one of the agency's cameras. With only a limited time until he disappears once again, the bureau will need to rely on Chase's expertise inhandling crooks on the Most Wanted listto find him through the footage and cut off his escape.
'FBI' Is Going As Strong As Ever in Season 9
VanSanten's return will add to what's already beena very eventful seasonfor the New York field office. Season 9 began where Season 8 left off — with a "fired" OA (Zeeko Zaki) going deep undercover with the dangerous Anna Vorpe (Claire Coffee). The first three episodes followed his and the team's efforts tobring her down from the inside, which required OA to venture into a morally gray realm and do things he was far from comfortable with to keep up his cover. Evenafter Vorpe is finally arrested, he's still dealing with the guilt and weight of working with her, despite help from Maggie (Missy Peregrym) and his fellow teammates. That climactic opening has done wonders for the show, though, which premiered among the top-ten most-watched programs on broadcast television with 8.93 million viewers during a colossal CBS premiere week.
FBISeason 9, Episode 7 airs on September 16. Check out the images from "Posterity" in the gallery above.
