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‘FBI’: Shantel VanSanten Teases Nina and Scola’s Future Following Undercover Operation (Exclusive)

VanSanten spoke to PopCulture.com about what could be next for couple Nina Chase and Stuart Scola.
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NEW YORK – AUGUST 8: Love Is Blind When an officer is shot dead at a pawn shop along with the stores owner, the team tries to figure out why a young, recent Ivy League dropout is tied to the crime, on the CBS Original Series FBI, Tuesday, Sept. 27 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+. Pictured (L-R): John Boyd as Special Agent Stuart Scola and Shantel VanSanten as Nina Chase. (Photo by Bennett Raglin/CBS via Getty Images)

Shantel VanSanten returned to in tonight’s episode and she spoke to PopCulture.com about what could be next for Nina and Scola. The duo went undercover as a married couple deep in the diamond game after a retired FBI agent is tortured and killed. This is definitely a different side of Nina and Scola than fans are used to seeing, but VanSanten loved playing off that dynamic with John Boyd.

“For both of us, we talked about how much we love playing undercover because there’s these me, Shantel, this is going to be mind-blowing, is playing a fake character who’s also playing a character,” VanSanten explained. “And so there’s these capabilities that I have to pretend to have and knowledge I have to pretend to have to be Nina. And then Nina has to pretend to have in order or not have. A lot of what I would think are her strengths is not something that she can present in undercover situations. Most of the time, she needs to play like, whoa, oh my gosh, there’s a gun. A little bit more ignorant, let’s say, for lack of a better word, of her capabilities. And that part is really interesting to play into, for me and for John, there are different reasons, but there gets to be a lot of looks between them, like these knowing looks that the other characters wouldn’t know what it’s really about, that were really fun to play.”

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“Best Laid Plans” – When a retired FBI agent is tortured and killed while working a security job, Scola and Nina (FBI: MOST WANTED) go undercover as a married couple deep in the diamond game as the team tries to find out who is responsible. During the course of his and Nina’s dangerous assignment, Scola is plagued by the possibility that their son Doug could end up parentless, on FBI, Tuesday, April 16 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on-demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on-demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the episode airs). Pictured (L-R): Shantel VanSanten as Special Agent Nina Chase and John Boyd as Special Agent Stuart Scola. Photo: Bennett Raglin/CBS ©2024 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Since it sounds like it was fun to play a married couple, albeit undercover, could fans expect Nina and Scola to really walk down the aisle at some point in the future? VanSanten admitted she tends “to go against any convention or expectation that society or pop culture places.” 

She continued, “I’ve never seen Game of Thrones. I don’t subscribe to watching The Bachelor, Bachelorette. I tend to go against it, and I think that they’re a very unconventional couple who, at the moment, they’re very focused on the baby and, the life that they’re living, and the relationship that they’re growing as parents. But I’m not in the writer’s room, and we get handed episodes, and you’re constantly surprised. So I wouldn’t put it against them that someday there might be, but I think their focus at the moment is just their home life and Dougie and being new parents.”

It is a bit early to start thinking about that kind of future, especially since the two were just fighting over parenting styles in last week’s . The two of them seem to be in a good place right now as they navigate being new parents. With the FBIs coming back next season, you never know what could happen. In the meantime, new episodes of FBI air on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.