‘FBI’ Star John Boyd on Scola’s Closure With His Late Brother After ‘Carrying’ Grief (Exclusive)

The FBI winter premiere was an intense and emotional episode that included closure for Scola, and John Boyd told PopCulture.com how the FBI agent will move forward. In the episode “Descent,” an investigation into an assistant U.S. attorney’s death “leads the team to a related airline whistleblower scandal and the chilling discovery that they don’t have much time to thwart terrorists from crashing numerous in-flight commercial airplanes. Dealing with the memory of his brother, who was a 9/11 victim, the case pushes Scola hard to prevent another catastrophe.”

With the episode calling back to 9/11 and Scola’s brother, Boyd was able to dig deeper into his past and really explore his grief. The series has occasionally brought up Scola’s brother, such as naming Scola and Nina’s baby after him. For Boyd, over the seven seasons of FBI, he says his favorite part about bringing up his backstory and brother “was getting to play and discover that type of grief and a loss when you’re getting closure, when you’re having a moment of closure around the loss of a loved one, and you experience them and their presence and who they are as though they’re saying hi, as though they’re in the room. You know what I mean? People say it’s like they call it a music from someone.”

“But it’s getting to feel so clearly who they were, it’s almost like that resolution is his brother saying, both of those happening at the same time that you can experience of grief and sadness and all those years of carrying that and the confusion and a resolution at the same time as, ‘Oh, there you are, you silly bastard,’” Boyd explained. “You know? ‘Oh, hello.’ People often experience someone, and they’ll say, ‘Oh, it was so him. It was so them. It was like my mom was right there.’ It was like getting to tell that type of human experience in our show was something I haven’t got to do yet, so I really enjoyed that.”

As far as the grief goes, Scola was able to get some closure. At the beginning of the episode, it was revealed that he had gotten a letter from the mayor’s office but had yet to open it in two months. But in the final minutes, given the events of the day, Scola gave in and had Nina read it, which confirmed that his brother’s remains were identified. Even though Scola knew the answer prior to getting the letter, Boyd said, “Scola had wanted to know,” regardless.

“I think there was a point where he asked for this commission to search and look and find out if they would find out where his brother is,” he shared. “So, I think what he finds out is beautiful in that he gets to connect to his brother. And it’ll be interesting to see where that goes. I don’t know, but I think what it means for the character is just there’s a relief for him and that he doesn’t get to carry the grief that he feels for his brother and that experience in a different place because there’s now a part of him who’s been able to connect to him.”

Just because Scola was finally able to get his answer about his brother, this storyline won’t go away, as John Boyd thinks it “could go in many different directions” as far as the aftermath goes. “I’m interested in the new phase of grief, what to do, there are decisions to make now that we know that there’s remains or are there not remains? Or, what does one do with the pieces of his life? That’s interesting to see,” he said. “Or is there something lighter that he doesn’t have to carry anymore? Is he able to carry his brother’s memory in in a place that’s not as painful because it has a little more information?”

There is still a lot of Season 7 left to look forward to, as well as at least two more seasons of FBI, meaning there are endless possibilities as to what will be next and what else the show will dig into involving Scola. However, Boyd says that they’re already doing what he wants to do with Scola.

“I mean, there’s a really cool episode we’re doing now about Scola’s past,” Boyd teased. “We find out that he went to a military school upstate. His parents sent him as punishment to a military school. And there’s some really interesting, really dark storylines in that one that I’m getting to do. But, I’m doing it every day. I get to team up with Maggie and OA. Maybe there’s a partnership in the pipeline. We don’t know. But I’m getting to do it. Everything I wanna do.”

While Scola was finally able to get closure with his brother, it sounds like this is only just the beginning for him. It’s hard to tell what will happen next, but fans will want to tune in on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS to see what’s in store for Stuart Scola. FBI is also streaming on Paramount+.