TV

FBI Season 8 Finally Reveals Isobel’s Fate: Is Alana De La Garza’s Boss Dead or Alive?

FBI Season 8 Finally Reveals Isobel’s Fate: Is Alana De La Garza’s Boss Dead or Alive?
Image credit: Legion-Media

FBI stormed back from its summer hiatus on October 13, and the Season 8 premiere wastes no time tackling Season 7’s cliffhanger: did Alana De La Garza’s Isobel survive after collapsing with no pulse?

FBI finally came back after the long summer break, dropping its Season 8 premiere on October 13 on CBS. If you remember, Season 7 ended on a nasty cliffhanger with Alana De La Garza's Isobel collapsing and, uh, not having a pulse. So yeah, the big question going in: is Isobel alive? The show makes you wait for it.

So... is Isobel alive?

Yes. Isobel does not die in Season 8. She survives a high-risk surgery after a brain bleed, but the episode really drags out the reveal. We do not get an answer at the start. Instead, we hear early on from her husband Phillip (Tom Cavanagh) that she needs an emergency craniotomy and the odds are not great. Only at the very end does Jubal (Jeremy Sisto) rush to the ICU and we learn she pulled through. Classic slow-play.

What the premiere actually follows

While everyone is sweating Isobel, the episode focuses on a different case that goes sideways fast and costs the team one of their own.

  • Cold open: a man who turns out to be a judge drives into a town. An armed guy stops him, asks what he is doing there. The judge shows a photo of a boy and asks if he has seen him. Instead of answering, the guy snatches the keys, and suddenly a whole group of armed people surrounds the judge.
  • Maggie (Missy Peregrym) and OA (Zeeko Zaki) pick up the case after the judge’s car is found. That search ends badly: they get taken hostage, and the judge is already dead.
  • Scola (John Boyd) and Dani Rhodes (Emily Alabi) come in as backup and manage to get Maggie and OA out of it.
  • Then the gut punch: Dani collapses. She dies from blood loss caused by a gunshot wound, with Scola right there with her. It is a rough way to start a new season.
  • Meanwhile, Isobel’s condition is kept off-screen until the last beat. Earlier, Phillip’s update to Jubal lays out the emergency brain surgery. By the end, Jubal bolts to the ICU, and we finally find out she made it through the operation.

Bottom line

Isobel lives. Dani does not. The Season 8 premiere holds the Isobel answer until the final moments, while delivering a major loss for the team and setting up emotional fallout for Scola. It is a big opener with a bait-and-switch that actually lands.