Isobel's FBI Season 8 Hero Sacrifice Is To Blame For OA's Departure

In FBI season 8, episode 22, "Defector," Anna Vorpe returned as the head of NSA. Her encounter with 26 Fed was purely coincidental, as Isobel's team happened to respond to hijacking that was apparently part of a covert operation. Throughout the hour, OA, Maggie, Scola, and Eva were forced to play nice with Vorpe and her team, until they were betrayed at the end and forced to forge their reports after she, with the support of newly appointed ADIC Lawrence Green, wanted to cover up a bio-attack in the middle of Manhattan that resulted in multiple deaths. Understandably, OA argued against it, which led to his firing by Isobel's boss.

Isobel Previously Turned Down The ADIC Position In FBI Season 8

The major twist at the end of "Defector" was that getting booted out of the team and recruited by Vorpe was part of Isobel and Maggie's plan to take down the rogue law enforcement team. Per showrunner Mike Weiss (via TVLine), FBI season 9 will stick with this plan, as it would be months of Zeeko Zaki going undercover with the strike team. While it makes for an interesting storytelling future, the situation with Vorpe didn't have to get this serious that OA had to go out and risk his life to take her down if only Isobel accepted the ADIC job earlier in the year.

For context, due to her actions in the FBI season 7 finale and the circumstances of the organization, Isobel was offered the job to be ADIC. She decided against moving up, however, when she learned that Jubal wasn't going to be her successor, she decided to stay put. While this allowed the core team to stay together, as she has remained involved in the day-to-day operations of the team, it set up the arrival of Green, who, at least based on the FBI season 8 finale, isn't exactly cut from the same cloth as them when it comes to principles of handling the job.

How Isobel Being ADIC Could Have Prevented FBI Season 8 Finale's Catastrophe

One notable conversation in "Defector" involved Maggie and OA rushing to Isobel about their grievances with Vorpe. The current SAC agreed with their issues but reasoned that she had already tried sounding the alarm on her. At this point, the only thing that could take her down would be a silver bullet. What made this worse was when they all got into the room, Green sided with Vorpe taking the lead on the case.

Had Isobel been the ADIC in FBI season 8, not only would she have more professional powers, the team wouldn't need to deal with her current boss. Instead of arguing for the team and being, ultimately, kept in the dark about the status of the bus, she would have had more access to information that would have made it easier for them to take down Vorpe. At the very least, she would have been able to properly vouch for her team instead of being forced to follow by Green.

While there are theories that Green may actually be in on the scheme for OA to infiltrate Vorpe's operations, the way the final scenes of the FBI season 8 finale unfolded heavily suggested that only he, Maggie, and Isobel were aware of the scheme. Even Jubal, Scola, and Eva were kept out of the loop, not because they wanted to, but out of necessity. The fewer people knew, the higher the chances of its success.

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