This week’s providing from FBI: Most Wished makes an attempt to weave a darkish story of a hospital orderly turned mass assassin. His pathology? A extreme sufferer mentality, fueled by a lifetime of perceived slights.
Whereas the premise had potential, the execution was clumsy. The story by no means dipped beneath the floor to discover the humanity of this character, making it exhausting to take significantly. Even making him the daddy of a loving adolescent son didn’t redeem him. Let’s evaluation.
The opening hospital scene turned out to be the episode’s excessive level, capturing the chaos of an emergency room in a means that rivals the very best medical dramas. A pregnant girl bleeds from her eyes and ears whereas her husband watches, helpless, because the hospital staff fails to save lots of her. That’s the heightened drama the remainder of the episode did not ship.
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| “Poisonous Habits” – FBI: MOST WANTED, Pictured: Roxy Sternberg as Particular Agent Sheryll Barnes, Shantel VanSanten as Particular Agent Nina Chase, and Edwin Hodge as Particular Agent Ray Cannon. Photograph: Mark Schafer/CBS ©2025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
The pregnant girl’s demise was the second unexplained demise that day, prompting the Fugitive Process Drive to analyze. Particular Agent Ray Cannon (Edwin Hodge) talks to the pregnant girl’s husband, Silas Durst (Jon McCormick), and learns that his spouse, Maisey, had been portray the nursery earlier than her demise. In the meantime, Supervisory Particular Agent Remy Scott (Dylan McDermott) and Particular Agent Nina Chase (Shantel VanSanten) rush to talk with the widow of the opposite sufferer, Carlos Hernandez, who was additionally engaged on a reworking mission.
That connection leads the FBI to a ironmongery shop, the place free lemonade had been handed out. Remy discovers a puncture mark in a water container, which is collected for testing. The outcomes verify the presence of a lethal poison—DMM.
Basketball gamers, poisoned in a park, die at St. Michaels. Remy deduces that poisoners are uncommon and tough to catch, and his staff can’t fairly work out whether or not their unsub (unknown suspect) is concentrating on particular victims or selecting them at random. Translation: How the hell are they going to catch this man?
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| “Poisonous Habits” – FBI: MOST WANTED, Pictured: Dylan McDermott as Supervisory Particular Agent Remy Scott. Photograph: Mark Schafer/CBS ©2025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
The physique rely at St. Michaels climbs to 6. Remy causes that the killer will need to have hospital ties. Particular Brokers Ray Cannon and Sheryll Barnes (Roxy Sternberg) discuss to hospital employees to find out if anybody with an axe to grind could be accountable.
One ER physician sums up the state of American healthcare: “The wheels are coming off the bus.” Translation: Everybody has an axe to grind. Ray and Sheryll’s investigation is abruptly interrupted when a person collapses in Ray’s arms, spewing blood throughout him earlier than dying.
CCTV footage leads Nina and Ray to a graffiti artist, who supplies a sketch of their suspect. In the meantime, the killer sends a $10 million ransom demand embedded in a cipher. Remy, naturally, delights in deciphering it.
The message: “I put on many hats, however not on my head. The FBI tried to assist, however the gamers are useless.”
With this, the FBI rapidly ascertains that the killer—white male, 40s—is Cormac McClure, a hospital orderly. When Remy and Sheryll query Cormac’s father, Dr. Franklin McClure (Ian Blackman), he paints his son as deeply flawed—somebody who struggles with self-worth, blames others for his station in life, and overdramatizes insignificant occasions—aka somebody with a ‘sufferer mentality.’
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| “Poisonous Habits” – FBI: MOST WANTED, Pictured: Roxy Sternberg as Particular Agent Sheryll Barnes. Photograph: Mark Schafer/CBS ©2025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
Then comes the unlikeliest detective of all of them—Cormac’s 13-year-old son, Jason (Judah Mackey). He unravels his father’s sinister scheme: poisoning random folks to demand a $10 million ransom. A shallow plot, courtesy of a shallow motivation.
Jason challenges his father with logic, asking: “All of the folks killed—did they damage you? How is that this serving to?”
Cormac’s glib response? “We’ll be wealthy. But when we don’t get the cash, they’ll nonetheless pay with their lives. We win both means.”
Finally, the Fugitive Process Drive tracks Cormac’s location through Jason’s telephone. Cue the requisite, end-of-episode chase. The FBI kills Cormac in entrance of his son, who grabs the poison his father deliberate to make use of in an act of revenge in opposition to an condominium complicated that rejected him. Jason spirals into nihilism, crying, “Nothing issues!”
Ray holsters his weapon and approaches him. “Every little thing issues,” he tells Jason, giving him a selection: give up the poison or spend his life behind bars—or worse. The latter, in fact, isn’t what his father would need. Jason relents, handing over the poison, and is embraced by Ray.
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| “Poisonous Habits” – FBI: MOST WANTED, Pictured (L-R): Shantel VanSanten as Particular Agent Nina Chase and Edwin Hodge as Particular Agent Ray Cannon. Photograph: Mark Schafer/CBS ©2025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
Now, right here’s the place the storytelling failed: the showrunner opted for “telling” as a substitute of “displaying.” Cormac’s motivations would’ve landed tougher if we noticed him being denied his condominium, shoved round on the subway, or mistreated by his boss. These are the flimsy excuses he affords to justify his actions—so why not make the viewers ‘see’ them?
Tv is a visible medium. A number of fast edits illustrating Cormac’s distorted worldview may have saved the episode from devolving right into a cartoonish portrayal of a killer with a sufferer complicated. As a substitute, the narrative felt compelled, the plot skinny, and any deeper psychological or ethical complexities missed. What we received as a substitute was clichés and melodrama that probably left viewers disconnected and unimpressed.
Finally, “Poisonous Habits” tries to marry its crime procedural roots with a compelling research of psychopathology—however it stumbles. Provided that well-balanced storytelling is FBI: Most Wished’s bread and butter, this lack of nuance and depth makes for a forgettable watch. The episode may’ve been higher. Because it stands—thumbs down (barely).
What did you consider the McClure’s household dynamic? Let me know within the feedback.
General Score
5/10
Lynette Jones