‘FBI’ Season 1, Episode 3 ‘Prey’ Recap: A Snake Among Eves

FBI’s latest episode puts terrorism on hold as the special force aims to help a young girl who literally dug herself out of her grave. What they had thought to be a serial killer case turned out to be bigger than they could have anticipated.

“Prey” follows special agents Maggie Bell (Missy Peregrym) and OA Zidan (Zeeko Zaki) take on a case in search for a bogus employment agency that scams young girls from Ukraine to turn into sex workers against their will. Already claiming the lives of 18 girls, they are determined to find the other approximate 50, including the survivor’s sister whom she brought with her from Ukraine.

Back from the dead

A strange noise interrupts a father-daughter argument that compels daddy to leave the house and investigate for himself. When he steps outside, a bruised and bleeding girl runs into his arms begging for his help. He yells at his family to call 911. Meanwhile, police follow the blood trail she left behind. It led them to a grave site with 18 shallow graves divided into rows and columns.  The FBI respond immediately.

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The victims were killed in a span of 3 years, and by the looks of his gravesite, Maggie was sure the killer was smart and methodical. All the victims had the same patch of skin ripped from them, which may be a common mark they share that the killer doesn’t want to risk anyone seeing.

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Maggie and OA speak to the survivor Hailey, who reveals that she’s been trafficked to the US by a bogus employment agency with her sister Brooke. She tells them about her boss Snake, the man who sexually assaulted her and tried to kill her. Like the other 18 girls, she was stabbed almost 30 times, and the same patch of skin was removed from her. Snake got cocky and left her, assuming she was dead. She says that she was punished because she asked a client named John to call 911 to help her sister Brooke, who was sick at the time.

Maggie and OA obtain the call and find the caller behind it to get a location as to where the traffickers operated the business. It led the team to a townhouse where they find abandoned sleeping places in the basement. Maggie also finds a wall of drawings and illustrations made by the girls with makeup. They also discover an operating room where they gave a few of the girls’ breast implants.

Slithering Evil

They ask Hailey about the doctor who may have performed the operations. All she knew that he was kind and old. They get a match on a doctor. When they get to his apartment building, his body comes falling on top of their car. They search the building for Snake. Maggie gets into a total showdown with him, which she unfortunately lost. They did, however, get his DNA.

They identified him as Stepan Tsarko, and his cousin Oleg Tsarko ran the employment agency. They searched Stepan’s apartment and found the missing patched of skin in a box. They also found out that his apartment was right across the burial site. Sadistic asshole. The sex work operation was financed by Jacob Roscha, the man who owned the properties. A photo found in the apartment also proved that the realtor Eliza Holliman was in on the operation as well.

Sting the snake

Through a sting operation acted out by Jubal (Jeremy Sisto), they catch Snake. Maggie interrogates him and gets him to confess to the crimes indirectly. In exchange for witness protection, Maggie asks for the location of the other girls. They get word on the house and move immediately and find the girls in a basement.

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In her personal mission, Maggie finds Brooke, Hailey’s sister, and assures her that her sister is safe. They reunite in the hospital where Maggie calls Hailey a fighter and credits her for the rescue of the other girls.

‘FBI’ Season 1, Episode 3 ‘Prey’ Overall Verdict

This episode may be just enough proof that this series gets better and better as it progresses. The show finally strayed away from the sensationalized terrorist situations to an issue that is not often covered by mainstream news media. The media’s interest to broadcast serial killer stories over sex trafficking stories could not have a better analogy as Jubal Valentine put it, “50 people a year get attacked by sharks, 300,000 get attacked by dogs, yet every year what do we have? Shark week.” The series may be fiction, but that part, unfortunately, is true. With the emotionally invoking episode FBI has put out this week, it will be truly impressive if they think of something even more clever for the next episode.

FBI returns with “Crossfires,” next Tuesday, October 16th at 9/8 c on CBS.