FBI’s Zeeko Zaki Teases a ‘Little Action Movie’ for OA/Gemma, Shares Early Buzz on FBI: CIA Spinoff Pilot

This week on CBS‘ FBI (Tuesday, 8/7c), a romantic getaway for OA and Gemma goes off the rails — perhaps literally? — due to the actions of a team of hijackers.

In the 14th episode of Season 7, titled “Hitched,” Special Agent Omar Adom “OA” Zidan (played by original cast member Zeeko Zaki) and his girlfriend of over a year, Gemma Brooks (Billions‘ Comfort Clinton, in her sixth FBI appearance), are heading to Niagara Falls on a passenger train when it is hijacked and rerouted.

While the FBI team races to somehow prevent a catastrophe, will OA, though unarmed, do what he can to neutralize the threat on-site? TVLine spoke with Zaki about getting his “Die Hard episode,” and the evolving state of #TheFBIs’ universe.

TVLINE | I love me a “Die Hard on a ____.” When you first heard about the premise for this episode, were you jazzed?
I was super excited. It was so clearly this, like, little action movie that we were going to do. The prep for it began months in advance, to do the train and things like that, so there was a lot of excitement around shooting this little action movie inside of the season.

TVLINE | Now, where and how did you shoot it?
We were on a stage. We had two compartments of a train built on one of our stages, and we spent four days inside of this dark hole, on this train set. It was super cool.

TVLINE | It’s set up at the beginning that OA and Gemma are “unplugged” for this vacation. He left his gun at home, she left behind her work phone. Once the drama unfolds, is this a case where OA, without his gun, is going to have to use his brain as much as his brawn?
Yes, and it’s very cool how we did it. I was so exciting to play it, because for the first time in seven years, I wasn’t OA. I didn’t have the gun. I didn’t have the vest. It was very interesting, having to lie about my job [to the hijackers] and things like that, to play these little notes….

TVLINE | “I’m a lawyer. I have experience negotiating things like this.”
Exactly. Exactly. It was really cool to get to play these different notes, because as much as I love the structure of our show… it’s not that we make the same movie every week, but we try to make a show that if it’s the only episode you watch, you get all the information you need in case you don’t see any of the other ones. Here, it was kind of cool to get to hit different marks.

TVLINE | As I was watching this, it dawned on me, “Oh hey, that’s Stephen Hill from Magnum, P.I.” “Hey, that’s Raphael Sbarge from Once Upon a Time.” Talk about this guest cast you got to work with.
That was the coolest part, when I met the whole cast. I’ve met Stephen before — we did a press tour for [FBI and Magnum] Season 1 in Europe, and we clicked so well, so I was really excited. He’s a good friend. But that was the craziest part of it, it’s a whole different guest cast. We had, like, 10 guest stars, from all different levels in their career and things like that. And when you work for four days with the same people, you really feel like you’re kind of doing a different show, really. They were all so fun to work with, it made it so refreshing. It was such a pleasure.

TVLINE | Your occasional leading lady, Comfort Clinton, does really nice work with the more harrowing scenes.
Yes, yes, yes, yes. It was her meatiest episode for us, for sure. I was just so proud of her, getting to watch her carry, pretty much, the other half of the episode with me. Everyone killed it.

TVLINE | Without spoiling much of anything, OA at one point is kind of dangling between two train cars. How did you shoot that? Was everything standing perfectly still and they just enhanced it with visual effects?
Well, no. We had two platforms — our train platform and then the facing door-and-panel kind of thing — and the crew started moving it, adding smoke with fans and kind of as much excitement as we could do safely. But it felt real. Getting to see some of the special effects edits, I feel like we definitely did it justice.

TVLINE | It’s really well done.
Yeah, I’m so excited. They ended up had to push it a week to be able to really take the time with the special effects. So, I’m really happy to hear you say that.

TVLINE | It’s interesting times in the FBI universe, with Most Wanted and International ending. Is there anybody on either of those shows you wish you’d gotten a chance to work with more?
I would’ve loved to do a few more crossovers and get to work with the entirety of the cast and stuff like that, so I’m a little sad about that. I’ve always been jealous of our International cast and crew that get to film over in Europe. But we’ll see. Who knows? Maybe there will be opportunities for me to work with all of them in the future. Their worlds will stay alive regardless of the shows.

TVLINE | That’s true. Just because the shows are ending, that doesn’t mean that a Vinessa Vidotto or Jesse Lee Soffer couldn’t pop up on FBI.
Right, right, right. We stay positive and hope for everyone to get as much work as possible.

TVLINE | It seems like FBI has finally locked onto a new partner for Scola. Does Emily Alabi (S.W.A.T., Magnum P.I.) debut soon after this train episode?
She does. She does. I’m really excited to see that character grow and where all that leads. She’s been great, such a pleasure to work with.

TVLINE | Is there anything specific about her character that distinguishes her from the other agents?
We all have our own “special sauce,” and hers is definitely getting fleshed out and figured out now. And then we’ll see how the chemistry grows.

TVLINE | Have you seen the script yet for the FBI: CIA backdoor pilot?
I have! I saw a few sides. A buddy of mine auditioned for it, so I got to see some of the writing, and it’s really, really, really strongly written. With the banter between the [FBI and CIA] agents, it’s going to be a different dynamic. It’s going to be really cool.

TVLINE | Lastly, what are you hearing about this year’s FBI season finale?
Nothing yet. All I’ve heard is some big-scale things for Episode 20 (of 22), which will be really exciting. I think they have a lot on their hands right now with everything going on behind the scenes, but we’ll see what that script looks like soon, hopefully.

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