FBI: Most Needed – 68 Seconds – Overview: Impotent Rage

“68 Seconds” – FBI: MOST WANTED, Photo: (L-R): Wendy Moniz as Judge April Brooks and Dylan McDermott as Supervisory Special Agent Remy Scott. Photo: CBS ©2025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Judge April, Remy’s ex, is sexually assaulted in the back of a van. Her rapist tells her, “If you fight, you die. Tell anyone you die.” The viewer next sees Remy rejecting a call from April, but she keeps calling. When he finally answers her call, she tells him she’s been raped. Viewers immediately know it’s up to Remy to make sure the rapist doesn’t make good on his threat and that April doesn’t die.

When Judge April and Remy meet, she doesn’t want a rape kit, saying, “I’m a judge, not a victim.” What? Fortunately, she does the rape kit, but it is how that scene was framed and shot that was particularly arresting (pun intended). There is a close shot of the tray with all the kit’s tools – the swab, the speculum, etc. Then, there is a closeup of the actress’s pained face. This emotional high point happens early on. How this sensitive issue is handled throughout the episode is commendable but ultimately feels like a missed opportunity.

For example, Remy Scott, in typical fashion, beefs with the local police, Detective Tyler Jackson (Matthew Russell), by accusing him of not connecting April’s case to others that occurred in the area in the last year. He calls in his team. It’s noteworthy to this viewer that only the female special agents, Nina Chase (Shantel VanSanten), Sheryll Barnes (Roxy Sternberg), and Hana Gibson (Keisha Castle-Hughes), are available to help. This fact is not noteworthy to their boss, Remy. The other task force member, Special Agent Ray Cannon (Edwin Hodge), stayed in New York because of his father’s illness.

“68 Seconds” – FBI: Most Needed. Picture: (L-R): Keisha Fortress-Hughes as Particular Agent Hana Gibson and Dylan McDermott as Supervisory Particular Agent Remy Scott. Picture: Mark Schafer/CBS ©2024 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Based mostly on the DNA evaluation, the ladies of the Fugitive Process Pressure discovered that the rapist had been victimizing girls for over a decade. The perpetrator eludes seize largely due to systemic points surrounding the dealing with of rape kits. The grim actuality is that many kits stay untested for years, if in any respect. The all-female squad expresses impotent rage over this truth, then drives residence the prevalence of sexual assault by sharing statistics and extra.

“68 Seconds” – FBI: Most Wanted, Photo: Shantel VanSanten as Special Agent Nina Chase. Photo: Mark Schafer/CBS ©2024 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

Nina quotes, “Rape occurs every 68 seconds in America.” Sheryll contributes, “One out of every three women is a victim of assault.” As a viewer, I immediately think of three women in the car; which one will speak up? The car goes silent. All the women look tense and resigned. Finally, Hana confesses, “I was 15…” Nina declares, “It happened my sophomore year at a club.” Sheryll admits to being victimized while “celebrating getting accepted into the NYPD.” One out of three became three out of three, painting a harrowing picture of the ubiquity of this crime.

“68 Seconds” – FBI: Most Needed. Picture: (L-R): Roxy Sternberg as Particular Agent Sheryll Barnes and Dylan McDermott as Supervisory Particular Agent Remy Scott. Picture: Mark Schafer/CBS ©2024 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 One thing about this second felt pressured and, thus, a bit of false. May the writers have felt this, too? They turned to Remy to shed a special gentle on this severe problem. Remy, the king of impotent rage, operates all through this episode out of intense anger and frustration to maintain at bay the emotions of his personal powerlessness.

Viewers ought to take note of his dialog with the top of campus safety, Lucia Torres (Maggie Bofill), who desires to recruit him. She tells him you continue to get to hold a gun, however you gained’t need to cope with the ‘worst of the worst.’ Remy replies, “I do this job because of the worst of the worst.” He continues to expertise overwhelming feelings of anger, helplessness, and sorrow as a result of he can not undo or stop the hurt that has been carried out.

This sense of impotence is deeply distressing, as seen when he tells Hana about visiting an artwork set up in Philadelphia. The exhibit, consisting of 1,000 pairs of fight boots, symbolically represented souls misplaced to battle. This expertise was significantly affecting, leaving him feeling a sure approach. What approach? I suppose the viewer can fill within the emotional clean. Nonetheless, Remy compares how he felt at this exhibit to how he felt when he discovered “trophies”—gadgets” taken from victims—within the rapist’s residence.

“68 Seconds” – FBI: Most Needed. Picture: (L-R): Roxy Sternberg as Particular Agent Sheryll Barnes, Keisha Fortress-Hughes as Particular Agent Hana Gibson, Dylan McDermott as Supervisory Particular Agent Remy Scott, and Shantel VanSanten as Particular Agent Nina Chase. Picture: Mark Schafer/CBS ©2024 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

“68 Seconds” is a median FBI Most Needed episode with a well-intentioned script and course. Sadly, the episode falls quick in its execution because the present’s core actors delivered performances with minimal emotional vary. Whereas this method works for many episodes, I discovered it detracting from the present’s potential impression, given the intensely private connection the Fugitive Process Pressure members needed to the crime. In the event you watched, I’m positive you discovered some affecting scenes, however in case you didn’t watch and select to not stream it, you gained’t miss out on something groundbreaking.

 Am I fallacious about this episode? How did you are feeling watching “68 Seconds”? Do you are feeling like Nina, Sheryll, and Hana’s relationship will change due to their revelations?

Total Score: 

5:10