Aahana Swrup
In season 3 of ‘Absentia,’ Nick Durand faces an uncertain future after his investigation into an illegal organ harvesting ring leads to his abduction at the hands of a notorious European crime organization. While he’s being severely tortured in a Berlinian top-secret facility, Emily Byrne finds herself taking over the responsibility of locating and bringing back her ex-husband. However, instead of working to have her suspension from the Bureau lifted, the former agent chooses to strike out on her own, with the occasional help from an ally, and officially quits the FBI. Part of the reason behind this drastic career decision stems from Emily’s inability to extend her trust to the agency. From the beginning, her attempts to trick or outsmart Meridian, the syndicate responsible for Nick’s kidnapping, continue to fall short. Somehow, her enemies seem to perpetually remain one step ahead of her. Thus, only one explanation remains: the FBI has a mole among its ranks. SPOILERS AHEAD!
The Real Traitor Frames Foster Webb as a Corrupt Agent
Initially, Emily’s suspicions about the existence of a mole in the FBI become cemented in the aftermath of Kai’s death. Throughout Nick’s investigation, one thing after another had gone wrong, usually in the eleventh hour. His source was soon compromised after he reported her to the Bureau, as the suspects managed to clear areas just before a bust, and Nick’s own location was compromised. The same pattern follows during Emily’s meeting with Dawkins, which inevitably leads to Kai’s death, and things move way past the territory of simple coincidence. Yet, the former agent herself has bigger fish to fry than trying to identify the traitor in the FBI. Therefore, once Cal decides to go on an off-the-books mission to find their missing agent, the responsibility of the internal investigation falls on Crown.
From the get-go, Crown employs the help of Thompson, a new recruit who has only been around for a few months. Her novelty in the department automatically clears her name from the list of suspects, which still includes the rest of the department. Unfortunately, once the agent gets too close to cracking the case, the mole ends up murdering her, staging the death away from the office and at her home. Shortly afterward, Crown discovers a thread that suggests one of the higher-up agents, Deputy Director Foster Webb, had taken bribes from an elusive source. As a result, he and Julianne, the Special Agent in charge, end up gearing up for a confrontation against him once they collect adequate evidence. However, once in his hotel room, they only find his dead body. The crime scene makes it seem like Webb, who was in possession of Thompson’s files, had committed suicide. Although all these pieces effectively and posthumously label him the mole, Crown can’t help but remain suspicious of this outcome.
The Real Mole Was Hiding in Front of Emily’s Eyes All Along
In the aftermath of Nick’s rescue and the destruction of the Jericho project, the abducted agent, Emily, and Cal all return to Boston. Even though Webb has been identified as the mole supplying classified information to Meridian, Emily remains skeptical of the entire thing. Soon enough, she ends up joining forces with Crown to sniff out the real traitor. Ultimately, the damning evidence comes from an unexpected place. Dawkins, Meridian’s “problem fixer,” had attacked Warren’s safehouse a while back. He was targeting Nick and Emily’s kid, Flynn, to get information out of his parents. However, the kid, his grandfather, and Uncle Jack managed to take care of the deadly killer all on their own. Afterward, Dawkins’ phone was left behind in the safehouse in Warren’s possession.
Although the device’s call logs were deleted, Emily manages to get the required information out of the phone with the help of her hacker allies. Thus, she can confirm that around the time of Nick’s abduction and Kai’s death, Dawkins was in contact with someone from Boston. Afterward, Emily and Crown set up a trap, giving their suspect an opportunity to steal the coveted Meridain Files from the department. From there, it doesn’t take long for them to catch Julianne Gunnarsen red-handed as she meets up with a Meridian operative on a rooftop. As it turns out, the Special Agent has been working for the crime syndicate this entire time, in an effort to rise through the ranks and secure a privileged and invulnerable position for herself. Nonetheless, in the end, after Emily catches her, Julianne’s destiny only remains on the wrong side of the prison bars.
Read More: Absentia Season 3 Ending Explained: Are Nick and Flynn Dead?
You must be logged in to post a comment.