Tamal Kundu
Portrayed by Missy Peregrym, Maggie Bell is one of the main protagonists of the CBS crime-drama series ‘FBI,’ created by Dick Wolf and Craig Turk. Maggie is a special agent of the New York Field Office of the FBI, and while the team is out on the field, she serves as the leader for all intent and purposes. She hails from the American Midwest; several members of her family across generations have been part of law enforcement. Maggie was previously married to an investigative journalist named Jason Bell. He died in a car crash sometime before the start of the show. Despite her importance in the overall narrative of the series, Maggie hasn’t appeared in the show since season 4 episode 18. If you are wondering about the reasons, this is what you need to know. SPOILERS AHEAD
Did Maggie Bell Leave FBI?
In Season 4 episode 18, titled ‘Fear Nothing,’ the FBI agents of the New York Field Office searches for a terrorist in possession of Sarin gas. After discovering that the said terrorist is an empty lab, Maggie and her partner OA (Zeeko Zaki) race against time to get there before the terrorist releases the toxic material. Because they don’t have much time to spare, they don’t get to wear hazmat gear. Maggie and OA split up to cover more ground as they search the facility.
When Maggie encounters the terrorist, Hakeen Abbas, she manages to put a bullet in his head, but not before he accidentally shoots one of the Sarin canisters. As the gas begins to come out of it, safety protocols are triggered, and the door shuts down, locking her in.
Fortunately, OA finds and extracts Maggie from the room. She is subsequently taken to the hospital, where the doctors tell OA and the others that she has a reasonable chance of recovery. When he is alone with Maggie, OA tells her he can’t do what they do without her. Even though Maggie is unconscious at the time, she seems to nod, making OA ecstatic. Maggie Bell didn’t leave ‘FBI.’ The character’s absence from the show isn’t supposed to be permanent, and it’s related to real-life events.
Where is Missy Peregrym Now?
We don’t see Maggie Bell in the last few episodes of season 4 and even early in season 5 because Missy Peregrym took maternity leave as she was pregnant with her second child at the time. She also took maternity leave in season 2 while she was expecting her first child. In the show, it was stated that Maggie was on an undercover mission. Peregrym spoke to showrunner Rick Eid this time as well, and he found a way to explain her absence in the story.
“Basically, I told her, ‘Tell us what you want what you need, and we’ll do our best to accommodate it.’ She was feeling great and wanting to work for as long as she could,” Eid revealed to Variety in an April 2022 interview. “We had a general idea when she was going to leave, and so there was just a question of finding the right episode to pair with that and the right plot to pair with that. I think the Sarin gas idea seemed to be an exciting, thrilling way to send her off.”
Peregrym’s second child, Mela Joséphine Oakley, was born on June 6, 2022. She wrote in an Instagram post that she is on maternity leave until September and slated to return to the FBI set that month. “FBI is starting up again in a couple weeks, but I will be returning to work in September,” Peregrym wrote in the caption. “I’m relieved and grateful that I am afforded the space to bond with my family, to rest and heal and be a mother (which is harder than work!). I understand this is a luxury, and I wish every mother/parent/caretaker had this too. Thank you for all the love, prayers and support from this community.”
As Peregrym is listed among the season 5 cast members on the CBS press site, she is likely to appear in the season, but probably in the middle of it or late into it.
Read More: Where Is FBI Filmed?
