FBI interview: Jeremy Sisto on Jubal’s sobriety, season 5 future
Sometimes, it can be hard to determine why certain events prove to be a test to your sobriety, but within season 5 episode 12 we saw Jubal relapse, right in the middle of a case and also while dealing with difficult health-related news concerning his son. Tyler is going to be okay, but now Jubal is in a place where he needs to be all the more focused to avoid any more struggles with his disease. This is a big part of why he attends a meeting at the end of the episode.
In part two of our interview with Sisto, we talk about everything that transpired throughout this week’s episode, and also whether or not these events set the stage for something more.
Matt & Jess TV – You had a lot of heavy material to work with in the episode, but what challenged you the most?
Jeremy Sisto – I guess the biggest challenge was trying to figure out why this particular bit of news, that Tyler has a lump that could or could not be cancerous, is the thing that throws him off so much. Initially, I was confused by it — he’s been through so much already, so why would this be the thing that did it? He’s been through his girlfriend dying in his arms, or finding out his son actually has cancer.
Then, I realized that is the story being told. When you’re an addict, you take it one day at a time because you never know what the thing is that sends you [to that dark place]. Jubal is really thrown off and feeling really vulnerable in his head.
I really wanted to show the moment before he decides to [drink again]. There had to be a really big emotional reaction to justify it. The news wasn’t necessarily heavy enough, so it had to come from the character. Then, finding the place where being unhinged in the office was enough to catch people’s attention, but not enough to throw them into emergency territory. Then, there was the admitting of his failures to his ex-wife. They had a great marriage, and the only reason they broke up was because his addiction made him make some irreversible choices. For his ex-wife, that is the thing that upended her life. To know that he lost that battle, hopefully temporarily, is horrible news for her.
Maggie challenges Jubal a lot on his drinking and he’s reluctant to listen, and even presses her to drop the subject. What will the relationship be like moving forward for them, especially since he hid the truth?
They’ll stay on point — she’ll keep an eye on him, to see that he’s handled whatever he needed to handle so that he can be back on a path. Then, they’ll ignore it and pretend it never happened — he’ll never admit to it because if he did, she’d have to tell somebody. He does appreciate what she did, even though it was really annoying throughout the day because he was handling so much and wasn’t open to talking about it. He’s her superior, so there was not way he could admit it — but he does appreciate it.
I think in some ways, it deepens what they have. They’ve connected in the past over her sister’s addiction, and he’s given her advice on that front. I’d be interested to see if the writers decide to bring it up again. I suspect that they won’t. I suspect that Jubal and Maggie won’t speak about this again.
Is Jubal confessing to Sam that he slipped his attempt at turning the page? Should we have hope for his recovery over the next few weeks?
Yes. I think he was careening towards the cliff, but he grabbed the wheel just before it went off into the abyss. I think he pulls it back together, but I’m really glad that the audience got to see [the relapse], because the fear of that happening constantly lives within him and has for years. It was great as an actor to play that, and for the audience it really adds a layer to Jubal.
Related – Read the first part of our FBI interview with Sisto
What did you think overall about FBI season 5 episode 12, in particular the arc for Jubal?
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This article was written by Jessica BunBun.