FBI Post-Mortem: Jeremy Sisto on Jubal’s Emotional Roller Coaster in ‘Breakdown’

January 24, 2023 by Marisa Roffman

“Breakdown” – After a mysterious bioweapon leaves two MTA workers dead and one injured, the team rushes to determine who is behind the attack and the location of their next target. Also, Jubal’s past demons begin to surface when the high-pressure case coincides with Tyler’s latest health scare, on the CBS Original series FBI, Tuesday, Jan. 24 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+. Pictured: Jeremy Sisto as Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jubal Valentine. Photo: Bennett Raglin/CBS ©2022 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Tuesday, January 24 episode of FBI, “Breakdown.”]

After a stretch of promising health news for Jubal’s (Jeremy Sisto) son, Tyler (Caleb Reese Paul), the agent was thrown when his ex called him with bad news on the Tuesday, January 24 episode of FBI: Tyler had a new lump.

Unfortunately for Jubal, the uncertainty of the situation was enough to cause him to relapse. “That’s why it’s so difficult to be an addict—you never know what moment is going to click that thing in your brain that just says, ‘Screw it,’ or, ‘I need this too much,'” Sisto tells Give Me My Remote. “It’s usually not the thing that you think it is.”

“The episode was written in an interesting way, because he’s dealt with a lot of stuff about his son’s health in the past and it hasn’t broken him,” he continues. “But, for whatever reason, that morning, he woke up and he was a little bit more susceptible to being taken down sort of a paranoid path in his brain. And it’s just too much for him to handle.”

Sisto was given a heads up about Jubal’s spiral from Rick Eid, when the showrunner was visiting set. “We were just talking about what’s coming up, and he mentioned that to me,” Sisto recalls. “And I was quite surprised, actually. I wasn’t sure if they were going to touch on that. And, of course, when I read it, I was really pleased with how they handled it.”

For Jubal, he tried to pretend it was business as usual, as the team tried to track down a bioweapon. “I felt it was important to make sure that it was sort of just balancing that line of obviously being very irresponsible, but not to the point of, hopefully, that you can’t trust this character again,” Sisto says. “I mean, that’s a big thing. That’s a big error to make. I think even though he’s fallen off the wagon, he’s drinking, he does have a side of him, though, that’s keeping himself, somewhat, in check. To some degree, that’s why he doesn’t shoot [early in the episode] when he possibly could stop this person.”

“That said, it was a fine line to balance, and I think it was handled well,” he continues. “It’s been something we’ve been talking about for a long time— his struggle with [alcoholism]; there’s been a lot of memories we’ve talked about. And so to let the audience experience one of those lapses really added a lot to the character, and it was something I was excited and nervous about doing. But I really enjoyed it. And, fortunately, I had our directing-producer Alex Chapple along for the ride, and he was there to guide it. I felt in good hands.”

By the end of the episode, Jubal did have a bit of good news: Tyler’s lump was just a cyst. He also admitted to his ex he had relapsed—and went to a meeting.

And while Sisto acknowledges that recovery will be “a continuing struggle for the rest of his life,” he does think this was “a slip” versus a downward slide into a longer-arcing issue.

“I think he’s gonna be alright,” Sisto says. “I mean, honestly, I don’t think he would allow himself to stay on the force if it went any further than this. I mean, I hope that’s where he is. And obviously he did it in the past, so perhaps he’s the same guy…but I feel like he would quit or walk away from the job.”

“Since I don’t want to walk away from the job as an actor, I’m hoping that’s not the path they take,” he continues with a laugh.

“Breakdown” – After a mysterious bioweapon leaves two MTA workers dead and one injured, the team rushes to determine who is behind the attack and the location of their next target. Also, Jubal’s past demons begin to surface when the high-pressure case coincides with Tyler’s latest health scare, on the CBS Original series FBI, Tuesday, Jan. 24 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+. Pictured (L-R): Missy Peregrym as Special Agent Maggie Bell and Jeremy Sisto as Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jubal Valentine. Photo: Bennett Raglin/CBS ©2022 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

But Jubal’s relapse didn’t go unnoticed: Maggie (Missy Peregrym) was convinced he had fallen off the wagon, something he vehemently denied—including by threatening her job. Going forward, he won’t exactly be making amends with his colleagues.

“Even with Maggie, he never admits it,” Sisto points out. “She’s really convinced, but he will, to his dying day [insist], ‘You’re wrong about that.’ If he admitted that to Maggie, it would be her responsibility to go and tell Isobel. Right now, all she has is [suspicion]. She doesn’t have any proof, and he hasn’t admitted it.”

“If she were to know that he did this, it would be her responsibility to tell somebody and so I wanted to make it clear that he was not admitting to her again out of some kind of version of kindness,” he continues. “That’s a bigger weight to lay on her, if he admits to doing this; that means she has a big choice to make. But he will deny it forever to everyone, except his ex-wife.”

Sisto also thinks Jubal’s job might be the key for him to stay on the wagon going forward.

“With someone’s health [or] a kid going through this, there’s always the possibility of [relapse],” he says. “But in general, Jubal is a pretty strong person…He’s gonna be all right. He’s gonna get back up. The upside for all of this, of course, is that he loves his job. And he has his job to focus on. He’s good at it and the benefit for him to have something that’s so all-consuming that he has to do every day is it’s going to keep him on the right track.”

“How it happened in the past is he was confused about his marriage…he fell in love with Rina, and he started drinking because he wasn’t able to deal with the circumstances in his life,” he continues. “And now, this time, it happens again, that certain circumstances overwhelmed him and he felt that he didn’t have control. And he likes to have a sense of control over stuff. And when there’s a real feeling of that not being available to him, there is the risk of him slipping in and falling into a pattern that is destructive. But I am confident that moving forward, he’s gonna stay on a good path.”

Sisto also acknowledges he cares about Jubal’s well-being—personally and professionally. “It’s funny, I talk about him like he’s a friend of mine—like I’m just hoping that he’s going to be good,” he says. “But it’s true. Because, also, I love the show. I love the show with the healthy Jubal. I love the show with a messed up Jubal, too—but I don’t think it’s sustainable with a messed up Jubal. So I think it’s important he stays strong.”

FBI, Tuesdays, 8/7c, CBS

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