FBI: MOST WANTED Post-Mortem: Shantel VanSanten Breaks Down Nina's Confrontation with Her Father - Give Me My Remote : Give Me My Remote

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FBI: MOST WANTED Post-Mortem: Shantel VanSanten Breaks Down Nina’s Confrontation with Her Father

October 29, 2024 by  

FBI Most Wanted Nina Father Fight

“White Buffalo” – After a simple act of defiance by a couple of young climate activists goes south, the Fugitive Task Force works to hunt them down before their plans take a devastating turn. Meanwhile, Nina and Scola face family drama when they host her father and sister after they come to town, on FBI: MOST WANTED, Tuesday, Oct. 29 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the episode airs)*. Pictured (R): Shantel VanSanten as Special Agent Nina Chase. Photo: CBS ©2024 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Highest quality screengrab available.

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Tuesday, October 29 episode of FBI: MOST WANTED.]

Nina’s (Shantel VanSanten) family came to visit on the Tuesday, October 29 episode of FBI: MOST WANTED—but it was hardly a happy reunion.

After Nina had to leave her father, Jackson (John Finn), and sister, Tink (Hannah Adrian), to work a case, the trio met up at the end of “White Buffalo” to have dinner. But with Scola (John Boyd) now called out for a case of his own, Jackson scoffed about the restaurant that was picked…and the fact that Scola gave them a credit card to pay for their meal.

Jackson then turned his focus on his daughter’s relationship, questioning when the agents would tie the knot; Nina told her father they weren’t. Jackson was dismissive of that, questioning whether his grandson, Dougie, would have two last names on his football jersey. But Nina pushed back at her son being destined for football, noting she didn’t want him to “do anything like the way that I grew up.”

Jackson asked what was wrong with her childhood, and Nina finally snapped. “Everything,” she told her father. “Everything was wrong with the way I grew up. I couldn’t get away from home fast enough.”

“I gave you a good life,” Jackson replied.

“Keep telling yourself that,” Nina said. “Keep telling yourself it was a great life, Dad. Well, I want a different life for my son and I am damned determined to give it to him.”

Jackson had enough and said he didn’t have to put up with this. He demanded Tink join him, and he stormed out.

“I’m so sorry,” Tink said. “You know, this is all going to blow over.”

“Yeah, I’m okay if it doesn’t,” Nina replied.



The scene was painful, raw, and deeply personal—something MOST WANTED only gets to do a handful of times a year.

“I’m so grateful when we are afforded those opportunities,” VanSanten tells Give Me My Remote. “Scotty and Chris, both of our camera operators that are with us, afterwards, were like, ‘It’s so cool when we get to see you guys dig in and actually get to do real acting scenes and show up.’ And those are what feed and fuel our artistic souls.”

“For me, this was such a beautiful opportunity,” she continues. “And I’m so grateful that we’re diving into really complicated stuff that, to be honest, every single audience member—I don’t care what age, where you live, what your religious background is; we all know how complicated family life is. And it’s the blood family stuff that I think, and I hope, really strikes a chord and helps people understand a little bit more about why Nina’s had walls up, why maybe she has a tougher exterior sometimes.”

As VanSanten points out, Nina had a rough childhood: “[She dealt with] her mother passing [away] when she was young, and being raised by a father who truly is a very narrow-minded [man] and quite incapable in some ways. And it’s interesting to me, in the story, that Nina is now a parent…and that she isn’t giving her father the same empathy and grace that maybe she would want somebody to give her in her parenting. She’s actually being tougher on him and pushing back even more on standing her ground in her beliefs: For her partnership, for the way she’s raising her son, for the life that she needs and that she’s done truly on her own since she’s left Texas.” 

Thanks to the fast-paced nature of network television, VanSanten met Finn and Adrian the day they filmed their scenes. “I was terrified to do the scene,” she acknowledges. “And of course, you meet your dad and your sister on the day as you’re rehearsing the scene, and [you go], okay, here’s the history, and boom, let’s play all of it. Luckily, they really gave us time to do that.”

“Both of the actors are incredible,” she continues. “And Jonathan, who plays my father, I just was over the moon that we had somebody of his caliber coming to get to play with [us]. And you just stand around outside afterwards, and he’s standing by in his truck and smoking his cigarette in real life, and you’re like, ‘Okay, I don’t know if this is him or if it’s a character, but this is the day I get with him. So we’re gonna go with it.’ You just try to have small moments of bonding and connection in real life that you hope kind of plays true, along with colors of your own emotional toolbox, and pray that it comes to life and people can relate to it and understand it and maybe understand something more about themselves.”

The actress also acknowledges that some of the questions she’s gotten about the final scene—both from reporters and people on set—have been “so interesting” as people read into the moment based on their own personal history.

“Where I’m coming from as Shantel is different than, of course, Nina and whoever sees it,” she says. “But I think boundary-setting is so important with people that you love. And the type of dad he is is a very avoidant father. An alcoholic. It’s really difficult to weather that storm and to be able to set boundaries and to learn how to do it in healthy ways. I don’t necessarily think that she’s making maybe the healthiest choice right now, but she’s trying. And I think that that says something, but I also think that we’re going to see more of it play out. It’s obviously very unresolved and very unfinished, and I love that we left it in that place, because it’s tricky and complicated.”

“Accepting who your father is, and knowing that you can’t expect him to change, and not wanting him to force me to change—it’s not something that’s going to be tied up in a pretty bow at the end of a conversation,” she continues. “And I’m glad that she stood her ground. I mean, we’ve seen her do that time and time again. And I’d like to believe that that’s a part of her core that, for better or for worse, whether it’s a toxic trait, she’s very resolute in how she feels and standing up for it.”

And though Nina was firm that she was okay if things didn’t blow over, as the actress alluded, her on-screen family will be back. “We’re going to be seeing it play out throughout the season,” VanSanten previews. “It’s definitely a very unfinished story that we will be following throughout this season. And I love that. I love that Scola gets to be a part of it, and that you get to see the difference in the way she grew up, and the things that she struggled and fought against and had to overcome and survive [to get] into a healthy relationship.” 

“We may not have seen all the other partners she’s had, but I’m sure we can imagine the type of life that she had to live to get where she is now,” she continues. “Sometimes it takes having a healthy partnership in order to stand firmly on the ground and really set those boundaries. And I think that she’s there.”

FBI: MOST WANTED, Tuesdays, 10/9c, CBS

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