After FBI: International’s Emotional Reveal about Wes Mitchell, I totally understand Jesse Lee Soffer’s reaction to filming the episode

Spoilers for the third series FBI: International Season 4 on CBS titled Nothing Sudden About It.

The fourth season FBI: International wasting no time in autumn TV schedule for 2024 before adding Chicago Police alum Jesse Lee Soffer to Fly Team as SSA Wes Mitchell. His first episode was designed to feel like a pilot and the character was a a headache for his new colleagues to begin with, but the team looked like a a well-oiled machine in the missing girl case in Portugal for “Nothing Sudden About It”.

After watching this episode and his reveal about Mitchell in the final moments, I remembered what Soffer told me about filming in Portugal. But first of all!

An emotional revelation about Wes Mitchell

Mitchell’s very first scene in this episode (which will be streamed via Paramount+ subscription) showed him in a tattoo parlor, charming the artist by lying about the job that brought him to Budapest. To be honest, my first thought was that Wes Mitchell was making some questionable decisions if he was permanently stuck in Hungary before he even found an apartment, but his reasoning became clear at the end of the episode after Waugh gave a nice speech encouraging him to open up to her and the rest of Team Fly.

Back at the tattoo parlor, the episode gave a quick look at the numbers Mitchell tattooed on his arm, and this time he was more honest as the artist asked a few questions. He explained that these were the badge numbers of “fellow agents that (he) worked with, friends of mine.” The first was in honor of Alana Greggs, who was two years earlier, and the second was in honor of Mike Brooks, who died during the Season 4 premiere.

I didn’t see this episode when I talked to Jesse Lee Soffer Why Chicago Police fans should watch FBI: Internationalso I couldn’t ask at the time if he was now required to get fake tattoos on his arm every time he posed in short sleeves from that point forward. But now that I look back, he did leave out some details that were clearly related to Nothing Sudden, but are definitely easy to find.

What Jesse Lee Soffer told us

Approaching FBI: International after more than 200 episodes on NBC One Chicago as Detective Jay Halstead was a bold move for Jesse Lee Soffer, and even for him asking what he was getting into. It involved moving to Budapest for filming, so when I spoke to the actor I asked about his experience of the move. He shared:

The move was so interesting and fun. Budapest is an amazing city. I’m learning Hungarian so I can pick up little things here and there on set. I can curse the storm. I’m not going to do any of that today, but I really like it. The only tricky part is finding your creature comforts. Amazon doesn’t really work here, so you can’t get the usual stuff ordered to your home. (laughs) It’s a little more complicated.

The actor didn’t utter any expletives that he picked up after joining FBI: Internationalbut apparently he learns more Hungarian the longer he stays in Budapest. While there are challenging elements to moving to Europe, he recalled a filming experience that I now know was a reference to Epsido 3. Soffer continued:

There are times when you’re shooting in Portugal and then in Paris when you say, “I can’t believe I’m at work right now.” Lord, I’m on the coast of some beach in Portugal. How is that real?”

The characters couldn’t fully appreciate that beach in Portugal when they were on the case of a missing teenage girl while traveling from the United States, but that wasn’t the case for FBI: Internationalthe newest leading man. After watching this episode, I totally understood what Jesse Lee Soffer meant by being surprised that visiting a beautiful beach in Portugal was part of his job. Talk about the change in the cold conditions he experienced while filming Chicago Police this time of year if only he was still at One Chicago!

See what’s in store for SSA Wes Mitchell in new episodes FBI: International on Tuesdays at 9:00 PM ET between FBI at 8 p.m. ET FBI: Most Wanted at 10pm ET on CBS. You can also watch episodes airing the next day by subscribing to Paramount+.