Last night, CBS's FBI admitted something that every political canvasser already knows: Republicans proudly fly American flags outside their home.
On Tuesday night's season finale, "Ring of Fire," FBI agents hunt down Somali terrorists who killed CIA agents.
The show begins with the mysterious murder of victims who have no social media presence and minimal personal information.
After tracking down burner phone data, agents Maggie Bell (Missy Peregrym) and Omar Zidan (Zeeko Zaki) find a restaurant where one of the victims, Christine, met with an unknown contact. They ask the restaurant owner for any information he may have about the man with whom Christine met. The owner tells them the man, Jack (Jim Conroy), that he flies "a flag outside" his home so criminals will think he is a Republican and a gun owner who can defend himself.
Bell: That's Christine.
Zidan: Do you know who she's with?
Restaurateur: Oh, yeah, that's Jack. I don't know his last name, but he comes in here a lot. He lives in the neighborhood.
Bell: Okay, do you know anything else about him? What he does for a living?
Restaurateur: Just that he drives a pickup truck, and, um, he has a flag outside of his house. He said it keeps the criminals away.
Bell: Really?
Restaurateur: Yeah, you have a flag outside, people think you're a Republican. They think you own a gun.
The flag outside Jack's home is indeed an American flag. It turns out Jack is a CIA agent. He helps the FBI connect the murders to Al-Shabaab terrorists on U.S. soil.
The brief bit of dialogue at the restaurant, intentionally or not, captures certain realities: Republicans tend to be more patriotic and are associated with law and order and the right to self-defense.
If there is an accidental conservative on FBI's writing staff, I hope he or she slips in some more revealing dialogue next season. Such moments of truth are rare on network television.
