Spoilers ahead for FBI: Most Wanted Season 5, Episode 2 (“Footsteps”)
FBI: Most Wanted brought on a new cast member, and things were already intense for Season 5, Episode 2, “Footsteps.” The episode introduced Steven Williams as Ray Cannon Sr., the father of Edwin Hodge‘s Special Agent Ray Cannon. The episode saw the team dealing with targeted bombings and it’s discovered that the case is connected to one in New Orleans from years ago, and Ray Sr. was the arresting officer, making him a target. Luckily, everything worked out in the end, even if the Cannons did nearly get blown up. Like father, like son.
Hodge exclusively told PopCulture.com what it was like working with the 21 Jump Street actor, admitting that Williams “was amazing.” He continued, “He came on the set and just really shined with his personality and his talent. I mean, obviously, he has a longstanding career within this industry, a long representation to follow behind here. But you really just see he just came, and he rocked. And it was really, really nice to just be able to freestyle and play with him on set. He’s a perfect marriage to who Ray is and why Ray has decided to just follow in his father’s footsteps.”
Since Hodge only joined Most Wanted in Season 4, fans still haven’t seen too much of his backstory or his family, at least up until now. When it came to creating this father-son dynamic, the actor shared he pulled from life experiences. “So I’m taking little bits and pieces of what scares me, what means the most to me,” Hodge explained. “And obviously family, I would hope that family means the most to anybody. And so the mindset is it’s what would you do in that situation for the person that you love? And at this given point, Ray is like, ‘I’m going to run into a building that may possibly have a bomb, but my dad’s in there as well.’ So it’s just dealing with the dynamics of love and what one would do to sacrifice or save their family member.”
Steven Williams is expected to appear in more episodes. While an exact number is unknown, as there are only 10 episodes due to the strikes, Edwin Hodge says he’s “just curious as to which direction the writers and producers want to take the story. I think there’s so many different avenues we can go down between the relationship that we see and that we start building on screen, that I believe any story of mine would be interesting for the two. But I think I’m going to be as surprised as you guys are.”
Meanwhile, in the episode, Ray and girlfriend Cora took things a step further, meaning this will be yet another relationship fans will be able to look forward to. The episode ended on a sweet scene, with Ray, his father, Cora, and her son bowling together, and Hodge is excited to see a “healthy balance” of both professional and personal relationships, which the FBI franchise is very good at doing. “We get to fall in love with the person that we feel we are, and then also imagine what it would be like in these high stakes situations,” he shared. Be sure to catch new episodes of FBI: Most Wanted on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.