[Editor's note: The following contains some spoilers for the "Victim" episode of FBI.]

In the FBI episode entitled “Victim,” Special Agent Omar Zidan (Zeeko Zaki) is mugged at gunpoint and attacked by a couple when he’s at his most vulnerable. As the team tracks a series of brutal sexual assaults, OA realizes that he can’t continue to ignore what happened to him because it’s affecting the case and his co-workers, and denying it will not help him heal and move on.

During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Zaki talked about the journey he’s taken over five seasons on the hit CBS drama series, how the episodes just keep getting bigger, what an honor it is to have helped spark an entire franchise of shows in this universe, his reaction to reading the script for this episode for the first time, his experience shooting the opening sequence, and what fans can look forward to next.

Collider: I’ve watched this show from the beginning and it’s always fun, anytime you get five seasons into a show and still feel like you’re learning things about the characters that you’ve been watching. I very much appreciate a show that’s willing to still do that, when it doesn’t necessarily have to.

ZEEKO ZAKI: Thank you so much for feeling that way.

How does an episode like this come about? Was this something that the creative team wanted to do, as far as turning the tables on your character and putting him in the position of being a victim?

ZAKI: I like to think that it happened as a result of the Wolf team trusting me a little bit more to go deeper into the character. Exactly like you said, I definitely have gotten more comfortable since Season 1, so getting a script that then demanded me to abandon all of that comfortability and step back into a space where we’re gonna show some new emotions and some new character things, I just hoped that we could pull it off. It was really exciting to play that, inside of a Season 5. Our episodes are getting bigger and bigger, but we can only go so big, so we’re also going massively internal. Hopefully, this one did the job.

What was it like to read this script and get your first impression of this episode and what it would be putting your character through? As an actor, was that exciting to read, the first time, or were you like, “Okay, what am I getting myself into?”

ZAKI: It was actually very interesting because I could just tell that the meat of the episode wasn’t on the page, as scripted. When you see some of the delicate topics that we’re dealing with in these episodes, you have your work cut out for you and you know that you’re gonna have to go somewhere different and use some different tools. It’s really great when I get to be the big action star because that’s so fun to play. I understand what we have to deliver on, when we have these big episodes.

What has it been like, to have started on this show five seasons ago, and then see how there’s this whole franchise now, with three separate shows (including FBI: International and FBI: Most Wanted). How does it feel to be a part of something that’s successful enough to lead to all of that, and to have been at the start of it all?

ZAKI: It’s an absolute honor. It’s extremely humbling. Stepping into Season 5 and seeing the scale of the success of this show only proves that it’s impossible to do without every single person that’s been involved. What’s really been nice is going back on set and seeing that the validation and recognition is felt by everybody, from the crew to the actors. It’s just a really fun energy to be a part of. We work really, really, really hard, and it’s just really nice to see that the show is received equally as well. It really just comes down to the fact that we’re trying to make a a really great TV show that delivers on the traditional and the new. So far, we’re pulling it off, but it definitely creates an equal amount of pressure to keep pulling it off. Hopefully, we will be up to the challenge.

How is it for you, as an actor, to play a character over five seasons? Is there anything that you do to keep the character interesting for you, so that you don’t get complacent with it? Does changing things up and adding new actors, along the way, help with that?

ZAKI: Season 5 is truly beyond anything I could have ever imagined. Regardless of the team, just in my head, this is my first show, and I’ve actually gotten to find the character over the very exciting first four years, filming with Covid and everything. No day is promised, so it’s been a very interesting time to even think, for a second, that something would exist, years down the road. For me now, the character is ingrained and my goal is to show up, every day, and be equally as blown away as I was on day one, by the sets and to work with the new and old actors. I just wanna show up every day and have some fun, for as long as I can, before the world complicates itself, like it loves to do.

One of the things that I found particularly heinous about this episode was the opening scene, with the woman who knows exactly how to prey on the nice guy that your character is. What was it like to read that scene? What were the biggest challenges of shooting that?

ZAKI: That’s one of those scenes where you read it on the page, and you know that it’s gonna go so differently than you imagine it. When the two characters mugged me, it all felt real enough for someone to have gone through. It was such a properly done and believable interaction in its simplicity that it left me shaking.

When you have to do something like that scene, do you have a conversation with your showrunner, your director, and your guest stars, to figure that moment out? How does all of that work, as far as actually shooting it?

ZAKI: When it comes to shooting it, every scene is different. For me, the interesting thing about that scene was that we filmed it in Manhattan, and when we film in Manhattan, we get a lot of people watching. Usually, it’s a nice hero moment for OA, where I’m running across the steps of the courthouse, or something, and it’s always a very strong moment. But then, all of a sudden, I’ve got this mugging that makes me insecure and vulnerable, and I’m standing on a corner in Manhattan with people watching. I’m not a good actor unless I put myself in a very vulnerable space, in front of these people, so we had our work cut out for us. I had to be vulnerable and just honor what was happening on our set, in a way that I knew would feel a little more intimate than I’d prefer, and maybe have a Manhattan audience watching. It was like, “Okay, I’ve gotta embarrass myself. Let’s do it.” Everything is in the moment and everybody knows that when action is called, our job is to deliver on whatever it is. That’s the goal, every day.

I get that you’re on a TV show and that you have to get used to or comfortable with handling a gun because you’re an FBI agent in situations where you need to use one. But how different does it feel to have a scene like that, where you have a gun pointed at you? Even though it’s acting, is it hard for that to not be weird?

ZAKI: Yeah. It’s one of those things where, with take one, you’re like, “Yeah, a gun is in my face.” With take two, you’re like, “Okay.” And then, with take 3, 4 and 5, when you’re locked in, you realize that there’s no difference between a loaded gun and an empty one, until it goes off, and it’s very scary. It just comes down to there being notes in all of our episodes that have really happen to people, and our job is just to, as honestly as possible, represent those moments so that people can have an understanding or at least feel a community around the feelings that they’re feeling.

Do you think that, even after everything, OA would still stop and help someone, the next time he comes into contact with someone who’s in distress? How much do you think this is going to affect him?

ZAKI: He’s not gonna let it happen again. If he finds himself in that situation again, because he was distracted and not thinking clearly, even though it led to a very positive space of understanding, all those things will be taken into consideration. Hopefully, we’ll get some fun new scenes with those things in mind.

You’ve definitely had interesting episodes with every episode this season, so far, and you’re only a few episodes in. What can you say about what’s to come next for this show and for your character, after this episode?

ZAKI: Of course, stay tuned for the return of Maggie Bell. Hopefully, that will bring some normalcy and some run of the mill cases. Maybe we can investigate a robbery this time, and do something low key. I’m just so excited that Missy [Peregrym] is back on set. It feels like we’re in a new chapter, and we’ll finish off Season 5 strong, fingers crossed. And then, we’ll go into Season 6, bigger and better somehow.

Since you really do have to be all in on something like this, what do you learn about yourself, as an actor and as a person, when you find yourself on a job that’s nine or 10 months of the year, and you’re spending so many hours on set?

ZAKI: I’ve learned how to compartmentalize, as well as trying to make that part of the character. For me, it’s an incredible opportunity, and I’m just trying to make sure that I don’t mess it up, in the famous words of Dick Wolf. He says that before we start every season, I’m just editing the language a little. We know what we are, what we want, and what we’re doing, and we want to create a positive platform and experience and memories, and all those things.

FBI airs on Tuesday nights on CBS and is available to stream at Paramount+.