In Quantico; God this week, the series culminates in a maelstrom of sex, lies and secrets that suddenly plunge the NATs into some game changing events. A new suspect is revealed and the viewer learns more about Miranda and Charlie. The focus, for this episode, is more about the “ago” and less about the now and Alex’s struggle to prove her innocence. Each flashback tells more of the backstory of each NAT.
Simon’s fall from grace, Nimah’s exposure as twins, Shelby and Caleb’s relationship, Parrish learning about Ryan’s assignment to “watch her” all either come to light, or are in danger of being revealed, in God during the Quantico assignment tied into the present crisis. DITU (a part of PRISM) where the FBI actively spy on US denizens, with the legal excuse of sniffing out terrorists, is the flashback training segment in the center and it ties in nicely with Alex’s present situation.
In the “now” Caleb Haas is the guy watching all the various feeds looking to find Alex in the pre-Grand Central explosion. He is also searching for something else; Shelby Wyatt, who is having an affair with his father and he catches them together.
Everything, back during the training flashbacks, falls apart with the speed of a runaway mine train. Intimate (sexual) relationships, which are forbidden between NATs, collapse or become exposed, or (in Shelby’s and Caleb’s case) interfere with someone else’s trysts.
The show this week is all about trust, lies, secrets, relationships and fear of same. Miranda’s issues with her son Charlie have been in the background for a number of episodes and now has become a major plot point in the show. Shaw changes the NATs assignment from watching each other to surveilling her life. This is a last ditch effort to find out what her recently released from “Juvie” kid is up to.
The young man was primed to be a “school shooter;” names on a list, guns collected and ready to go, before his mother turned him in. Now he is out of “prison” and Shaw has him back home but does not trust him, nor does he trust her. More secrets are exposed when she tells Charlie that his note with the names was destroyed by her. Miranda tells her son that had she not gotten rid of the list, he would still be in jail.
Shadowing Miranda’s house, Alex and Ryan come unstuck when Liam, who is “helping” his former lover out by talking to Charlie, finds Booth listening in and he angrily confronts the agent he tasked to watch Parrish. Liam’s outburst is heard by Alex, who drives off in the surveillance van and switches rooms with Vasquez.
Present day sees Alex asking Simon to bug Caleb’s computer at the incident room. She learns about Wyatt’s affair with Haas’ father and she finds footage of Nimah before the bombing. As a result of both these separate events, Caleb is no longer a suspect but “Nimah” is.
Back at Quantico “past,” Simon discovers that Nimah is in fact twins and gets accidentally knocked out and locked in a closet until Miranda can be found. Caleb inadvertently messes up Vasquez’s love life, although she begins the groundwork to get together with Booth. Liam continues to lie to Alex.
In the present day, Vasquez learns that Ryan has not been talking to O’Connor on his cell phone and turns him into Liam. She tells the man she believes Ryan is helping Alex. What she does not know is that Simon and Shelby are as well.
Unfortunately, when Shelby sees the footage that Caleb put in the trash file, she confronts him about the affair with his father. This may cause more damage than Ryan’s being rumbled by his new lover. Once Haas gets over his immediate pain, he will wonder why Wyatt took that moment to apologize about the affair.
According to ratings, Quantico is picking up speed with the preferred demographic (19 – 45) and watching the episodes on offer, it is easy to see why. Disregarding the “not so hidden” cheerleading of an organization that now watches American citizen’s every move…legally, the series offers beefcake, gorgeous gals and plenty of sex. Granted the sex is more often implied rather than shown, but is is ever present.
Show creator Joshua Safran still spends a lot of time moving between relationships of the great looking class of 2015 and the show’s plot line of “Who Framed Jessica Rabbit (Alex Parrish).” Gone, for the time being is the almost frantic patriotism that indicates, overtly so, that it is okay to spy on our fellow man.
This week’s showing off of DITU is as disturbing as the “feel free to turn in your neighbor, or family member” “red under every bed” paranoiac rant. The very fact that nothing about our lives is really our own in this day and age of modern technology and the Internet is unsettling and almost enough to convince even the most optimistic viewer that the US is heading for Stalin’s Russia.
Despite the alarm bells that this show sets off (To be fair, Quantico is not the only show to promote spying on the public…legally.) the series is getting better. The flashbacks, which felt so disjointed and intrusive at the start, now have a discernible pattern. The characters have also gotten that bit more dimensional.
The series is finding its feet, oh so slowly, and it is to the credit of the actors and the writers that the viewing of each episode is becoming more about finding out who is so determined to pin the explosion on Alex. This FBI tale is an odd bit of entertainment, parts procedural (which the show does very well) and parts “Blind Date” set in an environment filled with a bevy of beautiful people.
Thus far, the list of suspects, apart from Alex (Priyanka Chopra) is fluctuating. The last to appear is Nimah, who should be way too obvious to be a real suspect…or is she? Nimah is, after all, twins, recruited by Shaw. One is much more “fundamentalist” than the other so could this be the ultimate truth?
Watching the show from day one, however, there is the nagging feeling that Liam O’Connor (Josh Hopkins) is behind all the framing of Alex, if not the explosions that leveled Grand Central. Vasquez could also be a suspect, but her betrayal of Ryan may have much more to do with jealousy than anything else.
Quantico airs Sundays on ABC. Tune in and join the growing numbers of 19 – 45 year-old fans who apparently cannot get enough of the show…or Chopra…
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