In this episode of Quantico, “Guilty,” Alex has to do a different kind of walk of shame after she turned herself in to try and stop the real terrorists from exploding a second bomb somewhere in the city. Despite having a number of allies inside the FBI, she’s handcuffed and led past them as she gets taken to “The Vault.” It appears that Alex is going to be going through some sort of rendition as Liam stops the arresting agents from reading Alex her rights.
During Training, we find Miranda in the hospital and her son still on the run. Caleb and Shelby are still plenty hot and heavy, and Alex and Ryan are still trying to repair their relationship. After Ryan tells Alex that Liam hasn’t shown up, she goes to his home and finds him drunk and passed out. She gets him in the shower and explains that she’s used to this sort of behavior but won’t be helping him out again.
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It’s a Surprise Party
In the future, the investigation continues with a discussion between Nathalie, Deputy Director Clayton and Liam; they are talking about how they are going to interrogate Alex when … surprise! Elias makes his triumphant return. After being thrown out of the FBI, he went back to being an attorney and announces he’s actually Alex’s defense attorney. He isn’t the only surprise Liam and Clayton are going to get, though, as a “high value” interrogation squad shows up and informs them that they will be the ones interrogating Alex about the bombing.
During Training, there’s a surprise lecturer for the group. Susan Langdon is there to talk about what the trainees really want out of their lives. She’s also there to have the group go over some famous serial killers and their victims. The goal is to figure out who the killers didn’t actually kill. After her lecture, the group splits into teams in order to solve their case.
Finding a Killer
During the investigation of the bombing, Caleb goes to identify the body of Agent Diane Goodwin, who was apparently dead before the bombing. The agent was found without her gun but with her badget and wallet. This appears to tell Caleb that something was very wrong. He makes a call back to Elias, telling him that something is wrong and they need to watch Alex, but she’s already been taken by the special interrogation crew.
The Rendition
Alex is talking to Griffin Wells, a man who is quite famous for his rather brutal interrogations with the CIA. He informs Alex that she needs to confess or things are going to be unpleasant. Back at the investigation’s HQ, Elias is talking to Shelby and Simon when Caleb walks in and explains that, for now, he’s on Team Alex because he’s found enough things to be fishy that he thinks someone else did the bombing. The quartet discuss their next moves and are overheard by Nathalie, who appears ready to undermine them.
Serial Killers Club
Back at Quantico, the trainees are going over everything that doesn’t make much sense about the serial killers’ victims. Simon believes he’s found a key to his case, while Nathalie seems especially shaken by the cases she’s having to investigate.
After the groups tell who they think don’t fit in the profiles, Langdon tells them they have all passed and they’re actually going to get to meet her after “school” in order to have a few drinks. Simon, who still isn’t convinced that his group actually found the wrong victim, presses the issue and makes the comment that there are always twists like this in their tests. He thinks Langdon put in an extra fake victim because he was sure his group made the wrong call. It seems as if Langdon doesn’t quite want to answer his question and her reaction to their guess didn’t seem like they got it quite right either.
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The Blindspot
The investigation of the bombing is moving right along when Caleb and Elias notice something odd about surveillance camera footage of Alex on the day of the bombing. Alex is seen walking down the street in one camera, but she never pops up in the next camera. This blindspot is where Caleb and Elias think she was nabbed in order to be framed for the bombing. The pair heads over to talk to the twins and give them a mission. One of the twins is supposed to figure out what or who was in the blindspot, while the other is supposed to make it look like they’re both still at HQ.
Meanwhile, Alex has officially begun her interrogation by Wells. After he explains that he knows Alex isn’t worried about pain but is worried for her friends, he shows her that Ryan Booth was caught (after supposedly making an escape on a helicopter) and has been getting tortured. It’s rather clear that Wells is going to make sure Ryan continues to get beaten if Alex won’t confess.
Off Campus
The trainees are unwinding at a bar, where they’re playing a drinking game about serial killers and how many victims they have. Eventually, the party moves to another bar that actually serves food, and Alex joins the party. Just when she and Ryan are looking like they are making up, she gets a call from a girl at another bar saying she’s with Liam and he’s quite drunk. Ryan and Alex argue about her going to help him and then she heads out.
Investigating the blindspot, one of the twins finds a van and the group determines that this must be the vehicle that was used to take Alex. Meanwhile, Wells is making good on his promise to torture Ryan, jamming his hand into his bullet wound over and over. Back at the investigation’s HQ, the group is showing what they found in the blindspot van. There was chloroform as well as other tools that could have been used to take her. Even Nathalie is on board now and asks Liam if he wants to be the only person on the side that is still trying to convict her.
We flash back to Alex and Liam, when she has gone to get him from a bar during the group’s off-campus night. It’s clear that the two have formed a bit of a bond because of her father. And after some arguments, Liam agrees to leave and go home. Meanwhile, Simon is talking to Langdon and thinks he found a copycat killer in the case files. As they talk, he realizes that she might actually have helped frame one of her serial killers for a victim he didn’t actually kill. This leads to Langdon actually threatening to kill him and points out that the bar they’re at is one she knows quite well, meaning she knows where all the security blindspots are.
The Frame Job
Frame jobs have been a running theme on the show for obvious reasons and Simon is realizing that uncovering them can be dangerous. Langdon is seen by Ryan leaving with Simon, who doesn’t appear like he’s happy to go. When he confronts the pair, Langdon can be seen running some sort of object (likely something that could kill him) up and down the back of Simon’s neck. After Ryan makes it clear that he’s not just going to leave it alone, Langdon pretends that they’re leaving together, that their romantic evening is over, with her kissing him and leaving. When Ryan asks Simon what’s going on, he responds that he thinks Ryan just saved his life.
Back at the rendition, Ryan needs someone to save his life as Wells continues to torture him. In short order, Liam does indeed come to the rescue, leading a raid, complete with official papers, taking Alex and Ryan back with them. Once they do get back, Alex finds out that Liam is going to drop the charges against Alex and the rest of her friends. Liam explains that the real terrorists are expecting Alex to be caught and talks about a plan to trick them.
Meanwhile, we go to the present, where Liam and Alex are at Miranda’s bedside at the hospital. Liam explains that the knife that stabbed Miranda was found in the woods and didn’t have her son’s prints on them. It appears he too was framed for a crime and then kidnapped.
The Higher Standard
Back at Quantico, the trainees have just found out that someone turned in Langdon for falsifying evidence. Simon tells them that he was the one who turned her in, and after he’s asked why he went to the cops instead of the FBI, he realizes they’re mad at him. Nathalie even asks why he’s at Quantico and he explains that he wants to be able to hold the bureau to a higher standard. After the backlash, he goes and meets with a friend who appears to be a terrorist. The man hands him a flash drive that holds the blueprints for every train station in New York City.
Flashing to the investigation of the bombing, we find that Alex and Liam are carrying out his plan of making it appear that the FBI still thinks Alex is the culprit. Led in front of a judge, she’s asked how she pleads to the charges associated with the bombing and she ends up pleading guilty. We’ll have to wait and see how this plan plays out.
Quantico airs Sundays at 10pm on ABC.
(Image courtesy of ABC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
