Last time on Quantico, Elias revealed that he was blackmailed into planting the bomb at Grand Central and framing Alex. Before he committed suicide by jumping out of a window, he told Alex that he was contacted to plant another bomb, but he refused. While Alex and her circle of FBI agent friends searched for the second bomb in a nearby hotel, they realized that they were on a wild goose chase as a bomb exploded in the FBI’s Emergency Command Center.
The winter premiere of Quantico, titled “Alex,” deals with Alex’s testimony before a congressional hearing about the terror attacks. Hopefully, we will find out which of the characters we are acquainted with (if any) perish in the second bombing.
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Training Days
The NATS are beginning the second part of their training. Alex still hasn’t heard from her ex-boyfriend, Agent Ryan Booth, who has gone undercover with his ex-wife. Really? What could possibly go wrong in this scenario?
Miranda Shaw is trying to persuade her son, Charlie, to cooperate with Agent Maxwell, who is investigating his kidnapping. They believe that Charlie was abducted by a terror cell that is planning an attack in the US. Maxwell will give Charlie one more day, but after that, he will be questioned at a field office, and Miranda won’t be allowed to be in the room.
Nimah offers to talk to Charlie and try to find out what he knows, but she isn’t successful. Raina takes a stab at talking to Charlie. He gives her the first names of the four guys who kidnapped him.
Class Warfare
Shelby gets back in contact with the female con artist who is pretending to be her half-sister, Samar Hashmi. Shelby invites her to come and visit, but Caleb isn’t sure why.
When the NATS go to the lecture hall, they come face to face with the class that is one month ahead of them. Alex and her class will take on the other NATS in a set of challenges, like an obstacle course, hand to hand combat and hacking computers. The wining class will select five trainees from the losing class to go home. Each trainee will be scored individually, then the scores for their class will be computed.
The other class has Drew Perale, a former NFL player, and Dr. Will Olsen, who is extremely intelligent and worked for NASA. Iris Chang, who is from Beverly Hills, sued all her business partners from six startups. Both teams end up in a tie, so the classes are going to compete in one final exercise in Hogan’s Alley. The higher class will pose as hostage takers, while Alex’s class will be the team to extract the hostages.
Is Cheating Okay?
The higher class manages to listen in on the lower class’ microphones, and they are one step ahead of Alex’s class. They dress up the hostages to look like bad guys and escape out the back with the money. Yikes! Alex and her friends are facing going home after killing four hostages.
Miranda and Liam decide that the exercise is unfair and cut people from both classes. They then combine both groups into one big, harmonious class. Awkward!
Shelby goes to a restaurant to meet Samar, but her husband shows instead. He explains that the woman Shelby knows as Samar is really his wife, Haiffa. When Samar told her contact that she was ending the scam, she disappeared. Her husband, Khaled, begs for help from Shelby and Caleb.
Is there a Mastermind?
Three months after the bombings, Alex is testifying before a Senate committee, and she tells them she is positive that Elias Harper did not act alone. Meanwhile, Vice Presidential candidate Claire Haas, whose husband, Executive Assistant Director Clayton Haas, perished in the second bombing along with 31 other agents, believes that Alex is trying to gain sympathy by exploiting people’s fears. Haas is also speaking out about Elias acting alone.
Alex is watching the news coverage of her in a bar, and she seems to be a regular. When a man approaches and wants to buy her a drink, she responds that she will name five things about him. If she gets any wrong, he can sit next to her and buy her a drink. Wow — if I was going through everything that Alex has been going through, I would probably take the free drink. Instead, Alex ends up making out with the stranger before deciding that she needs to bail.
Alex also has some bitterness towards Miranda and Liam since they have sidelined her with “trauma leave.” When Nathalie arrives to take Alex to the hearing, she reminds Alex that her friends, and fellow agents, investigated the “mastermind theory” of the bombings, but no evidence has found to support the theory that Elias didn’t act alone.
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Everyone is Mad at Alex
Even Simon Asher, who has spent the last three months going over everything that Elias ever said to him, believes that Elias acted alone. Simon left the FBI and New York City after the second explosion, and he is angry and bitter. Simon also maintains that Elias despised the FBI, and 32 agents paid the price with their lives. Shelby is also angry, only she is furious with Alex. She lost her job and became a tabloid target for sleeping with her boss and had to move back to Georgia to escape the unwanted attention.
A man, Duncan Howell, jumps from a bridge after asking the police to tell Alex Parrish a message. A police officer tracks down Alex and relays the message: “Tell her I thought I didn’t have a choice.” Alex is shocked by this news. Since the hacker helped her find out about the second bomb, Alex believes that someone got to both Howell and Elias.
Please Give Up
Alex is surprised to see Ryan at her door. Brian Goldman, the fellow that Alex made out with in the bar, has accused her of taking his key fob. Ryan wants to know when Alex is going to stop chasing this conspiracy. Ryan brings Alex a copy of the plea deal that Howell signed a few days ago admitting to computer fraud. Howell was heading to jail, so that is why Ryan believes that he jumped. Alex still clings to her gut instinct telling her that Elias was telling the truth about being forced to plant the bomb. Ryan leaves in disgust.
A New Threat
Alex prepares a statement and says that she is reversing her earlier testimony and that it is time to move on. Her friends are still angry, as is Ryan because he knows that she lied under oath. Alex is also reinstated, but I’m sure she isn’t overjoyed.
When she is drinking alone in her apartment, Alex gets a call from someone with a digitally altered voice. The caller says that Alex was right all along and that she lied under oath. They give her an address and order her to come alone.
Alex arrives and finds Nathalie with a bomb strapped to her waist. The caller states that Alex may not have been the terrorist before, but she will be now.
I really enjoyed this episode of Quantico. Although I really love the series, I think that the time jumps are a bit confusing since there are so many of them.
Quantico airs Sundays at 10pm on ABC.
(Image courtesy of ABC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
Kim has been covering television entertainment since 2013. She is addicted to Real Housewives, Pump Rules, Dancing with the Stars, and many more shows.
