Quantico – EPICSHELTER

By starrymag | February 27, 2017

By: Emily Cross

 

In the crisis, Sebastian (David Lim) is taken away on a stretcher. Ryan (Jake McLaughlin) has trouble identifying himself to an FBI agent, but is cleared when Alex (Priyanka Chopra) corroborates his story. She, alongside Lydia (Tracy Ifeachor), tells him that Dayana (Pearl Thusi) has taken Will (Jay Armstrong Johnson) hostage to decrypt the drives once she finds them. Ryan doesn’t believe she’s AIC, but Léon (Aarón Díaz) confirms that Dayana told him she was.  He and Harry (Russell Tovey) agree to join Lydia, Alex and Ryan to go back into the perimeter to find Dayana and Will.

Meanwhile, at FBI headquarters, Nimah (Yasmine Al Massri) turns herself and Miranda (Aunjanue Ellis) in to Shelby (Johanna Braddy), claiming they have answers.

Back at The Farm, Owen (Blair Underwood) persuades Alex to stop investigating what they’ve seen and let the local police handle it. We get an important piece of information in a small line: Ryan told Alex that whoever the AIC are, they have nothing to do with the black ops mission Lydia is running.

Harry speaks on the phone to Pip (Bradley Rose), telling him that he found nothing incriminating in the NSA files on Sir Bishop. In fact, he found quite the opposite. Apparently, he was helping to transport refugees to safety. Harry wants revenge, but even he won’t go that far. He tells Pip that he’ll be home soon.

Ryan and Alex meet on campus and Alex tells him what she found from following the tap. He maintains that there is no AIC and he has been ordered by the FBI to wrap up his investigation.

In the classroom, CIA Director Keyes (Henry Czerny) takes over class for the week. He instructs the recruits on being exposed and how to handle the situation. During class, two FBI agents visit Owen to ask him about the death of Jeremy Miller, the former CIA recruit who flamed out in week one. It seems he was the man who died in the explosion and the FBI agents are investigating what happened.

In the crisis, the task force consisting of Alex, Ryan, Léon and Harry suit up while they discuss Lydia’s trustworthiness. Ryan reveals they’ve been working together for the last six months (on what?) and he trusts her. Alex stresses that they don’t have to trust Lydia, they just have to make sure the drives don’t fall into the wrong hands. Lydia arrives and gives them all FBI vests to blend in. It is nice to see Alex reping the FBI again, even if it is only temporary. They enter the crisis zone and split up (Alex and Lydia as one team and Léon, Ryan and Harry as another) as snow/rain comes down.

Shelby has Miranda and Nimah in an interrogation room and dresses them down for supporting a terrorist organization. They both maintain that the CLF was formed to do good and neither of them knew so much blood was going to be spilled.

Back in the CIA classroom, Director Keyes teaches the recruits how to make an Emergency Action Plan or “EAP.” This is a course of action that operatives make for how to get out alive when they are exposed. He also instructs them to write a will because it is required of all CIA operatives. While learning how to burn their information, Sebastian finds a hard drive hidden under a couch in the dorm.

The FBI agents interview all of the CIA recruits about Jeremy Miller, but no one can give them much information because they didn’t know him that well. When Alex is interviewed, she tries to use her knowledge of FBI techniques to get information about Jeremy, but she is shut down.

Charlotte (Lara Pulver) calls Harry, knowing he wants out of The Farm. She refuses to pull him, to his dismay.

When the FBI agents interview Owen, they tell him that they’ve decided that Jeremy’s death was a case of suicide by paranoia. But there’s more. Jeremy’s death was only their reason to get to The Farm. They are really there because they found the tap at the NSA and they know Owen sent his recruits to the NSA. They can’t connect it to him just yet, but say it’s only a matter of time and encourage him to talk.

In the crisis, Lydia tells Alex that after everything is over, the world will finally know Alex and Owen were right all along. Alex isn’t comforted by this, but Lydia thinks she should be vindicated. She also hopes her father will be pardoned, but Alex points out that Owen could have been pardoned all along. They spot Dayana and Will entering the Public Library so they move in.

Owen goes to the dorm looking for Alex, but only Harry is there. The rest of the gang are at the bar, avoiding writing their wills, but Harry already has one for MI6. They each find comfort in their situations by talking to the other and knowing that someone else carries similar burdens. Harry then decides he will go to the bar and join the others.

At the bar, Alex and Dayana discuss the fact that the CIA wants them to face their mortality head on. Dayana also comments that all of the recruits are single and Alex thinks that single people are more focused and as such more suited to the CIA lifestyle.

Ryan arrives and sends Dayana to the jukebox so he can talk to Alex. Lydia told him that she had no idea what Jeremy Miller was doing. He also tells Alex that Lydia asked him to stay at the Farm (which we know he does). Alex surprisingly supports him and Ryan can’t contain his glee and kisses her.

Harry arrives at the bar and sits down at the booth where Sebastian is working. Sebastian reveals that the hard drive he found was Harry’s information on Sir Laurence Bishop from the NSA and he’s turned it in to Director Keyes (not knowing that Harry stopped his investigation).

Harry thanks Sebastian (presumably for giving him the out he wanted) and immediately orders a round of shots. No one knows what’s going on, but Alex gets a call from Shelby and steps away. Shelby tells her that Owen is taking the fall for the tap and advises Alex to stay out of it. When Alex returns to the group, Harry launches into a rant, outing himself to everyone as an MI6 agent and telling them that not only was he a transplant that he was also spying on all the recruits for the British government. Since he’s already done at The Farm, Harry is burning all the bridges he can find.

In an emotional scene, Owen explains to Lydia that he is taking the fall for her so that she can have the career she deserves. He tells her that she’s grown up to be an amazing woman and CIA operative, despite his terrible parenting.

Harry says goodbye to Sebastian, telling him that he gave him the way out he needed. He then hugs Sebastian, forgiving him for all he’s done.

Alex follows Owen as he and Lydia walk to the FBI agents’ car, pleading with him to not turn himself in. After Owen says goodbye to Lydia and is handcuffed, Lydia cuts Alex from The Farm, expecting her to be gone within the hour.

In the interrogation room, Miranda finally tells Shelby how she got involved with the CLF. A month after he faked his death in the explosion Jeremy Miller found Miranda and told her that the AIC did exist and Miranda was right all along. The AIC had recruited Jeremy, but he refused so he went to the only people that could help him: the instructors at The Farm. Angie and Jason had by then formed the CLF with other CIA operatives to fight the AIC and Jeremy joined them. They didn’t know who was part of the AIC or what they were planning, but they had to be ready. They needed help from someone who would make sure the FBI wouldn’t get in the way of what they needed to do and that person was Miranda. They learned that the First Lady was part of the AIC and was the one who called the AIC members to the G20. Since the CLF knew whatever was going to happen had something to do with the drives, they had to stop it. But Miranda didn’t know that the CLF was going to kill anyone. She assumed that they would create the hostage situation, identify the members of the AIC and then melt back into the hostages.

Meanwhile, Alex and Lydia split up in the Public Library to find Dayana and Will. Alex finds them, but they tell her that they want to destroy the hard drives and have been instructed by Lydia to find them. As soon as Alex finds this out, she is shot from behind.

But thank god for bulletproof vests because Alex is a little winded, but largely okay. Will was also knocked out, and doesn’t have the drives anymore. Alex goes into the next room to find Lydia at a server, beginning to upload one of the drives. Alex tells Lydia she’s suspected she was AIC this whole time but Lydia still denies it. She and Alex fight with Alex eventually gaining the upper hand, but she’s too late. The drive has been uploaded, despite Will’s attempt to stop it. Ryan, Dayana, Léon and Harry arrive to stop Lydia from doing anything else, but she tells them that what she’s done is enough.

It took me a bit to put the pieces together, but essentially the AIC was this totally separate thing from everything we’ve seen, including Lydia’s black ops team. The only AIC members we know were Dayana, Carly and Leigh. Lydia was inspired by what they were planning and decided to implement it on her own. The AIC is still out there, but since Lydia actually succeeded in what they planned they are no longer the main enemy.

Back at FBI headquarters, Shelby reveals that the Islamic Front has taken responsibility for the terrorist attack and the FBI has made that the official story. This means that Miranda and Nimah are free to go. Since the crisis is over, we next see our heroes two weeks later. Alex and Ryan meet and argue over who gets to keep the engagement ring. Ryan eventually keeps it, but they are definitely no longer engaged or dating. They agree to spend some time apart, thinking maybe it will bring them back together eventually.

They both leave because they have a meeting, which turns out to be the same meeting! Why does this always happen? They’ve both been called to the White House, along with Shelby, Nimah and Dayana to meet with Claire Haas (Marcia Cross). Claire and CIA Director Keyes (Henry Czerny) tell them why they’ve been called. The drives that Lydia managed to upload contained all of America’s trade secrets and patterns of behavior. With this information, an enemy can create an attack so perfect that the people won’t know it’s happening until it’s too late. They are forming a covert joint task force to figure out who’s coming for the US and to find the information before they use it against the US. Nimah questions her inclusion in the task force since she failed to stop them the first time. Claire tells her that this is a chance for redemption.

None of the operatives blink an eye at their mission, but Alex needs to know who they are reporting to. Claire’s answer? “My son.”

It looks like Caleb Haas will be back! His presence has been missed and it will be interesting to see how he fits in to this team of new and old faces. “Quantico” is taking a small break, but will be back on Monday March 20th with new episodes and a single timeline. I, for one, can’t wait.