Quantico – KMFORGET

By starrymag | November 2, 2016

By: Emily Cross

 

 

In the CIA storyline, we pick up with Harry (Russell Tovey) first. After their rendezvous in the bar last week, Harry (undercover as “Julian”) and Will (Jay Armstrong Johnson) have been holed up in a hotel room together. Ever suspecting Will pushes for details, but “Julian” doesn’t give much else other a promise to meet up later. During the conversation, Harry rigs Will’s phone to block any calls from Shelby.

 

In another CIA/FBI crossover, Shelby (Johanna Brady) and Leon (Aarón Díaz) run into each other in a diner. Shelby clearly knows who Leon is, but her cover isn’t blown…yet. When Shelby gets back to the safe house, she has an interesting conversation with Nimah. First, Nimah (Yasmine Al Massri) warns her to stay away from Leon so as to not blow Alex and Ryan’s cover. Shelby laments that being a handler isn’t as exciting as she thought it would be. It would seem that she’s craving some action, but that could prove dangerous for the mission.

 

Shelby and Nimah guide Alex (Priyanka Chopra) and Ryan (Jake McLaughlin) through an examination of Leigh’s room for evidence that she is the one who planted the bug. They flirt over silent text messages, but are interrupted when they exit Leigh’s room and see…Harry, who is already pretty suspecting of the pair. However, before he can push for answers, the three are drugged from behind.

 

In what might be the funniest situation yet this season, Alex, Ryan and Harry wake to find themselves naked and in bed together… or so they think. Quickly, Owen (Blair Underwood) appears and informs them that their drugging is all part of this week’s lesson (because of course it is). This lesson is all about illusion and crafting a narrative: how to make things look bad for a target.

 

In a uniquely edited scene, Alex and Ryan update Shelby and Nimah via payphone (who even knew those existed anymore?) and are tasked with getting any kind of biometric data from Leigh- fingerprints, hair, saliva, etc. They also update the handlers on Harry’s suspicions, and are told to “handle it, whatever it takes.”

 

Back in the classroom, the recruits get a crash course in deception, using Owen’s house to practice their attention to detail. Alex tries a couple of times to get biometrics from Leigh (Heléne Yorke), but Harry is always there to stop her. The recruits also learn how to manipulate the cause and time of death of dead bodies. It would appear that Leon has had some practice in this, although he won’t admit it. Seeing this, Owen taps him for an off-the-books operation, threatening to reveal a secret if Leon doesn’t comply.

 

Owen explains the operation of the week: craft undercover identities and tail a journalist who leaked classified info who is holed up at The Franklin Club, an elite social club in DC. Harry immediately volunteers himself, Alex and Ryan for a key part of the operation, clearly just trying to get closer to them to find out the truth. Owen also introduces the “get-out-of-jail-free” pass – the endorsement card. Should the recruits run afoul of local law enforcement, they can present this card and have their slate wiped clean. But it will also cost them their spot at The Farm. It seems like everything at the CIA is high stakes.

 

Harry uses some sort of voice replication software to call Shelby and make it seem like Will had left her a message, wanting to see her. He can’t be up to anything good…Harry (as Will) has also sent Shelby a text message with the address of The Franklin Club. Shelby can’t get ahold of Will so she decides to go to The Franklin Club to figure out what’s going on. Nimah advises against it, but stubborn as ever, Shelby goes anyway.

 

“Quantico” will do anything to get the cast in nice outfits and this week is no exception. Before their part of the week’s mission, Alex confides in Ryan that the high stakes of the overall mission and all the lies they’re telling are getting to her. Maybe the mission would be better if there was only one of them.

 

Leon uses some photo editing software to add a woman to the hotel room of the journalist. On his way out, he runs into Shelby, recognizing her from the diner. They flirt and he invites her on a date at the diner. Nimah walks by while they talk and clearly doesn’t approve.

 

Will calls Nimah and she puts the pieces together that Harry has been manipulating poor Will. Meanwhile, Will spots Shelby talking to Leon and quickly finds Alex and Ryan. In another visual gag, he tries to set them up, but mistakes another blonde woman for Shelby. Before Alex and Ryan can reveal anything, they’re called into action to case the journalist’s room.

 

When they get to the room, what do they find but a dead body! By phone, Owen informs them that the mission was a set-up. They have thirteen minutes to clean the room of evidence that Owen planted that indicates they were involved. Harry knows what to do, but he won’t help unless Alex and Ryan reveal the truth about whatever they are up to. Alex makes the deal, promising to tell him everything later. The three plan to turn the tables and frame Owen for the crime.

 

A scene with Owen reveals that the whole mission was a ruse, on multiple levels. The journalist that the recruits were tailing was a friend of Owen’s and the dead body was a fake. However, Owen also pulled a fast one on the friend. It turns out that he was the one to leak Owen’s name to end his career in the field. And that photograph that Leon was editing earlier? Owen used the photo as blackmail to get the names of the people who gave the reporter his name.

 

Harry, after seeing the police enter the hotel, cases the scene of the crime. An investigator notices him and reveals that the room is booked under his undercover name and identity (although she doesn’t know that he’s undercover). It would seem that Alex and Ryan pulled a fast one on Harry! A brief flashback shows us that Nimah, after talking to Will, subtly warned Alex that Harry was on to them. We also see how Alex and Ryan used several subtle techniques to change the room over to Harry’s alias and got him the correct key card.

 

Nimah and Shelby reflect on how close Alex and Ryan got to blowing their cover. Nimah spits some straight truth about chasing danger and warns Shelby not to forget her place. “In any agent’s career you get two or three big moments, if you’re lucky. We’ve been doing this for only one year and we got Grand Central, Quantico, O’Connor. We cannot put ourselves in danger just to feel that excitement again.”

 

After the mission is over, Alex meets with Owen. She uses the opportunity to dig for more information about him. He feeds her a sob story about not being able to step foot on foreign soil due to his cover being blown 14 years ago.

 

Back at the dorms, Ryan has a sweet conversation with Leigh about getting used to the spy life. However, his only goal was to get some biometric data from a glass she used.

 

Alex and Ryan think they’ve taken care of the Harry problem… until he strolls back into The Farm. They take the conversation to the local bar where Harry reveals he is an MI6 agent (?!?!) and training with the CIA as a part of an exchange program (although there’s gotta be more to it than that). He admits that he was the one to bug their rooms, and won’t settle until he knows the truth about them. So, Alex and Ryan admit they are FBI agents. It will be interesting to see how this plays out!

 

We get a few quick flashes of some characters at the end of the episode: Leigh calls her kids, but can’t tell the truth about where she is, Owen is poking into some files he received from his friend and Shelby and Leon meet up in the diner for a date. Shelby has to be playing a long game here, but is she stepping out of line? On this mission, she’s a handler, not an agent.

 

We don’t get a lot of the terrorist storyline this week, but we pick up not long after we left off last week. Alex is on the run in the building, dressed as a terrorist. The actual terrorists know she is the building and close in on her a few times before they finally trap her. They seem to be about to shoot her when another masked person bursts in, freeing Alex. The female voice speaks in Swahili and is unidentifiable. She takes a bracelet off of Alex’s wrist and put it on one of the dead terrorists and then detonates a bomb so it looks like Alex was killed in the building. Alex runs, but on her way out she runs into Lydia (Tracy Ifeachor) who still has the collar around her neck. “How the hell did you get out?” Alex wonders, but the episode cuts to black before Lydia answers.

 

We also get a little update on Miranda and Shelby. Since Boyer is dead, Miranda needs to find a new option for the terrorists. She asks Shelby to bring Will in. He doesn’t work for the FBI, but happens to be in New York. Shelby takes this opportunity to have Will look at the email that Boyer sent her. He concludes that Miranda is innocent and Shelby trusts him. But she shouldn’t because we soon find out Will is now working with the terrorists! Clearly a lot happened in that one year…