Quantico – ZRTORCH

By starrymag | February 13, 2017

By: Emily Cross

 

Inside the crisis zone, the terrorists take the hostages that include Harry (Russell Tovey), Sebastian (David Lim), Dayana (Pearl Thusi) and Leon (Aaron Diaz) to a new location. Dayana and Leon are put in one glass-windowed office and Harry and Sebastian are put in another. Soon, Carly (Paige Patterson) is brought into Harry and Sebastian’s office. She hugs Sebastian and a wedding ring is obvious on her finger. She is the wife that Sebastian mentioned earlier on in the season!

In full view of the rest of the hostages, the terrorists bring one hostage to the center of the room. They give him a drug to ensure that he is telling the truth and begin to ask him questions. In a server room, Will (Jay Armstrong Johnson) is running the answers through an algorithm to find three points of confirmation. The three points are found and a terrorist pulls out a gun and kills the hostage.

Nine months earlier, at the Gold Leaf, Alex (Priyanka Chopra) approaches Owen (Blair Underwood). She asks for his help in taking down the AIC, but he refuses because he still doesn’t believe Lydia is involved. He leaves abruptly.

In a montage, Alex finds numerous pieces of evidence to try to prove to Owen that Lydia is involved, but he rebukes her every time. He tells her to walk away from it yet stubborn Alex isn’t built to let things go. While in his house, Alex takes a picture of the map of places Lydia has been, hoping to find some valuable information from it.

At the Gold Leaf Harry meets Pip (Bradley Rose), who has a meeting with the DC office. Harry needs some information about his father, which Pip can get. It seems as if Harry is digging into his father’s past in an attempt to take him down. Before we can learn any more, Sebastian happens upon Harry and Pip, so Pip leaves. Harry is annoyed and leaves.

In DC, Leon meets with Nimah (Yasmine Al Massri) to officially become an informant. This guarantees his immunity for any crimes he’s committed before and will commit for the mission. But Nimah reminds him that they need hard evidence: photos, video or audio. She tells him to focus on Dayana and stay close to her.

Alex visits Shelby (Johanna Braddy) to tell her that Lydia is the AIC recruiter, not Owen, and that Owen knows about the operation. Shelby doesn’t know this so clearly Nimah and Ryan (Jake McLaughlin) are shutting her out just like they shut Alex out. Shelby wonders why Alex is telling her this. Alex responds that she never stopped believing in Shelby. Shelby encourages Alex to keep trying with Owen because it’s important to get him on her side. Alex sends her the picture of the map from Owen’s apartment. Shelby promises to look into the locations to see if they match with any AIC activity. This will be the proof they need to get Owen on their side. The two share a heartfelt hug before Alex leaves.

In class, Owen shows the recruits a picture of a woman: Helen Sharp. He explains that she was a German asset he groomed. When the Russians unmasked her, Owen failed to exfiltrate her and she was killed in the process. He wants the recruits to learn from his mistake.

Nine months later, Ryan storms into the server room where Will and another terrorist, Jason (Jason Tottenham), are and asks why the hostage was killed. Jason tells him that it was what they have to do. He tells Ryan that he has to kill the next confirmed radical or Ryan will be killed. And it just so happens that the next target is Harry.

Ryan tells Will that he won’t kill Harry. Will explains (for the audience’s benefit) what he is doing. The terrorists have been tracking secret acts across the globe not sanctioned by the government. The hostages who are “on trial” allegedly perpetrated those acts. He likens it to stopping ISIS before they formed because the AIC are planning something big and Will wants to help stop them. Ryan disagrees as he thinks there is a better way, but he is forced to go out to face Harry yet waits for the confirmation to kill or not.

Back at The Farm, Shelby calls Alex and updates her on her research. She found many suspicious deaths of high-profile individuals that occurred in cities where Lydia travelled, at the time she was travelling.

In class, Owen shows the recruits the file of Marcus Weber, a German telecommunications officer who also is a CIA asset. German intelligence suspects him, but can’t prove anything yet. So, the recruits have to come up with a plan and get him out of Germany before his cover is blown. In a cool sequence, the recruits play out their ideas in an almost dream-like environment, but Owen shoots them down at every turn.

During the lesson, Ryan gets a text on his AIC phone briefing him on his next assignment and Alex takes notice. Leon approaches Dayana and offers his help, which she rebukes assuming he is demeaning her. They also get the AIC text, telling them that their mission is a surveillance target in Germany. Leon offers a temporary truce, and Dayana agrees.

Alex approaches Owen yet again, this time with the proof that Shelby found. Owen seems to accept it, but goes back to teaching the lesson as if nothing has changed. The next step is for the recruits to actually go to Munich and test out their theories in the field.

Leon calls Nimah and fills her in on the AIC mission. Nimah reminds him that he needs to make sure whatever is meant to happen will happen.

In Munich, the recruits are surprised to see Owen who shouldn’t be able to leave the US. He reveals that Marcus Weber was an old alias and he is the asset they need to exfiltrate. While the recruits come up with a plan, Owen sneaks off, adding an extra task to their list: finding him.

In the terrorist crisis, Leon asks Dayana to tell him everything she knows and to prove to him that he didn’t get shot for nothing.

In Munich, the recruits decide to use their original plan and just tweak it to fit Owen. They need to get him new papers to get him over the border, and Harry volunteers his connections. Sebastian goes with him while the rest of the recruits split up to find Owen.

Harry gets the papers from a connection at a beer hall. After the connection leaves, Sebastian wonders how Harry was able to get a fake ID in the span of 20 minutes. He pushes for information about Pip, which leads into a discussion about Carly. Sebastian doesn’t think Harry approves of his relationship, but Harry just wants Sebastian to be happy (and he doesn’t think he will be happy with Carly).

Based on her knowledge of Owen and the information they were given about Marcus Weber, Alex tracks Owen to a cafe. She tells Ryan to call Leon and Dayana for backup, which he does. He stays outside while Alex goes into the cafe and scolds Owen for having a death wish.

Leon and Dayana arrive quickly, but tell Ryan that the surveillance op is on. Ryan is caught (not for the first time and probably not for the last) between the AIC and Alex. For now, his choice remains a mystery.

Inside the cafe, Owen seems hopeless. Alex encourages him to act against the AIC and make sure that his career means something again. They try to escape out the back, but are caught and tasered by a German intelligence officer.

In the terrorist crisis, Harry is still being questioned and notices that the masked terrorist before him (who we know is Ryan) is shifting uncomfortably. He rightly guesses that Ryan doesn’t want to shoot him. After Will confirms that he is not a match, Harry recognizes Ryan’s voice.

Ryan rushes into the server room, wondering how Will knows that he’s on the right side. Will explains that the data doesn’t lie and that they are working off of a list of CIA operatives whose sanctioned activity overlapped with potential AIC events and who showed up to the G20. They are using data from the hostage’s phones to determine if they were connected to at least three AIC events. Will is convinced the AIC are manipulating the US into war without oversight.

In Munich, Ryan comes to the rescue! It turns out he chose Alex over the AIC – at least for now. He takes down three different German intelligence agents and then tells Alex to get Owen to the rendezvous point and he will meet them there.

Harry and Sebastian are still drinking in the beer hall and Sebastian surprisingly opens up to Harry. He tells him that he doesn’t condemn gay people, but that he just prays they find their way to a life free of sin. This visibly upsets Harry, who begins to question their friendship.

On the way to the rendezvous point, Owen tells Alex they have to go back to his hotel because he left behind his evidence against the AIC. Alex begrudgingly agrees.

Leon and Dayana are running their AIC op: they are to kill the woman they are surveilling. Dayana doesn’t blink an eye, but Leon doesn’t think it’s a good idea. When the woman appears, Leon stops Dayana from shooting her.

At Owen’s hotel room they find Helen Sharp’s son Daniel (Nolan Gerard Funk), who plans on killing Owen because he is responsible for Helen’s death. Owen accepts Daniel’s anger and brings the gun closer to his chest, goading Daniel to shoot him. Alex pleads with Daniel to not shoot, telling him that she’s been there and pulled the trigger. She notes it won’t end what he’s feeling. Alex eventually manages to get the gun out of Daniel’s hands and lets him run.

At the terrorist crisis, Leon is next. Will gets two points of confirmation, but he suspects Leon is giving someone else’s answers. Jason angrily grabs Will, insisting that Leon is guilty of something. He calms quickly and walks out of the room with the intention of killing Leon himself. But before he can pull the trigger, Ryan jumps on him in an attempts to wrestle the gun from his grip (in full view of all of the hostages). After a moment of fighting, Jason has his gun pointed at Ryan. Before he can shoot Will shoots him from behind.

Ryan thanks Will for saving his life and wonders why. Will tells him that a program can’t take human emotions into account and he no longer believes in the terrorists’ cause. Then, Alex finally shows up! She, Ryan and Will plan rescue everyone and vow that no one else dies today.

Back at The Farm, Dayana tells Leon in no uncertain terms to never make choices for her again. He tells her he was trying to protect her, but Dayana dismisses this.

Back at his house, Owen tells Alex that he wasn’t trying to get himself killed, he was trying to get Lydia’s attention and it didn’t work. He then reveals that he hacked Lydia’s emails and found encrypted communications linking her to the AIC. This is more of the kind of proof that the FBI needs to take the AIC down. But Owen refuses to be an official part of Alex’s crusade because he can’t betray Lydia. Alex tells him to meet her at The Gold Leaf if he changes his mind.

Harry moves out of Sebastian’s room, citing that Sebastian doesn’t accept him and prays for him to change who he is.

Dayana calls Lydia and tells her that she has proof that Leon is not loyal to the AIC. Lydia promises that he’ll be gone within the week.

Alex meets with Shelby at The Gold Leaf. Shelby tells Alex that she’s not sure if the case will work without Owen. So, it’s a good thing that Owen shows up and decides to help them.

Back in the terrorist crisis, Ryan and Alex free Raina. She helps them organize and free the rest of the hostages. There are more people than there were before, which means the terrorists are still among them. Alex promises that they will get everyone to the other side of this, good or bad, and try not to get killed along the way.