The recruits at Quantico were once again given an assignment with many layers. Also, with Alex still on the run after the terrorist attack, she called one of her old fellow recruits to help her.
The training day starts off with the recruits being tied to one another and thrown in the swimming pool. They must work together to get free and get out of the water. Alex and Shelby quickly complete the task, but Alex accidentally cuts herself. Later, the trainees are tasked with profiling each other. But as always, Miranda's instructions are only half of the story. After they are done with their profiles, they are made public for everyone to see, including the names of who wrote what. Based on these and their own judgments, the recruits are ordered to hand in three names of fellow recruits that they believe should be cut from the program. If they fail to comply, Miranda will cut 10 herself. This sets the recruits up against each other. For example, Alex and Shelby get all bitch-y, while Simon and Ryan's heated argument nearly leads to a fight between the two. The assignment also drives a wedge between Nimah and Raina, because they are afraid they will be cut from the program. As Alex once again sees through the assignment to realize that turning on each other is exactly what Miranda wants, she tries to convince the others from not handing in their list of names. Most of them agree, except for Simon who goes to Miranda right away. However, Alex was right that the assignment was a ruse and Simon gets an official warning from Miranda.
In the present, Alex' mother Sita is brought in for questioning, who claims she hasn't spoken to her daughter since she graduated from Quantico. We also meet Deputy Director Clayton, who wants results from Liam. Miranda tries to convince Sita not to give up on her daughter. However, Sita reveals that Alex went to India for a decade after her father's death, but the family only knows where she was for nine of those. This and the increasing evidence against Alex leads her mother to publicly declare her daughter a wanted terrorist.
Meanwhile, Alex seeks help from Simon, who is revealed to have been kicked out of the Academy and is now working at some technical business. Alex brings him a wire, which Simon agrees to investigate at his company. Like Ryan, Simon also wants to make it look like he was under duress so he sets off the alarm and Alex beats him down. The two find out that the wire has Alex' fingerprint on it. However, it was an old fingerprint that didn't have the scar that the aforementioned cut left. Hence, they deduce that whoever framed Alex must have started the day she walked into Quantico. After leaving Simon's company and Simon going in for an FBI questioning, the duo regroups to make a suspect wall of all the recruits Alex has encountered at Quantico, including the dead (RIP Eric Packer) and kicked out recruits. She already takes one recruit of the suspect list: Simon. However, when Simon gets a call from his boss, that turns out to be Deputy Director Clayton, who calls him "Agent Asher". Clearly, Simon became an agent after all and is now on an undercover mission to get close to Alex.
In this week's episode, we learned the following about the characters:
-Alex receives a file from Liam with everything the FBI has on her father Michael Parrish. As Alex debates whether or not to read the file, it is Ryan who eventually convinces her to do so. It turns out Michael was a decorated agent who saved hundreds of lives. The drunk, abusive father she shot was actually a hero. Additionally, Alex was in India for ten years, but only nine of those are accounted for.
-Shelby is seen making a transfer of 1 billion dollars. She also refers to a mess that she had to clean up after her parents died.
-Raina is mad at Nimah, because Raina has to adjust down to Nimah's average performances and is afraid they now have to leave Quantico. Raina also says she doesn't want to be at Quantico in the first place, but Nimah makes a case for being more than just someone's wife, daughter or sister. In the end, Nimah leaves Raina alone at the Academy to presumably teach her a lesson.
-Nathalie has a daughter that she wants to video chat with, but the child's father prevents Nathalie from seeing her.
-Simon is revealed to have involuntarily left the Academy sometime. However, it turns out he is actually an agent that has been recruited by Deputy Director Clayton. Agent Asher is now undercover to get close to terrorist Alex.
-Liam has a history with Michael Parrish and whatever they did, Sita is keeping it a secret. Also, as Alex cries down in Ryan's arms, Liam watches from afar.
-Miranda visits her son Charlie in prison, but he is unwilling to talk to her. That is, until she leaves, at which point he reveals he may be getting parole.
No real new information on Ryan, Caleb and Elias this week.
Review
Quantico continues to be one of the strongest new shows of the season. Once again, we were presented with an assignment at the Academy that wasn't what it seems. It's really great that the show is drawing parallels between what the recruits are taught and what happens in the aftermath of the terrorist attack. Of course, there were enough twists in this episode. One of the biggest twists must be Simon working for the FBI Deputy Director. I think Alex' quote "I thought I knew you" is really one of the central themes of the episode, or of the series in general. Simon's reaction is both creepy and true: "No one knows anyone else, ever". That is definitely true for this show and Simon is now one of the biggest question marks on the show. When did he start working undercover? Why did Clayton recruit him when he was kicked out of Quantico? We also continued to learn more about the other characters, which adds so many layers to each of them. Even Nathalie apparently has a soft side, although I am still not a huge fan of her. I also like how the show is giving Nimah and Raina different personalities (leading to one of their fellow recruits profiling Nimah as having a split personality). They could have easily been monozygotic twins that are alike in every aspect of their lives, but fortunately the writers chose to include some clear differences between the two. I don't like it that Sita is basically giving up on her daughter, although maybe there's more to it than meets the eye.
Here's this week's terrorist wall, including a ranking of every suspect and a change in the ranking compared to last week.
-Alex: 1/5 (no change compared to last week)
It still isn't Alex.
-Shelby: 3/5 (no change)
Transferring $1 billion is definitely suspicious. How did she even get that money in the first place? However, as some has theorized, she might just be blackmailed into doing something. Might that something be terrorist activities? It's possible, but it could just as well be something else.
-Nimah and Raina: 2/5 (no change)
I was wondering in last week's review if one was more capable of being an agent than the other. In my eyes, Raina seems to be the better one, although she is also the one who didn't want to be at Quantico in the first place. The sisters are definitely split on their assignment, but that doesn't make them terrorists.
-Nathalie: 2/5 (no change)
We learned Nathalie has a daughter, but that's no indication to change my ranking.
-Ryan: 2/5 (no change)
Besides the fact that Ryan is getting close to Alex, there is again no indication to change my ranking.
-Caleb: 3/5 (no change)
Also, no indication to suspect Caleb more or less based on this week's episode.
-Simon: 3/5 (-1 compared to last week)
So Simon apparently works for the FBI Deputy Director. That somehow makes me suspect him less of being the terrorist, although this is obviously not good news for on-the-run Alex.
-Elias: 1/5 (-1 compared to last week)
This is a tricky one as we didn't learn anything new about Elias this week. However, we learned that the fingerprint that was used to frame Alex was from the very beginning when she came to Quantico and got her credentials. Elias wasn't there yet, because he joined in episode 2 and he wasn't there when the recruits were given the credentials. Again, I know it's a tricky reasoning and it might just change next week, but for now, Elias ends up among the least-suspected.
-Liam: 3/5 (no change)
Liam and Alex' father had history, and I'm not sure they were up to something good. I really, really distrust Liam and it wouldn't surprise me if he is a dirty cop or something and also orchestrated this whole thing.
-Miranda: 1/5 (no change)
Miranda is the only ally Alex has left after her mother also let her down.
What did you think of "Cover"? Were you shocked to learn that Simon is also an undercover agent? Who do you think Shelby is transferring that huge amount of money to? Do you have any idea what Liam and Alex' father Michael were up to? And how awful must it be to watch your own mother declaring your guilt on public television? Let me know your thoughts and theories in the comment section below.
Below is a promo for episode 4. We have also received a screener of that episode, so be sure to check out my advance preview of this episode, which will probably be up tomorrow.
