The recruits at Quantico went undercover in this week's episode, which made for some fun moments and two hook-ups. Also, a new suspect emerged in the case of the Grand Central Terminal bombing.
With everybody full in training mode at Quantico, the NATs are relieved to get a day off. Of course, they receive an assignment to complete during the day. They are going undercover at a company party from Dystek and try to get a chance to speak to the company's CEO. The recruits spend the rest of the day building their undercover identities, which need to be perfect. However, once the recruits go to the hotel where the party takes place, Liam tells them to give their perfect cover stories to the person standing left from them. Despite this extra challenge, most recruits make some succesful attempt to get to the CEO. Ryan and Alex separately find their way to Dystek's boss, while Nimah and Raina, who had to swap every hour at Miranda's orders, talk to a woman about some creative ideas. Shelby's attempts are thwarted by Caleb, who makes hilarious one-liners to prevent her from talking to the CEO. Shelby angrily demands to talk to Caleb in an empty room and after yelling at him, the two hook up. Meanwhile, Ryan, Alex, Nimah/Raina and new recruit Brandon get ready to meet the CEO, but it turns out he has been fired and the woman whom the twins have been talking to is now in charge. As Alex and Ryan are left alone in the room, they get intimate as well.
In the present timeline, newspapers are calling Alex "bombshell bomber", "terror babe" and "Jihadi Jane". Interrogating Shelby doesn't get Alex very far, as Shelby neither confirms nor denies that the wire belongs to her company. However, Alex freaks out when Ryan calls her to tell that Clayton has given the order of shoot to kill. She comes up with the idea of telling her story and goes on the Dark Web to contact a group called The Unkown. Before giving Alex a live interview, two members of The Unkown ask her a lot of questions. After that, Alex goes live to tell the world she is being framed and explains why she is an obvious person to put the blame on. The FBI tracks down the location of the interview to a mosque and prepare to enter, but are stopped because of the Ramadan. When lots of people exit the mosque, Alex and the two Unknowns also make it out alive. The Unknowns get Alex a fake identity, a phone and a laptop and put her in a hotel. Meanwhile, Shelby was left at the mosque and is freed by the FBI. While she gets a chance to sell out Ryan and Simon to Liam, she doesn't because, even though she has issues with Alex, Shelby doesn't believe she detonated the bomb. The trio find a list of everyone that was near the blast site when the bombs went off, and surprisingly enough, Caleb is on that list.
Character board
In this week's episode, we learned the following about the characters:
-Alex has made various calls to her mother, but they usually end in a fight. Alex also reveals to the Unknowns that she went to visit Pakistan and Iran in her missing year in India. Of the people she met during that time, ten have been killed.
-Nimah and Raina are threatened to be thrown out by Miranda if they fail to meet the CEO of Dystek. Fortunately, their constant swap does not prevent them from getting there. Also, Raina asks to go on a walk with Simon.
-Nathalie was completely absent in this week's episode, though we did learn from Shelby that she dealt with cartels when she worked as a cop in Texas.
-Ryan hooks up with Alex and talks to Miranda about Liam's operation. Miranda later tells him that his operation is really important for national security.
-Caleb not only has a Facebook account under the name of Mark Raymond, but he also has an email account. He has an email from the company Dystek about an application and mails back that he's looking forward to the interview.
-Simon invites his fake boyfriend Max, whom he kissed in the pilot, to come to the hotel. Simon puts him in a room to not talk to anyone. After another confrontation with Elias, Simon finally tells him the truth. Simon was in the Israeli Defence Forces and was sent to Gaza, where he not only saw things, but also did things that haunt him every day. He couldn't live with what he did, so he started to live his life undercover.
-Elias continues to look into Simon and even talks to his fake boyfriend Max, which leads to Simon telling him the truth. Elias believes this.
-Brandon is a new recruit that we haven't met before. We saw him briefly in some scenes during the episode, but we didn't really get to know him.
-Liam used to come at the hotel with Miranda, where they decided to end their marriages. It didn't quite work out that way, but Miranda demands to know the truth about Liam's off-book operation on Alex. Liam says Alex has something on all of them.
-Miranda talks to Ryan about Liam's operation and later demands to know from Liam why he's running the operation. Whatever he told her, it was enough to convince Miranda to tell Ryan to continue the operation as it really is a matter of national security. Also, Miranda's son is out on parole.
Review
While I wouldn't necessarily call this episode a step down, I did feel it was a bit slower than usual. This episode had a bit more humor in it and there was room for some more character moments, which made it a little light on the action. The hook-ups between Shelby and Caleb, and Ryan and Alex are not something I really need, but I can take it if it doesn't eat too much screen time. It was great to finally hear what Simon has been up to in Gaza, though I am not really sure he spoke the entire truth. Another great moment was Miranda and Liam's conversation at the hotel, and I'm intrigued to learn what Liam told Miranda to throw her off. There was also good progress in the present storyline. It was kind of expected that Shelby went to work with the boys to prove Alex' innocence. I like how the show is introducing a new recruit in the present timeline every week. Next week we will meet Caleb and in one of the next episodes, the twins will show up as well. I found it a bit weird that Nathalie was absent in this episode, especially since she's a regular and all that, but since I don't like her very much, I can't be unhappy. Also, the introduction of this Brandon guy was poorly done. They could have given us a bit more of an introduction to him, even if it would only be one line. I am not even sure if I heard his name, but of course his name was revealed in the casting news. Anyway, I suppose we will get to see more of him soon.
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's not Alex, though she does look a bit more suspicious since we learned about her year off.
-Shelby: 3/5 (-1 compared to last week)
If Shelby really was the terrorist, it would be smart of her to tell Liam that Ryan and Simon are working with Alex. She seems to really believe Alex is innocent, so she's getting one step lower. However, we still know nothing about the wire from her company.
-Nimah and Raina: 2/5 (no change)
No indication to change my ranking.
-Nathalie: 2/5 (no change)
No change since she wasn't present in this episode.
-Ryan: 2/5 (no change)
He seems to be hooking up with Alex, though since he is with Nathalie in the present timeline something must have happened between him and Alex. He's still one of the best ally's Alex has though.
-Caleb: 4/5 (+1 compared to last week)
Caleb was near the blast site when the bombs detonated, which makes him look very suspicious. Also, despite hooking up with Shelby at Quantico, the two seemingly haven't been in contact in the present timeline. Additionally, he was seen emailing someone about an application.
-Simon: 3/5 (no change)
He's still a great ally to Alex and he told Elias the truth, but there is a part of me that still doesn't trust him.
-Elias: 2/5 (+1 compared to last week)
It's not that I find Elias very suspicious, but I do find him a bit creepy. He seems to be really going after Simon, so I bumped him up a bit. Still, he's not one of my main suspects right now.
-Brandon: 1/5 (new character)
He was only given like one minute of screen time, so there's not enough I have on him to give him a higher ranking.
-Liam: 3/5 (no change)
Liam knows something about Alex that has implications for national security. I have no idea what it is and it's not enough to change my ranking of him.
-Miranda: 2/5 (+1 compared to last week)
Just like Elias, Miranda is not my main suspect at this point. However, she was very harsh on the twins and she really doesn't want her son to get out of jail. She also knows whatever information Liam has on Alex, and from what she told Ryan, it looked pretty serious.
What did you think of "Found"? Do you agree that it was a bit slower than usual? What did you think about the weekly assignment? Do you think Simon told Elias the truth? What are your thoughts on the two hook-ups that happened in this episode? And lastly, do you have any idea how Alex could have something on all of them as Liam said? Sound off with your thoughts and theories in the comments below.
The next episode airs this Sunday at 10/9c on ABC. Here's a promo for the episode:
