The latest Quantico gave us some answers while also continuing to pose new questions. Alex found out the truth about Ryan, and a new suspect emerged in the Grand Central Terminal terrorist attack.
At Quantico, the recruits get a lesson in surveillance. However, nobody is really interest in that. Instead, most recruits are busy making love with their partners. The hook-ups at this point are: Alex and Ryan, Shelby and Caleb, Nathalie and Brandon, and Raina and Simon. Surprisingly, they all make it to the next round of the assignment, which is when they will spy on real people. Miranda has chosen herself and indirectly her own son as the subject of the surveillance. Her son Charlie is out of juvenile detention and is now living with her. However, she can't leave him alone and certainly doesn't trust him. Liam offers to stay with him for sometime, while the recruits are spying on the house. With Alex in the van, Ryan sneaks out to Miranda's house. Liam steps out, asks what he's doing and then confronts Ryan about the Alex operation. Since Alex is still listening in, Liam blows his own operation. Alex later confronts Liam and puts a bug in his office. When Ryan tries to make up with Alex, she switches rooms with Nathalie. Elsewhere, Simon and Raina get closer when the former reveals he isn't really gay, but when Simon later walks into Raina's room, he finds both Raina and Nimah there. Simon freaks out and hits his head, and Nimah locks him in the bathroom while Raina gets Miranda.
In the present day, Shelby has completely joined Team Alex as the two meet in Alex' hotel room. Alex gets the idea to hack into the FBI database and see what the Digital Intercept Technology Unit is seeing on security footage. It turns out Caleb runs that unit and that Deputy Director Clayton is actually his father. Caleb goes through security footage from a few days before the terrorist attack. Simon sets it all up so that Alex can see what happens on Caleb's computer, and Caleb actually deletes a file. Alex is able to get it back and the footage shows Clayton kissing Shelby. Shelby confesses the two are having an affair and that she lied about being in Buenos Aires so she could spend a weekend with him. Caleb later confronts Shelby and tells her she was the only person that made him feel better than his father. Meanwhile, Nathalie notices Ryan taking a lot of calls from O'Connor. At one point, when Ryan receives another call from Liam, she sees Liam standing in the other room without any phone in his hands. Nathalie connects the dots and tells Liam that she suspects Ryan is in contact with Alex. Also, as Alex goes through the security footage of the days before the attack, she sees one of the twins at Grand Central Terminal.
Character board
In this week's episode, we learned the following about the characters:
-Alex learns that Ryan was in an undercover operation when he got close to her. As she confronts Liam about this, she places in a bug in his office.
-Shelby and Caleb seem close in the Quantico timeline, but something has happened between the two of them that led to a break-up. Also, Shelby is having an affair with Caleb's father Clayton.
-Nathalie is apparently hooking up with Brandon before switching rooms with Alex. In the present timeline, however, she and Ryan are a couple. She doesn't trust him though, as she reports to Liam her suspicions that he is having contact with Alex.
-Ryan's undercover operation is accidentally blown by Liam. Ryan tells Alex that sleeping with her was not part of the assignment, but was really him.
-Caleb is actually Clayton's son. He discovers that Shelby and his father are having an affair, and he feels heartbroken over it. Shelby was the only woman who ever made him feel better than his father.
-Simon discovers that Nimah and Raina are actually twins and freaks out. Therefore, Nimah locks him in the bathroom.
-Elias was absent in this episode, though he did leave a note for Simon.
-Brandon has hooked up with Nathalie in the Quantico timeline.
-Liam has a daughter that was on the same school as Miranda's son. Liam and his daughter are not on speaking terms. Also, he blows his own operation regarding Alex.
-Miranda's son claims that she made up the entire story about the school attack. Also, Charlie's father and Miranda's (ex-?)husband is dead. Miranda later tells Charlie that she found his note before the school attack, and that she burned it.
-Clayton has an affair with Shelby while still being married. He also breaks protocol when he allows his son to work on the same FBI case.
Review
Quantico gave us quite some answers in this episode. Alex finally learned about Ryan's undercover assignment and we saw Caleb for the first time in the present timeline. I am not sure he's completely out of the picture, but it seems he just wanted to find out the truth about Shelby and his father. I think this episode could have spent a bit more time on the weekly assignment and less on all the hook-ups. Apparently there is also a random hook-up with Nathalie and Brandon, but I really couldn't care less. Nathalie continues to be pretty unlikable, giving up Ryan to Liam, and I still have no idea who this Brandon guy is. I believe there could have been a better way for the show to introduce him to the viewers. Maybe we will learn more about him in the next episodes. As for the other characters, I do enjoy that the show continues to expand their backstories. We learned a great deal about Caleb and Miranda this week, while the show also revealed that Liam has a daughter. However, despite giving answers, this episode also asked many questions. I hope the writers can keep up with all the twists that they have written, but I think they have the whole season mapped out. The episode order for season 1 has recently been upped to 22, but hopefully that won't be too many for the show to keep up the quality.
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 really not Alex.
-Shelby: 3/5 (no change)
On one hand, Shelby really seems to want to help Alex so she could go a bit lower. However, her alibi of being in Buenos Aires doesn't hold up. In fact, she was near Grand Central Terminal a few days before the attack. So I won't change the ranking this week.
-Nimah and Raina: 2/5 (no change)
It's a bit premature to just change the ranking based on security footage. I still don't hope the show will make (one of) them the terrorist responsible for the attack.
-Nathalie: 2/5 (no change)
She continues to be annoying, but that can't be a crime.
-Ryan: 2/5 (no change)
Alex found out about his undercover assignment, but in the present he continues to be on her side. No indication to change my ranking.
-Caleb: 3/5 (-1 compared to last week)
He's not in the clear yet, but at this point it seems Caleb is just heartbroken over Shelby's betrayal and his father's affair. However, he was still near Grand Central Terminal when the attack happened.
-Simon: 2/5 (-1 compared to last week)
Simon is helping Alex too much to be the terrorist. He also discovered the truth about the twins while getting close to Raina. He could still be in contact with one of them in the present, but at this point Simon is getting lower on my suspect list.
-Elias: 2/5 (no change)
No change since he wasn't present in the episode.
-Brandon: 1/5 (no change)
No change since I still have no idea who this guy is.
-Liam: 3/5 (no change)
I'm leaning more and more towards Liam not being the terrorist, but I'm not changing my ranking yet. I still don't know why he is going after Alex and what he and Alex' father did, but at least she found out about his operation.
-Miranda: 3/5 (+1 compared to last week)
Miranda's conversations with her son make me somewhat more suspicious of her. Her son accused her of setting him up in prison and somehow I believe that could actually be a partial truth. Also, I want to know what happened to her husband.
-Clayton: 3/5 (new to the terrorist wall)
I hadn't added Clayton earlier to the wall, because I didn't think he could be a suspect. However, I've changed my mind about that. He was near Grand Central Terminal a few days before the attack and he's having an affair with Shelby. Somehow, I could see him being behind all this.
What did you think of "God"? How do you feel about Alex finding out the truth about Ryan? What do you think about Shelby having an affair with Caleb's father? Do you think Miranda could have set her son up for the school attack? And lastly, why do you think the twins were near Grand Central Terminal a few days before the bomb? I would love to hear your thoughts and theories in the comments below.
The next episode of Quantico airs this Sunday at 10/9c on ABC. Watch a promo for the episode below.
