If you would like to read a recap of last week’s premiere, click here. Last week, we were introduced to the first crisis of the season when a group of terrorists took over a conference of world leaders and making a series of demands. Of course being Quantico, there is always the past to contend with, leading us to suspect that these terrorists may not be so unfamiliar.
The first episode ended on a sort of cliffhanger with the first lady appearing to be beheaded and this one picked up right there. This sent a shock through Alex who finds herself feeling a little hopeless, her ammo is running out and her phone has no service. Have no fear since Miranda is now on the case as she arrives near the scene via helicopter. The terrorists have a plan as they rounded up hostages on another floor of the building and attached bombs to them.
Time for our first look at the past. Since Alex and Ryan love each other, it’s about time that they show it and that they did with some romance time which does not last long. Later on, Alex and Ryan are going over some intel on Hall and their fellow recruits with Miranda who then informs them that they will no longer be seeing her and that each of them will get their own handler.
This makes them late for their first day which happens to start off with Hall teaching them yoga for some reason. This also gives Alex and Lydia another opportunity to go after each other one more time. Hall also confronts Ryan and is suspicious of why he’s there to begin with. Alex then introduces herself to her new roommate Dayana (Pearl Thusi), who seemed visibly upset at the end of the previous episode. The recruits have their first surveillance training where they learn about rabbits, eyes, and triggers. Rabbits are whoever is being watched, eyes are those who watch from the corners and frame the area, triggers dictate the eyes.
Back to the present. Alex finds the cop she met at the beginning who has now been shot and he informs her about a police emergency bunker underneath the building that she can use to contact the FBI. We then go to an FBI situation room with Miranda as they assess the situation while trying to determine their options. Alex and the cop are moving down a hall in the basement, on their way to the bunker.
Back to the past where we have a montage featuring Hall talk about surveillance while the recruits are practicing and they are not doing well. Dayanna is having trouble balancing her personal life with her current life. Alex learns that she has a CIA bank account which she still has to open. Harry Doyle (Russell Tovey), the cocky and charismatic recruit, starts flirting with Alex and they decide to go for a drink while he accompanies her to the bank. Meanwhile Ryan, and other recruit Léon Velez (Aarón DÃaz), are called onto a mission that involves Alex.
Back to the present. Miranda disagrees with the strategy in dealing with the terrorists as will cost many innocent lives. Shelby tells her that Alex may still be in the area and she tells her to keep trying to contact her. The terrorists are nearing Alex and the cop in the hall and they are quickly surrounded so they hide. The terrorists are cycling themselves with the hostages, again some of them were the old recruits, to make it harder to tell who was which.
Back to the past. Alex and Doyle are now at the bar where she tries to pry into Doyle but he isn’t giving anything. Once they leave, they realize they are being followed. This is their first exercise. Alex quickly spots the four eyes but cannot find the trigger. They lose her since Dayanna got distracted and lost Alex. Ryan is one of the eyes and after he lose her, he realizes someone is following him and it was Hall.
Back to present. Ryan and Reina are trying to decipher the terrorists’ strategy by marking terrorists so they can spot them when they switch to hostages.
Back to the past. Shelby interrupts Alex and Doyle but she pretends to not know Alex as to avoid suspicion. Ryan confronts Hall about being followed and Hall is still suspicious. Hall believes Ryan does not trust authority because of what happened with Liam. Hall wants to see Ryan do more of his own thing. We then learn that Doyle was Alex’s trigger.
Back to the present. The hostages, including Raina, are led out for some reason and she is able to mark one of them. Alex and the cop find a way to get away from the terrorists and finally get to the bunker. The cop struggles to enter the code as the terrorists are approaching. Once he enters the code, he lock her inside thu sacrificing himself.
Back to the past. Hall and Lydia give the recruits a speech about how important surveillance training is and that they will practice as much as possible. Ryan feels bad for Dayana and gives her a pep talk. We also learn that Lydia respects Alex and was just being rough on her because she thinks Alex does better under pressure.
Another quick look at the present where Alex is in the bunker and happy that she finally has a phone.
Back to the past. Shelby is Alex’s handler and Alex is surprised to see her as she thought this wasn’t exciting enough for her. She has a crisis of faith since she thinks she can’t handle not doing the right thing. Shelby reassures her. Nimah is Ryan’s handler. We see that it is getting tough for both of them. We get another montage of the recruits doing various things but most importantly, we see Doyle looking into Alex and Shelby.
The episode ends with the present with the other hostages returning but because they figured out Raina’s plan, everyone is marked. Alex contacts Miranda and tells her what’s going on. Miranda wants more information on what’s happening inside so she can call off any serious military action from Vice-President Haas. Alex says that she’ll get the information but doesn’t know if she can get back to the phone. A random terrorist gets a message that Alex is inside. The camera goes back to Miranda which implies she sent the message.
Overall, this was a more exciting episode as it developed this season’s new characters as we started to see their relationships with Alex and Ryan. The actual story got more interesting as we knew more about the terrorists and what was being done to try and stop them. The twist did not surprise me but I am looking forward to seeing where it goes.
Score: 8/10
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.
