If you would like to read a recap of last week’s episode, click here. So we’re starting to move in the right direction and slowly moving away from the terrorist subplot. We’re starting to make some headway in both the past and the present in the hopes of connecting the two somehow. The previous episode offered plenty of twists in both regards but will they get resolved, probably not but it is definitely getting more interesting.
Past:
Miranda, CIA Director Matthew Keyes (Henry Czerny) and the rest of the gang are debriefing about the case. Miranda is worried about her agents. Keyes believes that the bug they found maybe because of Hall. We learn that the reason for this investigation was because an agent working out of Berlin may have been selling secrets to the Russians. As they were building a case against them, a group of professionals within the agency made their death look like a suicide. Keyes is worried that if they don’t stop them, they’ll eventually become the agency. Miranda tells Alex and Ryan to lay low while the bug thing blows over and they will they do some research.
Ryan signs for a letter from the Department of Justice containing a key to a storage locker that was apparently left for him by Liam. Alex is on the bottom of the murder board for some reason even though she’s been doing better. The big test of the day is how to control one’s emotions and staying cool under the tensest of situations. Lee brags about being the best at controlling her emotions.
Hall runs some stress tests on the recruits. The recruits will be tested further once they go to Langley and speak to current and former agents who will be testing them. Alex has a plan to use the stress monitors in order to root out possible bad recruits. First Alex needs to clone Hall’s phone and Ryan needs to record the other recruits as he indirectly questions them about the rogue agents.
Once at Langley, the recruits are tested during their various interactions as they are prodded with their personal problems. Hall confronts Keyes about the reason he was benched but Hall believes that there is more going on. Hall is playing hard to get, not giving Alex enough time to clone his phone. Lydia confronts Ryan about the letter he received from Liam and then ditches Alex who is still trying to figure out how to get to Hall. Harry confronts Sebastian about his normalness where he gets upset after Harry tells him that he should kill himself.
Alex takes another crack at Hall and takes a more aggressive approach, pressing him into revealing why she isn’t doing so well. Hall believes doubt has been holding her back. Doubt that if she did the right thing, or doubt that she could have done more. Ryan opens the locker with the key he received, finding a CIA hat inside. Alex still hasn’t finished cloning Hall’s phone.
The various stress tests were used to find what were the recruits main stressors. The recruits felt exploited as Hall and Lydia invented scenarios that were close to them to find out what would make them crack. Harry reveals to Sebastian that his stressor was that the fact that a gay friend killed himself in front of him. Sebastian reveals to Harry that he tried to kill himself when he was younger, explaining why Harry’s previous comment made him upset.
Ryan visits Lydia and confronts her about the planted hat. She tries to get him to see that his stressor is Alex as she was a reminder of all the mistakes he’s made. Hall meets Alex in the classroom. Putting Alex at the bottom of the murder board was to stress her out. Alex asks him if she belonged there and he tells her that he recruited her because she was special. If she works as hard as she has then they will be talking real soon. Alex has finished cloning his phone.
Alex and Ryan are working together alone, going through the data. Ryan stops her and tells her that he should break away from Alex since they know that she’s his stressor. She agrees. Lydia and Hall start to figure out what is really going on. They believe that the CIA has been playing them against each other. Harry and Sebastian are acting different towards each other. Lydia tells a voice on the phone that Hall has dropped his inquiry into the CIA then asks Hall who he thinks was responsible.
Alex and Ryan sync up the stress monitor information to the recordings and figure out that Lee has been listening to them this whole time.
Present
Hostages are being kept in some sort of cages. Sebastian doesn’t want to hear from Harry because he is still mad at him for some reason. Raina is being led out somewhere. Alex eavesdrops a conversation between some terrorists. They talk about needing to drop some dead weight and that they’re not worried about finding Alex because they already have enough to do. They are setting Raina up for a video. When she refuses, the terrorists activate her collar and it begins to tighten and start to choke her.
Shelby briefs the FBI by saying that the people responsible are not terrorists and what they’re doing is only a distraction from what their real motives are. They get the video saying that the terrorists are willing to trade the majority of their hostages for one computer hacker named Eric Boyer (Derek Klena) that got the president to pardon in the first episode. This whole thing doesn’t make sense to Shelby.
Alex meets Raina. She tells her that the terrorists don’t want the majority of the hostages and that they are their weakness. In giving them back, they get rid of the dead weight terrorists who are posing as some of the hostages. They don’t know the exact number of terrorists. She tells them about their plan to exchange them for Boyer. Alex asks Raina to try and stop the trade by getting herself involved in the exchange as a translator while also sending a message to Miranda. She also asks her to find Lydia.
Those in charge at the FBI command centre are debating about the trade. Miranda thinks they should do it while everyone else seems to disagree. She convinces them by working extremely hard. Miranda and Shelby apprehend Boyer who refuses to go with them or let themselves be traded to the terrorists. Miranda brings them into a van where she reveals her true intentions as a representative of the terrorists and convinces him that it would be better for him to go with her. As he leaves, he mentions to Shelby that he has information from when he hacked her parents’ company that she should see.
Raina rejoins the hostages and meets Lydia. She disagrees with Alex’s plan as giving back the hostages would take away the terrorists’ leverage. She doesn’t know that they are playing both sides.
They are going ahead with the trade while Alex is watching from one of the windows. Raina is there. The trade is taking place as Raina gets closer and closer to Miranda but waits until the last minute before giving her the message which she claims to not understand. Alex tried to shoot from the window to try and disrupt the trade but she failed.
Shelby disagrees with Miranda’s decision to release the hostages. Shelby looks into some of her parents’ company’s old files and finds a message left behind by Boyer saying that Miranda is one of them. The terrorists are pressuring Boyer to do what he promised but it has gone to far so he takes one of their guns and kills himself. Raina rejoins Lydia and is confused as to why Miranda didn’t understand the message. The terrorists are about to intercept Alex.
Overall, this was another good episode that addressed the Miranda twist in the present, gave us some more background for the recruits, while adding a new conspiracy in the past timeline. I am definitely interested in seeing where Miranda goes but it is still a little frustrating that there is little connection between both timelines so far.
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.