If you would like to read a recap of last week’s episode, click here. Last week’s episode helped to bridge the gap between both timelines by fleshing out the past timeline but the show has failed so far this season to connect both timelines. There is still very little to connect the CIA recruits in the past to the terrorists in the present. The season hints at a conspiracy but features too many moving parts, at least for now. The terrorist subplot is getting a little tiresome now so any signs of moving into another direction would be welcome.
Past:
Alex has memories of Simon seeing that it is the one year anniversary of his courageous act from last season. Alex and Ryan are debriefing with Nimah and Shelby. Nimah confirm that Harry is who he says he is but Ryan still doesn’t trust him. They discuss their fellow recruits. Lee can’t be a suspect. It’s unlikely that Dayanna is a suspect or at least she’s good at hiding her tracks. They notice that Harry is getting close to Sebastian so they might be able to get information about Harry through him. Leon hasn’t been sleeping at the farm because he’s been with Shelby. In order to get Harry of their case, they need to come up with a good cover story that he will believe.
Hall is making breakfast for Lydia. He tells her that half of the sources he got from the journalist don’t exist. and asks for her help. Once she arrives to class, Alex is reminded that she needs to submit a statement to the CIA media office. Their lesson for today is about drone strikes. There are seven criteria for deciding a drone strike. The recruits separating in teams, handling each criteria with each team having to agree.
Hall also reminds Alex about her statement. Harry tries to press Ryan in class but there’s a time and place for that. Sebastian helps Leon with his work since he was busy (with Shelby). Ryan talks to Sebastian about Harry and he tells him about Harry’s boyfriend’s suicide.
Nimah and Shelby can’t seem to find any real information on Harry. Shelby keeps getting texts from Caleb. Hall wants the recruits to make sure they got it right since they are going to a real Drone Command Centre where they get to decide whether or not to strike their target. Since they have a short window, they have to go through all the criterias again.
Alex has given her statement. Nimah and Shelby find a cover story and feed it to Ryan. Shelby gets more texts from Caleb. Ryan tries to use the cover story on Harry but he doesn’t believe it. It gets harder for the recruits to decide when the situation is real. Alex keeps relating everything to Simon. They just don’t have enough information to make an informed decision. Ryan confronts Alex about her unwillingness to agree since it goes against who they are trying to be for their mission. It’s harder for her because she can’t stop thinking about Simon.
Nimah and Shelby are waiting for a response by Alex and Ryan. Nimah misses Raina and they barely speak. Nimah figures out that all the texts from Caleb are really Leon since put Leon’s number in her phone under Caleb’s name.
Hall wants an answer but several groups still don’t agree and are arguing. The other recruits know about the anniversary but still urge her to do the right thing. Alex steps out. Ryan and Harry join her. She convinces them to say no since her instincts tell her not to do it since she doesn’t have all the information. A few more groups are convinced to say yes but Alex, Ryan, and Harry are still holding out. Hall goes ahead and orders the strike anyway.
Nimah and Shelby are arguing about Leon but Shelby claims it’s okay since he doesn’t know anything about her. Nimah asks if he would trust her and suggests that she should go undercover and try to get information out of him. Hall didn’t give them all the information on purpose just so they’d live without the certainty. Lee is not okay with what just happened. They tell her that things are getting harder. Lee doesn’t want to become a monster. Harry gives Ryan a peace offering and tells them that he understands them now after what happened and he won’t stand in their way.
Hall’s sources weren’t CIA aliases according to Lydia but he doesn’t believe her. Lydia urges him to drop it but he wants answers. Lydia reminds him that he wouldn’t last back in the field. She thought being in the class would have given him perspective. Lydia is right there but he would rather focus on the dreams that did not become true.
Ryan apologizes to Alex for earlier and forgetting about Simon. Ryan suggests that they should honor him. Alex, Ryan, Shelby, and Nimah go to his grave to honor his memory.
Present:
Raina is back with the other hostages. She runs into the old CIA recruits (who are talking now for whatever reason) and updates them on the situation. They believe that they are still there because some of them might matter to the terrorists. They try and work together to figure out how they’re connected. They try to expose the terrorists by revealing to each other their reasons for being there. They appear to have nothing to do with them because they seem to not be affiliated with the CIA. Some random hostages also reveal their purpose for being there.
Alex and Lydia are trying to figure each other out. Lydia wants to know why Alex has a sat phone and Alex wants to know how Lydia got away with the hostages. Lydia claims that she escaped after a hostage exchange. She also reveals that Alex’s sat phone has a code that can open a safe full of hard drives full of intelligence acquired via illegal surveillance that they were to be dismantled. This was the reason for the summit. They are what the terrorists want. They agree that they need to destroy those drives before the terrorists can decrypt them (which is what they tried to do with Boyer).
Lydia knows where the safe is and is leading Alex to it when another terrorist stumbles upon them. Lydia takes them out to try to convince Alex that they were on the same side. The recruits are still trying to figure out their connection to everything and can’t seem to figure it out. Sebastian still doesn’t trust Harry.
Alex resents Lydia for being kicked out, alluding to past history which we will probably see later on. Lydia suddenly is being choked by her collar but Alex shoots it off. Sebastian still suspicious of Harry. Everybody knows that he’s MI6 now. They start to turn on each other but Sebastian hasn’t revealed his reason for being there yet.
Lydia shoots another terrorist. They then find the safe where Lydia uses the code on Alex’s phone to open it. Lydia wants to keep the drives and use them as leverage but Alex wants to destroy them. Lydia reveals that she has a remote for her collar that she claims to have taken from a terrorist. They then fight each other.
Sebastian still doesn’t want to talk but then reveals that he was there with his wife which seems innocent enough. They appear to still have no connection until Lee says something that triggers the terrorists who then pull her out of the room. Alex and Lydia are still fighting until Lydia knocks her out with a kick to the head. Alex wakes up and Lydia tells her that she was working for the CIA and her mission was to get the drives. She trips the alarm to alert the other terrorists and escapes.
Lee comes back and then gets choked to death by her collar. Dayanna and Raina get taken away by the terrorists. Dayanna goes in one room while Raina in another. She talks to the terrorists and tells them that they were right and Dayanna might be one of them. It was her plan all along and reveals that she was really Nimah posing as Raina to try and get information from the other recruits. The real Raina is tied up in another room. They they switch now or was it Nimah the whole time?
Overall, this episode did not do much to advance the story in either timeline. It created more maybes than anything definite. This episode seemingly eliminated the CIA recruits as terrorist suspects and just reinforced what we probably already suspected anyway. The only interesting thin about the episode was the Nimah reveal even though it did not come as much of a surprise.
Score: 7/10
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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.