Quantico Season 2 Episode 16: MKTOPAZ Review

If you would like to read my review of the last episode, click here.

Synopsis: When Clay is forced to use his fiancée to carry out an operation, the whole team re-examines their personal connections, or more accurately, the lack thereof. Meanwhile, Alex forges an unexpected bond with an asset at the center of a conspiracy, and Harry struggles to find his place on the task force. (Quantico Wiki)

Writers: Jon Derengowski and Sara Miller

Director: Constantine Makris

Rating: TV-14

Running Time: 42mins

I mentioned in the last review that I am still not convinced of the direction this season has gone since its return. The team’s mission to find the collaborators has been way too procedural, causing the show to lose some of its personality. While this all may just be buildup to when it all comes back together in the finale but it would have been nice to get just a little more payoff.

This episode tried to stray a little from the mould by approaching this week’s collaborator in a different way. The target this week was a power broker named Rebecca Sherman (Donna Murphy). She accessed the cache for vulnerabilities in the passport system. They believed that she may be the connection between the collaborators, arranging their meetings through her.

In this episode, we met Clay’s fiancée (Krysta Rodriguez). Because she and Clay were such high-profile people, the team suggested that they visit Sherman, wanting her to plan their wedding. Sherman was a intelligent woman so she figured out what was going on rather quickly and managed to interrupt Clay as he was trying to hack her antiquated computer. Realizing this, she thought them to be FBI and immediately asked for their help.

She wasn’t as ruthless as it seemed as she was being blackmailed by the collaborators and wanted help getting out. She accessed the cache to see how she can leave the country. She managed to make a connection with Alex, giving her some valuable advice about love and life. She arranged a meeting with one of the other collaborators under the pretense that she was compromised.

The team was all set up and were ready to surveil the meeting when Harry showed up. He was still new to team and didn’t like being benched by Clay. He had threatened to leave but he came to his senses and apologized for his ego. This was all he had and he wanted to make it work. Sherman met the collaborators’ lawyer and things seemed to be going alright until their coms went out and both she and the lawyer were shot. Alex could only watch Sherman bleed out as her presence may alert people to their involvement.

The team raced to find the shooter but when they appeared to find no sign of them, they left. They had already stayed longer than they should have but Harry stayed. He found a shell casing and followed it to a man with a guitar case. Once he got closer, we learned that the shooter was Sebastian. Harry then disappeared for a while.

Ryan and the reporter were still working together. The team learned that a story about the ponzi scheme from a few episodes ago was leaked to the press and Clay wasn’t happy.  No one else has figured out that Ryan was the leak. In trying to hack Sherman’s computer earlier, Ryan asked for help from the reporter who had covered her extensively in the past. He continued to work his charm on her. Nimah figured out he leaked to the reporter and suggested that he should find something on her and he appeared to have found something.

A big part of the episode was about relationships. Clay using his fiancée on a mission, put some distance between them as she started to learn the truth about him but Shelby later spoke with her to tell her how much of a nice guy Clay was which seemed to work. Shelby used her fake sister Samar for help and reconnected. Owen wanted to visit Lydia in prison and eventually did. Nimah tried to call Raina but she wouldn’t answer her phone.

The episode started with what looked to be the same cleaning crew who killed Leon, try to set someone up as a radical islamist. We later learned that the person they were setting up was Raina. She walked in on them. She put up a fight but they ended up taking her for whatever reason.

The episode ended with Harry calling Alex and telling her that he’s leaving the team. The message was being coerced by Sebastian who has held him captive and is pointing a gun at him.

Overall, this was another solid episode, not better nor worse. They have another collaborator but this episode served more as character development by aimlessly retreading familiar ground with these characters. We were given more hints on this new conspiracy but we are still on the precipice of it finally being compelling.

Score: 7/10

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Keith Noakes

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.