Citadel (1×04) Tell Her Everything Review

For our spoiler-free review of the first three episodes of Citadel Season 1, click here.

Citadel is certainly not making it easy for viewers. Now through 4 of 6 episodes this season, it is still unclear what is going on which is not a good sign. The inability of the series to move its narrative forward in an engaging way is getting a little alarming. The obsession with flashbacks in order to build that narrative messes with the pacing, bogging things down and making for an incohesive watch. Trying to say so much without saying anything at all, the series tries to be something much more than it actually is in spite of what its excessive budget may expect. It’s surprising how something that is so expensive, with a budget rivalling only the most expensive television series and another Amazon production (The Rings of Power), can look so cheap. Never quite reaching the heights of its opening sequence, the series is basically a smorgasbord of various spy tropes and cliches tied together by incredibly derivative dialog. Far removed from what it first was, it is essentially a dull and dressed up exercise in futility. While it still has a chance to turn things around and actually get going, time and our trust are running out.

That being said, this latest episode of Citadel picks up where the last left off as Mason and Nadia headed to a Manticore black site in Morocco to save Citadel agent Carter Spence (Osy Ikhile) who they believed was being held there. The two disposed of their opposition rather handily in making their way to him, however, he wasn’t necessarily thrilled to see Nadia. The last episode revealed that Nadia may have been the mole that brought down Citadel. At the time, it felt like a throwaway line but Carter’s reticence seemed to lend credence to it. Meanwhile, Mason’s fake wife Abby (Ashleigh Cummings) was really named Celeste Graham and also a Citadel agent and a friend of Nadia’s who also had her memories erased, though for different reasons. In a flashback sequence that took up most of the episode, she was part of a failed undercover mission. A newly-minted Tier 1 agent, Mason had his doubts about Celeste. Ultimately, Nadia vouched for her and that was enough.

Celeste was tasked to infiltrate the criminal enterprise of Anders and Davik Silje (Roland Møller) out of Amsterdam and retrieve a powerful cyber weapon. After months of radio silence while in the field, Mason was worried therefore prompting a team to rescue her but the cyber weapon was nowhere to be found. That silence inevitably led to a snowball of suspicion that grew larger as her true intentions were put into question. Under the guise of protecting her after her cover was now blown, Celeste was one of the first agents to be backstopped (i.e. the process that took away Mason and Nadia’s memories) unbeknownst to Nadia. In the end, she was merely a scapegoat to protect Nadia whose actions during that allegedly failed mission that suggested she was a mole as she secretly ordered that the cyberweapon be delivered to her.

For the most part, this episode was simply a long-winded way to show viewers what they probably already suspected. Four episodes in, the series is spinning its wheels and has done next to nothing to provide much in the way of a story or do anything with its characters, hinting at wide-ranging conspiracy and never seeming interested to bring in viewers closer than arm’s length. Keeping viewers at a distance as they wait for something notable to happen will undoubtedly be testing of one’s patience, assuming they haven’t already tuned out. As a result, it’s hard to care for something that brings absolutely nothing new to the table while wasting what it does have. Now if Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas had chemistry, it could possibly make up for some shortcomings but they just don’t.

still courtesy of Prime Video

If you liked this, please read our other reviews here and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter or Instagram or like us on Facebook.

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.