By Guest Contributor: Lakshmi Gandhi (@LakshmiGandhi)
Lakshmi’s recaps for “Quantico” episodes 1-7 can be found here and for episode 8 onward here, including her recap of the show’s most recent episode. Her recaps appear on Reappropriate every Monday morning! As with reading any recaps, please be wary of spoilers.
Quantico has never been subtle about its metaphors and this week’s episode, titled “Fast,” was no different.
The first image we saw this week was of a roach scurrying across a somewhat dirty bathroom floor.
The camera then pans out and we see Caleb chained to a radiator. Alex then rushes in to check on him – and immediately lets him know that he’s chained at his request. We’ve long noted that Alex’s traumatic childhood is never far from her thoughts and we see that immediately as she helps Caleb clean up after what she thinks was a hangover. “My mom and I used to help my dad dry out all of the time,” she tells him.
Here’s what stood out to us this week’s episode.
Nimah and Raina endure the boss from Hell: Bad bosses can be traumatizing, as the twins find out this week. It’s ‘Career Day’ for the NATs and because the sisters already have their confusing placement (in which they are back to pretending to be the same person), Liam takes the opportunity to introduce the pair to their new supervisor.
We missed his name, so we’ll just call him The Instructor for the remainder of this piece. It’s fitting that we don’t name him because he doesn’t bother to listen to, let alone learn, the names of Nimah and Raina. “I’ll just call you one and two,” he tells them. He continues to be nasty to them and even at one point tells them, “It’s a myth that Arab women are submissive. It really is.”
Gross. Gross. Gross.
But… there’s a twist. After the twins complain to Liam repeatedly about The Instructor’s treatment of them, he tries to resign. He then reveals that he was trying to protect them the whole time and that he didn’t want them to be pigeon-holed as Arab agents who were only able to do one thing. Um… ok. The twins forgive him, but we as viewers could have done without the mansplaining and cruelty.
How do you solve a problem like Shelby? Shelby’s character continues to be absolutely maddening. Alex spends much of this week’s episode trying to figure her out. Is she The Voice or is she being manipulated? Alex finally tracks Shelby down, only to find her in the heart of the FBI building in New York. Shelby is about to sell the FBI a new cyber security program designed by the company she inherited from her parents. Minutes before the installation, Alex attempts to stall Miranda, telling her that Shelby’s parents are actually still alive.
This leads (of course) to a confrontation. After Miranda’s tough questioning, Shelby insists that she deserves to talk to her accuser – Alex herself. Thus began one of our favorite parts of this week’s episode.
Shelby and Alex have what appears to be a heated conversation, with each accusing the other of being dishonest liars. All the while, Shelby starts impatiently tapping her finger against the conference room table. Alex quickly realizes Shelby is communicating in Morse code. “I am on your side” Shelby taps.
Morse code! ? #Quantico
— Quantico ABC (@QuanticoTV) April 25, 2016
Before the conversation can get much further, Miranda comes into the room to apologize for doubting Shelby and promises that Alex will not be able to thwart her plan again. After Shelby departs, Miranda warns Alex that many people in the Bureau are getting fed up with her and that she’s being watched closely.
Shelby has been running parallel to Alex, trying to figure out the voice. She's been with her the whole time. Boom. #quantico
— Quantico WritersRoom (@QuanticoWriters) April 25, 2016
Shelby solves (part of) the mystery of The Voice! After Alex and Shelby’s Morse code revelation the two have a heart-to-heart (out loud!) in a hidden hallway in the FBI building. She says whoever is behind The Voice is weaving together recordings of all of the NATs to create the disembodied voice they both hear when they receive cell phone calls. Even more impressively, Shelby reveals that she’s been performing her own investigation into The Voice, parallel to Alex’s work. She reveals that when Alex saw her in the dark SUV, that was the first time she’d interacted with The Voice and that she was ordered to take Simon and Will to an abandoned warehouse in Yonkers and then when she tried to return to find them they were already gone.
Will has bombshell news, literally. Shelby and Alex have now joined forces in their investigation and the trail has lead them to a Catholic Church in the dead of night. There they finally find Will, as he stumbles from behind the altar. He quickly warns them not to come near him. “I’m sick,” he cries.
Then, in the weirdest part of the episode, Will says that he’s sick and that they really shouldn’t come near him. As we watch him obviously struggle for breath, he manages to tell Shelby and Alex that he built a nuke “with his own hands.”
He then collapses in front of the church and dies (we think.)
Yes. He said nuke. #quanticodontplay
— Quantico WritersRoom (@QuanticoWriters) April 25, 2016
As usual, this episode left us with many more questions than answers. Is this the last of Drew? What was behind his mysterious health scare? What is really going on with Caleb and systemics? Why did it take until a visit from Natalie’s mother for anyone to realize that something was seriously wrong? And how do you build a nuclear bomb with just your hands anyway?
I know I know… The suspense is killer! Just 3 episodes to the finale of #Quantico… we can do this! So much fun today! See ya next week
— PRIYANKA (@priyankachopra) April 25, 2016
Lakshmi Gandhi is a journalist and pop culture writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in Metro New York, NBC Asian America and NPR’s Code Switch blog, among other sites. She likes it when readers tweet her @LakshmiGandhi with their thoughts on Asian American issues and romance novels.
Learn more about Reappropriate’s guest contributor program and submit your own writing here.
