By Guest Contributor: Lakshmi Gandhi (@LakshmiGandhi)
There were hints long before Sunday that I would be completely weirded out and disturbed by this week’s Quantico episode. First there was the trailer, which showed a bleary eyed and confused Alex in bed with both Ryan and Harry.
https://twitter.com/QuanticoTV/status/792106164532154370
“Did you drug us?” a confused and upset Alex asks. Owen Hall, the CIA’s lead training instructor, immediately admits to drugging all three of his students. His justification was that in “the real world” drugging is something that would happen on a regular basis.
Let’s all take a timeout right now to process this scene: A supervisor with the ability to make or break careers drugged three of his subordinates. They later woke up to find themselves embracing each other in bed and had no idea what had happened (and had no ability to consent to anything.)
This was all very, very gross. I can’t be the only one who is frustrated by Quantico’s tendency to shock its viewers for no reason in particular. It was also annoying that everyone seemed to accept the drugging as something that was normal and appropriate. (Hopefully one day one of these recruits will run straight to the CIA equivalent of HR or, better yet, file a police report.)
Here’s what else stood out this episode.
If drugging wasn’t enough, Owen also tried to frame his trainees for murder. I’ve made no secret of the fact this season has utterly confused me so far. Does anyone know why Owen was dead set on framing Alex, Ryan, and Harry? The trio found themselves in a hotel room with a dead body. Owen helpfully informed them that the room was registered under Alex’s name and their DNA evidence and fingerprints were also scattered around the room.
I did hear Owen’s mumblings about the “real world” but this seemed extremely ridiculous. Alex and Ryan quickly decide to turn on Harry and team up to pin the entire situation on him. The scene in which we see how the pair steals Harry’s room key and credit card info was fantastic and I wish we’d see more fun moments like that each week.
The MI6 makes an appearance. Russell Tovey fans probably took comfort in the fact that Harry escaped being framed unscathed. Naturally, Alex and Ryan want to know how he did it. He doesn’t say, but he does reveal that he’s a member of the MI6 (Britain’s CIA equivalent) and that he’s participating in some sort of exchange with them. So we can now put “foreign governments allowing international agents view their operations” on the list of unrealistic things about Quantico.
Remember Will Olsen? We were first reintroduced to Will Olsen, the brilliant and socially awkward scientist who was training to be an FBI agent alongside Alex, last week during the Langley cocktail party when he was happily flirting with Harry Doyle. They did much more than that this week and Will at least seems to think that he is a potentially serious relationship.
There are many reasons to believe that Will’s heart will be smashed into pieces in the coming weeks. We quickly learn that Will doesn’t know Harry’s real name, his profession, or that Harry is very likely manipulating him for information about the FBI.
Shelby begins to come into her own. We’ve seen Shelby grow increasingly suspicious of Miranda over the last few episodes, so it probably came as no surprise to discover that she covertly begins to investigate her former mentor. As she goes through Miranda’s digital files she finds an increasing amount of evidence tying her to the terrorists.
But just as Shelby is about to make the connection that finally implicates Miranda, there is a twist. Will Olsen (who had been helping Shelby) suddenly begins to convince her that she’s on the wrong track and that Miranda isn’t to blame at all.
The Miranda and Will Alliance: But we quickly learn that Will and Miranda have been working together (and perhaps had been doing so for weeks). I’m not even pretending to understand at this point, but I find it very strange that Miranda is the culprit months after Liam (a fellow FBI instructor) was found to be guilty of pretty much the exact same crime.
If I’ve learned nothing else from this show, it’s that the fictional FBI needs better employee screening methods.
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.
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