Quantico - S2E4 - Kubark

Previously on Quantico, “Stescalade”

Quantico - S2E4 - “Kubark” | Starring: Priyanka Chorpa Jake McLuaghlin, Aunjanue Ellis,Johanna Braddy,Yasmine Al Massri

This week’s episode title is a cryptonym for the CIA. It might have been a reference to Miranda being exposed. It could also reference the CIA being behind everything the recruits were going through. In a larger sense, maybe the CIA (and not the AIC) is behind all of this.

Fear Itself 

The CIA training continues to surpass the FBI training. This week it’s about controlling fear and anxiety. The recruits are given fancy FitBits and told that their cages will be rattled and anyone whose stress levels go into the red will be automatically cut. The twist the recruits don’t see coming is that the test started long before they got their FitBits. They put Alex at the bottom of the ranking, sent Ryan and posthumous P.O. box key from Liam, told León someone from his past had returned, and various other stressors they knew would mess with the recruits. In particular, Sebastian (the Asian priest) was thrown off his game after dealing with his family and issues of shame. After a confrontation with Harry it seems as if he may be closeted. This explains their tension.

Of course, Alex’s issue is self doubt, because Alex would be a superagent if she just stopped second guessing herself and Owen believes in her and …. Alex’s recruit storyline is basically the same from last season and it’s becoming a bit weary. But she did come up with a good counter-mission to use Owen’s stress test against him. At least Ryan is able to identify his real weakness. It’s Alex. The only thing I wonder about is follow-up. When everyone fails as royally as they do this week, is there a make-up test? 

Trade-Up

In the present-day, the AIC wants to trade their hostages for the hacker they got the president to pardon. Miranda reveals herself to him in order to intimidate him into turning himself over. Alex (rightly) deduces that the hostages are too much for the AIC to control and they’re trading them for what they really want so she wants to disrupt the trade. She enlists Raina to tip off Miranda but Lydia tell Raina to let the hostages get out to save lives. In the end, Raina tries to do both by getting the majority of the hostages out and tipping Miranda off right before she hands over the hacker but of course Miranda pretends not to recognize the code.

Shelby, in a wildly new display of confidence, actually disagrees with Miranda throughout the episode and because of Miranda’s shadiness and a tip from the hacker, she’s now onto Miranda. What do you do when you find out all your mentors ain’t shit?

Central (lack of) Intelligence Agency

• The FBI is going to try to interview 1.700 hostages to look for possible terrorists who got out with them. They’d be better off finding out who’s still inside and figuring out who among them is part of this. 

Who’s Sexin Whom

Possibly Harry and Sebastian if Harry is right about him being closeted.

Answers and More Questions

• It looks like Lydia is playing both sides at the Farm, working with her father while trying to get back out into the field herself. She’s the biggest red herring and possibly the best agent we’ve seen on this show.
• All of the recruits are still inside the Federal Building so all of them are still in play as AIC agents. I don’t know why Raina and Ryan aren’t systematically identifying and eliminating them.
• Lee is the bugger. So there are two questions: who does she have bugged? And why wasn’t she eliminated when she spiked in the red?