Quantico - S2E13 - EPICSHELTER

Previously on Quantico, “FALLENTORCH”

The cryptonym EPICSHELTER is a secret operation by the NSA that would implant malware in different computers of international nations that manage their government, infrastructure, and financial sectors. If a foreign nation turned against the U.S. that country would be shut down as retaliation.

I Hope This Is The End, And Not The Sequel

In present day, after the hostages were released, Lydia tells Alex, Ryan, Leon, and Harry they have to go back in to find Dayana before she forces Wil to upload the drives. After the team splits up to cover more ground, Alex finds Dayana and Wil inside the library. After Alex confronts Dayana at gunpoint, Dayana tells Alex she was told by her boss Lydia to wait there for her so Wil can help them destroy the drives.

At this moment Alex is shot in the back of her shoulder. This wasn’t enough to kill Alex; just knocks her out. When Alex comes to, she sees Lydia uploading one of the drives. Alex is too late to stop her from uploading the drive, but not too late to whip her ass. It was a good fight. It was along the lines of those great fight sequences from earlier this season. (I miss them.) During the fight, Wil frantically tries to stop the upload of the drive, but can’t. Even though Lydia was only able to get one drive up, she’s confident it’s sufficient to burn all of the corruption in the government and give the country a fresh start.

Since Lydia arrived this season there was tons of speculation tying Lydia to the AIC. So for the show to give the appearance that she was sanctioned by the government (namely POTUS) last week only to be revealed as the AIC leader seemed a bit unnecessary, and I felt it was a surprise reveal that was forced and not earned. I wish they gave Lydia a few more scenes somewhere this season to better explain her motivation and drop additional clues to see how far the AIC ties reach, and more of her motivation for these extreme measures. Regardless, it was satisfying to see Lydia “win” by being able to upload the American drive and set up the remainder of the season.

Like All Good Intentions, They Went Up in Smoke

At the Farm, loose ends were being tied up left and right. Jeremey Miller died in the explosion last week which led into the FBI questioning everyone at the Farm. When they question Owen, they bring up the illegal tap that was placed at the NSA during his training exercise. Owen takes the fall for Lydia, which is why he’s in a federal prison in present day. He takes the fall for her because once he finds out Lydia was running a legit training, he feels so much guilt for thinking the worst of his daughter. As Owen is being hauled off to prison, Alex tries to talk him out of it but Owen doesn’t want to hear any of it. Lydia tells Alex right there that she knew Alex didn’t belong at the Farm from day one.

Then Lydia fixes the biggest mistake she ever made by promptly telling Alex to pack her stuff and kick rocks with flip flops. Lydia does ask Ryan to stay and he does with Alex’s blessing.  Harry, who in my opinion has been the most consistently strong actor of the season, no longer wants to be a part of the exchange program because he doesn’t want revenge on Bishop if it means denying the refugees he’s smuggling in a chance at freedom. Also, Harry is supposed to be spying on the Farm recruits and reporting back to his handler so the recruits can be leveraged at a later date. To Harry’s dismay, his handler will not allow him to quit. After Sebastian is able to find out what Harry was planning to do to Bishop, he tells Keyes and gets Harry kicked out. Even though Sebastian had ill intentions for Harry this is exactly what Harry wanted and he thanks Sebastian for it. Sebastian is as confused as he has ever been this season.

Maybe It’s A Chance At Redemption

Two weeks after the events that took place after the G20, which the Islamic Front took responsibility for, Alex, Ryan, Shelby, Dayana, and Nimah are summoned to the White House. Newly minted president Haas as well as Keyes has a new mission for them. The drive that Lydia uploaded gives not only information, but shows patterns that America has to respond to a terrorist attack. The AIC is a small part of a larger threat and if the information from the drive falls into the wrong hands, the “perfect “ terrorist  attack can be executed. They all agree to it, but when Alex asks who they will report to President Hass replies, “My son.”

Welcome back, Caleb!

Central (lack of) Intelligence Agency

Even though they spun the G20 attacks as the Islamic Front taking responsibility for it, shouldn’t Miranda and Nimah still be held accountable for their treasonous actions?

If Miranda wasn’t radicalized as the Citizen’s Liberation Front turned out to be, why didn’t she try to get others involved after Jeremy Miller died, FLOTUS was murdered among other AIC agents, and also when the US was ready to retaliate by dropping a bomb on the G20?

So, let me get this straight: Haas and Keyes put this CIA/FBI hybrid team together comprised of Shelby, who fell in love with her mark; Nimah, who admitted she failed at stopping the AIC and assisted a group that decapitated FLOTUS based on circumstantial evidence at best; Dayana, who we know was AIC when Lydia shot Alex; Ryan, who worked with Lydia for 6 months and vouched for her saying she was trustworthy; and Alex, who knew Lydia was a snake and couldn’t be trusted when they went looking for the drives, got separated from her which led to Lydia getting a drive and uploading it. President Haas, are these the most qualified agents in all of the CIA and FBI for this task?

This episode felt a lot like a season finale as most of the major storylines were resolved. Alex and Ryan’s on-and-off again relationship is on a break, for now. A lot of Miranda’s exposition to Shelby needed to be fleshed out more - like, how FLOTUS tied into this and Jeremy Miller reaching out to Miranda. It’s going to be interesting to see how the later episodes will play out since it doesn’t appear they will do the two timeline setup and will tell a more linear story.