Quantico - Kill - Review: "The lone gunwoman"

The recruits at Quantico were tasked with practicing a hostage crisis, which led to Alex doubting her future at the Academy. Also, the evidence Alex found last week finally gave her a potential breakthrough in discovering the real terrorist.

Overview of events
The weekly assignment at Quantico is practicing a hostage crisis. The training agents have to free some hostages, while the analysts are, well, analysing the situation from the monitors. Alex is very focussed on her training after discovering last week that her father was a hero. Meanwhile, Liam tells Ryan that his mission is over and that Alex is unfit to become an FBI agent, so Ryan needs to give her one last push to get her to voluntarily quit. During the assignment, which is set a playground near Quantico, Alex goes in the house alone. They even call her the lone gunman, because of her going in all by herself. Shelby notices her odd behavior and talks about it with Ryan. The assignment is taken one step further when the NATs are brought to a nearby building where a fake robbery has gone bad and has turned into a hostage crisis. Alex, who goes in through the front, gets all reckless, but freezes when she is faced with one of the captors. This in turn leads both Ryan and Simon to get shot. Additionally, one of the hostages is actually a kidnapper so Alex is hit as well. Alex is now seriously considering leaving Quantico, but she gets a little chat with Miranda and Ryan. Miranda reveals that her father had a bad reputation and that him being a good agent doesn't make him a good man. Alex is persuaded to stay at the Academy and later thanks Ryan for that.

In the present, Simon has given Deputy Director Clayton the location of Alex and the latter now sends in a team to get to them. However, Ryan watches as the mission proceeds and texts Simon about leaving with Alex and that he trusted him. Simon decides to head out to a bomb maker friend, who hopefully can trace the C4 wire that Alex found last week. Indeed, that bomb maker traces it to a contractor for the military: McGreggor Wyatt, which is owned by none other than Shelby herself. The duo goes to her house and discover she has been out of the country for a week or so. However, Shelby gets in while the two are busy. She reveals to Alex that Simon is also an FBI agent and wants to take Alex in. The trio is joined by Ryan, who traced Simon's car. Alex orders the men to get out so they can maintain their cover, while she and Shelby get out. Shelby starts fighting with Alex, but the latter wins over her (although Shelby does call Alex a bitch). They make it out of the house unseen and Shelby is now Alex' hostage. As the episode ends, Alex demands to know about the wire. Meanwhile, the FBI bought Ryan and Simon's story so the two can still help Alex. However, Clayton informs the FBI that, with Alex having a hostage, she no longer needs to be taken alive. In fact, it's shoot and kill from now on.

Character board
In this week's episode, we learned the following about the characters:
-Alex has nightmares at the beginning of the episode, and she looks at a file of Jeff Michaels. After her recklessness and struggles with the truth about her father and doubting whether she should stay at Quantico, she later decides to stay anyway. In fact, she even calls her mother to tell her the truth about her whereabouts. Additionally, Alex and Shelby form a close friendship, with Alex revealing that she never really had any friends. She also tells Shelby that she was the one who shot her father, something that Ryan already told Shelby earlier in the episode.

-Shelby tells Alex about her half-sister that is the only one she still has left after her parents died. In the present timeline, it is revealed that Shelby owns a company and that the C4 wire from the Grand Central Terminal bombing came from that company. There is also some unrevealed truth about her parents, though they are said to be war profiteers.
-Raina struggles with Nimah's absence, but lies to Miranda about where her sister is. Miranda later finds Nimah at a hotel, who says she isn't good enough for Quantico. After Miranda told her why they really are at Quantico, she apologizes for her emotions and returns to the Academy, much to the relief of Raina. Also, the reason why they were recruited by Miranda is because they need to infiltrate the gang her son was a member of.
-Nathalie is revealed to be in a relationship with Ryan in the present timeline. She also sees Ryan and Simon talking to each other.
-Ryan's tension with Liam does no good to him. Liam has said that Ryan is on probation at Quantico, which means he needs to pass the Academy to become an agent again.
-Simon claims to have worked for an organization in Gaza, but Elias learns that organization has never even heard of Simon Asher. Elias questions Simon, and Simon reveals he's not gay. Elias calls him a big, flashing warning sign and thinks he might be an enemy within. Simon later visits an online profile of a certain Max and requests to befriend him.
-Elias is revealed to have been a lawyer before Quantico, and he got several FBI person of interest acquitted.
-Liam wants Ryan to get Alex reckless so she will leave the Academy. His plan fails, but he warns Ryan that he is on probation and needs to pass the Academy.
-Miranda reveals the story about her son to Nimah. Her son was involved in a gang and they challenged him to impress them. Her son made a plan to attack his high school, but Miranda stopped him. He's now up for parole, but Miranda hopes he doesn't get it. With the gang expanding and building cells, Miranda wants the twin sisters to infiltrate it. Also, Miranda listens to Ryan and Liam's conversation and now knows that Ryan is Liam's undercover agent and that Ryan needs to pass the Academy.

No real new information on Caleb this week.

Review
I can't just say anything other than what I've said for the past few weeks: Quantico is an amazing show and continues to deliver on all fronts. We learned even more about our characters and I'm especially intrigued by the things we learned about Simon and Shelby. Also, Miranda is a real boss. She shows emotions one moment with Nimah, and the next she listens like a badass to Ryan and Liam's conversation. I know the acting on the show has not always been praised (though I tend to disagree with that), but Aunjanue Ellis plays her part really well. I am really interested in seeing what Miranda is going to do now that she knows Ryan works for Liam. Elsewhere, the parallels between the present timeline and the training continued as both dealt with hostages. However, the friendship between Alex and Shelby at Quantico is in sharp contrast to their animosity in the present timeline. At this moment, everything points to Shelby being the terrorist, which means it's probably not her. This episode was obviously a bit more Alex-centered than the others were and I believe Priyanka Chopra was really great in this episode. The ending also upped the stakes, with Clayton wanting the FBI to shoot and kill once they see Alex.

Terrorist wall
Here's this week's terrorist wall, including a ranking of every suspect and a change in the ranking compared to last week.
-Alex: 1/5 (no change compared to last week)
Our protagonist is not the terrorist.
-Shelby: 4/5 (+1 compared to last week)
Her company had something to do with that wire that Alex found in her apartment. Also, Shelby seemed unwilling to talk about it, which must mean she's hiding something, right? She's the obvious suspect, so it's probably not her, but I'm putting her up high on the ranking anyway.
-Nimah and Raina: 2/5 (no change)
We learned why they were recruited in the first place, but that gives me no indication to change the ranking.
-Nathalie: 2/5 (no change)
No indication to change my ranking for her.
-Ryan: 2/5 (no change)
Ryan still seems to be an ally for Alex, so I'm not changing my ranking for him.
-Caleb: 3/5 (no change)
Also, no indication to change my ranking for Caleb.
-Simon: 3/5 (no change)
I'm really torn about Simon. The training part makes me really suspicious of him and wants me to give him a higher ranking. On the other hand, he seems to be growing into an ally for Alex in the present timeline. I'm keeping him at "On the fence" for now.
-Elias: 1/5 (no change)
Elias being a lawyer does not change my ranking of him.
-Liam: 3/5 (no change)
Liam really seems to have some kind of obsession with Alex that I can't seem to explain. He might just be attracted to her, or there might be something more to it.
-Miranda: 1/5 (no change)
Miranda seems an honest woman who is fully on Alex' side. I don't think it's her.

What did you think of "Kill"? Did you like the focus on Alex? Why do you think Liam wants her to quit Quantico? What will Miranda now that she knows Ryan works for Liam? Do you think Shelby has a good explanation for the C4 wire? And what do you think Simon was really up to in Gaza? I would love to hear your thoughts and theories in the comment section below.

Here's a promo for the next episode:

About the Author - Daniel van der Veer

Daniel van der Veer is a Dutch university student studying Psychology. On SpoilerTV he is a reviewer of NCIS, The 100, Madam Secretary and Quantico. He also enjoys LOST, Arrow, NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: New Orleans, Nikita, The Blacklist, Scorpion and How To Get Away With Murder.

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