Quantico Review: Found (Season 1 Episode 5)

This episode of Quantico helps us unravel some identities. And what better way to do that than to make the trainees go undercover?

“Found” picks up the slack that last week’s episode presented, and gives some truly fascinating plot and flashbacks.

So far, it’s been interesting to see how Alex would prove her innocence. That’s all I’ve really cared about. The flashbacks in the previous episodes have been almost cheesy and cringe worthy, with how hard they were trying to parallel the “story” of the present.

But this week’s episode does none of that. Actually, I think these flashbacks are more important than the present day storyline.

We see the trainees make undercover identities and then have to infiltrate a white collar cocktail party. One of my favorite scenes is when Liam tells them to give their under cover identities to the person on their left. Because in the real world, they won’t have hours to prepare.

Of course, he’s right, and for the first time, in a while, it doesn’t seem like the exercise of the week is only there to show Alex as an A+ student (which she is this week, again).

It seems like a real life exercise that maybe FBI Trainees actually go through. And with this exercise, so much is given away…especially with Simon.

I’m so on the fence about this kid, it’s not even funny. I know he’s helping Alex prove her innocence and is teaming up with Ryan (and now Shelby! Yay!) to do so, but something about him rubs me the wrong way.

The scene where he tells Elias, teary eyed, that the only way for him to cope with what he did in Gaza was to literally go under cover for the rest of his life, is super uncomfortable, and makes me think he has some serious issues he needs to deal with in therapy. Oh, and that he probably shouldn’t be a training to be an FBI agent with so much PTSD.

Still, though. It all just seems part of an act. I still believe that this is all a charade on Simon’s part. We know he’s a smart guy, who why would he call up this Max to be his boyfriend when the story is paper-thin? Unless he wants to be caught, so he can gain Elias’ sympathy later on. That’s my theory anyways. And the only reason it may be plausible is because we saw how snarky and smug Simon is today.

Another identity we “uncover” to some extent, is Nimah and Raina’s. We finally see that Miranda wants to use them to infiltrate terrorist activities, and for some reason, I think that just isn’t smart. Also, why is it that if they fail, Nimah gets kicked out too? She seems like an amazingly skilled FBI recruit. So why are her stakes higher because the FBI’s “experiment” fails? It’s not fair, and I do hope they chose to explore this a bit more.

Finally, the episode’s namesake, is that we find out Alex’s “side” of the story, and the FBI physically “finds” her as well. Sort of. They are able to track her down after she broadcasts that she’s innocent to the world, via the dark web. This is an interesting choice, and one that I hope the writer’s follow up on. Because she’s right! The FBI can’t just kill her now; not with the world at least doubting the story they’ve presented.

It’s nice to see strangers helping out Alex and believing in her cause, but it was a bit uneasy to see the guys from the dark web tell Alex that they may need her one-day. I feel like this whole broadcast may come with strings attached, and they may not be something Alex wants to do.

Things to think about:

• Lots of sexytimes this episode. Do you think Caleb is actually a douchebag, or he just acts it to hide his terrorist capabilities?
• What do you think Alex and Ryan had for breakfast the morning after?
• What do you think of Alex’s year of backpacking around Pakistan and Iran?

What did you think of “Found”? Tell us in the comments below!

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Quantico airs Sundays at 10/9c on ABC.