Citadel Season 1 Episode 4 Review: Tell Her Everything

Citadel Season 1 Episode 4, “Tell Her Everything,” is one giant flashback with a couple of brief scenes set in the present, which is a frustrating move, but there’s nothing we can do about that.

The flashback provides context on the Brielle/Abby twist from Citadel Season 1 Episode 3, “Infinite Shadows,” explaining that her name is actually Celeste. Nadia recommended Celeste for a mission that required her to go undercover and get close to Anders Silje.

Thankfully, the flashback isn’t only showing us that because, no offense, Celeste isn’t important enough at this moment to warrant a whole episode about her. The episode also features even more hinting that Nadia is the mole in Citadel and reveals that Mason was starting to come to the same conclusion.

At this point, Citadel needs to reveal who the mole is.

Multiple people have all pointed out that Nadia is behind it all, which still feels like a red herring. It doesn’t make any sense that she’d be it, so the show needs to find a new angle or explain to us why it really is her.

There have been too many hints and accusations and not enough answers, causing all the intrigue about this mystery to vanish. Mason can continue to not know the truth, but at least clue us in. It could add some suspense as we watch our characters trust someone we know has already betrayed them.

One thing that you can say about Citadel is that it isn’t doing what you’d expect it to do. We jump in as Nadia and Mason are storming the location where Carter is and rescue him — pending a successful escape from the building.

This could’ve been dragged out to take up more of the episode.

Mason has zero training in his memory-wiped state, so there could’ve been (very entertaining) scenes of Nadia training him or doing a breakdown of what to expect during the rescue. But that’s not what happens.

Once the season is done, we’ll be better able to discuss whether or not this flashback-heavy setup works in the show’s favor or not. In the meantime, at least we know going into a Citadel episode that it’ll surprise us.

As of right now, it’s looking like this season’s objective is to explain what happened 8 years ago and set things up for a big showdown between the two agencies in a yet-to-be-confirmed second season, which is a risky move.

A six-episode season is not enough time to accomplish much of anything, and Citadel could’ve benefitted from a 13 or even 20-episode season to develop characters and storylines further. Perhaps the show has some tricks up its sleeve and will do something unexpected in these final two episodes, but I’m starting to lower my expectations.

If the show can give us a satisfying conclusion to the mole storyline, I’ll count that as a win. What are you hoping to see in the final two Citadel episodes of the season?

Stray Thoughts

• I don’t understand present-day Mason/Kyle’s skill level. He does better handling a gun than I thought he would, but it is clear that Nadia takes the lead on the rescue mission.
• The flashback also reveals that Mason’s an asshole.
• Karma is funny if it’s really just a coincidence that Mason ended up married to Celeste.
• The show is still decently entertaining, but it could be a lot better.
• Mason’s motives in the flashback can’t just be that he loves Nadia that much. There has to be something else going on.

What did you think of this episode of Citadel? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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New episodes of Citadel premiere Fridays on Prime Video.

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