Things get personal for the team in this weeks all-new Quantico. The episode is all about weakness, exposing it in others and within yourself. Alex and the others discover a group of internet trolls posting fake news for the AIC and need to get over their weaknesses to find out why. ‘Mockingbird’ was written by Cameron Litvack and Cami Delavigne and directed by Patrick Norris.
Off to the Troll Farm | The episode kicks off with Clay (Hunter Parrish) and Owen (Blair Underwood) discussing the weaknesses of the members of the team, well all but two. He doesn’t feel that Nimah (Yasmine Al Massri) is a real member of the team, and he feels he knows Shelby (Johanna Braddy) too well. Clay wants to know why the group looks to Owen for leadership when Clay is the appointed leader? Owen suggests it might be due to his lack of experience, maybe that’s his weakness. The next day, Clay uses footage of that convo with Owen that he secretly recorded to expose the rest of the team to their weaknesses.
There’s an explosion in a small town in Virginia that causes the town to be evacuated. This raises suspicions so the team takes a look at it. Sure enough, the video turns out to be a fake, the latest in a string of fake news stories. Shelby and Dayana (Pearl Thusi) track the IP addresses from several fake stories to one location, revealing the location of a ‘troll farm’.
Harry (Russell Tovey) has worked with this farm before, so they pull him in to help on this mission. He and Alex go to the farm and learn a lot of valuable intel: an American military company named Greypool is behind the story. Everyone else is in the van trying to figure out why Greypool wants the town evacuated. They’re clearly looking for something, but what? And why can’t they seem to find it?
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Nimah to the Rescue | Clay has been ignoring Nimah’s calls, so she breaks into the van to reveal to them that she knows what Greypool is looking for, and it’s not a thing. They are looking for a person. So of course the first house Alex and Ryan (Jake McLaughlin) go in they find her, a woman named Mallory Hanes (Adrienne Warren). Mallory is a ‘media guru’ working for Senator Baynard, and she is responsible for putting out several fake news stories on his behalf. Unfortunately one of those stories resulted in the death of 11 people so now the Senator is taking out everyone tied to the story. Dayana and Harry create a diversion so Alex and Ryan can slip out with Mallory.
Initially Owen thinks he can get Mallory a deal, but it turns out he’s not in a position to offer that so he and Clay tell her she needs to go on the run. They’ll provide her with what she needs to know to survive on the run, but it’s up to her from there. They later decide not to tell the rest of the group about this, they instead tell them she’s going into witness protection. But Dayana is around the corner and hears the truth, I wonder how long until this gets out?
Later, Alex tells Harry she wants him to stay, to join the team. He knows that’s not her job to offer, but she thinks Clay would offer him a spot. He leaves without answering, but his presence at The Golden Leaf later cements the fact that he wants in, and Clay is cool with it. Harry made the team!
Other Thoughts:
• Ryan should absolutely move on, but maybe not with Sasha (Karolina Wydra)? She knows too much about him already, could dating her be letting her in too much?
• The last scene is Shelby calling Leon (Aaron Diaz), but he won’t ever be hearing her voicemail. It appears he has been killed, but why?
• Shelby and Clay have some awkward but slightly flirty scenes together, hopefully they don’t date too. Shelby really can’t date another Haas man.
What are your thoughts on the episode? Are you excited to be getting more Harry? When do you think everyone will figure out Leon wasn’t paranoid, but telling the truth, and the truth cost him his life?
Quantico airs Mondays at 10pm on ABC.