S01.E14: Answer

[formerlyfreedom]

At Quantico, the NATS team up for defensive driving lessons while tensions between Liam and Drew explode, resulting in shocking admissions and consequences. In the future, Simon grapples with his new reality in the aftermath of what’s transpired. Even though his friends try and help him, it’s uncertain he will ever be the same again.

 

[Senna]

OK, something confused me this episode, possibly because I don't watch that closely anymore.  Nimah was watching a house where Raina had been.  Ground is snow-covered.  Nimah impersonates Raina, goes inside, discovers a stash of guns.  I was thinking because of the snow-covered ground that this was a present time scene, and Raina had fallen back in with the terrorist group.  But then we see Nimah confront Raina about the situation and they appear to be in the dorms and cooperating with Miranda (as opposed to the present), so I guess the whole thing was actually a trainee-flashback, and thus the start of Raina's undercover mission?  Can anyone confirm this?

 

I really wish they would just quit with the trainee flashbacks.  We've pretty much seen how they affect the present (other than maybe how Nathalie and Ryan ended up together), the new people are dull, and the training exercises are stupid.  (Sure, FBI agents may be called on to be witnesses, so training is good.  However, 100 percent guilty beyond a doubt people going free?  I'd think that'd be a bit on the prosecutor.)  Except I guess we get to see further evidence of Caleb and Liam being shady.  Which is totally new information.  Oh, and confirmation that Alex and Liam slept together.  Ewwww.

 

Simon's actor sure has the crazy eyes down.  I figured he wasn't killing himself with setting the house on fire but ... I mean ... really, WHY?  Also, do they not have electricity in Vermont?

Edited March 21, 2016 by Senna

[Free]

I really wish they would just quit with the trainee flashbacks.  We've pretty much seen how they affect the present (other than maybe how Nathalie and Ryan ended up together), the new people are dull, and the training exercises are stupid.  (Sure, FBI agents may be called on to be witnesses, so training is good.  However, 100 percent guilty beyond a doubt people going free?  I'd think that'd be a bit on the prosecutor.)  Except I guess we get to see further evidence of Caleb and Liam being shady.  Which is totally new information.  Oh, and confirmation that Alex and Liam slept together.  Ewwww.

 

Just more 'lessons' that don't amount to anything in the end.

[thuganomics85]

Hey, Quantico?  Lets sit down and talk for a second, buddy.  I get it.  Priyanka Chopra is your star and you want to take advantage of it.  And I will easily admit that she is beautiful and does have charisma, and while not the strongest actress on the planet, I can even understand why she's the lead.  But would please, pretty please, quit with scenes what require Alex to cry and shout.  Because with respect to Mrs. Chopra, I really don't think she's good at that particular bit of acting.  I can't understand half of what she is saying and she's just comes of cringeworthy in those moments.  Now, in her defense, it's not like she's got the best material to work with, but when I compare Alex's shouting scenes to Simon's in this episode, at least Tate Ellington doesn't embarrass himself.  But I actually turned away from the screen at times, because I just thought Priyanka was failing around at times.  So, please consider this, Quantico.  Thanks you!

 

Anyway, back in Quantico land, we get two lessons technically, but the first one is just an excuse to drive cool cars and have the characters banter with one another.  The second is the class revisiting old cases were the criminals got away in court and try to do a better job.  At least there was no stupid twist, but didn't need to be since they sabotage themselves thanks to Shelby being an idiot, and then jock dude going off on Liam after he finds out Liam accidentally supplied the weapons that killed his fiancee.  But I loved how shocked he and Alex was when he got booted, because even if he was in the right, what did they think was going to happen after he went after a superior like that?  Time and place, dude.

 

Caleb is apparently pretending to be some kind of Mark guy, and Robotic Tech Guy is on to him, but he's so annoying that I'm actually rooting for Caleb, which makes me feel dirty.

 

I don't even care anymore about the Nimah/Samar stuff, which kind of sucks since they're actually two of the better characters.

 

Alex has somehow convinced Simon to help her with mysterious phone person.  Lets see how this blows up, because I'm sure it will somehow.

 

Now, if you would excuse, I'm going to go off and pretend I didn't hear that Liam and Alex officially hooked-up....

[Primetimer]

Pondering the mystery of Alex's perfect look and other not-so-burning questions.

Read the story

[Dowel Jones]

If I had been the prosecutor in Shelby's case, I would have taken her back to the office and introduced a case law volume to the side of her head.  God, what an idiot.  And of course, the arrogance of her partner to boot.  They're probably considered to be fully trained interrogators now.  And, wholly agree about jock candidate.  How he made it passed the psych eval in the first place is a puzzle.  And even if Alex slept with Liam, she shouldn't have the right either to disrespect him in the office.  I can just imagine the terrorists looking in on this group and saying "What are we doing here, anyway?  We should just sit back, watch, make sure they all pass,  and let this bunch loose on the American public."

 

Insufficient Grounds, a wholly owned subsidiary of Central Perk.

 

By the way, Alex and Simon.  If you're out there for subsistence, you either hunt, or you talk.  You don't do both.

[mertensia]

I imagine Simon had no electricity because he was trying to live off the grid.

Boring episode and only Alex and Mystery Voice know Natalie is dead? Great friend there Alex.

I couldn't care less about trainee exercises any more.

[txhorns79]

How he made it passed the psych eval in the first place is a puzzle.

 

How any of these people graduated from middle school in the first place is a puzzle. 

 

 

Nimah impersonates Raina, goes inside, discovers a stash of guns.  I was thinking because of the snow-covered ground that this was a present time scene, and Raina had fallen back in with the terrorist group.  But then we see Nimah confront Raina about the situation and they appear to be in the dorms and cooperating with Miranda (as opposed to the present), so I guess the whole thing was actually a trainee-flashback, and thus the start of Raina's undercover mission?  Can anyone confirm this?

 

I believe it is a flashback scene.  Last week we saw Nimah get suspicious about who Raina was associating with, so she started following her. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

Did we know that Alex and Liam officially hooked up before this episode?

 

Why can't any of these recruits put their emotions on hold for like five seconds and just do their jobs? Yeah, writers, I get that Shelby is in turmoil about her catfishing con woman and what's-his-face is upset about his pregnant fiancee being killed. But just go through the exercise -- stupid as it is -- rather than using it for some catharsis attempt.

 

The stupidity of the exercise: 1) I'm guessing that most actual arrestees have seen movies and know that talking to the cops will not end well for them 2) There is no reason to have this a team exercise other than to have Mean Girl yell at Shelby for causing her to fail. They simply could -- and should -- have had each trainee interview one of the suspects individually 3) The notion of recreating actual cases with actors introduces a huge degree of subjectivity, as how the actors might react to this line of questioning or that is wildly unpredictable and does not necessarily jibe with what the actual arrestees would have done 4) assuming that these cases were all lost because of a lack of confession seems like a big assumption.

 

If Alex is going to break down and confess that she is being manipulated by the same person(s) that manipulated Elias, why oh why would she choose Simon? And only Simon? (Other than, because of plot)

[mertensia]

I'm starting to hope everyone is in on it but Alex.

[Free]

I imagine Simon had no electricity because he was trying to live off the grid.

Boring episode and only Alex and Mystery Voice know Natalie is dead? Great friend there Alex.

I couldn't care less about trainee exercises any more.

 

This episode was just dull, it was either Alex wasting time having to go find Simon for the episode or everyone else bickering with the new characters.

 

 

I'm starting to hope everyone is in on it but Alex.

 

I would to, but they would have to fake being dumb and incomptent.

[dolphincorn]

 

I'm starting to hope everyone is in on it but Alex.

 

I'm starting to hope that it's all an elaborate hoax like that Michael Douglas movie, or one long dream sequence like that entire season of "Dallas."

 

[Slakkie]

I'm starting to hope that it's all an elaborate hoax like that Michael Douglas movie, or one long dream sequence like that entire season of "Dallas."

I am thinking that we need to file a class action lawsuit against the producers for this train wreck.  It is so bad yet I continue to watch.  I need therapy.

[chaifan]

This was my favorite episode. Why? Because it was so god awful horribly bad that it made me turn off the tv 10 minutes into the ep and quit this show forever. I do enjoy the recaps, and they provide far more entertainment than the show ever did itself.

[Dowel Jones]

The notion of recreating actual cases with actors introduces a huge degree of subjectivity,...

 

Maybe they got the actual accused people.  That would be on par for this training academy.

[Free]

I am thinking that we need to file a class action lawsuit against the producers for this train wreck.  It is so bad yet I continue to watch.  I need therapy.

 

At the very least, the lawsuit would make more sense than anything in this series.

[henripootel]

Maybe they got the actual accused people.  That would be on par for this training academy.

"So, one question: did you actually do it?"

"YES, THANK you.  I was waiting for the original investigators to ask but nobody ever did.  It's been weighing heavily on my mind."

 

Seriously, how are they supposed to winkle the truth out of actors?  I'm all for practicing interrogation skills but getting 'secrets' out of them that the actual interrogations failed to get?  What's the point of getting a guy pretending to be a criminal to 'admit' anything?  

 

This is deliberate stupidity by the writers, just seeing how much I'll take before deleting this shit from my dvr.  Nuts to you assholes - I fold laundry on sunday nights, so pointless, repetitive bullshit is already on the menu.  Bring it.

[Dr Epi]

"This was my favorite episode. Why? Because it was so god awful horribly bad that it made me turn off the tv 10 minutes into the ep and quit this show forever. I do enjoy the recaps, and they provide far more entertainment than the show ever did itself." - by chaifan

Truer words were never written. I could not follow the ep, the plots are completely disjointed, and they don't seem to make sense.

I did appreciate how nice everyone's hair looked.

[henripootel]

I did appreciate how nice everyone's hair looked.

Seriously, it's nice that Alex takes the time to look good in a parka even when in mortal anguish over the impending death of all her friends.  She looked nice.

 

Boy, Simon is a real suffering pro - when he's in turmoil, he doesn't bother to heat his home or shop for groceries, just shoot the local fauna.  Which I presume he gnaws raw, befitting his outcast state.  Did appreciate his honesty that all it took for him to see the truth that he's a shitbag was 'a ton of blood, plus a shit-ton of other blood, plus some more blood, and that first couple buckets of blood'.  Still, better late than never - welcome to having a conscience, Simon, albeit comically belated. 

Edited March 21, 2016 by henripootel

[Netfoot]

Three episodes on disk now, and still no inclination to watch any of them.  Reading the forums just make it even less appealing.  

 

So, Quantico follows Blindspot down the toilet, just as turd follows turd.  Files deleted; topic "Un-Followed".  

 

Bye-bye, folks!

[KaveDweller]

I can understand a training where they pretend to be on the stand and get questioned. But in real life the lawyer is the one who questions suspects in court. So what was the point of that part of the exercise? Because it seemed like they were pretending to be in court, and not an initial interrogation.

[Adusk81]

I am loving this long commercial for the 2016 Tacoma Trd sport.

[henripootel]

I can understand a training where they pretend to be on the stand and get questioned.

I'm pretty certain that they take classes on how to give testimony in court.  They're law enforcement, it's possibly the most important thing they do.  But unless the stupid writers find a way to turn a basic training exercise into a high school-stlye pissing contest (with the reward being that you get to arbitrarily eliminate the highly-qualified candidate of your choice), we'll never see it.

So, Quantico follows Blindspot down the toilet, just as turd follows turd.

 

I left Blindspot behind when they left the tattoo chick outside while they kicked down a door and she end up stopping the suspect, like 4 times in a row.  Not sure why I keep showing up Sunday nights for a helping of turd soup, but I'm ... not full yet.  Pity us, Netfoot, and godspeed - we'll see you at the next shit-fest.  

Edited March 24, 2016 by henripootel

[AndreaK1041]

That flashback scene with Caleb being the scientilogist and the twin spying on her sister and all the opening and closing doors was complete jibberish. It's like this show was made by a film student.

How can a show be so dumb and still completely incomprehensible?

Edited March 22, 2016 by AndreaK1041

[txhorns79]

Seriously, it's nice that Alex takes the time to look good in a parka even when in mortal anguish over the impending death of all her friends.  She looked nice.

 

I like to think Alex has a stylist on call.  I can imagine her call during the episode.  "I'm going to a cold climate where I'll be feeling pensive, sad and scared.  I'll need a somber, yet sexy look!" 

 

More seriously, is anyone in this stupid trainee class not some kind of emotional wreck with a shady backstory?  And sorry, Caleb is just not threatening at all.  I'm surprised the robot cadet didn't crack up laughing when Caleb was trying to intimidate him.   

[Free]

Seriously, how are they supposed to winkle the truth out of actors?  I'm all for practicing interrogation skills but getting 'secrets' out of them that the actual interrogations failed to get?  What's the point of getting a guy pretending to be a criminal to 'admit' anything?

 

About as believeable as they are agents.

[blackwing]

How many more episodes of this crapfest are left in the season?  I fear there are at least 7.  I want to at least watch until the end of the season, because I hate quitting a show mid-season.  But they are making it awfully hard.  I think this show and "How To Get Away With Murder" are both working my last nerve.  At least with HTGAWM is thankfully done for the season.

 

I found myself so completely not caring about most of these characters.  Football player and his dead girlfriend?  Boohoohoo.  Stereotypical Asian overachiever and gunner Iris Chang and her dead aunt in China?  Boohoo.  Nimah and Raina and whatever is going on with them?  Zzzzzzzz.  Future Simon DiCaprio?  I wish he had shot himself or burned himself alive.  Liam?  Zzzzzzz.  Trainee Alex and her continual crusade to be Most Special Snowflake?  Zzzzzzzzzz.  Future Alex and her guilt?  I wish Simon had shot her.

 

The only characters I halfway like at this point are Shelby, and surprisingly, Caleb.  I have no idea what is going on there.  It looks like he as Mark Raymond got the money back from the fake sister but now she wants him to "do something"?  Is that when he put the bomb in the bank building that became the Command Center four months later?  Does this mean he is both bombers?

 

Priyanka Chopra is a horrific actress.  She is simply the pits.

 

Is the actor who plays Caleb now supposed to be "the hunk" now that the Ryan character has been backburnered?  I think they made him take his shirt off in every episode since the show returned.  Ugh.  When he was threatening _______ (savant guy, I have no idea of his name), I actually thought he was going to kiss him.  Because this crappy show has pretty much hit every TV trope but is lacking a gay character now that Simon is not gay and Elias is apparently dead.

[dolphincorn]

 

Because this crappy show has pretty much hit every TV trope but is lacking a gay character now that Simon is not gay and Elias is apparently dead.

 

Yeah, I was waiting for Caleb and the awkward guy to kiss, just because . . .

[DrLar]

This episode was so bad not even the training parts were good or even complete, they didn't show which questions were asked to the "actors" (maybe  a couple), or the Dodge commercial one, not clearly what they had to do there with the car!

[Saradactyl]

I looked right at my husband and said "But, I mean, we're not going to watch a second season of this, right?"

No way.

[funkymunky]

Did we know that Alex and Liam officially hooked up before this episode?

 

 

Oh good, I'm not the only one who was confused by that. I thought I had either missed an episode or had tuned out so completely at some point that I missed that fact. I guess this means he's not her dad. Though I wouldn't put anything past these writers.

[mythoughtis]

Why must they have flashback scenes in the middle of other flashback scenes?  They put the trainees in cars for defensive driving, and then all of a sudden, ,they are back in the dorm.... and then back to the next set of drivers and back and forth and back and forth.  I'm dizzy and confused. 

 

So Alex takes off for Vermont, and numerous hours later Ryan and Nimah follow her, and when they get there after their own 6.5 hour drive, she is still there?  And, not at all surprised to see them appear.

 

I gather Caleb is scamming scammers, and taking their money as Mark Redmond, and then donating the money (per what the dorky computer guy said)?  Caleb is going to turn out ok after all.  

I will say this:  the last 20 minutes of this episode actually made sense.... some writer failed at his assignment?

Edited March 23, 2016 by mythoughtis

[sugarbaker design]

Did we know that Alex and Liam officially hooked up before this episode?

Oh good, I'm not the only one who was confused by that. I thought I had either missed an episode or had tuned out so completely at some point that I missed that fact. I guess this means he's not her dad. Though I wouldn't put anything past these writers.

 

To be fair, Cougartown could've lied to Miranda about sleeping with Alex to throw Miranda off the scent that Cougartown is indeed Alex's father.  Unless there was a scene of Alex and Cougartown getting busy, in which case, nevermind!

[piequinn35]

I think if I remembered it right, they were together on New Year's? I thought there is something going on with these two.

[Julie23]

I think the Answer to this episode is No, just no. I can't take the stupid any longer. Did anybody think it WASN'T Simon at the door? Why the long pause for effect? No one was really expecting anyone else, right? Nothing in training made any sense this week, and nothing in present day was interesting either. I wanted to watch until the end of the season so I could actually see a conclusion of something, but I no longer give a crap about any of these people. On the plus side, I did manage to crack an especially hard level of Candy Crush while "watching" this show, so there's that.   

[piequinn35]

while you were playing cc, I was playing bloons td battles :D :D

[KaveDweller]

I think if I remembered it right, they were together on New Year's? I thought there is something going on with these two.

 

I think New Years is when he drove her home and then she said she didn't want to be alone and we faded out. So, it's certainly possible they slept together, but I hadn't assumed it happened just based on that scene. 

[Anela]

Was there an answer to anything? I was listening as I made dinner. I don't really want to watch it again.

[Chicago Redshirt]

I can understand a training where they pretend to be on the stand and get questioned. But in real life the lawyer is the one who questions suspects in court. So what was the point of that part of the exercise? Because it seemed like they were pretending to be in court, and not an initial interrogation.

For what it's worth, the way the exercise was structured was in two parts:

 

Part I: The NATs simulate interrogation of these actor/suspects

Part II: Miranda/Liam simulate being defense attorneys questioning the NATs about their interrogations.

 

Since we saw very little of the simulated interrogations of any of the actor/suspects, we didn't know anything about what happened in them.

 

Which is just as well, because the NATs who were then highlighted were basically the most horrible witnesses conceivable. Shelby essentially says, "Reasonable doubt in this case? There's TONS. We didn't find the body, y'all!" And Football Guy says, "Screw actually doing this exercise. I'm going to spend my time accusing you, Liam, of unrelated misconduct on a personal matter."

[Dowel Jones]

"Objection!" cries the audience.

"Overruled", reply the screenwriters.

[KaveDweller]

Which is just as well, because the NATs who were then highlighted were basically the most horrible witnesses conceivable. Shelby essentially says, "Reasonable doubt in this case? There's TONS. We didn't find the body, y'all!" And Football Guy says, "Screw actually doing this exercise. I'm going to spend my time accusing you, Liam, of unrelated misconduct on a personal matter."

 

And these are the people who managed not to get eliminated in the first few months of training. Imagine how bad those people would have been?

 

I don't get why Alex still hasn't told anyone about the terrorist threatening her. With Elias, he didn't tell because he was being blackmailed about something illegal he did in the past. I don't remember the details, but he definitely had something to lose. What does Alex have to lose? They really need to make it at least somewhat realistic if they want the show to be watchable.

[Chicago Redshirt]

I think it's been essentially stated that Alex hasn't told anyone because the terrorist(s) have threatened Booth. Which, again, should not be a good enough reason if they were the love of a lifetime. But given that Alex and Booth have been on-and-off and given that they've known each other for maybe a year in the future, it is of course ridiculous.

[Texasmom1970]

Better watch out Alex, you glorious hair award is about to be taken away from Nimah. Her hair was looking good this episode! 

 

This show really needs to step it up me admiring everyone's hair is not enough to keep me interested much longer. At least Simon got out of his Ted Kaczynski cabin and came back to the city.

[KaveDweller]

I think it's been essentially stated that Alex hasn't told anyone because the terrorist(s) have threatened Booth. Which, again, should not be a good enough reason if they were the love of a lifetime. But given that Alex and Booth have been on-and-off and given that they've known each other for maybe a year in the future, it is of course ridiculous.

 

Helping a terrorist plan to kill lots of people doesn't seem like it should be less important than threatening one FBI agent. It seems like a really weak reason. Surely Booth would be in less danger if he knew what was going on.

 

But I've never been threatened by a terrorist, so I guess I shouldn't judge. 

[Margherita Erdman]

How can a show be so dumb and still completely incomprehensible?

That observation is dead-on. You win for BEST QUESTION.

Glad to get here and learn from everyone's posts that I had not been so distracted by all the shiny bouncy hair in this bonkers show to miss being informed earlier of Liam & Alex's actual hook-up. Ewww. He may not be her actual dad, but this seems like a retcon as their relationship has always played paternal (within the limited acting range available to Chopra especially).

Awesome detail though, in that scene in Liam's office — check out the diploma on his wall — apparently Agent Cougartown graduated from the Universisty of Kentucky.

So now we know how all the people writing and running and overseeing set design for this show got their smartses — they went to universisties.

[NorthstarATL]

Finally got around to watching this (translation: everything else had been viewed), and I have to agree that the hair was fantastic! Especially liked that the scene with Alex, Simon, and Bambi was sufficiently warm enough that there was no shivering or reaction to the elements to take away from the ACTING that was going on.

 It seems that most of the recruits came from single child homes, which explains some of their careless behavior, but this episode the twins, for crying out loud, left phones on desks and doors ajar just for the sake of plot! No one who has gone through puberty with siblings would not know how to be a tiny bit secretive. Maybe they think they can learn it at Quantico? (Well, not this Quantico.) I did enjoy Alex, who had fed the world's smallest NFL recruit info obtained in private, being indignant that he was being kicked out by her ex-lover and then petulantly not closing  the door on the way out of his office. Also, Alex had the good sense to look through her peephole before opening her door to Simon; a door with several locks, none of which needed to be turned!

And, from the previews, neither of the guys let go this episode are gone next time around.