When the episode begins with Alex Parrish dislocating her own shoulder, you know you are in for one hell of a ride on Quantico season 2.
This week is all about interrogation and techniques that are used to get people to talk. Lessons that Alex learns at The Farm come in quite handy during the present day hostage situation, but we had to see her learn them first before we could watch her put them into practice.
Also, there is pretty major shift in personnel in the FBI’s investigation into The Farm. We can’t wait to see how Alex handles possibly being sidelined in favor of her handler, Shelby. We have a couple of questions about why that is even happening in the first place, not to mention what is going on with Ryan at the moment on The Farm. There is definitely a new game afoot.
The Farm
The name of the game for this week’s spy lesson is interrogation techniques. First, Owen and Lydia show the recruits how it feels to be on the receiving end of the practices that are used to loosen up a mark. A little loud music to disorient, sensory deprivation to depress, extreme temperatures to unsettle, and some stressful positioning to top it all off. Not the most fun of their recent lessons, but it’s definitely one we knew was coming at some point. This is spy school after all. Then the real challenge is thrown down: get Owen Hall’s top secret alias out of him.
The recruits start with a little starvation, a little loud death metal, and some sleep deprivation, but that is definitely not enough to break a man like Owen Hall. They try their hardest to break him using each and every one of the techniques they were shown, but no dice. While watching these have little to no effect on Owen’s sharing reflex, Ryan sees that Dayana is finding this harder to stomach than some of the others. He singles her out and learns that she has a history with torture. Whether she was the victim or perpetrator is still unclear, but her history makes her uniquely suited to get this exercise over and done with.
Dayana tells them that hurting someone the mark loves is the fastest and easiest way to get answers. The recruits take Lydia in hand and drag her to the interrogation room, where they strap Owen to a chair to watch as they waterboard his daughter. Dayana is ruthless, barely giving Lydia a moment to catch her breath. Owen panics and spits out the alias. Jim Dowd is the valuable piece of information that the recruits needed. Lesson complete.
While all this is going on, the FBI crew is debating whether to put their eggs in one Alex-Parrish-sized basket or throw their support to Shelby, who has made serious inroads to finding out who Leon Velez really is. This debate is a little confusing considering that getting into Owen’s head seems to be priority one, and they sort of abandoned project Leon a few weeks before. It seems especially unwise because what happens if Leon is not one of the chosen few for the AIC? Owen seems like the surer bet there.
Alex is eventually shut out of the future meetings, and her first act is to call Harry. We see him receive the call just as Sebastian, aka the man Harry has been infuriated with throughout the first 7 episodes, pounces on him. Harry has made no secret of the fact that he thinks Sebastian is secretly gay and refuses to accept it because of his beliefs, and it seems that he may very well be right.
Our final look of the episode is of Ryan lying in the dirt on the side of the road, his car door open and a cell phone by his hand. He receives a call that tells him he has been selected and is told to take the phone with him to receive further instructions. Did Ryan just get drafted into the AIC?
The hostage situation
Alex, being the total badass that she is, dislocates her own shoulder to escape her bonds, relocating it as soon as she is free, and runs off to get back at it. Total. Badass. She gets her satellite phone and gives Shelby a call. She gives her 6 of 10 digits belonging to the phone number of whomever is helping the terrorists from the outside. Time for Miranda to sweat a little.
Alex gets herself captured again soon after that and finds herself taped to a chair while Mike, a seemingly innocent hostage, begs her to spill on the drives she and Lydia found last episode. She smells tradecraft going on, what with all the details he’s spilling, and we definitely believe her. Right up until they shoot the hostage in the head. Then it gets a little harder to be so sure.
The terrorists bring Dayana in next, and she and Alex vow to stay strong and reveal nothing. The terrorists start with a stab wound to Dayana’s arm while Alex watches, but they don’t stop there. The next time we see them, the terrorists are ready to use a ball peen hammer on Dayana’s spine. They go for the gold, a shot high to the neck that would kill her instantly, and Alex breaks. She tells them about Lydia and the drives and that she is carrying her cell phone. Alex tells them that if they drop their jammers for even a second they’ll be able to track her down.
Seconds after the terrorists leave, Alex’s face goes stony once again. She didn’t give the terrorists anything she didn’t want to use. Getting them to drop the jammers for just a second gives the FBI a clear view of who is where inside the perimeter. Point Alex Parrish.
Harry, Sebastian, and Leon show up moments later to save Dayana and Alex. They pick Dayana up off of the floor and head off to Alex’s bunker to regroup where there’s medical supplies to help Dayana. It looks like Alex isn’t all on her own anymore, but we have to ask: Are all these allies of hers trustworthy?
