Shelby and Parrish come face to face in the present day story in Quantico season 1, episode 19, “Fast.” The real question is: Can Shelby be trusted?
Only three more episodes left to decide who can and can’t be trusted. After “Fast” are we any closer to catching the terrorist? Check out our review of the episode below and let us know who you think is responsible for all those lives lost in the mid-season finale explosion.
Present Day
Alex Parrish
When Alex steps into the FBI field office and sees Shelby, the same girl she saw behind the wheel of an SUV carting Will and Simon off under orders from The Voice just 2 episodes ago, warning bells start ringing in her head. Alex does what you would expect her to, and she uses the only thing she can to get Miranda to pull Shelby from the room: her parents. Shelby and Alex end up in the same room and Shelby uses morse code to send Alex a message. Like a boss.
Luckily, Shelby proves to be a truly smart cookie and seems to be on Alex’s side. Call us skeptical, but it almost seems too good to be true, especially after what we learned from Josh Safran last week. Either way, they work together this week and are eventually lured to a church. Poor Will comes stumbling out with the textbook signs of radiation poisoning and tells them that he was forced to build a nuke. He collapses and begins bleeding profusely from his head. It seems that Will is good and truly dead.
Shelby Wyatt
To trust her or not to trust her, that is the question. Shelby Wyatt has played so many sides and been angry at so many people that it’s almost impossible to tell where her loyalties truly lie. In “Fast,” it certainly seems like she is out to help Alex. She’s even seen at the church (whose location they suspiciously got from software Shelby arranged to have installed on FBI servers) beside Alex, which makes us want to believe that her intentions are noble. It’s just so hard to place every look she gives. She could easily be snowing Alex in order to progress her terrorist plot. It’s all up in the air.
We did love the morse code on the chair arm though. Whether or not she ends up being a part of the cell, Shelby has been a fascinating character in season one. Hopefully she’s not the terrorist and we can have her around for more after this storyline wraps up.
Ryan Booth
On the flip side of things, Booth is more suspicious of Alex than ever when Natalie’s mom shows to ask him why her daughter isn’t taking her calls. A few clicks later and Booth learns that no one has seen or heard from her in a week, and that the last person to see her alive was Alex Parrish.
The only reason we find Booth’s motivations so irritating is because Alex is the only NAT we know we can trust. Everyone, including Booth himself, is a possible suspect, especially when we see that Shelby’s software confirms that an illegal use of FBI resources is going on in the field office, thanks to her software. Could Ryan Booth be the terrorist? Only more Quantico can answer that question.
Back at Quantico
Drew Perales
Drew’s tremor, which we saw briefly in last week’s episode when he decided to push Parrish away, is back and is wreaking havoc with his career before it even starts. All he wants is to graduate from Quantico and begin his career as an agent, but Alex, after much debate and discussion, decides to follow protocol (for once).
She turns in Drew for an undisclosed medical condition, and he leaves Quantico prior to completing the program. Liam wanted him to get a doctor to sign off on his health, but Drew knew that wasn’t going to happen. He knew that the moment he saw a doctor, the only answer they’d get would be no answer, and the FBI would never accept that as permission to become a fully-fledged agent.
Alex Parrish
Alex puts her career and life in Drew’s hands by not reporting his condition as soon as she learns of it. She tries to find a way out of her predicament, and asks numerous people for help along the way, including the different program heads that have come for a NAT ‘Career Day’ of sorts.
Ultimately she makes the right decision and turns Drew in. She followed protocol and hopefully will curry favor with both Liam and Booth, the latter of which she hasn’t been seeing eye to eye with since he returned to Quantico as a counselor.
Shelby Wyatt
Shelby spends her career day trying to save Caleb from himself. After witnessing Will’s beating at Caleb’s hands in the last episode, she is desperate to find a way to remove Caleb from Sistemics without getting herself or him killed. She poses as a new recruit with a more than generous donation and gets access to one of the organization’s highest levels. There, she sees that Caleb is alive, well, and he tells her about his and his dad’s secret plan to bring Sistemics to their knees.
Ultimately, Caleb successfully gets the confession he needs from the head of Sistemics, Shelby is kept in the dark as to the reality of what Caleb was doing, and Caleb is removed from Quantico by his father. Since he managed to begin the eventual break down of a terrifying organization (and the fact that we’ve seen him as a FBI agent in the present day timeline), we can only imagine this is temporary. Caleb will be back at Quantico.
Nimah and Reyna Amin
While all the other NATs are looking into what programs they want to work in once they become agents, Nimah and Reyna are introduced to their new handler. He comes off as a know-it-all chump who sets them tasks like writing up essays on old cases and polishing his guns (the firearm type, not his arms). The twins don’t take to his condescending and sexist tone and report him to Liam on two separate occasions in a single day. Ultimately, they realize that they made a mistake when Liam shows them that they’re trust is being tested by this new handler, and thy failed him on all counts.
They have one last encounter with this handler before they end up with a new, fresh face from counter-terrorism. They may not learn as much from his new handler, but hopefully the twins will feel respected.
Least trustworthy NATs based on the events of this episode
- Caleb Haas: Okay, so his behavior in this episode doesn’t necessarily make us that suspicious, but knowing that he’s going to do something in the next episode that will end any potential for the Shaleb relationship in the future has us skeptical until proven innocent in this case.
- Drew Perales: His departure from the NAT program, paired with his drive to become an agent, and the amount of time this show has spent analyzing and building the Alex and Drew dynamic has us incredibly suspicious of where he is in the present day. He left the program, and all of his other responsibilities were lost to him after his football career ended and his fiance died. Why would they make us care about him if he’s completely irrelevant to the present day storyline.
- Ryan Booth: Ryan, Ryan, Ryan. His insistence on catching Alex is a little overzealous. We know that he has reasons for wanting to catch her off her game, but his devotion to ending her career could almost be described as sociopathic. He is either the terrorist or one of the worst FBI agents ever.