Round Two: Quantico

Quantico: Season 1, Episode 2 “America” (B-)

There is an awful lot going on at the FBI Academy. Every single recruit seems to have a monumental secret they’re keeping from the rest of the class, and it’s still hard to believe that they can be hiding so much. Letting that go, it’s an extremely juicy show with plenty of intrigue, with each character proving to be much more complex than it initially seemed. The format of showing Alex trying to outrun certain lifelong imprisonment while flashing back to important clues about what happened in the run-up to the terrorist attack works pretty well, and there’s definitely much to be discovered. It’s also clear that the established agents are deceiving each other, with O’Connor handling Booth but not sharing that fact with Shaw and her keeping him in the dark about the twins experiment. There’s definitely something strange about Simon, who seemed like the most innocent of the bunch. I knew I recognized new analyst Elias from his voice, and it turns out that he’s played by Rick Cosnett, best known as Eddie on “The Flash.” Post-explosion, it’s interesting to see Booth immediately trust Alex and agree to help her, though I think he could have been a bit vaguer about who shot him than to confirm that it was her and put a target on her back. The chase scene with Nathalie was pretty thrilling, and I am excited to see where this show goes even if I’m not fully convinced of its intellectual and enduring quality just yet.