What I’m Watching: Quantico (Season Premiere)

Quantico: Season 2, Episode 1 “Kudove” (F)

This is a show that I didn’t love too much from the start and that I kept watching for the entirety of the first season because my wife enjoyed it much more than I did. I’ve officially decided after this abysmal opener that this is the last episode of this show that I’ll watch. It’s no longer fun to trash the show, and I think I could be spending time watching much better shows. I’m disappointed to see that this is essentially the same thing as season one, filling in the gap of the year and what happened to go from things being fine to the next major terror attack. The show’s “Quan2co” image was mildly clever but that was about it, and it’s frustrating to see yet another dorm training situation where, in this case, the head honchos at both the CIA and FBI academies are well aware that every operative is suspect. What these agencies are doing to breed terrorists in their own midst is beyond me, and you’d think their energies would be better spent on counterprogramming rather than enlisting deception artists. Ranking the recruits feels especially silly, and this index card exercise seems like a preposterous way to train people, even more so than the time stamped post-its they all received. I knew right away that Alex’s attacker would be someone she trained with, and it makes absolutely no sense that the terrorists would pretend to be foreign when they’re actually domestic agents. Ending the episode with the First Lady about to be executed with a machete on live television after the President complied with the demands is too over-the-top to even address. This show seems desperate to be relevant, and if it hadn’t already jumped the shark twenty times in season one, this really did it.

What I’m Watching: Quantico (Season Finale)

Quantico: Season 1, Episode 22 “Yes” (D)

I’ll admit that the opening scene of this episode was well-executed, showing how Liam was involved in every step of the terrorist plot that went from before everyone arrived at Quantico to the present moment. The problem is that it didn’t really get to the root of why Liam would have been the one engineering the whole thing. My biggest issue is that he actually trained the entire Quantico class, and there’s no reason he couldn’t have shifted the curriculum to mold the trainees to his vision of the FBI rather than create something he wanted to destroy. This show unsurprisingly fell vulnerable to the TV trope of villains being far less careful once the audience knows their identities, with careless decisions like having Miranda tied up in his car that was parked in the FBI garage. Also, in the end, only Nathalie, Elias, Drew, and Clayton, all fringe characters, died, which demonstrates that this show isn’t interested in truly taking risks and letting its characters be put in harm’s way. The one part of it all that is interesting is that Claire conspired with Liam to ensure that her candidacy would be positively affected from all the chaos created by his actions, though I still think there are more than a few holes in that logic. Will Alex join the CIA in season two? I do hope the writing is much better, though I’m also not sure that I’m going to be watching. This season was not very impressive at all – highly watchable but also very poorly-crafted.

Season grade: C-
Season MVP: Do I have to pick someone?

What I’m Watching: Quantico

Quantico: Season 1, Episode 21 “Closure” (D)

This is the penultimate episode of the season, and I feel like now that we’ve actually seen a character kill another in cold blood with no ambiguity at all, we finally know who the real terrorist is. There have been so many fake reveals over the course of the past twenty episodes, and I truly believe that the writers were still deciding. The good news is that it’s more credible to have Liam as the terrorist since he was on the show from the very beginning rather than added late which would have been cheating, though there are still some holes regarding his supervision of the case after Grand Central was bombed that I don’t think add up. His grievances with the institutions of the government make sense, and that has been building over the course of the past few episodes, so it’s nothing new. What’s most irritating about this show is the way that these FBI trainees and the agents in charge jump to immediate conclusions and report on each other right away without taking the time to confront the accused and ask what’s actually going on. Shelby gets the blame in this hour for pushing everyone away and not telling them the truth when given the opportunity, and I can’t comprehend why Caleb felt the need to once again assume that he knew what was best for Shelby. How Liam replicated Drew’s voice is a mystery, and of course as an irrelevant character, he was able to get blown up as things are finally going to be resolved if all of the agents don’t bumble too much in the finale. But what will drive season two? I don’t even want to know right now.

What I’m Watching: Quantico

Quantico: Season 1, Episode 20 “Drive” (D-)

We’ve now had twenty episodes in which we’ve seen the FBI trainees learn how to be great agents. What part of their training tells them that they’re supposed to forget everything they’ve learned up to a given point and then immediately turn fully to throw their suspicions behind a new theory without questioning it even for a second? Finding Drew in the hospital was a shock, but somehow the sight of him was enough to make both Alex and Shelby certain that Ryan was the mastermind behind this entire operation even though he’s the one who has been most after Alex to stop trying to sell her crazy theories. You’d think also that Miranda finding a handcuffed Ryan next to a computer with incriminating files on him would make her stop and realize that Ryan had in fact been framed. Casting Drew as the terrorist is also a copout since he wasn’t one of the original characters in the pilot, making me think that the writers of this show didn’t have an endgame in mind when they started the show and later figured out who they wanted the bad guy to be. Either way, I’m sick of this constant back-and-forth between Shelby, Caleb, and a very nosy Iris, all of who need to just be honest with each other and stop trying to keep big untrue secrets hidden. In her on-the-job training, Alex managed to really mess things up and put Fletcher’s life in danger, yet another sign that she’s an agent who doesn’t play by the rules and never seems to get any work-related flak for it until everyone thinks she’s a terrorist.

What I’m Watching: Quantico

Quantico: Season 1, Episode 19 “Fast” (D-)

There are so many problems with this episode that I’m not even sure I could list them all. The biggest issue is the inconsistency of Caleb’s character. Either he’s an addict who’s not in control of his behavior or he’s capable of serving as a double agent, but both are definitely not possible. Also, why did he need to be working for Shelby since she could just as easily have called Alex if she was actually on her side to explain the situation with her since obviously her phone calls with Caleb weren’t being recorded by the terrorist. It seems highly incongruous that Alex would need a pad of paper to interpret Shelby’s Morse code since Shelby was able to multitask and keep up a full conversation while tapping out a secret message. I’m very tired of Alex pacing around clearly not in the right place and no one noticing that she’s lurking and up to something. The notion of her getting to confront her accuser makes no sense, since this is no longer training and it’s the real world. Training wasn’t too great either, as Drew lied continuously about his worsening condition and Alex blabbed about it to the entire world instead of handling it in a subtler way. Nimah and Raina’s storyline was particularly poor as they dealt with a lazy handler who treated them poorly and disrespectfully and then complained about being penalized for being old-school. This is now the umpteenth time that Alex and someone else have gone in to a location they think the terrorist was hiding with their guns out, and at least this time they only ran into an old friend who apparently just created a nuclear device, a twist that I’m sure won’t be substantially explained.

What I’m Watching: Quantico

Quantico: Season 1, Episode 18 “Soon” (D+)

There’s so much on this show that doesn’t make sense. I’ve written many times about how I can’t believe that every single assignment the trainees have involves probing into each other’s secrets, like arguing for who gets a security clearance based on the very public reasons that they have been flagged for review. It’s also crazy that Iris, who was flagged only for employing foreigners, didn’t get her clearance after Shelby and Drew both passed on the second try, and her subsequent decision was one driven by pure stupidity that doesn’t seem fitting for the prickly but intelligent recruit. This show has no understanding of how cults work, and the ease with which both Iris and Shelby were able to learn about and find the cult that operates in public places was simply absurd. I don’t know what Caleb thought he could achieve by beating Will up, and obviously it all doesn’t work out in the end given where he ends up. That said, this episode ended with another perplexing and surely indefensible twist: Caleb, pretending to be a drug addict being sheltered by his mother, is actually working for someone else. Could it be as innocuous as helping the FBI and Ryan? Unlikely. This show likes to drop so many shockers and then not address them that it’s going to lose track and contradict itself soon. At some point, there won’t be enough time left in the past to introduce new things that don’t correspond to what we’ve already seen happen.

What I’m Watching: Quantico

Quantico: Season 1, Episode 17 “Care” (C-)

So many other shows are ending their seasons, and this series still has a full five episodes left before it takes a break and then launches into the second season that has already been commissioned. Mainly, I don’t feel that we’re getting anywhere, though the end of this episode provided a clue that prompted many to think that the long-secret identity of the terrorist has been revealed. After sixteen episodes of secretive actions and clandestine phone calls, I can’t imagine that “The Voice” would be careless as to roll down her window and give away her true identity, and I’m all but certain that Shelby is just a pawn. Seeing her there was especially unfortunate given the episode she had, so overjoyed to finally see her parents after the heartbreak of losing out on a relationship with them for so many years. Caleb really is a good friend to protect Shelby in the way that he did, acting to ensure that they got out of Shelby’s life the moment that he realized that they were up to no good, manipulating their daughter into giving them money rather than trying to build an actual relationship with them. The border crossing exercise was just the latest in a series of incredibly unbelievable training simulations that couldn’t possibly happen in real life. Raina and Nimah really did win by deceiving Liam, and I’m not quite sure why Alex got so off course that they ended up in the middle of nowhere covered in snow while everyone else was traveling comfortably. Oh, the many inconsistencies and unexplained script decisions on this show.

What I’m Watching: Quantico

Quantico: Season 1, Episode 16 “Clue” (D+)

This episode was considerably more boring than most of the hours that came before it, and its quality was about the same. It doesn’t surprise me at all that Hannah managed to get herself found out and pulled from active duty almost immediately as soon as she teamed up with Alex. Part of the problem is that Ryan, who for so long was Alex’s rock and her number one advocate, is now watching her like a hawk, more firmly committed to seeing her downfall than any one of the actual enemies that she has made over the course of the show. And back home, Simon is on Alex’s side, actually making some real progress without drawing the attention of the world. It’s usually true that the flashbacks take up more of the episode than what’s happening in the present, and that was definitely true in this hour. I have to seriously question the choices that the FBI instructors make on this show, employing exercises that may ultimately strengthen the character and effectiveness of their agents but will definitely damage them in the meantime. Running a hostage situation simulation on a plane so that every single attempt could fail hardly seems productive, and it took a lot out of Shelby, who’s already in bad shape. I’m not sure how Caleb and Will will do trying to infiltrate the cult that nearly took Caleb’s youth, but they’re definitely going to try. As has been the case since the start of this show, I’m dubious that the past and present will actually be able to even out and meet somewhere in the middle by the time the former finally catches up to the latter.

What I’m Watching: Quantico

Quantico: Season 1, Episode 15 “Turn” (D)

This is definitely the worst episode this show has produced thus far, and I’m annoyed. I’m trying to understand what happened in this episode, and my best guess is this: terrorists used Charlie to find a way to get in to Quantico, killed all the guards at the entrance, and then didn’t even treat to get inside the facility since the lockdown procedures were in place. I can’t comprehend what the point was, and why just one man was wandering aimlessly around in the woods, unable to spot three separate groups of people hiding out and also invisible to the field team responding to the threat. That it turned into one lone gunman breaking into Miranda’s house and holding them hostage made absolutely no sense, and for Charlie to be killed that way hardly felt like a legitimate ending. The notion of a terrorist cell infiltrating FBI training grounds is a legitimately terrifying one, and the execution of that plotline in this episode was absolutely abysmal. Things in the future aren’t much better, as the very poorly-written character of Hannah Wyland led Alex run around too much before finally deciding to check her story and realize that she was right about everything, making her a great ally for Alex who could have been very helpful a long time ago. The news that Shelby’s parents are alive is huge, but is also the umpteenth major revelation that this show is asking us to take as fact when it’s really pretty hard to believe.

What I’m Watching: Quantico

Quantico: Season 1, Episode 14 “Answer” (C-)

I’m confused about the passage of time in this show’s future, since I’m pretty sure we saw Simon testify and be mad at Alex just a day or two ago, and now he’s living in a cabin in Vermont pointing a gun to his jaw every morning so soon after. I’m also surprised that Alex would go straight to him since he’s the one she trusts most when that really hasn’t been the case at all (that honor goes to Ryan). Telling him the full truth didn’t take long, and somehow he managed to get out of his house before burning the whole thing down, which is convenient since Alex could really use an ally. It seems that these new recruits aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, since we’re getting plenty of backstory on them, further suggesting that they may be the ones to ultimately become terrorists. Iris is all over the place, manipulating events to her every whim and then coming out of nowhere to express sincere sympathy to Shelby, while Will is tailing Caleb as he dresses up and pretends to be someone else to help right the wrong that has been committed by Shelby’s alleged half-sister. Drew went from not at all interested in talking about what happened in Chicago to publicly airing his grievances, which resulted in a quick dismissal from the academy, hardly the result he wanted. I can’t read Alex and her relationship with Liam, which seems wildly inconsistent, and given what we know of the future, I don’t think that he’s going to resign as he’s been told to.

What I’m Watching: Quantico

Quantico: Season 1, Episode 13 “Clear” (C-)

For agents that are supposed to be highly trained and at the top of their class, it seems unthinkable to me that they would simply presume that a mastermind terrorist who has managed to convince all but one person that he or she doesn’t even exist would make the stupid mistake of leaving a computer traceable and then unattended for the FBI agents to find. Now Alex is doubly screwed because her one ally is dead and she didn’t tell anyone else that she had been contacted by the real terrorist. This threat is far too omniscient, able to send her pictures seconds after she burst into Ryan’s apartment in hysterics yet somehow invisible to the entire world. I also don’t quite believe that the past as we’re getting to know it is going to end up aligning with the future that we’ve already seen happen, and that’s going to create serious continuity problems because events that we see in flashbacks will contradict what previous versions of the future have already shown. The addition of this other class didn’t do much for this episode, introducing three new characters who got to flirt a lot and then show that they’re just as flawed and vulnerable as the classmates we know. Though I still believe it would be illegitimate to make one of them the terrorist, it’s obvious that it’s not Will, whose mysterious dresser hunt cancels out his inevitable guilt, or Iris, who is suspicious but also inherently good despite her fierce exterior. I don’t see former footballer Drew as the guy either. This is definitely my least favorite role for Eliza Coupe, who is usually so fantastic but is stuck in a dull part as Ryan’s ex-wife who really doesn’t like Alex and is doing absolutely nothing to help Alex’s efforts to stop a terrorist from killing everyone she holds dear.

What I’m Watching: Quantico

Quantico: Season 1, Episode 12 “Alex” (C)

This is the second of two crazy-hot fall shows that made the questionable move to go off the air for three full months after starting off so strong. My opinion of this show by the time it went on hiatus in November wasn’t nearly as favorable as “Blindspot,” and this midseason premiere confirms that this show is forever determined to be embroiled in frustrating mystery an never get anywhere too productive. It’s impossible to believe that Alex is literally the only one who believes that Elias wasn’t working alone, and that all of these FBI agents who went through the exact same training are convinced that beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was the only threat. It makes just as little sense that Alex would decide to change her story and agree that Elias acted alone, and naturally that is what would inspire the unknown terrorist to call her and then strap a bomb to Nathalie, who inexplicably has become Alex’s only true ally. This show is quite simply out of suspects, and introducing a whole new class of potential threats is hardly legitimate, since it wouldn’t have been possible to discern who the bad guy was if we hadn’t actually met him or her yet. Finding out that Shelby’s fake sister has been kidnapped and that Miranda’s son isn’t telling the truth about what he remembers hardly seems relevant or interesting since it’s all just a distraction from the truth that we surely won’t learn for months.

What I’m Watching: Quantico

Quantico: Season 1, Episode 11 “Inside” (C-)

This show tried to drop as many bombshells as possible before it goes on hiatus for nearly three months, and, as usual, it achieved that effect but not without stretching its believability even more than it’s already been extended. The necessary holiday theme played its part with the flashback to New Year’s Eve on campus when all the female recruits, minus Raina, discovered that they had all lied and stayed behind, resulting in them all drinking together and ultimately getting invited to Caleb’s family party. While Nimah stayed behind to socialize with Shaw, the others got a firsthand taste of a Haas family event, which included an introduction to none other than Caleb’s mother, played by Marcia Cross of “Desperate Housewives” fame, who was far less into chewing scenery than I had expected, though I do believe that she’s the one behind this whole attack. The other guest of honor was Ryan’s ex-wife and current partner, portrayed by Eliza Coupe, who has been everywhere lately. In the present, Alex is headed straight for prison for no real reason, but first - the show has to kill off a handful of people, or at least make it seem like it did! Of course Simon isn’t the bad guy, and Elias isn’t either, he’s just too vulnerable to other people holding things over him and as a result ended up helping the terrorists trick the FBI - not too hard - and get everyone to the true target location under the guise of being evacuated to safety. The fallout from that won’t be great, but I don’t think too many of our friends were actually inside when it blew up. We’ll find out in March!

What I’m Watching: Quantico

Quantico: Season 1, Episode 10 “Quantico” (C)

This episode continues events in the same direction that they’ve been headed all along, becoming more and more ridiculous thanks to an influx of extra twists and the continued public affairs of the FBI trainees. Back in the past, putting recruits like Nathalie on trial in front of the entire group and having her future be judged with them all watching seemed more than excessive, especially given the reason that she was fabricating her scar. I also have to take serious issue with the notion of Simon being implicated by his peers simply because of his service in the Israeli Defense Forces. While the situation in the Middle East may be controversial, especially in the world of Hollywood, having served in the army of a top ally would definitely not be so damning for employees of a government intelligence agency. I’m not sure why Simon thought that planning a twin bomb threat and making sure that it wouldn’t actually work was a good idea, since now it appears that it led to the real thing being carried out with no planned flaws and his abduction for figuring that out. The reason he got kicked out of the academy also seemed rather trivial given everything else that’s happened. You’d think that an intelligence agency would think to make sure its doors were locked or guarded when they were spying on their own people, and that stupid policy has now led to everyone hating Alex even though they know that she’s innocent. Now we’re back at square one with no real leads, though maybe a few major hints will be dropped in the upcoming mid-season finale.

What I’m Watching: Quantico

Quantico: Season 1, Episode 9 “Guilty” (C)

I do certainly enjoy watching this show, but it’s impossible not to recognize how preposterous it is. My two biggest issues with this episode came towards the end of the hour, when one inexplicable decision was made and another unbelievable twist was thrown in that essentially makes the last eight episodes a waste of time if it’s not just a red herring. After convincing even Nathalie and Liam of her innocence, Alex still decided to plead guilty so that the real bomber would somehow be overconfident enough to make a mistake and reveal his or her identity and plan to the FBI, which is crawling with so much deceit that I don’t think anyone would even notice. It’s just like when Ryan confirmed that Alex shot him – what good can a lie do if it only further convicts you? I think it’s absurd to believe that the president’s top interrogator, although well cast with Oded Fehr from “Covert Affairs” and “Sleeper Cell,” would be authorized to take a suspect, abduct and string up her bloodied colleague, and tell her that he wouldn’t listen to anything she said until she told him what he wanted to hear. I don’t know how that accomplished anything, and how Liam so quickly got ahold of their location to come in and stop the whole thing. The notion that Simon became a revolutionary after exposing Anne Heche’s profiler for the fraud that she was, an over-the-top plotline in itself, just doesn’t track with what we know about him, and as far as I’m concerned, he’s already been exonerated. I guess there’s no one left to be put under the microscope, and so this show feels the need to go back and reexamine its initial guesses with unbelievable new information.

What I’m Watching: Quantico

Quantico: Season 1, Episode 8 “Over” (C+)

This show deviated from its usual format in one big way in this episode – it didn’t introduce a new prime suspect. That’s probably because just about everyone has been covered already, with Elias out of the picture, everyone else cleared, and even Shelby and Caleb doubting their allegiance to the top brass and considering the fact that Alex might be innocent. Deputy Director Clayton pushing Caleb to scrub his e-mails and insisting that one which all but confirms Alex having been framed simply because it was sent from a hotel room while he was with Shelby is either highly stupid or immensely suspicious, and I don’t think that deleting e-mails from both the sender and the recipient actually certifies that they will never be recovered, especially if both are on a phone. Putting the recruits out in the field and giving them the chance to be real people is helpful, though naturally that leads immediately to breaking into FBI records while superiors are lurking in the shadows to ensure that classified files aren’t taken where they shouldn’t be. It’s hard to believe that Liam would be so honest in confessing his sins with Alex and then not trust her so intensely just a few months later, but that’s the nature of this soapy show. Alex turning herself in is a game-changer, and let’s hope that someone, not Clayton or Liam obviously, is smart enough to listen to the woman ranting about another bomb and look beyond their firm beliefs that she is the one who planted it.

What I’m Watching: Quantico

Quantico: Season 1, Episode 7 “Go” (C+)

It’s astonishing to me, and not in a good way, that there are so many separate FBI agents and operations in play at the same time, and no one seems to have any clue about anything else that’s occurring. Storming in to arrest Booth after tracking him was particularly irresponsible since the twins were in the middle of a dangerous undercover operation trying to infiltrate a terrorist cell. As usual, the latest suspect is now a new ally, though it appears that both Nimah and Raina are as hostile as Simon was when he first found out about their existence. I’m puzzled by the necessity of informing the entire class of recruits about the twins as soon as just one other person found out, but I guess that just augments the drama. The biggest development of the hour was yet another person who dislikes Alex personally, because there are oh so many who fit that bill, opting to let her go because they believe that she’s innocent. It was surprising to me that Booth also ran off given the fact that he was shot, and it would make much more sense for him to have come in and gotten medical care so that he could provide a legitimate defense for Alex. Once again, having lied about her shooting him in the first place was part of the problem, not whatever solution he thought it was. I seriously question the effectiveness of nearly scaring an entire group of new federal agents to death by pretending that they’re about to be blown up by a bomb, but that’s only the latest questionable tactic employed by the academy on this show.

What I’m Watching: Quantico

Quantico: Season 1, Episode 6 “God” (C+)

This show is following its typical formula: every episode drops a few bombshells, usually juicy, betrays far too much confidential information about a federal agent, and presents yet another trainee as the latest suspect who Alex believes has to be guilty of staging the entire plot and framing Alex. At least it’s interesting, and the way in which some of the stark differences between what things were like a year ago and what they are like now were relatively well-presented. Transitioning from Nathalie getting into the shower with Booth to the same scene a year earlier with Alex and Booth showed just how much that relationship had transformed, and we later got the useful info that Alex pushed Booth away after a clueless O’Connor stupidly spilled the beans about their Alex surveillance op with her listening it. I truly question the value of Shaw opening herself up to being surveilled by all the agents, but there doesn’t seem to be any value to secrets or privacy on this show. Caleb didn’t end up being a suspect for long, and it’s actually Shelby who has been cast in a poorer light because of her affair with Caleb’s father, who it turns out is the mysterious man in charge of the entire FBI operation. Simon discovering that Nimah is not just one person is huge, and let’s hope that they got to trust each other enough to clear her name after she was spotted on the security camera. Alex needs all the friends she can get, especially since Nathalie has just reported Booth’s disloyalty to O’Connor, who is sure to sideline Booth if not use him to draw Alex out into the open.

What I’m Watching: Quantico

Quantico: Season 1, Episode 5 “Found” (C+)

I get that these trainees should be able to think on their feet, but having them master an undercover identity only to pass it to someone else to adopt on the spot seems a bit excessive, and also poses a risk if the organization they’re infiltrating wises up to what they’re up to, not that such things are mentioned or stressed on this show at all. It seems that the larger endgame of this episode was for couples to get together in some way or another. With no sign of Nathalie in this episode, Alex and Booth won the game and were passionate with each other, a connection that lasted even if in a non-romantic way since Booth was the only one who immediately presumed Alex was innocent. Shelby and Caleb realized that they’re better off taking out their hatred for each other in a sexual way, and now that present-day Shelby is on Alex’s side, it’s no surprise that Caleb is the newest suspect. Elias finally made a decent point about why he was stalking Simon, and it seems that Simon’s confession about having done things he can’t undo won him over, and has even opened the door for a possible romantic relationship with Nimah. Alex recording a broadcast to the world asserting her innocence was the best thing she could possibly have done, and doing it from a mosque so that she could get away without being caught was just as smart. I still don’t think O’Connor will even consider the possibility that she’s innocent, and it will be a long time before we learn just what he has against her.

What I’m Watching: Quantico

Quantico: Season 1, Episode 4 “Kill” (C+)

As this show progresses more and more, we’re understandably getting to experience a lot of the present-day goings-on and seeing other recruits in their current states. Shelby has evidently returned to her former lifestyle, jumping from mansion to mansion and practicing a very fancy way of doing things. It’s strange to me just how much all of the recruits believe that Alex is completely and totally guilty, whereas Booth is convinced that she isn’t the perpetrator yet is the one and only person who directly incriminated her and has now made her the target of a shoot on sight order. Simon getting her out of harm’s way when she was about to be arrested demonstrates a certain allegiance, and now we’re going to have to experience Alex torturing Shelby for some information I don’t believe she has. Booth’s decision to go against O’Connor was an intense one that clearly comes with some built-up resentment, and I’m surprised that O’Connor trusts him as much as he does after that. As Caleb becomes a more well-rounded character, Elias continues to be a petty and creepy thorn in Simon’s side who doesn’t add much but does detract quite a bit. For people who are supposed to be keeping secrets, these guys are doing a pretty awful job, namely Booth unintentionally spilling the beans about Alex killing her father to Shelby and then Alex going ahead and confirming it by sharing it with her after all. I guess that’s what keeps it interesting, but it also sincerely wounds the show’s credibility.