‘Quantico’ recap: Alex Parrish is on the run

When we last saw Alex Parrish (the fabulous Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra) she was dashing away in an FBI van after being accused of being the mastermind of a terrorist attack in New York City. Alex, we are told, is now on a mission to protect the country but before that she must protect herself.

(Cue the ominous music here.)

The second we learned tonight’s episode was simply titled “America” we began bracing ourselves for some pretty heavy-handed and dramatic explanations of what patriotism and the good old U.S.A. means to each of our mysterious FBI recruits. As you can expect, our heroine Alex is the one that provides the most memorable answer.

Looking straight into the camera (after a deceptively hesitant pause), Alex tells her interrogators that she wanted to be a part of the FBI, “Because I believe in this country and what it stands for and I want to protect it at all costs.”

Here are five things we learned during this week’s episode.

Every clue matters: Because ‘Quantico’ largely takes place in flashback scenes that take place in the weeks before the terrorist attack, the viewer is taken along for the ride as the agents face their recollections that may or may not foreshadow the attack.

“As agents, you’re going to have to learn to divide evidence that is meaningful or meaningless,” on of their instructor tells them ominously. Later on, the recruits are told that “evidence lies.” Ona related note: the dialogue on the show can be more than a little heavy-handed.

The Grey’s Anatomy-eqsue sexual tension continues: Viewers who watched last week’s premiere were probably struck by the Seattle Grace-like relationships and camaraderie that exists between our ridiculously good looking FBI hopefuls. We get a glimpse of Alex walking with her new pals Nimah and Shelby.

But wait! Is that Ryan flirting with someone else on the FBI grounds? “She can have him,” Alex says dismissively. (We don’t really believe her.)

Nimah isn’t Nimah! OK, so we already knew last week that the trainee the world knows as Nimah was really a pair of identical twins in disguise. But what we didn’t know was how they passed the background check or how none of the FBI higher ups had any suspicions. In one of the biggest reveals of tonight’s episode was that the two siblings are actually FBI plants and part of a program the bureau has never tried before. (We’re really confused on the details, which is probably what the show’s writers intended.)

Like all sisters, the twins bicker and also have to struggle with the added challenge of negotiating how to act out their new false identity. One of the biggest things the two women fight about is Simon, the gay self-described Zionist recruit who is seemingly determined to befriend her/them. Which brings us to…

Hold on, is Simon really straight? While Simon is supposed to be what one character said was “the first openly gay recruit in FBI history,” he was instantly dismissive of a fellow FBI employee who introduced himself in a show of solidarity. And then of course there is his weird friendship/working relationship with Nimah.

Priyanka Chopra’s action scene training is coming in handy: A highlight of the episode was watching Chopra return to her old apartment, only to find Natalie (a fellow FBI agent) lying in wait for her. The ensuing chase and fight scenes were some of the most impressive we’ve scene in quite some time on TV. (And we can’t remember we saw a fight scene like that between two women.)

Odds and Ends:

Having Alex have to shoot Ryan in order to escape was a nice touch, as was the fact that Ryan was instantly trusting of her when she secretly calls him from an untraceable cell phone in the hospital. (Or is he instantly trusting? We see a plot twist coming.)

Given the fact that Planned Parenthood was the center of one of the biggest news stories of last week, it was disconcerting to watch the recruits do a training exercise in which a PP clinic was attacked by a “mom whose daughter had an abortion there.”

Are we the only ones doing a double take everytime we hear Ryan addressed as “Agent Booth”? Our hearts will always belong to Seeley.

We would have loved to see Priyanka Chopra’s face when she realized that ABC had confused her with another Bollywood actress during a segment on ‘Nightline.’

Finally, this roundup by the good people at Racked illustrating how Alex’s hair always looks perfect no matter how much danger she’s in will warm your heart.

Lakshmi Gandhi is Metro’s Social Media Manager. Follow her on Twitter @LakshmiGandhi.