‘Quantico’ Series Premiere Recap & Review: Action And Intrigue All Starts At The FBI Academy

The series premiere of ABC’s new show Quantico is an outline of what life is like in the FBI’s top academy. Where recruits learn about each other in ways they would learn about potential suspects, such as sleeping with one another, exposing one another’s sexual orientation and personal tragedies. The trials push the future agents to the edge and all this is presented against the backdrop of a terrorist attack in which Alex Parrish becomes a scapegoat for the real culprits.

‘Quantico’ Premiere Recap & Review

Alex Parrish (Priyanka Chopra) and Ryan Booth (Jake McLaughlin) are on a plane next to one another. Ryan fumbles through some kinf of conversation starter and asks why Alex is going to D.C.. She lies and says she is physician for Doctors Without Borders. He lies and says he is returning home from the military. They’re practicing for where they are both headed: Quantico.

They have sex in Ryan’s car upon landing and she exposes him for all his lies by subtle observations. She is way better at subterfuge than he is.

They arrive at school and he realizes that he wasn’t just being transparent, he was being played. This is axactly what they will be doing with their time in Quantico. Each recruit is given a dossier on another recruit, and they are to dig up dirt on that one person and use that information in a mock interview. This is where we find out that most of the characters have some reason why they are there; a personal tragedy for some. Wyatt (Shelby Braddy) lost her parents in 9/11, for example.

The exercise goes horribly wrong when Caleb Haas (Graham Rogers) pushes his subject to the limit before they even reached the interrogation room. He shoots the stenographer and nearly kills Caleb.

Back in the present, investigators are trying to get to the bottom of who is really responsible for the worse terrorist attack since 9/11. As Alex tells the story of her trouble class, it comes out that she was responsible for a terrible murder, after which she was sent to live in Mumbai for a number of years. Her association to region densely populated by Muslims makes her suspect of the attack. Once investigators discover through forensic evidence that her gun was used at the scene, she is put under arrest.

But it isn’t over yet. She manages to escape the her arrest the help of the FBI agent driving the van she is being held in. Oddly, there is no one else guarding her in the van except the driver and Alex’s escape isn’t very miraculous.

This episode is full of background that is sure to lead to a gripping story about terror activity, framing, and Islamophobia in the post 9/11 world of homeland security. In future episodes we are to be promised action, intrigue, and blurred lines.

Quantico airs Sunday at 9 p.m. on ABC.