Quantico has been consistently delivering strong episodes all season, and the quality has sustained itself since the show’s return from its winter hiatus. Let’s take a look at what happened in this week’s new episode, “Answer.”
The episode opens with all of the cadets beginning a lesson on tactical emergency vehicles. The lesson is fun, but it also serves the purpose of highlighting the tensions between the old and new cadets that have formed since the merging of the classes. I talk on and on about the cast of Quantico and how I think it’s the biggest strength on the show, but it blows my mind at the way I’ve gotten invested in these characters solely because of the actors. The addition of the other class has helped the cast out even more as it gives the characters plenty of new things to play off of. The new cadets are just as intriguing as the old ones, too, so it’s awesome getting to learn about these new people now that we’re pretty well acquainted with our original cadets.
The structure of “Answer” is a bit different than usual, and the episode doesn’t start with the post-bombing timeline. It’s a few minutes into the episode, in fact, before we jump there, and I really enjoyed the way that the writers are finally changing up the format more. The story in this time frame is extremely solid in “Answer,” featuring the return of Simon after the events of the mid-season finale, and he’s given some great material with which to work. The stakes on Quantico feel higher now than they ever did in the first half of the season (even though a terror bombing was the focus of that half), and I think that a lot of the reason for that has to do with the fact that we’ve gotten to know so much about these characters across both timelines. Simon has been one of the most complex characters on the show since the very beginning, and the progression of his story into the future has been the hardest one to predict and the most fun to watch.
The main lesson in the academy timeline deals with cold cases, but the real purpose of it, just like with the episode’s opening, is to showcase the differences and tensions between the classes. Despite the fact that they all appear to be pleasant to each other on the surface, it’s clear that these tensions are going to drive a ton of the drama on the show through this second half of the season.
There were plenty of events in “Answer” that I didn’t talk about specifically, but the episode as a whole is one of the best that Quantico has put out all season. The focus on the cast and the characters is really helping the series stand out, and the rising stakes play well into the show’s favor. In addition, I loved the structural differences from most other episodes that “Answer” had, and I can’t wait to see the ways that the writers mix things up from here.
What did you think of “Answer?” Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below!
[Photo Credit: ABC/Phillippe Bosse]
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