A sequence in Episode Two of Quantico has so far been the only genuine justification for the show being set across two different timelines – the past, where Alex Parrish (Priyanka Chopra) trains at the FBI Academy in Quantico, and the present, where she’s on the run after being framed of being a terror attack mastermind.
In the episode, trainees are given a task: they have to study three simulated crime scenes and look for clues that will help them solve the crime. Only Parrish cracks the test. In present day, we see Parrish back at her apartment – a real crime scene – looking for clues that will help her understand her predicament better, and prove her innocence. This is the rare Quantico moment where creator Joshua Safran displayed any sort of ingenuity in writing. You see Parrish had a knack for problem-solving even in her rookie days, which makes her ability to get out of a crisis in the present more believable.
The rest of Quantico – and its insistence on stuffing two disparate storylines down audiences’ throats when it can hardly do justice to one – has been as distant from basic common sense as Parrish seems to be from piecing it all together. Showing characters’ past experiences doesn’t seem to serve any real storytelling purpose, and rarely does it tie in smoothly with present events. All it does is eat up valuable screen time, and make weak attempts at showing a history of the characters’ relationships with each other.
Surely, Quantico’s writing team must have a big picture in mind; may be, the pieces will eventually start falling in place, and things will begin to make sense. The amount of time Safran & Team take to make things clear, however, will be inversely proportionate to the number of viewers who’ll continue to care.
Episode Four put a spotlight on the aimlessness of the plot more than the ones before it. In the present, Parrish is meeting fellow FBI trainees one after the other. That can be an interesting plot device, but so convoluted are Parrish’s reasons to bump into them, all you can do is throw your arms up in exasperation.
(Spoiler begins) In the latest episode, Parrish lands up at the house of Shelby, her best friend during the Quantico days. As soon as she gets in, Parrish starts going through random documents lying around, to find any clue about Shelby being involved in the terror attack. The pointlessness of this silly scene is only overshadowed by the hilarity of Parrish’s combat with Shelby later, where the two fight like girls in kindergarten (Spoiler ends).
More inexplicable things happen – you get an unsatisfactory explanation for a set of twins being inducted into the FBI, characters spy on each other in the most obvious manner possible, and they say the stupidest things (“Are you a patriot? Are you Jewish? Are you even gay?”).
Convoluted plotting, lack of direction and acting deficiency were all on full display in Episode Four of Quantico. With a steadfastly downward trajectory over four episodes, the good news might be that the series can probably not get any worse.
(Aniruddha Guha is a Film & TV critic. Follow him on Twitter: @AniGuha.)
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