ABC’s hit series, “Quantico,” concluded its first season Sunday night.
“Quantico” revolves around top-of-her-class Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) trainee Alex Parrish, played by renowned Bollywood actress and model Priyanka Chopra. The show begins with Alex being framed for committing the biggest terrorist act since 9/11: the bombing of Grand Central. As the show progresses, Alex attempts to prove her innocence by receiving help from fellow FBI recruits of her class and seeking evidence against the real terrorist. The identity of the terrorist is believed to be one of the FBI recruits from Alex’s class, through a tip that was called in on the day of the Grand Central bombing. Alex, along with other FBI agents from her class, ultimately end up being manipulated by the actual terrorist and are forced to obey the terrorist’s commands in order to protect their loved ones.
The actual terrorist, who turned out to be Liam O’Connor (Josh Hopkins), the Assistant Director of the FBI, wasn’t revealed until the second-to-last episode. For a majority of the season, the identity of the real terrorist was up in the air and referred to as “The Voice,” since Liam contacted all of the agents only through phone calls and masked his own voice by using a voice that is a mix of multiple agents’ voices. Throughout the season, the identity of the terrorist was pinpointed on numerous agents. All of the following agents (in this order) were believed to be the terrorist: Alex, Shelby Wyatt (Johanna Braddy), Elias Harper (Rick Cosnett), Caleb Haas (Graham Rogers), Ryan Booth (Jake McLaughlin), and Drew Perales (Lenny Platt). This not only left fans guessing who the real terrorist was, but it made the agents unsure of who they could trust.
Although fans were able to find out the identity of the real terrorist in the second-to-last episode, the agents did not realize the terrorist was Liam until near the end of the season finale. This reveals a deeper connection between fear and terrorism, because the agents followed everything “The Voice” asked them to do without even knowing his true identity. Liam was largely able to get the agents to do everything he wanted by stimulating fear in the agents by threatening to kill their loved ones. For instance, Liam manipulated Alex by threatening to kill other FBI agents, Shelby by threatening to kill Caleb (her former love) and Drew by threatening to kill Drew’s siblings.
On a greater scale, Liam was able to use fear to his advantage even if he was lying about the repercussions of not following his orders. In episode 20, “Drive,” and towards the beginning of episode 21, “Right,” Liam (through Drew’s voice to disguise his own identity) forced Alex to drive Ryan’s truck, which supposedly had a nuclear bomb in it. We find out at the beginning of “Right” that the bomb in the truck was actually inactive, and the actual nuclear bomb was at a different location. However, Alex believed she was in a truck containing a bomb so much that she refused to get out of the truck for the fear that she would kill innocent bystanders. It took a copious amount of reassurance from Simon until Alex finally agreed to get out of the truck. This shows just how much fear was instilled in Alex through the many demands the terrorist already had her complete up to this point.
According to Psychology Today, terrorism is defined as “the use, or threat of use, of violence by non-state groups to achieve political change.” Essentially, terrorism thrives on fear and hatred, which is evident in “Quantico” through Liam’s actions. In “Quantico,” Liam’s motives for committing the Grand Central bombing were to rebuild the FBI and to fix its corruption so the FBI could start fresh. His values were largely constructed on the fact that he was forced to cover up a failed FBI operation that killed hundreds of innocent civilians during his past as an agent. As a result, Liam targeted the innocent civilians in New York City (through the Grand Central bombing) and ultimately the recent graduates at the FBI academy (though his plan was foiled in the end) in order to make a statement about the FBI. He used the agents he trained as pawns, especially Alex and Ryan, whom he had vendettas against (Alex for rejecting him and Ryan for refusing to relocate to Washington, D.C. with him). Liam isn’t your typical terrorist for acting alone, but his ideals correlate with the typical terrorist’s mindset.
Through its plot centered around the Grand Central bombing and its intriguing plot twists with different agents believed to be the terrorist, “Quantico” was able to keep fans interested, and the show was renewed for a second season just halfway into season 1. Fans will surely be in for another thrilling season when the show returns next Fall.
