'Quantico' Recap: So That's What Caleb's Been Up To (Or Is It?)

SPOILER ALERT: The recap for the “Soon" episode of Quantico contains storyline and character spoilers.

In which we learn where Caleb is in the future/present, but we continue to get a headache trying to keep track of who’s who in Raina and Nimah’s Parent Trap-ing.

Here, 18 things we learned in the “Soon” episode of Quantico:

1. Since her shocking meeting with Shelby at the end of last week’s episode, Alex has been frantically trying to get in touch with her former friend, leaving her voicemails, and tracking down info on the SUV Shelby was driving. Turns out it was rented by a Mr. Mark Raymond.

2. Nimah and Ryan are working together to spy on Alex, because they think she’s crazy obsessed with conspiracy theories… and because they’re both angry with her. Ryan because Hannah lost her position with the Bureau, and Nimah because Alex used her name to get access to the safehouse where Will was being held. Whatever is motivating him most — like, say, his lingering feelings for Alex — Ryan calls Claire Haas and warns her that Alex is poking around for answers.

3. At Quantico, the NATS are being given comprehensive medical screenings, because as Liam tells them (with a perfectly straight face), “Never forget, you are our greatest weapons against America’s enemies.”

4. Shelby is in a rare giddy mood, because she just got a letter from her parents. Which was almost certainly actually written by Caleb.

5. Miranda is called into a meeting with the Office of Professional Responsibility, where she’s told she’s been found guilty of professional misconduct and abuse of authority. She’s out at Quantico and will be reassigned to a local field office, and she does not take the news well. She knows she made some boo-boos, but she thinks the punishment meted out to her is a result of a little thing called a vagina… you know, the fact that she has one… She thinks the OPR is sexist, okay?

6. Clayton Haas is at Quantico to spring a surprise on the NATS: there’s some really cool stuff he wants to tell them about, but he can’t, because they don’t have security clearance. Yet. He has Ryan pass out some booklet-length forms — the SF86 — which asks them tons of questions about their personal ideologies, drug and alcohol use, their sex lives, their financial inf … they’re told to be “painstakingly honest” on all fronts, because sex, money, and drugs are usually the areas where “good agents go bad.”

7. Raina is out of the FBI and living back home with her parents in Dearborn, Michigan. But she gets a call from the increasingly desperate Alex, who wants her to fly to New York and Parent Trap her sister without Nimah knowing so Raina can obtain access to Nimah’s security clearance to get info Alex needs. Raina makes the trip, and briefly fools Ryan with the switcheroo, but he busts her just as she’s about to get some scoop. Still she has just enough time to text Alex and warn her that Ryan’s onto them.

8. The NATS pair up to help each other fill out those long SF86 books, but not all of them pass the clearance test. Alex and Caleb are good, but Drew, Shelby, and Iris are not. Then, twist! Those who passed have to investigate those who didn’t.

9. While Miranda is packing up her desk at Quantico, Liam comes in. He tells her he did not vote in favor of her dismissal from Quantico, and she gets her flirt on and asks him to go for drinks later. Liam, who has never turned down any invitation that might end in sex, accepts.

10. When Alex flees the FBI offices after Ryan catches Raina, she walks around the snowy streets of NYC. An SUV pulls up beside her, and Claire Haas is inside. Ryan told Claire Alex is still investigating the terrorist attacks, and Claire tells Alex to get in the car; they’re going for a ride. Along the way, Alex tells Claire she wants to find Caleb, or Mark Raymond, who was renting several safety deposit boxes in the bank where Clayton Haas was killed, and who rented the SUV Shelby was driving, the SUV that drove away with Will and Simon last week. Claire’s shocked (shocked!): “You think [Cale]) is a terrorist?!” Claire tells Alex she’s wrong, but Alex wants to know she’s taking time from her busy schedule to talk to her. Claire says it’s because conspiracy theorists like Alex can do a lot of harm — so she plans to prove Alex wrong. “And when I do,” the Senator warns, “you’re going to be dreadfully sorry.”

11. In the Quantico flashback, the NATS who were denied security clearance are huddled together and freaking out. Iris tries to stir the pot with Shelby by telling her she doesn’t know what Caleb wrote down on her application when he was helping her fill it out … but he must have done something to make her fail. Shelby, of course, falls for Iris’s mean girl manipulation and goes straight to Liam and tells him she thinks Caleb might still be involved with a cult (another little tidbit fed to her by Iris).

12. Claire and Alex arrive at their destination: Claire’s home in Georgetown. She takes Alex to a room with a locked door, which she opens to reveal… Caleb! He’s in the room doing drugs, because it’s the only way he can deal with the fact that his dad sacrificed his own life to save Caleb’s, he says. Mama Claire buys him drugs, saying she’s trying to wean him off them, until she can send him to a proper rehab… but not until after the election. Alex points out to Claire that it’s incredibly selfish of her to lock her son in a room and supply him with drugs so she can protect her rep until after the election — but then Alex tells Caleb she needs him to help her find Shelby. So yeah, different motivations, but both women want something from Caleb, who seems committed to nothing more than self-destruction; he tells Alex he won’t help her find Shelby, Simon, or Will.

13. Liam and Miranda meet up for those drinks, and after he assures her he didn’t vote to have her dismissed, he adds that he should have chosen to be with her years ago. Miranda gets up to go to the bathroom, and invites Liam to go with her. Afterwards… their pillow talk — which is more like bathroom counter talk — includes him admitting he had sex with Alex, but just once. Guess who recorded that little confession on her cell phone, while pretending to order an Uber for Liam? Yup, and Miranda takes it right to Clayton Haas, telling him she’s not the only one who makes mistakes with the trainees, but she’s the only one who seems to be paying for them; she demands Liam be fired. Clayton basically blows her off, telling her she played a good hand, but should now just walk away gracefully. She asks him if Liam is blackmailing him, because Mr. O’Connor sure does seem to get away with a lot of shenanigans. Miranda’s so frustrated and disgusted with the menfolk that she visits Alex in her Quantico dorm and tells her she needs to be willing to play dirty if she wants to shatter the glass ceiling, which Miranda is sure Alex is capable of doing.

14. Oh, Iris. Is her sole purpose at the Academy to slink around looking at Caleb lustfully and stirring up trouble anywhere, anytime she can? Yup. And now she’s really gone and done it; ticked off that Caleb’s security clearance wasn’t flagged — what with his whole cult past and all — while hers was, she calls the Sistemics office and tells whoever answers that she thinks one of their new members is lying to them: he’s not a true believer, he’s undercover FBI. But, twist! The new member she’s referring to isn’t Caleb or Mark Raymond, but her own BFF Will. When Caleb hears what she’s done, he tells her she just endangered the life of Will, who’s on his way right now to meet with the Sistemics baddies. Caleb takes off for the cult’s Bethesda headquarters, and the Sistemics honcho and his henchmen are waiting upon his arrival. They take him out to a back alley with Will, and tell him to prove his claims that he is a loyal member by beating Will, first with his fists, then with a weapon. Shelby — who found out from Liam that Caleb had not put anything suspicious on her application and that her security clearance had been granted — shows up at the Sistemics HQ and interrupts the beating, as the cult dudes grab Caleb and run inside, while Shelby runs over to help a very bloodied Will.

15. Good news: Drew dumps Alex. He says it’s because he realizes she still has feelings for Ryan, but we believe it’s really because, like the rest of us, he realizes the two of them are as exciting as a Miracle Whip sandwich. On store-brand white bread.

16. Bad news for Drew: his hands have started shaking involuntarily. Fallout from his football days?

17. Nimah and Raina, in the Quantico training timeline, decide it’s too tough to continue to impersonate each other, so they’ll create a third character — a “sinful, weak” woman — they’ll pretend to be so they’ll be recruited by the Islamic front.

18. With the truth (allegedly) about Caleb exposed to Alex, Claire prepares to leave her house, as Alex throws a few more insults her way about how she’s sacrificing her only child for her political ambitions. Outside in the cold, snowy weather, Alex tries to reach Raina on her cell, when Caleb comes around the corner. He doesn’t seem high, or even upset, like he did in the house, but he tells Alex “they” don’t know he’s gone, so the two of them need to hurry. He tells her to be on the lookout for his mom’s people while he goes around the corner to retrieve a bag he threw out the window. She does, and he does, but when he gets out of Alex’s earshot, he picks up his phone and tells the person on the other end that “she fell for it,” and that he’ll see him or her soon. Who’s on the other end? Is it Shelby? And which “she” fell for it? His mom? Alex? Who’s he scamming — or maybe the simpler question is, who isn’t Caleb scamming right now?

Quantico airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on ABC