Tell Her Everything
Morocco, Manticore Black Site – As the episode opens, Nadia Sinh/Charlotte Vernon (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) and Mason Kane/Kyle Conroy (Richard Madden) visit the Manticore Black Site in Morocco. After she takes out a guard, he asks if they are going to kill a lot of people. She assures him that it isn’t his first time. Moving deeper into the facility, they encounter several Manticore agents which they kill. An alarm is activated as more agents appear. She orders him to cover her while she battles it out with a male agent. After firing his weapon several times, he cowers behind a barrier as shots are being fired at him. Killing the agent and shooter, she decides it best for her to cover him. When they find Citadel agent Carter Spence (Osy Ikhile), he blames his situation on one of them.
10 Years Earlier, Paris – Mason asks Nadia about her past sexual interludes in Paris. Refusing to provide him with names, she denies loving any of them. He claims to be able to see past her masks. She informs him that Grace (Nikki Amuka-Bird) approved of her new Tier-One Operator, Celeste Graham/Brielle/Abby Conroy (Ashleigh Cummings).
Citadel HQ – Nadia introduces Mason and Celeste.
Mission Day: 01 – Mason questions Celeste’s ability to be a Citadel agent. Nadia assures him that she can handle it. He reminds her of Anders Silje/Davik Silje’s (Roland Moller) vicious criminal enterprise. Celeste tells him that she is familiar with them. After saying the enterprise is currently being expanded, he warns the brains of the operation, Anders is more dangerous. Anders who graduated from Cambridge developed war technology that is being sold to the highest bidder. Nadia tells her that Andere calls his latest technology “Oz Key.” Mason says once complete, Anders’s war technology will provide access to the country’s infrastructure. Celeste suggests it is impossible since the server cluster would need to be as big as New Hampshire. Nadia informs him of Celeste’s twin brother, David who is a tech genius like Anders.
Celeste admits to working undercover with Oath Keepers for three weeks. Mason says the first step to being a spy is disappearing.
Mission Day: 03 – Celeste dies her hair before going to Amsterdam in search of Anders. Mason tells her that he hangs out at Ironside Bar, the brothers’ money-laundering front. She introduces herself to Anders as Brielle. Mason suggests focusing on falling in love with Anders, not vice versa.
Mission Day: 19 – Celeste and Anders get intimate. Mason warns against lying while undercover because Anders and Davik will sense it and destroy her. He says her lies must become her truth.
Mission Day: 46 – Celeste’s mission is to collect intel on Oz Key. She plays the guitar while he writes code. He compliments her melody before asking if it is a new song. She asks what he is creating. He admits to creating codes for his technology. She asks what is it. When he says his only desire is her, she assures him that she belongs to him. Mason stresses the importance of remembering the purpose of her mission.
London – Mason and Nadia get intimate.
Mission Day: 132 – Mason hasn’t been able to make contact with Celeste for three months. Nadia stresses it could be a number of things, not a full breach. He informs her of David being a compulsive gambler with a six-figure debt that has forced him into hiding. She assures him that Celeste is doing her job. He tells her of his plan to send in an ops team. Davik catches Celeste switch out the Oz Key. When he confronts her, the tech lab explodes. A physical altercation ends with her knocking him out cold with a toilet tank lid. A Citadel agent informs Mason that the ops team reported an exchange of gunfire and casualties. Anders has been taken captive but Davik escaped. Celeste claims to have been unable to find the Oz Key. Mason receives a confidential message, “She took the case. Don’t say a word about this, ever.”
Grace orders Celeste to be transferred to Interrogation Two. She asks where is Davik and the Oz Key. Mason says they will get on it. Nadia asks to be put in the box. He reminds her of the close connection she shares with Celeste. He asks Celeste what happened to the Oz Key. Nadia warns him to take it easy on her. Carter asks what she did with it. She confronts Nadia on the opposite side of the one-way glass. Mason tells that she failed to check in for the last three months. She accuses him of breaking protocol when he dispatched an ops team before she was ready. She claims to have left Davik in the basement. He goes on a spiel about David protecting her from their abusive father. He suggests selling the Oz Key will cover David’s gambling debt. He threatens to have the Tact Unit kill him if she doesn’t give up the location of the Oz Key when Nadia intervenes.
Nadia warns Davik will come for Celeste. Grace agrees. Carter suggests sending her to a safe house not affiliated with Citadel. After Nadia leaves to interview Anders, Mason tries to convince Grace that Celeste took the Oz Key. Carter asks what should they do. Mason suggests backstopping her. Grace says they can’t erase her memory. He warns it would be dangerous to let her go with the information she has on Citadel. Carter reminds him of the procedure not being proved safe. Grace refuses to approve it. Agreeing to do it off-site without Nadia knowing, Mason says they can give her memory back if she isn’t guilty.
Grace tells Celeste that she is being moved to a safe house. Celeste assures them that Manticore will find her. Mason explains a new procedure that reshapes the cornea and fingertips to change her identity. She agrees to go along with it if she can eventually return to her life. He tells Grace that Nadia can’t find out. When Nadia asks about Celeste, Grace claims they sent her to a safe house. Nadia thanks her for everything.
Mason finds Celeste a home in Oregon. Carter asks what he believes Command will do when they discover his unsanctioned backstop. Mason suggests he would have to flee.
Bernard Orlick (Stanley Tucci) tells Mason that Ana Mejia developed backstop. Mason says Celeste’s memory needs to be erased permanently. Bernard tells him that he must be sure Celeste is a mole. Mason tells him that he is positive. Bernard warns there will be no going back for him. Mason reminds him of what he said about protecting Citadel at all costs. Bernard asks who will protect him. Masson assures him that he will be okay.
Nadia thanks Mason for helping Celeste.
Carter asks Mason if there has been an update on the Oz Key. Mason says no. Carter tells him that he knows Celeste and Davik didn’t take it. He claims to have discovered a cloak order from a Tier-One agent to the chief of ops while scrubbing the server. He says the Tier-One ordered the chief to hide the Oz Key and deliver it to them upon their return. Mason says the Tier-One agent was Nadia. Carter accuses him of backstopping Celeste to protect Nadia. Mason warns him to never call Nadia a mole.
Morocco, Manticore Black Site – Carter blames Nadia as the episode comes to an end.
Citadel Review
With Grace’s approval, Nadia brings in a new Tier-One spy, Celeste who once saved her life. Mason isn’t keen on the idea but fills her in on Silje’s criminal enterprise. She goes undercover to collect data from Anders’ war technology, Oz Key. She and Anders build a tight relationship. It has been three months since she made contact with Mason. He sends in an ops team as she replaces the Oz Key with a fake replica. Davik catches her in the act. They get into a physical confrontation when the ops team blows up the laboratory. Citadel agents bring her back to the headquarters where Mason will interrogate her. Nadia sends him a secret message accusing Celeste of taking the Oz Key and never tell anyone.
Mason convinces Grace to let him backstop Celeste’s memory at an off-site location. She agrees without actually approving the procedure because it hasn’t been deemed safe. He calls in Bernard to perform the backstop. Bernard fails to convince him to change his mind. Celeste undergoes a procedure to change her identity. Mason settles her in Oregon.
Carter discovers Nadia and Mason’s secret. He accuses Mason of backstopping Celeste to protect Nadia. If Celeste was determined to be innocent, Nadia risks getting caught. In the present, Carter is a Manticore captive at a Moroccan black site. Knowing where he is, Nadia takes Mason there.
Probably the best episode of the season but not without flaws. The writing is weak to the point of being unbearable at times. While it is a habit of mine to never actor bash, Nikki Ambuka-Bird’s voice sounds like a loud whisper. Grace is a role with only a few lines so it could easily be overlooked.
The inside informer is beginning to look like Bernard or Nadia. However, it could just as easily be Mason. As one of the most expensive series, Citadel will surely be easily forgotten.
The episode deserves 6. Get more Citadel recaps here. Support Reel Mockery by clicking the link. Our onsite advertising is scalable.
Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.
It’s outrageous that the writers would have us believe that if in this situation, if you were Celeste, that you wouldn’t just explain that you hid the OZ Key in the toilet tank amd that after Davick recovered from being concked out he grabbed it and escaped with it. It’s also kinda dumb that Mason is so convinced that Celeste stole the OZ Key, worth billions, and would sell it just to pay off a gambling debt of a few hundred thousand. Not like they couldn’t just hold her until it was recovered or whatever. But everyone just goes along with his suggestion to erase her memory based in such flimsy evidence. And it’s further outrageous that Nadia would send an email or text or whatever through Citadel servers to the ops chief to snag the Oz Key, hide it under his shirt and give it to her later. I mean how was she even sure the Ops Cheif would find it as opposed to any other squad member and why was there no debrief to piece the chain of events together?
This script is not a good look for Richard Madden at this point. He’s tainting any chance he had at being the next Bond and its not really his fault either. It’s a poorly developed character that looks weak. We’re not even really getting to see him do much very fascinating. Everything good or really cool is reserved for Nadia. It’s much more a show designed to boost Priyanka Chopra.
Yep totally agree on the last point unfortunately. Mason could’ve recovered his own memory since he had the vial. Then, he could’ve actually be an integral, cool part of the show. It’s like they watched the Bodyguard and wanted to make Nadia/Priyanka Chopra so much better in every way possible.
At the very least, they could’ve made them equal. I mean how many shows in the past few months and even years have went down that route? That trope is played to death at this point. Might as well make children the strongest, toughest characters since that would at least be different than what the other 50+ shows are doing. Same old same old.