Quantico Boss on That Terrorist Reveal and Our First Blast From the Past

[WARNING: The following story contains spoilers about Sunday's episode of Quantico. Read at your own risk.]

When you dress like a terrorist, you have to kill like one too.

Alex (Priyanka Chopra) going undercover as a terrorist in the future timeline on Sunday's Quantico doesn't go as planned, thanks to Ryan (Jake McLaughlin) starting a faux fight with Harry (Russell Tovey) to unmask one of the terrorists holding them hostage. And of course, of all the terrorists in all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, the one he gets his hands on is Alex, who mutters his name to stop exposing her.

Too late. Alex is taken at gunpoint to some dingy stairwell hallway, where she unmasks one of the terrorists, and it's... Angie (Candi Boyd)! You know, that Farm instructor who inquired about Alex's CIA bank account in Episode 2. They brawl and Alex ends up poisoning her. RIP.
Quantico postmortem: Is Alex being betrayed again?

Is, er, was Angie the mastermind of the rogue CIA faction (or AIC, as Alex and Ryan have dubbed it)? Highly unlikely. She's just a minor casualty in the grand scheme of things. And remember, we still haven't seen Owen (Blair Underwood) in the future yet.

Speaking of Owen, he was apparently forced out of the field under less-than-ideal circumstances back in the day and then forced Lydia (Tracy Ifeachor) to be transferred to The Farm so he could spend more time with his daughter. Sure, dude.

So what's Angie's role in all this? Is Owen Father of the Year? Can Miranda (Aunjanue Ellis) stop everyone from reading Shelby's (Johanna Braddy) report on the AIC? Who is the new girl Leigh Davis (Helene York)? And what will come of Harry meeting up with a recovered Will (Jay Armstrong Johnson)? Creator Josh Safran tells us below.

Let's start with Angie. What is her deal? Or what was her deal?
Josh Safran: I know, poor Angie. RIP. You will find out soon what her deal is, but clearly she works at The Farm in the past and in the future, she is a terrorist. Is she part of the AIC? Or something else? Candi and Priyanka both kicked ass in that sequence. They shot that for several hours. They just really went it, so very well choreographed by our stunt coordinator.

Are we going to see more of Angie in the past now?
Safran: I will say she is a presence in the past. It's not a lot more, but she's not gone from the story. She's definitely in the story.

Was she actually going to kill Alex? It's interesting it was 1-on-1, not a 2-on-1 on Alex.
Safran: Right. I can't say. Oh, my gosh! That's a really good question. I wish I could answer it, but I can't.

What is Alex's plan now? She sent the terrorists a literal message, dropping a body through the roof with the "2 down" note. Where is she off to?
Safran: She is going to be a total thorn in their side, trying to stop the terrorists and trying to figure out what their game plan is. In the very next episode, a big battle ensues. ... She's going to try to tell Miranda [about Angie].

Where did the terrorists take Ryan?
Safran: You will not find the answer to that for a little bit. Poor Ryan. [Laughs] I just thought Jake needed a couple days off. No, I'm kidding.

Is everyone in the FBI going to get a copy of Shelby's report on the AIC?
Safran: Yes. It will be distributed. Our joke in the writers' room is it's like a Looney Tunes cartoon. Miranda's like Wile E. Coyote and Shelby's the Road Runner, and the Road Runner has definitely won this round.

Miranda gave that IT guy a look when she handed him Shelby's flash drive. Does she want him to do anything else after that system crash?
Safran: Right now, no. Miranda asked for a favor and she thought the favor had worked out in her favor, and it did not. She was thwarted. She will try again! ... It is too late to stop [Shelby's report from being distributed]. She's told too many people about it and it's out in the world, but [Miranda] might try some other avenues.

What is everyone going to glean from Shelby's report? Is the FBI going to take action now? Is Paul back?
Safran: Paul is back. I think the very fact that the world didn't believe this group existed, and now because of this report, they might start to believe this is real thing.

I like how optimistically naïve Shelby is. It's still a little bit of the same from last season. Does Shelby suspect anything about Miranda at all?
Safran: No, but maybe very soon. We talk about that all the time about Shelby. She's only been an agent in our show's time for two years. Some of that time she wasn't even an agent because she left after that whole Voice debacle last season. She's still relatively new, so she still has that -- I wouldn't say naivete, but hopefulness in situations that things will work themselves out.

In the past timeline, she clearly felt bad having to call Alex out for falling for sob stories from hot guys. Is Alex going to reassess -- no pun intended -- her abilities? Is that a light bulb moment for her?
Safran: Yes, it's the beginning of the arc of Alex wondering if she's as good at this job as she needs to be.

Is the cartel prison story Leon (Aaron Diaz) told Alex true?
Safran: [Laughs] You're obviously an avid watcher of this show. I can't say! It's not not true. That's the best way I can put it. ... He was definitely in prison. ... You could say he knows how to play on [Alex's] sensibilities too.

Who did Lydia call to tell them she's in after she confronted Owen?
Safran: You will find out in the next episode. It is not Lucas (Todd Litzinger). Well, maybe Lucas. I don't want to say for sure, but I will say Lucas is not a major character on the show. He's a colleague when she was an active agent.

What is Lucas and Owen's history? They both said that line about "losing the forest while in the weeds" and Lydia figured out it was Owen who had her pulled from the field.
Safran: Yes. You look for recognizable language patterns and clearly Owen had talked to Lucas about it. She was able to make the connection they knew each other. ... Owen basically just called up Lucas, like, "I was your instructor at the Farm. I would like to spend more time with my daughter." And he made it happen.

Did Lucas play a part in Owen getting benched in 2002?
Safran: That I can't say.

What can you say about why he was benched? Is it a Valerie Plame situation?
Safran: It's an ongoing situation for him. This is based on fact. It happens a lot. We talked to our consultants about this, in terms of what does it mean if an operative's name gets out there, a la Valerie Plame? If you were active and on missions and harm came to people, what would that mean for you? ... I would say it's a mystery for Owen, but it's more of a character study for the audience and less of a mystery. It's a mystery because we're watching and we don't know, but it really speaks more to Owen and the dynamic with his daughter.

Quantico postmortem: Boss on Alex's "Die Hard situation" and the new conspiracy

Does he genuinely just want to spend more time with Lydia or did he want her transferred because he didn't want her to eclipse him as a better CIA operative in the field?
Safran: That's the thing about family and tortured relationships within them. You never for sure. Lydia firmly believes it's the latter and Owen believes it's the former, even though inside he probably is a little jealous of her and her ability to be the operative he wasn't allowed to be. It's fraught. They cannot see from each other's perspectives.

Has someone really already bugged The Farm? What's Miranda's backup plan now for Alex and Ryan?
Safran: I can't say. But you're going to find out very soon. ... In the first 60 seconds of the next episode, you will know [Miranda's backup plan].

Can they really not think of a better nickname than CIA backwards?
Safran: [Laughs] The running joke was we kept calling it "rogue faction," "the insurgents," whatever. Finally, one day, our writer Jordon Nardino was like, "It's the AIC!" We're like, "What are you talking about?" Jordon knows a lot of people in government. He went to Georgetown and is our spymaster as it were. And he was like, "You would make up a nickname. You need to be able to talk in inter-office memos and public places." He said AIC as a joke and I was the No. 1 person being like, "No way, no way." But after like three weeks, everybody was using it because you're pitching in the room and you need shorthand. We decided to put in [the script] the actual dialogue that transpired between us in the writers' room. Shelby being like, "Really? That's the nickname?" Moving forward, some people use it and some people do not. Miranda would never use AIC.

What else can you say about Leigh besides her being a wedding planner from Pacific Palisades?
Safran: Helene is great. Leigh is our Private Benjamin or Elle Woods. That was a character we actually wanted to introduce in Season 1 and just couldn't find the space for it. When we were breaking the [Season 2] premiere, we knew there were too many characters, but we were told that people cycle through the CIA, so we decided to hold her intro for this episode. We're happy to have her. She's a breath of fresh air. The CIA, again, unlike the FBI -- if you have a skill that they think can help them, they will recruit you. If they needed someone to go undercover in the Olympics, they would recruit a figure skater. The idea of an event planner who knows their way around dignitaries, celebrities -- she has a skill that they need.

What are the five Kardashian weddings she planned?
Safran: She did them all! Somebody got married three times, so she did those. [Laughs]

I like her and Harry's rapport.
Safran: Yes, and also, I cannot separate Helene and Russell for the life of me. I would like to because sometimes they're just off in the corner laughing all the time, and we're ready to go. They don't cause any delays, but they're definite besties on the set. Whenever they're around each other it's hilarious. You'll see more of them together.

What is Harry up to with Will? Is he going to locate everyone from Quantico last year?
Safran: You'll see soon, but it is very nice to have Jay back. You will see more of Will. It's a very welcome return. Hopefully he's the first of many characters returning to our show. ... There's definitely more to Harry than meets the eye. It's not a story that we're holding.

How many other disguises does Harry have up his sleeve?
Safran: He goes with whatever's appropriate for the moment. He knows Will enough to know that looking bookish is better than looking like the Kingsman. Harry is a man of many talents.

Quantico airs Sundays at 10/9c on ABC.