Citadel – Season 1 Episode 3 “Infinite Shadows” Recap & Review

Infinite Shadows

Episode 3 of Citadel starts with Bernard being tortured by Dahlia’s people. In Spain, Nadia drives herself and Mason to a Citadel safe house. She disabled the tracker on the Citadel X Case so Davik can’t follow. Mason asks her if he can trust her and she says it’s not the first time he’s asked her that.

While she dresses his bullet wound, she asks to hear about his family. He wants to know more about Mason but she claims she wasn’t close to him. They were together once, but it was brief.

A flashback to Utah 10 years ago says otherwise. Mason reaches the Citadel US headquarters where he hears from Bernard and another Citadel member named Grace that a deadly virus is about to be released by a man named Hasan. He’s residing in the mountains in Iran and since getting out of his missile-equipped fortress will be difficult, a new agent will be helping Mason.

At the fortress, Mason blasts his way out with the package in hand. When he gets surrounded by the enemy, he jumps onto a dead paraglider to land below on the mountain. A ski chase lands him at the bottom of the mountain and he’s surrounded by ATVs, and out one of them comes Nadia. Mason is told she’s the new agent so Nadia activates a bomb and they fight everybody off, although Mason is in a bad way. Despite his injuries, Nadia gets them both out.

Later at Citadel, Nadia introduces herself to Mason. Her mother was a Citadel spy and she herself joined five years ago. Mason claims he didn’t need her help but Nadia thinks otherwise. They come teasingly close to each other and the next scene shows them sleeping together in Paris, two weeks after the event. Afterwards they ask each other if they can be trusted.

Back in the present, Nadia messages someone from a computer. They speak in code, mentioning a package that is waiting for Nadia.

Meanwhile, Bernard and Dahlia chat. We find out that the two of them worked together at the UN. She then threatens him into giving the 19-character password to a Citadel AI that tracks Uranium around the world. When he refuses, she threatens his wife and daughter in Wyoming along with Mason’s wife and daughter.

In Wyoming, Abby tells Joe (Bernard’s ex-wife) how she met Mason (Kyle, to her) at a memory regaining program after she went through an accident.

Dahlia continues to attack Citadel and its hypocritical codes of honour. When Bernard says she’s wrong, she shows him a burn mark on her entire forearm. She then mentions having found a Carter Spence and implies torturing him. She then calls in a doctor who proceeds to torture Bernard by pulling out his teeth and later instructs Anders to continue hurting Bernard. He’s about to drill right into Bernard’s brain when Bernard says that Brielle, the woman Anders loved, is still alive.

Mason speaks to Abby and tells her about meeting Nadia. Once he’s done, Nadia tells Mason to go home and protect his family; he’s of no use to her. He insists on staying but when he mentions flashing lights in a sea of red, she asks him what he’s talking about. He shows her the lights on the Citadel case and claims that the lights are calls for help.

They see video messages from Carter Spence before Manticore closed in on him. The last one was from a place named Fez. Nadia figures Carter must be kept at a black site by a Portuguese crime boss called Balduino Basto, she was once tortured there herself. if they get to Balduino they can save Carter. And how convenient for them that Mason Kane used to be tight with said crime boss.

Mason gets ready to transform into his old self. He approaches Balduino with Nadia directing him from afar. He plays around with a lighter that has a transmitter in it, hacking into Balduino’s phone as they chat. All he needs is time, so he stalls by asking Balduino to help with a mission. Balduino asks about his ‘girlfriend’ Nadia, and claims she’s the one who sold out Citadel.

Mason gets rattled but the upload is complete and Nadia tells him to leave. Before things get messy, Mason grabs a gun and threatens Balduino’s son so he can leave unscathed.

In the car, he asks Nadia to explain what happened. She claims she wouldn’t be doing all of this if she was the mole. He asks her why she didn’t tell him about her and Mason being a thing, but she claims that was between her and the old Mason.

Meanwhile, Anders gets Bernard his phone and he pulls up a photo of Mason and his family. He tells Anders that the woman in the photo is Brielle, although she now goes by Abby. Bernard says that everything he knows is a lie, as the episode comes to a close.

The Episode Review

Infinite Shadows is an apt title for this episode considering all the twists and turns that were involved. That said, Citadel continues in the vein of a standard, but enjoyable, spy thriller. The gadgets and technology make everything too convenient for them and the twists and turns aren’t as unexpected as they make it out to be. Of course, Nadia’s suspected of betraying Citadel. Of course, Abby isn’t just regular old Abby; the latter was a plot point I saw coming miles away.

The focus on plot is taking away from character. At the moment, a lot of these people feel like stereotypical molds of spies rather than fleshed out human beings. Nadia and Mason’s romance, how much ever chemistry they may have, feels like it was shown to us on fast forward. Spark fly just way too quickly here.

Additionally, there were several shots where the camera was swiveling over 180 degrees. It was probably meant to come across as suave and stylish but felt awkward and misplaced.

That’s not to say the show is bad. At 40-minutes, the episodes are crisp and tightly edited. So, the story, though average, moves rapidly and keeps you watching. Despite all the criticisms, you do want to know what happens. You want to watch these polished actors brave impossible situations. And with great actors like Chopra and particularly Tucci lighting up the screen, it makes for a pleasing watch.