‘Citadel’ Season 1, Episode 4 Recap/Review

This is a spoiler review for Citadel episode “Tell Her Everything”. For a spoiler review for the last episode, click here.

We pick up exactly where we left off in episode 3 for Citadel, except this episode is solely focused on Nadia (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) and Mason/Kyle Conroy (Richard Madden) as they try to rescue Carter (Osy Ikhile) from Manticore. The episode takes place primarily in the past, though, hitting on a key mission for the two, when Abby Conroy, or Celeste, or Brielle, was introduced to Mason. Her mission, led by Mason, is to get a device from Ander Silje (Roland Møller) that could cause the downfall of every country’s infrastructure. Now, what follows after this is a scene where Mason tries to prepare Celeste for undercover work like she’s never experienced. It’s an intense scene where Madden really shows what he’s capable of.

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The next bit of the episode is a montage that primarily focuses on Celeste/Brielle and Anders falling in love, and then some bits and pieces with Mason and Nadia continuing to build their relationship. Even their love, you might say. When Celeste fails to check in with Mason for three straight months, he sends a team in after her and the device. They find her, as well as Anders, but not Anders’ twin brother Davik. Davik had managed to figure out Brielle was not who she said she was and takes off when he hears the team come in.

While the device and Davik being on the run is where you think the discussions would lead for Mason and Nadia, instead, we see some cryptic messages from both. Nadia was to be expected, but Mason was a little unexpected from where we are at, four episodes in. Though if his conversation with Carter is to say anything, it’s because of his love for Nadia. Just an interesting card to play now with two episodes left, and still so much to explain. Celeste ends up blamed for the loss of the device and ends up the test dummy for the backstop program, which is what creates the Abby Conroy we know now. The episode ends with Carter rescued, and blaming Nadia for being a traitor to Citadel.

This Citadel episode feels the most balanced out of the previous episodes. It’s focused and tells a complete story of how Brielle ended up as Abby. Despite that fact, it also draws more questions to light as we wonder if Mason’s in love, or if the business he talked about in the opening episode was in fact being a traitor to Citadel. That’s not at all what you want to be doing with two episodes left in the season. It’s a little frustrating to wonder where we will end up getting to with so little time left. It’s also frustrating we’re spending more time in the past than the present. Despite the fact that it’s relevant to what’s going on. It makes you wonder if they would have been better served setting the show over the 10-8 year period, and picking up in season 2 with the present.

This is probably the best-looking episode Citadel has had. Good cinematography at work, only a single camera rotation to start the episode, and there are some really fun action scenes. Even one point, where Nadia tells Mason to cover her, and he panics because he runs out of bullets. Probably my favorite part of the episode other than some beats between Chopra Jonas and Madden. The question Citadel is begging us to answer is this: Is a show with a terrible plot watchable if the leads have such awesome chemistry? It’s enough for me to watch through the end of the season, but if there’s not any improvement, I don’t think I’ll go beyond. – Katie Rentschler

Rating: 7.5/10

Citadel premieres new episodes every Friday on Amazon Prime.