Diksha Sundriyal
In its third episode, Prime Video’s ‘Citadel’ builds the expansive world of the secret organization that comes tumbling down after a betrayal from one of its own. The first two episodes set the stage for the conflict that is to define the plot of the rest of the season. It sets expectations, giving the audience to theorize what might have happened to Citadel and its agents, developing their notions about what may or may not happen down the line. However, by the end of the third episode, many of those theories are challenged, and the viewer is forced to reconsider everything they thought they knew about the story. Here’s all that happens in this episode, titled ‘Infinite Shadows.’ SPOILERS AHEAD
Citadel Episode 3 Recap
Mason and Nadia arrive at a safe house to plan their next steps. A flashback reveals the mission in which they first met, which led them to fall in love and get married. In the present, Nadia knows that without his memories, Kyle will never become Mason and will be useless to her. She tries to send him back home, but when he mentions the case, she realizes that it might help them figure out the location of other agents. They succeed in locating Carter Spence in Morocco. He is being held in a Manticore torture facility, so they decide to break him out of there.
Meanwhile, Bernard is tortured by Dahlia Archer and her men. We discover this is not the first time they’ve met each other. They used to work together at the UN until they went their separate ways. Dahlia also reveals that she has turned Manticore agents, one of whom was recently tortured. She names Carter Spence but doesn’t reveal whether he is still alive or dead, and if alive, whether he is still loyal to Citadel or not.
Citadel Episode 3 Ending: Who is Brielle?
When Mason lost his memories and became Kyle, everyone presumed he was dead. Citadel was gone, and Manticore thought all its agents had died with it. The cover of an everyday life saved Mason from a dark fate, giving him a chance to love, live, and have a family. However, when Bernard found Mason, he knew things weren’t as simple as they looked. It isn’t until he is held captive by Dahlia Archer and tortured for information that Bernard uses the information at hand.
Dahlia tells Silje to use the new torture tool to extract memories from Bernard’s head. Before Silje can do that, Bernard makes him an offer. He asks to be let go in exchange for revealing the information about Silje’s girlfriend, Brielle. Silje previously believed that Brielle had died, and Citadel had something to do with it. At least, that’s what he was told. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why he is so hell-bent on destroying the remaining pieces of Citadel.
Bernard tells him that he knows exactly where Brielle is, and as proof, he shows Silje a picture. In it, we see Mason, his wife, Abbie, and their daughter, Hendrix. It turns out that the woman Kyle is married to has a past similar to his own. She, too, was a Citadel agent and lost her memories eight years ago when Bernard initiated the backstop, which removed the memories of all the agents.
Back at the safe house, Bernard’s ex-wife, Joe, asks Abbie how she met Kyle. Abbie reveals that she had been in a car accident which claimed her memories. She was in therapy when she met Kyle, who was going through the same thing. They bonded over it and eventually fell in love and got married. Considering that Joe knows a lot about Citadel, and we assume that she was an agent, too, it is possible that Joe already knows Abbie, and she is wary of what she may or may not remember.
Because they are all spies and are trained to lie, it is tricky to trust a character. So, when Abbie says she lost her memories and doesn’t remember her past, we can’t be sure if she’s telling the truth or if she knows exactly who she and Mason are and has been working as a sleeper agent all these years and waiting for her instructions. The following episodes will shed more light on her past and her real connection with Mason, Citadel, and Manticore, but for now, it’s better to be cautious of everything that Abbie says and does.
Did Nadia Betray Citadel?
When Citadel fell, it was clear that someone had worked against it from the inside, someone high enough in the hierarchy to bring the whole thing down. Having lost his memories, Mason doesn’t remember anything about his past, which means that even if he had suspicions about someone, he wouldn’t remember them. This is why it is a shock when a target tells him that Nadia was the one who brought down Citadel.
When he asks her about it, Nadia says the man lied because he knew about her and Mason’s past and was simply trying to get under his skin. If she were a Manticore agent, she wouldn’t have been helping Mason save another agent and getting to the bottom of the truth. Her arguments make sense, but this doesn’t erase the fact that she is hiding something from Mason. In one scene, she makes contact with someone but doesn’t tell Mason about it. In the previous episode, we get a glimpse of her memory, in which she mentions something that should never be revealed to Mason.
It could be that Nadia betrayed Citadel, but she did so unknowingly and didn’t anticipate the consequences. Perhaps she is trying to make up for it now, which is why she is helping Mason. However, there is also the possibility that she is right. That she didn’t betray the agency, and the lies are being circulated about her to take away the attention from the real culprit, whose identity still remains a mystery in the show.
Read More: How Did Nadia and Mason Lose Their Memories in Citadel, Explained
