‘Citadel’ Season 1, Episode 4 Spoiler Recap, Review: “Fun & Surprising Ride”

This review may contain some spoilers for Amazon Prime Video’s Citadel series, specifically for season one’s first four episodes.

Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas are back in Season 1, Episode 4 of Amazon Prime Video’s Citadel series, also starring Stanley Tucci, Ashleigh Cummings, Osy Ikhile, Nikki Amuka-Bird, and Roland Møller, with Roland Møller – he stars as two characters for those reading who may have believed that to be a typo, as twin brothers to be exact.

As mentioned, this is the fourth episode of the series so far, with the previous three episodes being full of twists, turns, and reveals that actually surprise you, all while providing almost zero answers as to what’s going on, which is to be expected with the two Russo brothers producing a spy story.

This isn’t the first time that Joe and Anthony Russo have dealt with some spy work in their career, with titles such as Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the various episodes of Arrested Development they directed, and yes, the latter has nothing to do with actual spy espionage, but the characters are easy as comparable when it comes to lying and keeping secrets from one another!

Citadel Season 1, Episode 4 – Quick Recap

To quickly recap the episode, it all begins with Madden’s Mason and Chopra’s Nadia heading into an evil Manticore (Citadel’s nemesis) prison of sorts located in Morroco so that they can rescue their fellow Citadel spy Carter, played by Osy Ikhile (In the Heart of the Sea), however, things take a turn when they reunite with him, as he doesn’t seem too pleased upon realising who his rescuers are.

The episode then cuts into a flashback, set back when Mason and Nadia were working together during the good old days of the Citadel, prior to its downfall as seen in episode 1, which leads into the re-introduction of Ashleigh Cummings’ Abby Conroy, who we saw as Mason’s wife in the previous episodes, and who was also revealed to be the ex-lover of Roland Møller’s character, one of Manticore’s top goons, a reveal that was truly a surprise twist.

However, it is quickly revealed that Abby was originally a spy for Citadel, who was sent to fabricate a loving relationship with Møller’s character, to then gain his trust and obtain intel as to what Manticore was getting up to, also to find an important key, but more on that later.

During Abby’s fake spy relationship, which seems to last for quite a while, Madden becomes suspicious of her inactivity and quickly throws her to the dogs in worry that she may have gone rogue to work against Citadel, with Mason almost instantly suggesting that they test their new memory-wiping technology on her, to prevent her from spilling Citadel secrets for some extra pocket money.

However, one of the biggest twists and spoilers is that Mason was quite literally using Abby as a scapegoat for none other than Nadia, which is a bit surprising during the actual moment, as it all seems to allude to Mason being the culprit and culprit of what you ask? Well, Nadia is revealed to have done some naughty spy stuff with the key that the whole of Citadel is looking for, but the short explanation is that Nadia might have been a mole in the past, and may have played a vital part in Citadel’s downfall.

This is all revealed by Carter himself, who confronts Mason about it, accusing him of using Abby to protect Nadia, despite the fact that she may be a literal villain to Manticore, or something along those lines anyway, it’s a little unclear as to what Mason was planning.

After this twisty reveal, the episode then jumps back to the present date and time, putting viewers back into the Manticore prison in Morroco, where Carter quickly reveals that it wasn’t Mason AND Nadia he wasn’t happy to see, it was just Nadia, which he literally says on screen just to make clear.

Review: “Fun & Surprising”

The episode starts with one of the best action scenes yet in the whole series, at least in the sense of fighting choreography, a good solid few minutes of fast-paced gun and hand-to-hand combat, mostly between Chopra’s character and about a dozen or so Manticore goons. Sometimes long non-dialogue action scenes such as this can be a hard miss, but watching Chopra literally kick a knife in the air into a bad guy’s throat is probably going to be a highlight for most action fans watching the first season of Citadel, only one word describes the whole scene – AWESOME!!!

The chemistry between Chopra and Madden in this episode is a bit dry, however, it seems to work with the tone of the story being told, and the story being told is brilliant, it may become tedious not having a clue as to what’s going on, but this is a tale about some extremely complex spy espionage, so to be in the dark should be expected for a show such as this one.

Ashleigh Cummings’ Abby gets most of the spotlight in this episode, and she has some pretty solid moments as she successfully carries the majority of the episode. Abby’s storyline is sold perfectly by Cummings’ performance, and as for the story itself, her character may be one of the most interesting characters seen so far in the whole series, maybe besides Chopra’s Nadia simply due to the level of secrecy surrounding her mysterious past life.

Wrapping this up, Citadel‘s fourth episode of the first season starts fast and then slows down for a bit, and is definitely more of a filler episode, which is needed in a story like this, the brilliantly crafted twists and turns will keep you watching until the end for sure. You will be left at the end with an intense craving for the next episode, even more than how the previous three episode’s endings make you feel.

Season 1, episode 4 of Citadel is a fun and surprising ride that will leave you not only wanting to find out what’s next but craving it, as despite the number of twists, there’s still much more to be revealed.

4 out of 5 Stars.

Citadel Season 1, Episode 4 is now available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.