‘Citadel’ Episode 4 Recap & Ending, Explained: Did Mason Know Who Had The OZ Key?

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There were many dark secrets in the world of human intelligence that Mason Kane was still unsure about, and what he had heard in “Citadel” Episode 3 came as a shock to him. He had trusted Nadia blindly until now because, more than himself, he believed in the visions he used to get. Nadia was the only person he remembered from his past life, and he had presumed that she would be special. Even his wife, Abby, got a bit jealous when she learned about Nadia for the first time after her memory loss. Mason and Nadia had found out that Carter Spence was still alive and being held at a Manticore hideout in Morocco. They didn’t know that their attempt to rescue their colleague would lead them to another labyrinth. So, let’s look into the detailed recap of “Citadel” Episode 4 to see what we learned about Nadia and Mason’s past lives.

Spoilers Alert


Why Does Mason Not Trust Celeste?

Mason Kane met Celeste Graham, who was currently his wife, 10 years ago in Paris for the first time. Celeste saved Nadia’s life on one of the missions, and since then, they have been the best of friends. Nadia had an immense amount of trust in Celeste, and after she got Tier One clearance and approval from Grace, Nadia took her on board to be a part of their team. Though Nadia trusted Celeste with her life, Mason was not so sure about her. He felt that she wouldn’t be able to take the pressure of such dangerous missions. “Citadel” had gotten their hands on partial schematics of a creation that they believed could bring the entire world to its knees. Andres had created something known as the Oz key that had the potential to hack into the entire infrastructure of a nation, and it was a pretty scary thing to know.

Celeste had done her homework, and she knew that Andres was still in the process of creating it. Because Nadia was so sure of Celeste, Mason came on board, though he still believed that the Silje brothers would find out that she was an undercover agent, and she wouldn’t be able to accomplish the mission. Mason told her to completely revamp her look, so much so that if she looked in the mirror, even she didn’t recognize herself. The Silje brothers were not new in business, and if Celeste was even a bit underconfident, they would realize that she was lying from a mile away. Mason said a very interesting thing to Celeste: unlike what Nadia might have told her, being a good undercover agent doesn’t mean that you should have the knack for lying convincingly. He said that Celeste would not only have to pretend to woo Andres, but she would have to actually fall in love with him and his flaws. Mason told her that a lie can always be detected, but if you brainwash yourself into believing that it is actually your reality, then it becomes a different ball game altogether.

Celeste met Andres and started living with him, and it seemed like she was making progress when the inevitable happened that Mason had feared. Celeste stopped responding, and Carter Spence found out there were some anomalies that he couldn’t explain. Mason had a theory that Celeste might be waiting to sell the Oz key on the black market and use the money to get her twin brother, David, released. David had a gambling problem, and he had been held up by some really influential people who had placed a bounty on his head. Mason knew that people did stupid things for love, and maybe Celeste, too, fell into that category and had decided to betray “Citadel” and save her brother. Mason decided that he was done waiting, as it had been 3 months since Celeste established any contact and would send a team to bring her back.


Did Mason Know Who Had The OZ Key?

The Ops team had found Celeste and caught Andres, but there was no sign of Davik, and even the Oz key was missing. Celeste and the Ops team had conflicting narratives, and Mason didn’t know who to believe. According to Celeste, after she was sent as an undercover agent, she did what she was told and came quite close to Andrés. She hadn’t been able to stay in touch with Mason as the stakes were quite high, and she feared that she would be caught. Celeste had taken the Oz key and was just about to hide it when Davik came, and they both entered into deadly combat. According to Celeste’s testimony, she was able to overpower Davik, and she had tied him in the basement, but when the ops team came, they couldn’t find him, and they came back and told Mason that Davik had escaped from the back. Mason was acting out as he had never done before, and Carter found his behavior to be very surprising, as he was not the kind of man who lost his cool so easily. While the interrogation was going on, in “Citadel” Episode 4, Carter didn’t say anything, but he went to find some evidence that could corroborate his intuition.

Meanwhile, Mason convinced Grace to conduct a backstop on Celeste without telling the high command or even Nadia. Grace and Bernard Orlick, both told him that the decision he was taking could scar his conscience for life, but Mason was adamant that he wanted to go ahead with the procedure. Celeste was falsely told that she had to be relocated and that certain procedures needed to be conducted on her body so Davik wouldn’t be able to locate her. But in reality, she was sent to Mexico City so that the backstop procedure could be conducted on her.

Carter had been an onlooker until then, and when he came to meet Mason at the end of “Citadel” Episode 4, he made certain revelations that changed the entire course of the narrative. Carter had checked the servers and found out that a cloaked order had been given by Nadia to the operation team that had gone to the Silje brothers’ hideout to procure the Oz key. Mason knew that, and probably to save Nadia, he had knowingly framed Celeste and made everybody believe that she was betraying the organization.

After witnessing the events that took place a decade ago, we are once again taken back to the current timeline, where Nadia and Mason find Carter in Morocco, trapped inside the Manticore black site. Though as soon as Carter saw Nadia, he blamed her for the fall of Citadel, we are very sure, keeping in mind the preferred style of execution of the makers, that Nadia would have another story up her sleeve as to why she took the Oz key 10 years ago. Things were already quite convoluted for Mason, and it was getting even more complex with every passing day. Mason didn’t remember anything, and it would come as a shock to him when he realized what Nadia had done back in the day. He already had doubts about her after the meeting he had with Balduino Basto, and Carter’s testimony would make it even more difficult for him to trust the only person he remembered from his past life.


Final words

We believe that when the cast and crew would have read the screenplay of “Citadel,” it must have sounded very promising, and backed by a huge budget and the name of the Russo brothers, everybody would have thought that it would become a roaring success. But somehow, the potential never gets translated to the screen, and even in its fourth episode, “Citadel” ceases to be anything but a pretty bland affair. It brings nothing new to the table and isn’t able to capture your attention. You don’t root for any character because they seem like a dreary bunch of people who are facing one obstacle after another, though that element of threat and thrill never really comes out. The 4th episode did give us some interesting twists and turns, and we hope that in the upcoming episodes, we will be taken by surprise and the narrative will take us to places we didn’t expect.


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Sushrut Gopesh
Sushrut Gopesh
I came to Mumbai to bring characters to life. I like to dwell in the cinematic world and ponder over philosophical thoughts. I believe in the kind of cinema that not necessarily makes you laugh or cry but moves something inside you.

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