Carrie shifts back to her old ways, but who exactly is she fighting this time?
Warning: Full spoilers below.
Carrie’s past came back to haunt her in this week’s Homeland episode, “The Tradition of Hospitality,” as she finds herself the target of an assassination attempt. The question is, though, just who exactly has it out for our favorite ex-CIA agent and mom?
She certainly has no shortage of enemies, as we saw last week during her meeting with the Hezbollah commander Al-Amin, who — while she was in the middle of asking for a favor — pointed out that she had years earlier killed his son in Beirut, among other comrades of his. This is the Drone Queen we’re talking about here, after all.
The trip to the Lebanese/Syrian border, where Carrie and her group see the refugee crisis firsthand, seemed to go smoothly at first. Well, as smoothly as such things might go, I suppose. Carrie’s boss, Mr. Rich Guy Otto Düring, of course pushes his luck by throwing a VIP party, although it’s the kind of party where gunshots can be heard in the distance. Probably just a wedding? O.K., well maybe not after the next round of shots (and explosions?) rings out…
But Düring can tell: Carrie is comfortable here. This is in part because she had an early career assignment in Beirut (which, again, calls back to Al-Amin’s dead son). But we know, even if Düring doesn’t, that it’s also in part because Carrie thrives in dangerous locales and situations. Yeah, she didn’t have anyone waiting for her back home when she was based in Beirut, but could it also be that she preferred it that way? (Nobody tell Frannie that last part.)
Carrie’s Spidey-sense kicks in when Düring keeps glad-handing the crowd after his press conference, and the sense of dread that builds is effective, as is the pair of near-misses that follow (suicide bomber and land mines). But most impressive is Carrie’s ability to read the situation — she knows that this hit was in place whether Düring went over his hour allotment or not. She stays behind to figure out what’s really going on, because she’s Carrie and, as noted above, she loves this stuff. But man, Claire Danes’ sobbing prayers in the bathroom once her team left certainly drove home how torn she is now between her family and her former life.
Meanwhile, back in Germany, Saul and Berlin Station Chief Allison Carr are dealing with the fallout of the intelligence hack. It’s a clusterf#@k, as Allison refers to it while watching the journalist Laura Sutton on TV. The question of Carrie’s loyalty is raised by Allison too with those photos she shows Saul of Carrie and Laura together. We know it’s nothing, but with Saul and Carrie not exactly on the best of terms these days, you can’t blame him if he’s suspicious.
And you can’t blame Allison for doing an end run around Saul with Dar Adal after Saul hangs her out to dry to take the blame for the hack. But does she have a point when she says if it were Carrie in this situation, Saul would be fighting for her? Probably.
I still can’t care much about the journalist and her sassy shtick, although I do enjoy Astrid and I’m glad that the actress who plays her, Nina Hoss, is back this season (she was Quinn’s ex who helped him out at the end of Season 4). And Astrid does have a point about the damage the leak is doing to German security, though of course Laura does as well. Astrid just makes a better argument.
The Killing Machine That Is Quinn was the most jarring aspect of this episode, however. His murder of his latest target — the woman, Fatima, who was supposedly recruiting young terrorists but it looked like here might actually be helping young girls escape to better lives — was harsh. Am I totally off in thinking that Fatima might’ve been working a different angle than Quinn was led to believe? But that aside, did she say “Peter” right before he shot her? What is going on?!
“I think she’s thinking about stuff. Guess I better think about stuff too.”
And then there’s Quinn’s new assignment. Work that decoding magic, Quinn: “M-a-t-h-i-s-o”… One more time, what is going on?!
Some notes:
- Carrie’s old friend Hank thinks her working with Düring is a “classic Trojan horse” move by her and Saul, and that she’s still with the agency. This calls back to the controversial start of Season 3 when the two faked Carrie’s mental breakdown to get inside an opposing camp. Classic indeed.
- It must be nice to save a billionaire’s life and then have him tell you, “I won’t forget this.”
- Carrie’s nine months sober “tomorrow.” Considering her new predicament, will she stay that way? I hope so. Haven’t we had enough of out of control Carrie at this point?
- I’m glad to see Carrie’s boyfriend has something else to do other than be Carrie’s boyfriend.
- How’s Saul’s wife doing? Just wondering.
The tension is ratcheting up as the season kicks in, with our three leads all separated at the moment and in very different mindsets as well. The questions is, how long will it be until they all find a way to work together again? Is a Quinn versus Carrie situation on the way? And how can I simultaneously love and hate a thing so much?
