“Homeland” is speeding up with the fifth season’s second episode, “The Tradition of Hospitality,” which I found more compelling than last week’s premiere and sets the tone for the episodes to come. The set-up ultimately paid off with the three distinct storylines, developing this week, in a captivating episode on all counts. On one side, there is Carrie and the Düring Foundation, on another there is Saul with the CIA and the German Government and then, there is Quinn, hitman, without backup or allegiances. One thing spectacular about this week’s episode is that all three of these storylines managed to peak my interest, something quite rare in today’s television industry, where one storyline always seems to be dragging down the others. Each of these three storylines brings something to the show whether it mystery, tension or realism… All things that make the hit series what it is.
Last week, I thought the focus on the German Privacy Laws and their by-pass to let the CIA spy on the population was going to be a bore-fest, but I was pleasantly surprised this week, as the storyline captured my complete attention. This storyline ushered the new characters to be developed more, properly introduced, as we got to know them, their motives, their agendas, and the show got us to feel a certain allegiance to them.
The release of the confidential document puts Laura, the American journalist relocated to Germany, in the spotlight, and she handles it beautifully. I was on the fence about the introduction of so many new characters this season and I’m startled as to how fast I’m starting to feel an attachment to the witty journalist. She’s entertaining, and bold, a strong women who believes in her convictions and what she thinks is the greater good. She reminds me a little bit of Carrie, but without the experience, the background and knowledge, a more naïve version of her, but equally hard-headed.
We also got to see more of the “Douchebag” hacker, a tiny glimpse of what he’s made of, and I’m enjoying the character too, from what we’ve been showed. Hopefully, he gets a bigger role to play in the upcoming episodes. I find myself rooting for them, the journalist and hacker duo, for them and their ideals, against the CIA and by the same call, against Saul. Am I the only one?
The hacker, who understood the journalist’s message to get the rest of the documents, walks up to the TV station with a bag filled with classified documents, just as Sutton gets arrested and brought into what looks like the German Government’s Bunker to be detained and questioned. They tried to turn her, tried to make her back down, and we get an explanation as to why they feel the need to spy on their citizens. It’s about the terrorist, it’s always about the terrorists, and their lack of resources to keep them under constant surveillance, but Laura calls Astrid out on it. I still can’t believe it took me two full episodes to make the link between this season and the last and to remember the German Official as Quinn’s ex-German-lover. I wonder if it will come up at one point. She too, is an awesome addition to the “Homeland” cast. Her, “I heard you. You have a really loud voice,” was simply great, perfectly delivered.
I’m enjoying the flow of fresh flesh, but the lawyer boyfriend, I just don’t like. He’s just plain and bland; he acts and talks like a freakin robot. He doesn’t bring anything to the show except show Carrie seems to have moved on from Brody (but clearly has a thing for red-heads), and is able to have what looks like a healthy relationship. Yet again, she shares no chemistry with him, it just feel like she’s with him as to not be alone. What are the chances he’s actually a spy? Maybe I’m paranoid, and seeing conspiracy theories everywhere.
In line with the two other ballsy women, is Allison Carr, the Berlin Station Chief. The show has, since the beginning of the season, made a slight shift in their proportion of male and female characters, in a show that was for the first 4 seasons predominantly masculine. The Berlin Station Chief is the head the CIA has chosen to publically put on a stake after the scandal breaks. Saul, with orders from his higher ups in the CIA, gives her 24 hours to leave the country, but the woman is not leaving without a fight. When Saul, doesn’t help her, not in the same capacity he would if she was Carrie, she goes behind his back to Dal. What will the repercussions of this phone call be?
I can’t say I disagree with her assessment of how Saul would have reacted if it was Carrie’s head instead of Allison’s. This thought was my initial perception on the subject, before finishing the episode, now going back, knowing how the episode ends, I’m not so sure… What do you guys think?
Something I’ve always loved about “Homeland” is the location, the settings and decors. This episode definitely did not disappoint, with the refugee UN Camp. In last week’s episode, Carrie was promised safe passage, and “The Tradition of Hospitality” showcased her and her boss’s tension filled visit to the refugee camp at the border of Syria and Lebanon and with that the fictional series manages to tie in to one of the biggest international news stories of the moment. If Syrian Refugee camps are old news in the show, they sure as hell aren’t in the real world. The leader of the over-run camp, after a hefty monetary incentive, gives the billionaire one hour of protection.
Carrie and the other security guard, both on high alert, spot a bomber heading towards them as their time is up, and Otto doesn’t want to leave. He sounded like a 4 year old that doesn’t want to go to bed and keeps asking for 5 more minutes, but maybe that’s just me. They catch onto the terrorist, and his overly suspicious behavior, which made things even more suspicious. They manage to take out the patsy, the man meant to get them at the exit in time for the real explosion. But Carrie’s still fucking good at her job, senses something is wrong and stops the truck just in time. The scene was beautifully acted, and edited in a fast paced scene filled with urgency, packed with emotion. Action sequences really is what this show does best.
When Carrie stays behind to figure out who’s behind the carefully planned attack on the billionaire’s life, she gets more than she bargains for. There is honor among terrorists, who failed to protect her when she was in the camp, and they bring her the news that no one is after Otto During, but someone is after her. This will considerably raise the stakes for the upcoming episodes, as Carrie will try to figure out who is after her.
Beirut was her oversees posting. Is that when she made her enemies? Will we get a glimpse of a younger Carrie and her big Syrian Adventure? Or did she make enemies, more recently, when she was the Islamabad Station Chief and was dubbed the Drone Queen?
Quinn had a less fire-y mission in this week’s episode but that doesn’t make him any less of a badass. He said about 3 sentences throughout the whole episode, but we could still feel everything he was portraying. That’s another kind of acting. His target, the woman Saul had placed in the envelope of their communal mailbox, recruits teenagers, convinces them to die as martyrs in the name of Allah. This episode was essentially his hunt. Can anyone confirm the woman said “Peter?” right before he shot her? What’s up with that?
The end of the episode was totally unexpected, because more than having someone after her, terrorists wanting her dead, the CIA too seems to want her gone. I have a feeling Quinn’s “No questions asked clause” from last week will fly out the window. Will he really try to kill her? He was in love with her at one point, he can’t just put all these feelings aside now can he? Are we really meant to believe Saul is the one that put her name in the envelope? As much as he’s mad with her, I have a hard time believing he could do such a thing. She was his protégé, like a daughter to him. It can’t simply be because he thinks she’s involved with the journalist, because of the pictures Allison brought to his attention. They’re something else going on, there has to be…
