“In the light of this week’s tragic events in Paris, we remind viewers that Homeland contains content that some might find upsetting. We extend our deepest sympathies to all touched by the Paris attacks.”
I thought it was nice of Showtime to put this reminder at the beginning of the episode. Homeland is and remains fiction, but like many others I am sure, I was going into this episode with reticence, in the aftermath of the tragic events in Paris, and Beirut, might I add, just a few short days ago. Homeland is, and has been since the beginning, about the extremists, their state of terror and the CIA’s involvement with them. I was afraid this episode was going to touch too close to home, but I found myself lost in the show, forgetting the real life atrocities.
This week’s Homeland wasn’t one of the strongest of the season as Carrie discovers the memo the Russians didn’t want her to see and travels to Amsterdam looking for answers, while Saul confides in a devilish Allison. In the past few episodes, Carrie’s fast-paced plot seems to have slowed down, while Saul’s is still going in at full speed. “Oriole” definitely gave us a couple of answers, and the plots are starting to reveal themselves as the writers are starting to explain “why Russians give a shit whether she’s alive or dead,” but this week’s Homeland was lacking one major thing which it usually excels at, and that was it’s surprising twists. The episode did have some twists, but most, if not all, were pretty easy to see coming for the experienced viewers we’ve become over the years.
“She’s finally brought you down, like I always said she would.” –Dar Adal
In last week’s episode, Saul risked a lot getting Carrie those documents and he’s paying for it this week, being on 24 hour guard and getting grilled by Dar Adal who unsurprisingly figured out who the documents were for. Saul’s under constant supervision until loyal Allison doesn’t find an opportunity, but creates one, to jail breaks him, with Dar’s accord, in the hopes that an uncooperative Saul will open up to her, which he did. In last week’s “Parabiosis,” we got to witness the evolution of Saul’s bitter feelings for Carrie. He started out angry, pissed even, and morphed to more understanding and trusting ally, just like old times. It was pleasant to see Saul here, verbalise his attachment to Carrie, his loyalty as he explains it, on why he stole the documents.
Saul confides in Allison that the documents are for Carrie, who was still grasping at the thought that her gut feeling was wrong, that the blond really was dead. The news understandably caused a panic attack in Allison who had to fake sickness in order to get Saul out of the bathroom, leaving her a minute to compose her thoughts, and a text message. It was beautiful acting and balancing act by Miranda Otto, she’s playing the bad guy range of emotion incredibly well.
“I’m loyal too, I guess. Carrie, she believes her life is in danger and I’m starting to agree with her. She thinks the reason’s in the documents somewhere. She’s the one I’m waiting to hear back from.” -Saul
Düring held up his agreement with Saul and gave Carrie the thumb drive without looking at it, most probably. Am I the only one to have found Otto During to be a really shady in this week’s episode? I can’t be. Carrie thus finds herself in Düring’s multi, multi-million dollar lair, sifting through more than a thousand. She doesn’t exactly know what she’s looking for, other than something which would make Russian intelligence would want her dead. It’s pretty vague if you ask me, but she finds something nonetheless.
The information for which Russian Intelligence was willing to bury her was that an incredibly dirty Iraqi lawyer, and an asset to the CIA, who had supposedly died in the bombing of the ministry of justice in Iraq some years back was alive and well. The not really dead man can link Allison to the Russians, the first domino in getting her cover blown, which somewhat explains how having Carrie sift through the the information is a big problem for her.
Allison, still on the verge of losing it, meets with her Russian handler again and in other sexual tension filled scene he brings her back to her mission. The back and forth between the two characters is incredibly compelling. Surprisingly, it’s Yvan’s analogy about beached fish that seemed to get Allison out of her head. Whatever floats your boat.
Carrie enlists the help of Numan and Laura (almost) to track down the lawyer’s wife. I have been a fan of the journalist’s character and her eye for justice, and her high moral standards, but in this episode she only managed to annoy me, big time. Anyone else? I kept telling her, (I know, talking with the TV isn’t the sanest thing I can do) “Will you shut up about the goddamn documents?” They’re arguing like a pair of teenage sisters, where Düring acts as the mediator dad. The publishing of the documents is far from the issue at the moment, and they can certainly argue about them later, which they probably will. Yay.
Numan manages to locate the wife somewhere in Amsterdam and without knowing exactly where the woman is, Carrie loses no time in getting herself to Amsterdam. Once there, she enlists the help of one of her contacts, a relocated Iraqi part-time student and taxi driver, driving a fucking Mercedes, no big deal, who seems more than happy to help until…Things doesn’t end so well for him.
The taxi driver easily tracked down the wife and finds her address. After casing the place, and with the lawyer out for a walk with his dog, Carrie breaks in while her partner tails the undead man. Carrie gets stuck with the bigger end of the stick as she manages to steal a laptop and runaway as she get chased down by some Russians. Her partner doesn’t find himself that lucky, getting his throat slit in the process.
“Why not just go and put a gun to his face” was not the approach Carrie went for, she finds herself incredibly poised in this week’s episode. She didn’t hit any notch on the crazy scale. She seemed really sane, incredibly efficient in her work and clear in her thoughts. She got straight to the point, lost no time on weird theories. She was nowhere near unstable, and even less when she was around Düring. Him telling Jonas he was worried about Carrie being mentally unstable was really sketchy. He’s seen nothing, absolutely nothing, which makes me think Düring obviously has another agenda in mind. I have, since the beginning of the season, had difficulty sizing him, but never thought of him as evil, now not so sure. Was Saul right not to trust him, all along?
“You’re either born with wings or not.” –Otto During
I do not trust him, but I did love his insight on why Carrie can never be with earth bound Jonas.
Saul’s betrayal is becoming larger with every episode passing, and I’m pretty sure he’s hit the point of no return, or very close to it in “Oriole.” He is being sent back to Langley on Dal Adar’s orders, but he isn’t going without kicking and screaming. It was easy to deduct Saul wasn’t really calling for his “goddamn laundry,” before being forced out of his hotel room by four agents. Come on, this is Saul Berenson. Did Dar Adal purposefully put his most incompetent agents on Saul? The "No stops and No detours Order" did not take into consideration phone calls. It definitely should have though. With help from his Israeli buddy, Saul manages to get away, just like we thought he would. The real shocker, for me, was the admittance that Saul was defecting. Say what?
Quin’s storyline was on the backburner in this one, but he was the bearer of good news in the shit storm which Saul brought on Dar. I can’t be the only one that’s disappointed by Quin’s leaving, again. I was hoping to see Carrie, Saul and Quin working together again. Is it even a possibility anymore? I really don’t know, but I’m sure hoping.
Quin is always the one these solo missions, and I understand his motivation, now more than ever probably. Quinn redirected the jihadist’s attack away from Berlin and back to Syria and they want him to escort them to Turkey. Still nursing a bullet, he’s more than inclined to go when he learns of one of the brother’s family ties to an important man in Syria.
On her way back to Berlin, Carrie calls Allison, and it seems Saul isn’t the only one that’s a bad judge in character. Why Carrie? I didn’t and still can’t understand the logic behind it. It’s not like Allison was a big help when she needed things from her in the beginning of the season. Why go to her now?
