SPOILER ALERT: This blog is for people watching the fifth series of Homeland at UK broadcast pace. Don’t read on if you haven’t seen episode 11 – and if you’ve seen later episodes, please do not leave spoilers.
Catch up with previous episode blogposts
‘This will be your last assignment’
Homeland was renewed for a sixth season last week. This means that it will complete as many seasons without Nicholas Brody as it spent with him. Its success since then has been down to its ability to incorporate real-world events into its storylines and its introduction of memorable new characters. This season, Allison Carr has been up there with the best of them. The CIA station chief is utterly plausible as arch careerist company woman and utterly chilling as manipulative murderous traitor. At turns she’s a lover, a fighter, a drinker, a schemer, but always a badass. Our Man in Damascus may be her finest hour.
‘Our Laura Sutton problem just got worse’
One of the problems with the war on terror is the inevitable assault on human rights. In the real world, we have Shaker Aamer in the news recounting the calamity of Guantánamo Bay, and in the Homeland universe we have Faisal Marwan. As the BND interrogates him, Laura publicly threatens to release the rest of the leaked CIA documents if she isn’t granted an audience. Saul gamely tries to good-cop Marwan into talking, but he can’t testify to what he doesn’t know. Betrayed, blameless and alone, Marwan takes his destiny into his own hands and commits suicide, throwing himself from his window. None of this would have been possible if Saul hadn’t moved him to a nice office with a cup of spearmint tea and warned him that he couldn’t protect him if the attack went ahead. His death seems the most avoidable tragedy of the lot and the disaster brought forth when the documents go public is one the BND will richly deserve.
‘Strange times for Hezbollah, I admit’
Quinn’s already-treated bullet wound lets Carrie know that a Good Samaritan doctor helped her boy out. It’s not much, but it sets her on the trail of the terrorists. During a hugely awkward meeting with Al-Amin, the Hezbollah commander whose son she killed when she was the Drone Queen, she gets the name Hussein. When she tracks him down, Doctor Hussein is able to give up the location of Qasim’s apartment. Once inside, she finds the plans for the attack on Hauptbahnhof. Once again, Carrie swam against the tide, played a hunch and was proved right. But is it too late?
‘Civilisation is facing an existential threat’
Before it pulls her from the field, the SVR requires one last service from Allison. It needs her to ensure that the sarin gas attack goes ahead and Russian spook Erna Richter puts her on to Doctor Aziz to help make that happen. Once she gets the information from him, she shoots him along with her poor, loyal bodyguard Conrad, stages the scene to implicate Aziz and passes on false information that Brandenburg airport is the target of the attack. Oh, Allison, you magnificent bastard. By the time Saul receives the text from Carrie about the attack on the U–Bahn, Allison is gone.
‘These are zealots prophesising the arrival of the Mahdi and a countdown to the apocalypse’
When you’re waging worldwide terror, technical snafus are a bugbear of your existence. The remote trigger to release the sarin gas malfunctions and when Professor Aziz cannot fix it, manual release is the only option. It’s down to the reluctant jihadi Qasim to get to the canisters already placed in the station. Bibi gives a pep talk strongly implying that, if he doesn’t come through, then his mother will pay the price. It’s enough to gain his assent, if not his support, but Bibi was never really a hearts and minds kind of guy.
Once inside Hauptbahnhof station at rush hour, Qasim can’t bring himself to keep his designated exit locked, but he does make it down the train tunnel towards the canisters, with Carrie in hot pursuit. The German army is tied up evacuating the airport and the 5:15 to Potsdam is on its way. The season two finale had the Langley bombing and season three finished with Brody’s gruesome execution, so be prepared for anything as we tie things up next week.
Notes and queries
- It’s interesting that Professor Aziz is no apocalypse-beckoning religious wack job. He declares himself an atheist, one radicalised by Israel’s actions in Lebanon, rendering Qasim’s babbling about “the winds of faith” obsolete. Of course, thanks to Allison, the professor now knows whether there is a God or not. She really is the gift that just keeps on giving.
- The look Allison gives the SVR’s Anton Lenkov – at the meeting of intelligence heads right after learning that Russia intends to help the attack go ahead – could freeze the Volga River. I hope he’s got life insurance.
- We often joke about Quinn and his indestructibility, but there is still a heart flutter whenever you hear “Damage is extensive” and see that all he can offer is mute seizure when he’s briefly brought round. It’s not his best work. Ultimately, though, Homeland knows better than to neuter one of its best assets. I have total confidence he will recover to kill again.
- It may feel like a bit of a stretch that Al-Amin would help Carrie, but with Hezbollah fighting Isis in Syria, there is enough self-interest for him to want to scupper their plans even before Carrie shamelessly appeals to his grief over his son. For once, the sectarian complexities of the Middle East work in her favour.
- Although Laura is all set to release the documents, Saul has set attack dog Astrid on her, so expect the Scheisse to hit the fan there. Remember, Laura has instructed Numan to publish all 1,361 documents should anything untoward happen to her.
- Sorry to harp on about dog woman from the last episode, but I wonder was she the SVR “meter maid from hell” who stuck Allison’s new instructions under her windscreen wiper?
- “Ever vigilant” – Allison’s comment to Conrad as he lets her into the bathroom alone to chat with her new SVR handler is particularly ironic. Make sure you put that on his tombstone.
- Would Russia really actively facilitate a mass casualty terrorist attack on the west? Intelligence expert Doctor Vince Houghton thinks not and I tend to agree. Still, it does make for a better finale.
