‘Just sitting there on wooden pallets, like fish in the market’
For some time we’ve been wondering what motivated Allison’s treason and this week we have our answer. Having been suckered by the SVR to take the bait of millions of stolen US dollars, she was blackmailed by Krupin into a long-term mutually beneficial intelligence exchange. Everything since the CIA security breach has been an exercise in covering her tracks.
‘You can’t shove democracy down people’s throats’
Chaos reigns in 2005 Baghdad. The second secretary of civil governance, Allison Carr, is weary of corruption, death squads and photo-ops with Condoleezza Rice. She is bailing out to load up on banana daiquiris in Saint Lucia. The challenge of nation-building now belongs to her perky, idealistic replacement, Carrie Mathison, who she brings up to speed. This means a meeting with Allison’s star asset, Ahmed Nazari, a lawyer who has successfully infiltrated the Mahdi army. The prickly Nazari refuses to work with Carrie and, when the sting is completed on Allison, we know why.
‘They blame us for everything else’
Once it becomes clear that Saul has escaped, Dar’s first instinct is to blame Allison, but she convinces him it was not her doing. A call from Dar prompts the arrival of Mossad bigwig Tovah Rivlin, who is very ratty at having to get a 5am flight to read Saul the riot act. He tells her that the CIA are trying to pin General Youssef’s assassination on her organisation, which at least disrupts her momentum for a while. She gives him until the following morning to provide evidence of who ordered the hit on the general. It seems like something approaching a win for Saul, but when Etai gets wind of a secret deal to hand him over early to Dar, he rouses his old friend to spirit him out of the building.
‘We’re changing trucks’
Having recently shaken off the umpteenth attempt on his life (and his own failed suicide), Quinn’s luck seems to be on the up. He escorts the Plötzensee prison jihadist group through the Balkans, a high-level target in his sights. He has the contacts in Turkey to get them into Syria, their ultimate destination. When they stop off at a safe house in Kosovo, Quinn is instructed to stay in the back of the van. Never one to follow orders, he makes a quick recce of the building and discovers a large stash of gas masks. This is no great shock in itself – the Balkans has long been a gateway for jihadi weapons - but it doesn’t do much to put his mind at ease.
That night, he goes to inspect the new truck they are loading up and is knocked unconscious. As he comes round, he is gaffer-taped up in the back with what looks like a chemical weapon for company. Syria was never the destination. All roads lead back to Berlin and carnage seems the likely outcome. The topicality of jihadis targeting a European capital gave an uncomfortable chill to this development.
‘I had a life. I want it back’
Carrie’s biggest fear throughout Homeland has been that of losing her sanity and, separated from her daughter with an SVR target on her back, the sense of her tailspinning once again is palpable. While Numan works on getting into Nazari’s laptop, Carrie continues to reach out to Allison for info on her former asset. An old Baghdad protocol involving a message inside a hymnal sets up the meeting.
When Allison runs the meeting by Krupin, he insists that his first priority is protecting his Alichka. To that end, Valentin, the Russian sniper, waits poised to take Carrie out if coffee doesn’t go well. The agreed signal to fire is Allison lighting a cigarette. When the sitdown comes, Carrie is desperate for information about Ahmed, but Allison isn’t offering a thing. Still, she sees that Carrie is an emotional wreck right now. After getting assurances that no further hacked documents will see the light of day, Allison gives Carrie a pass. The cigarette stays unlit. Those things will kill you one day.
Notes and queries
- I like that it was human frailty that undid Allison and not some sociopathic treachery. A mixture of greed, ambition, vanity and old-fashioned fear brought her here. Espionage drama works best in shades of grey with hopelessly compromised good guys and oddly heroic bad guys. Miranda Otto has been great portraying Allison’s basic humanity. It’s that humanity that allows Carrie to live long enough to rumble her.
- “Ya manyak.” The expletive Allison uses when Krupin stings her is Arabic and translates roughly as “You fucker.” Does she kiss her asset with that mouth?
- Otto is still difficult to read. He lies to Carrie about seeing Jonas recently and keeps quiet about her being out of a job when her contract is up. It could be innocent, but I think he’s got shady looks.
- It’s a screensaver that ultimately saves Carrie. To think that some people argue new flatscreen monitors have made them redundant.
- There’s a nice shout-out to Homeland mythology with Carrie checking out the red menace Brody on the CIA station’s “Let’s bring them home!” display.
- Allison is not the first powerful woman with a weakness for designer handbags. Imelda Marcos was said to own 1,000. I don’t think Allison is quite there yet.
- In the Baghdad timeline, Carrie is introduced as Carrie Orser and Allison as Allison Stevens – fake names to go with their fake jobs, a common practice in their line of work.
- I like how Krupin gives: “There have been too many bodies already” as a reason not to kill Carrie, before deciding that maybe there is room for one more body after all.
- Allison’s “We’ve just hit 2,000 US dead since the invasion,” dates her meeting with Carrie close to 26 October 2005, when this landmark was reached.
- While we’re dating things, the Hammurabi code that Judge Khalil cites can be traced back to roughly 1750BC.
