‘There’s a line between us that you drew…’
At first it looks like our hopes for seeing Saul and Carrie back together are going to be dashed. The brief encounter looks like it’s taking us nowhere (again), with Saul doing his best not to roll his eyes as Carrie expands on her theory that she’s been the target all along.
She persists, insisting that there’s something in the documents that someone doesn’t want her to see. Saul doesn’t buy it, and doesn’t trust her. “Forget that. It’s a fucking wall” between them, Saul tells her, expanding on his “line between us” theory. “I risked my life coming here,” she pleads, trying to get him to understand. “Well, you shouldn’t have,” is his comeback.
But later, after Saul has spotted a fleet of black sedans tailing him, been shut out by Dar, threatened with a polygraph test (been a while since we had one of those on Homeland), had a nervy freak-out in his hotel room and found his security levels revoked in the office, Saul comes to the conclusion that he’s back on Team Carrie. Just because she’s paranoid, it doesn’t mean someone (probably the Russians) isn’t out to get her.
‘Mr Berenson, are you ready?’
There’s also something of a line/wall between Saul and Dar: one that stretches back a good 30 years. After a solid sweary stand-off between the two old pros/foes (with Allison inconspicuously eavesdropping outside), Dar puts him on notice: it’s lie detector time.
Saul switches gears and pulls off an improvised heist in the Berlin office as he comes to terms with how quickly he’s been shut out of the loop. It’s a great scene; we get to see Saul thinking on his feet, zipping round the office, and using the bug sweep as a diversion. At last: another copy of these mysterious documents. They better be good.
Saul searches out Düring in his member’s club, and asks for his help. CIA goons arrive to stop the leak and bundle Saul into another one of those black sedans: but they’re too late. Saul’s already slipped a USB stick into Düring’s coat. Still got it.
‘Remove the remains of our martyred brother’
Meanwhile, over in Quinn-land, we learn that last week’s potentially evil but probably good Samaritan Hussein also just happens to be be the building manager of a block of flats, where he’s renting rooms to what seems to be a secret Syrian jihadi sleeper cell. What’s German for “that’s a coincidence”?
Tough guy Hajik is released as a result of the news controversy over the illegal US / German surveillance story that’s come out thanks to the data dump (#jesuisgabehcuod). He’s pretty suspicious about Quinn’s presence. Hussein insists the stranger is not a spy (er, sorry Hussein) but Hajik isn’t having it: “He wasn’t a guest until you brought him here,” he points out, not unreasonably.
Quinn manages to talk his way out, just, and is doing his trademark “just a flesh wound” walk into the distance, when Hajik decides to take matters into his own hands. “I’m gonna cut off your prick and shove it down your throat,” he offers, waving a big knife around. Big mistake. Quinn warns him off, but Hajik has obviously never seen any Jean Claude Van-Damme movies, and winds up dead in a pool of his own blood. Weirdly, Hussein and the rest of Hajik’s gang decide this is a good moment to invite Quinn back for another night.
Notes and queries
Parabiosis: n. the anatomical joining of two individuals, especially artificially in physiological research.
Had been hoping for more from Otto Düring in this season, but like so many of the newbie characters (Astrid, Laura, Das Douchebag) he’s a character who feels quite underwritten. This week Otto doesn’t get to do much more than lend Carrie a private jet, complain about the CIA muscling into his member’s club or be a convenient go-between for Saul and Carrie now they’re trying to get back on the same side. Still, not a bad friend to have.
“I didn’t believe her. Now I do.” Saul cuts through weeks of back story for Otto.
Carrie even deletes her phone pics of Frannie? Harsh.
How long is Quinn going to be stuck with the Berlin cell? This could turn into a Tower of Caracas style side-plot if we’re not careful.
Saul’s a big tipper – one of those little “save the cat” details that reminds us that he’s still basically a good guy.
Nice use of some low-tech post-it notes during the CIA’s bug sweep; and strangely satisfying to see that hotel key cards don’t work first time for Saul either. Beep-beep.
Love that Saul and Otto don’t even blink at Carrie’s bad Berlin hair.
Auf wiedersehen, Jonas. That’s it for Carrie’s happy place now, isn’t it?
“You want me to hand over some top secret documents to you, of all people?” Saul’s got a point.
Don’t mess with Quinn. If anyone’s looking for a new Incredible Hulk they could do a lot worse than cast Rupert Friend as Bruce Banner.
