Spoiler alert: this blog is published after Homeland airs in the US. Only read on if you’ve watched series six episode six, which airs in the UK on Sundays.
The halfway point of the series finds Homeland on confident form after a sluggish start. This show has always tried to remain relevant in its portrayal of the threats that face us in the West. The implication that big data could be this year’s big bad is equally confusing and intriguing. The idea is gaining traction in real life, so kudos to the writers for reading the runes on that one. I’m captivated by the multiple threads they are teasing us with. Let’s hope they all ultimately tie up into something convincing in the second half.
“You really have no idea how offensive you are, do you?”
The unlikely alliance of Carrie and Conlin starts in earnest when she shows him the photos from Quinn’s phone. When Conlin’s frantic informant Saad Massoud sees them, he confirms that the man in the blue Jeep never met with Sekou Bah.
“He looks like government, man. He looks like you.” That is far from reassuring but it’s enough for Conlin to get Carrie into Bellevue Psychiatric Unit where Quinn is being held in isolation. She tries desperately to get more from him but he literally bites the hand that recently fed him and she exits none the wiser.
Conlin’s day is more productive. He tracks the blue Jeep to a corporation off the Dulles Toll Road. Inside, he mingles with hopeful applicants from the intelligence community looking to make big bucks in the private sector. A Nathan Barley character talks about the “information throbber” all this “node on the parallel backbone” talk has given him. Whatever this impenetrable jargon is describing, it takes place six levels underground. After he gets rumbled and is shown the door, Conlin tells Carrie he’s been in “a very strange place”. He’s not kidding.
When Carrie shows up at Conlin’s home to find out more, she discovers him murdered by the blue Jeep guy who is still in the house. She manages to evade his attentions, grab Franny from school and get Max to start work on a new security system for her house.
It looks like no one is safe. When Quinn is sedated, gagged and taken away in a black van it seems certain he will be permanently silenced. Once Astrid is revealed as his abductor though, a whole world of possibilities present themselves. It seems unlikely his deadpan ex-girlfriend is rescuing him for sentimental reasons (even if she once correctly called him “stubborn as a mule but beautiful, too.”) Her reappearance means that German intelligence are in the loop on the Sekou Bah killing – or at the very least trying to force their way into it. Whatever it means, I’m happy to have her back.
“The worst thing happens and somehow, you are still alive”
The President-elect (Secret Service codename Big Apple) is still being kept apart from her chief-of-staff Rob Emmons. As the outgoing President urges her to strengthen the provisions in the Patriot Act, desperate measures are called for.
Elizabeth is smuggled out of the compound by Marjorie Diehl. It turns out they have a lot to talk about. Diehl thinks Big Apple is a bad apple. The mother of a Marine who lost his life serving his country, Mrs Diehl regards Elizabeth’s silence about her own son Andrew as a betrayal of the fallen military.
It’s a painful conversation for Elizabeth, who never wanted to exploit her son’s memory for political gain, but it hits the spot. Moments later as she talks to the press, she mentions Andrew in relation to the war on terror for the first time. This dove may win over the doubters yet.
“We back-channel for our bosses, turn down the temperature, keep the peace”
Saul knows Tovah Rivlin is up to no good and a visit to a CI station in New York confirms that there is a no-surveillance order on her, though the reason why is still classified. For the real dirt, he has to hit up his old SVR contact Viktor who shows him photos of Tovah with Dar Adal. He must have been half expecting it, but looking this ill-informed is not good for his reputation.
“It’s obvious you’re on the outside looking in,” Viktor tells him. “Maybe you’re not much use to me after all.”
Notes and observations
Nice to see Alan Dale’s post-Jim Robinson career playing dicey members of the 1% continue with his portrayal of the hawkish President Morse.
I am terribly impressed with Saul guy-coding his new buddy Nate Joseph into reconvening with him to tell him why Mercedes was lying.
The Fort Meade our Nathan Barley friend refers to is home to the NSA and the DISA.
It is difficult to think what could justify the murder of an FBI agent, particularly when it would be quite effective to slap him down and remove his security clearance. It would need to be something big. Something nuclear perhaps?
The consensus in the comments last week was that Dar Adal sent Carrie the recording of Conlin so she would free Sekou Bah, to undermine her standing with the new president. This makes significantly more sense than my “Otto Düring sent it” theory but, like Carrie, I will be sticking to my daft idea until conclusively proved wrong.
What does Astrid’s return mean and will it be good for the show? What exactly is the faceless corporation up to? And should we be alarmed that the Secret Service can’t keep tabs on the President-elect? Please leave your thoughts below.
