Episode three is a little foreign to us seasoned “Homeland” watchers…probably because Carrie is in Islamabad, Pakistan and is seemingly mentally stable. Once Carrie arrives in Islamabad, she insists on going back to the location where she and Quinn left Sandy to be mobbed and killed by locals.
Carrie’s ability to blend in is really accentuated in Islamabad. Standing on the streets in a fitted, black suit and blonde hair highly visible through her colorful hijab, Carrie somehow manages to go entirely unnoticed.
Back at Langley, Quinn attempts to resign while his psyche is examined on every topic from his apparent love for Carrie to his unnecessary beating of the two men in the diner. Needless to say, the CIA isn’t letting him leave anytime soon (phewf).
Quinn is on a serious downward spiral alongside his landlord–turned–lover. Carrie is desperate for his help in Islamabad, but when her constant phone calls overwhelm him, Quinn chucks his phone into the pool and symbolically allows it to sink as far down as he has.
Quinn’s final freak–out comes with his semi–creepy, semi–caring former boss, Dar Adal. To be fair, the guy was practically begging for it when he accused Quinn of sacrificing Sandy in order to save Carrie, because he’s in love with her. (Apparently every character in “Homeland” managed to pick up on these love cues before I did).
Back in Pakistan, Carrie creates a calming scene while she casually goes on a run while showing off her far–too–skinny–for–having–a–newborn–baby body. Upon returning to the hotel, Carrie sees (drum roll please…) Saul chatting with the ambassador to whom he was once engaged.
Saul uses this out of the blue connection to get Carrie’s boss to end the lockdown, so that they can figure out who leaked Sandy’s photo. All the while, Carrie is running a parallel mission to get Aayan (the young med student whose entire family was killed in that wedding drone attack) to trust her.
Carrie, along with Fara
and Max a.k.a. her American team she brought in for old time’s sake to
help with her mission to acquire Aayan as an asset, create a plan for how they
will complete their agenda. After sending Fara in for a failed attempt, Carrie
moves in to try again. We see an all too sensual (and quite frankly, bizarre)
attempt to get Aayan to trust Carrie. Let’s just say this scene was as freaky
as when Carrie tried to drown her child.
As we all expected, Quinn snaps out of his drunken stupor and begins watching the YouTube video of Sandy being left in the street on serious repeat. Finally, Quinn notices something that only he (and probably Carrie) would ever pick up on. The entire mob attack was wholly and completely premeditated. In the back frame of the video, there is a man sketchily communicating into an earpiece. After watching the video another dozen times just to make sure, Quinn picks up the phone (which magically recovered from its dip in the pool) and calls Carrie. As he explains to Carrie, “We never had a chance. They planned the whole thing.”
I don’t know about you, but this episode left me with
strong feelings of unrequited love a sense that the “Homeland” writers had
a large emotional void to fill when they killed off Brody. Quinn has a decision
to make: Either suck it up and join Carrie in Islamabad, or change his phone
company and get a big time international calling plan.
Missed our other "Homeland" season 4 recaps? Check them out here:
"The Drone Queen" and "Trylon and Perisphere" Aired on 10.05.2014
