S05.E04: Why Is This Night Different?

[norask]

she is far more like Quinn than she wants to admit, and that is the world in which she is most comfortable, if she's honest with herself. That's why Saul's anger at her was so powerful in the season premiere -- she's been naive and stupid and lying to herself. Now it seems like she may be waking up.

 

 

I believe that Carrie knows that she is most comfortable in the spyworld too. But as she admitted in the video, she also believes that Frannie is the best thing she ever did and understandably, doesn't want to screw that up. She wants to give Frannie the mother she herself never had. I can't judge her for that. Unlike Quinn whose ex is there to take care of his son, Carrie only has her sister who clearly judged her in the last season for being an absent mother to Frannie.

 

 Yes, it is possible to be a spy(she's an analyst, after all and not out in the field) and have a family but Carrie is too obsessive. She always loses herself in her work. She understand that about herself. Espionage was like a drug for her - she could never do it in half-measures. It was always all or nothing for her. On top of that, she was disillusioned by what Dar Adal and Saul had done. So I understand why she walked away. But now she is dragged back in which is bad for Frannie and awesome for the audience.

Edited October 29, 2015 by norask

[Tara Ariano]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

 

Bloody Carrie
As Saul puts one plan in motion, Quinn and Carrie discover another he may not know about.

[Kel Varnsen]

So those surgeons did all that work for nothing? Damn, that's some 24 Season 1 ruthlessness right there.

 

I thought the plane Frannie was on last week was going to explode so I guess that was a set up for this week.

 

I liked that even though last week Carrie shot Quinn, this week she's saving him from a bullet wound.

Wasn't it only a few seasons ago that Quinn shot Carrie. So are they even now?

I think that is exactly what is going on.  Saul is no fool.

I am not so sure about that. Someone can correct me if I am wrong but for Alison to send the fake kill order to Quinn she had to know the code he and Saul were using. And I think the type of code they were using was one that you had to learn it from the source (ie you can't crack it since you need to know the system and the newspaper they are using). Which kind of means Saul would have to have told her the code he was using.

 

 no Frannie and Mother Carrie (other than the touching goodbye video), 

I was really kind of hoping that at the end of the video Carrie would say "by the way you have a brother and a sister, you should look them up".

[LittleGreyCells]

Because I spend way too much time in TVLand, I'm pretending that Alison is, in fact, Paige from The Americans all grown up.

And at some point I want someone to say "Better call Saul."

[polyhymnia]

I loved that episode.  I haven't had a chance to rewatch (I zoned out during Allison's meeting with the general) and really need to do so.  Saul was obviously surprised by the explosion.  I felt bad for the Turkish hacker.  Poor guy just thinks he's trying to do the right thing.  Maybe.

[LotusFlower]

Because I spend way too much time in TVLand, I'm pretending that Alison is, in fact, Paige from The Americans all grown up. And at some point I want someone to say "Better call Saul."

Check out the title of next week's episode. And because I'm right there with you in TVLand, I love the reference to Paige. Her parents would be so proud.

[Kel Varnsen]

Oh yea and the fact that one of the Russian spies was actually named Boris, totally reminded me of the "why always Boris" scene from Season 2 of The Wire.

[Occasional Hope]

Well, this was much improved.  The first episode this series I've actually been drawn into, and care what happens next.

[Joimiaroxeu]

it might be that the only hitman she knew how to hire without using CIA resources happens to be Russian.

Yep, and perhaps Allison only answered the phone in Russian because she expected the person calling to be speaking Russian.

 

I wonder if that $10 million actually did get loaded onto the plane or if Allison now has a fun fund.

Me too. I'm also wondering if Saul's going to get in trouble for losing $10M of the CIA's money. Allison might have been trying to set him up for that and for killing Carrie. The plan seemed pretty risky anyway though because like the general said, he could've just taken the money and gone on his merry way without becoming a CIA puppet. (At which point the CIA would probably rat him out as having taken a payoff and then he'd end up dead anyway.)

 

And he actually cut his own hand to get the blood

When he did that I immediately thought he was a vampire! Too much True Blood still on the brain, I guess.

 

The cigarettes or whatever Allison gave the Syrian that she said were from Saul were too small to have been the bomb that blew up the plane, right?

Maybe what got loaded on the plane instead of pallets of cash was actually the bomb and the cigarette package was some kind of proximity fuze.

[John Potts]

Called it! OK, plenty of others did too, but I did say Allison was the mole (OK, that was partly by virtue of the fact that the only other candidate was Dar Adal (which seems a little far fetched even for Homeland). And as a fan of The Americans, I love the idea she might be a grown up Paige - a brief Web search shows Miranda Otto (and so presumably Allison) to be almost exactly the right age. Though reminding us of teenage children might remind us of the Brody kids, so perhaps not such a good idea (plus all the copyright problems it would entail!). I also love the idea that the Russians might have killed the pornographer (again, totally called it!) to cover the fact that the security break in didn't expose Saul's operation, but it provides "plausible deniability" for Allison. Though one thing that doesn't make sense - Saul brought Allison along to the dinner at the Israeli Embassy(?) which seems to imply that their relationship is relatively well known, so the idea that she might take the fall for the data breach would always be unlikely (and I'm sure the CIA has non-fraternisation policies in place - which I'm equally sure are as effective as any other non-fraternisation policies - as they compromise the chain of command).

 

beeble  I sort of want Dar to glare at Alison and say, "No man can betray me!" only for her to brandish a sword (or a gun), take him out, and say, "I am no man!"

 

That would be awesome!

 

ElectricBoogaloo  I guess even assassins need internet on their phones so they can entertain themselves while they're waiting for their targets to show up.

 

I would imagine that the more information that can be stored on the phone the worse it is for security purposes (the more you use a phone the more you reveal about yourself, even inadvertently). Plus you don't really want your CIA assassin going, "Sorry I missed my target - but I did beat my high score on Angry Birds!"

[WaltersHair]

Was watching some of the marathon Today. One of that American reporter's roommates is a dead ringer for Astrid.