S05.E12: A False Glimmer

[ElectricBoogaloo]

SEASON FINALE!

 

Carrie tries to stop a terrorist attack.

 

Promo:

[Rilla-my-Rilla]

Yep. I spent the whole episode thinking Carrie was going to Kevorkian Quinn... Hmmm.

[LilaFowler]

It is seriously depressing to think about this show without Peter Quinn. 

[lvbalgurl]

Welp, I'm done.

 

I'm off somewhere to curl up and sob for the rest of the night.

 

Quiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!

[WaltersHair]

I legitimately snot-cried about Peter.

Allison dead in a trunk? Meh.

American reporter is humiliated. yea.

 

Everything else is just window dressing without Peter.

[Deanie87]

I think the show just made a huuuuge mistake.

[Mistletoe]

Did they just Jon Snow Quinn? What the hell did I just watch? What the fucking fuck? I need to process this before commenting further...

Edited December 21, 2015 by Mistletoe

[lvbalgurl]

I legitimately snot-cried about Peter.

Everything else is just window dressing without Peter.

I'm still crying.  I can't move from the couch.

 

So they torture Quinn all season and then kill him off?  WTFFFF?

[Guest]

So...did she really peace out Quinn? Cause I'm thinking she didn't go through with it since we didn't actually hear the flatline. And also because I simply refuse to believe they'd kill him off.

[wevel]

Wow, I guess I'm in the corner alone who still sees the heart of the show as the Carrie-Saul relationship.  Which is in much better shape than when the season started, and the writers are clearly setting up for Carrie's return to American intelligence in some capacity.  Not sure why they had to make Otto's romantic interest explicit though; to me that made it a bit much wrt Carrie-and-her-men in the last third of the episode - one leaving her, one offering himself, and the one she let get away.  Still, I appreciated that the show decided to go against the grain and not have the finale be taken up with the defeat of the terror plot; it was mostly about intensely personal interactions, including Carrie-Saul, Saul-dead Alison, Carrie-comatose Peter ... and so was emotional in a different way.

 

Wonder where they'll go next season?

[HollaMcDollar]

I think the show just made a huuuuge mistake.

Huge mistake in not leaving Allison around or the Quinn thing or both?

[Ina123]

I don't think she went thru with it. Umm...isn't that the cliffhanger? Will she? Won't she?

[Cramps]

Damn, two shows killing off major characters in their finales in one weekend. Ouch!

[patty1h]

Did Dar insinuate that they pimped out teen Quinn for a male target?  That's harsh.

[Deanie87]

Huge mistake in not leaving Allison around or the Quinn thing or both?

Quinn. I'm fine with Allison being gone, although I think it was a bit anti-climatic. I would have liked to see a final scene with Saul, Dar or even Carrie. Plus I had hoped that she would somehow alert someone to the trafficking house. I'm naive like that I guess.

Quinn renewed my interest in the show. I don't find Carrie that interesting on her own anymore, and Quinn just made everyone around him better and there was still a lot to explore, even without the romantic connection. I'm not sure that Carrie and Saul are enough for me to turn in next season.

[SonofaBiscuit]

See, to me, that didn't seem like the show killed Quinn off.  It felt more like they weren't sure if Rupert Friend was coming back next season, so they set things up so it could go either way.  Maybe his contract is up and they're trying to get him back for another season?  To me, it played out more like Carrie was getting ready to end things, and then the room was suddenly bathed in light and she took that as some sign and was rethinking going through with it?  I'm hoping that the showrunners don't release interviews saying that Quinn is 100% dead, because I won't bother investing in another season if Rupert Friend is no longer part of Homeland.  I'm not sure what this show will look like if he survives, though, because he apparently has some massive brain damage.  Will there be some miraculous recovery, or...?  I'm left wondering if poor Rupert Friend really ticked someone off because they treated Quinn terribly this season.  And separating him from Carrie was a HUGE mistake, IMO.

[Noirprncess]

I don't think she went thru with it. Umm...isn't that the cliffhanger? Will she? Won't she?

I think the burst of sun made Carrie rethink her plan. It felt pretty organic although sad that she knew Quinn wouldn't want to be a vegetable for the rest of his life. Somehow I think he might survive with her caring for him until he's recovered enough to do some sort of consultancy work. Just enough to still feel relevant.

Not sure what to make of Otto's very non romantic gesture. But now it makes sense why he would give Carrie anything she asked for.

I cracked up that Saul made sure he got the last word on Allison. We all knew she was never gonna get that dasha on the Black Sea.

So is Laura's career toast?. Please say yes.

I have a feeling we may see Numan again.

[Deanie87]

But even if he isn't dead, and even if he miraculously survived, he won't really ever be Quinn again. I just wish the hadn't given hi such a severe and definitive prognosis, however realistic it may have been.

[beeble]

I don't think she went thru with it. Umm...isn't that the cliffhanger? Will she? Won't she?

 

I think that is the cliffhanger: Peter was talking about "going to the darkness" in his letter to Carrie; when she was in the chapel she looked at the stained glass and saw light, and that represented hope. So after she darkened the room, light still shone through and seemed to pull her away. 

 

But Quinn is no longer of this world anyway.  Could he have had an evil twin? 

 

The short-haired German woman working for the Russians had on her "Dr. Evil Mistress" outfit when she shoved Allison into that trunk. That or she was ready to go clubbing with Dieter from SNL Sprocket.

[lvbalgurl]

I took the bright light to mean that Quinn's spirit was crossing over to heaven.  He could never leave the darkness of being a government assassin and now he's free.

 

sigh...

 

Before that scene, I was thinking Quinn would wake up with no memory of who he was, that he'd be Peter Bourne next season, on the run from everybody and kicking major ass.  I would have loved that.

 

*goes back to sobbing on the couch*

[numbnut]

Man, that was depressing. Does the sunshine mean that there's hope Quinn will at least recover enough to have a decent life? (Please, yes.)  Is the song that mother was singing in the chapel some sort of clue? The only bright spot was Carrie regressing to look like Angela Chase in that sweatshirt. (Well, that and the end of the terror attack.) They tried to explain Saul's gullibility but what about Dar's? Carrie fielding feelings for three men in one ep was too much. And Otto's romance offer couldn't be any more unromantic. No macking, no flowers, nothing. He expects Carrie to be with him while they work alongside her ex? No, thanks.

Edited December 21, 2015 by numbnut

[tomsmom]

It now makes sense why Otto threw Carrie under the bus to Jonas. He wanted her to be more than just his "partner".

[Pallas]

Carrie hasn't gone through with it, and I don't think she will.  Throughout the season we saw her practicing Catholicism, in a way that didn't seem like a show staged for herself, like whistling in the dark  -- not like her family with Jonas and Frannie, or forsaking intelligence work. Throughout the season she's confronted having "so much blood on her hands."  She saw light, finally.  I think here, she'll live with not knowing what comes next, for her and for Peter.

[IndianPaintbrush]

See, to me, that didn't seem like the show killed Quinn off.  It felt more like they weren't sure if Rupert Friend was coming back next season, so they set things up so it could go either way.  Maybe his contract is up and they're trying to get him back for another season?  To me, it played out more like Carrie was getting ready to end things, and then the room was suddenly bathed in light and she took that as some sign and was rethinking going through with it?  I'm hoping that the showrunners don't release interviews saying that Quinn is 100% dead, because I won't bother investing in another season if Rupert Friend is no longer part of Homeland.  I'm not sure what this show will look like if he survives, though, because he apparently has some massive brain damage.  Will there be some miraculous recovery, or...?  I'm left wondering if poor Rupert Friend really ticked someone off because they treated Quinn terribly this season.  And separating him from Carrie was a HUGE mistake, IMO.

I think you're right, the writers have no clue if he'll be back.  I don't know how else to explain this terribly written finale.  

 

Otto's creepy offer, the cheesy lights, the reading of Quinn's letter in his own voice...it all sucked.  It felt like a different show, and not in a good way.  

 

I always rooted for Quinn and Carrie, but now I kinda wish they had just killed him at the end of last season and spared us all this Quinn torture and cliffhanger nonsense.  

Edited December 21, 2015 by IndianPaintbrush

[nara]

I really loved this episode, though I initially thought it was slow paced.

It made sense that Quinn would not survive everything he faced this season. I will miss the character a lot, but many people had posted that it was ridiculous that he kept surviving...I'm glad they spent their time on this storyline rather than rushing it-- he deserved the focus.

The greying of Astrid by her forcing Laura to besmirch that innocent man to save Numa was pretty powerful. She was the only "good"character left.

I liked the end to Alison -- 1) she deserved to die for allowing the attack to happen 2) it showed how ruthless Saul could be.

[WaltersHair]

 

Wow, I guess I'm in the corner alone who still sees the heart of the show as the Carrie-Saul relationship.  Which is in much better shape than when the season started, and the writers are clearly setting up for Carrie's return to American intelligence in some capacity.

Saul was too angry, belligerent and dumb this season. He even turned his back on Carrie when she needed him most. I didn't like him. At all.

So that threw the 'heart' of the show out of the window for me. Saul needs some major rehab before I'll like him again.

 

Also, Quinn is dead. When doctors use terms like major and if, not a good sign. I hate it like hell the character's dead, but he can't come back from that. No one would want to.

 

I also think he represents the dying of Carrie's deep obsession and integration in the CIA.

Edited December 21, 2015 by WaltersHair

[Andie1]

The final episode was" a false glimmer of hope" for Quinn's survival,  since it would have been impossible for him to do so.  He's a great agent, but he's not a cartoon, and given what they put him through this season if he survived he would have been a silly character.  I was pleased that they revealed that Allison was a Russian agent all along, she seemed to have picked up some American values, being disgusted at the prostitution ring, but otherwise her bitchy demeanor and just horrible choices allowed the CIA to pull a Sonny Corleone hit on the car without the audience being horrified at the tactics. 

 

I also liked how the suicide of the detainee was a source of ambiguity but not for Astrid and German intelligence. Laura is painted as a really horrible human being, maybe she is, but she did the right thing when it came to Neuman, so they both return to the shadows. Saul and Dar seemed to be neutered this last episode, Carrie flatly turning down Saul and Dar losing his protege. I like it better when they are not on the fringes. But I see where it's heading in terms of Carrie leaving the CIA and perhaps security detail entirely.  But,  I'm not feeling the Otto Carrie alliance.  He seems like someone who wants to play in the spy world and not get burned. He thinks by keeping Carrie, and his boorish male ego thinks that also means bedding her, that she will be able to navigate really close to the sun.  I do hope his fantasy world gets a wake up call, and Carrie really does do good work, just not for the Durring Institute.

Edited December 21, 2015 by Andie1

[mjc570]

I don't understand Otto's declaration of love to Carrie, if that's what it was.  I thought he, rather coldbloodedly, told Jonas to fire her when she resurfaced. Add me to those who feel that the show will be somewhat compromised if Quinn is not back and active next season.  Aside from his eye-candy appeal, he was an interesting character who provided a good contrast with Carrie and the rest of the CIA.

 

Whether Quinn is dead or not, Dar's reputation certainly is.  He got played by Allison even worse than Saul did.

 

It looked like they were setting Numan up to be a character for next season - that's ok as long as they don't involve Laura.  I totally hate her (the character; the actress, I think, is excellent). 

[Andie1]

Add me to those who think Carrie won't go through with euthanasia. It maybe a thought that she wanted to fulfill, but the show, in it's use of religious symbolism seems to denote that Carrie's catholic values would be at odds with pulling the plug. The light that shone through I thought was a pretty heavy handed plot device, since Quinn was "of the darkness" that he was finally free to enter the other side. 

[dwmarch]

As much as I enjoyed this episode and indeed this entire season, I am perplexed. The showrunners recently gave an interview in which they mentioned that the season 4 finale was a letdown, disengaging entirely from action-filled Pakistan for the relationship angst of the DC suburbs. But we're not doing that again, they declared. So instead they just do the relationship angst where the story was set. However, we did get some gunfire at the end so I guess that counts as action.

 

Since we've seen a lot of "homages" to 24 this season I thought perhaps the finale would be in real time. Nope. Bang bang bang, emotional moment with dying regretful terrorist, cut to crisis averted scene where police and ambulances are everywhere.

 

Carrie's clicky-ass heels should have been a warning not only to the guys in the tunnel but also to terrorists in neighboring countries. She's lucky she got away with a bruised wrist. Suffering for fashion indeed.

 

When Jonas woke Carrie up I kept saying that she should apologize to him. No Carrie, that is not how you apologize! Bad Carrie!

 

I hope During blames his good but not perfect grasp of English for the terrible mistake he made. If he's offering Carrie a big stake in the During Foundation and the opportunity to decide how the whole thing is run, great. If he's offering her the D in During, complete fail and he should know better!

 

Although I don't like the fate of the character, I appreciate the show twisting the knife by having Carrie ask if attempting to wake Quinn up is what caused the major brain damage. Yes Carrie, in extreme situations you will have to make decisions that cost people their lives. You will have to send good soldiers off to die for nebulous reasons. And by now you should be getting used to it.

[Fuzzy Logic]

I'm left wondering if poor Rupert Friend really ticked someone off because they treated Quinn terribly this season.  And separating him from Carrie was a HUGE mistake, IMO.

Yes, this.  I cannot wrap my mind around the fact that Carrie and Quinn spoke to one another in - what? - two or three episodes out of the whole season.  That's just bad business from a story-telling standpoint.  Forget romance; I'm not writing this from a shipper's perspective.  These two actors are good together, and their scenes together can represent the show at its best.  What a waste of opportunity this season.  I do wonder about backstage drama because I can't make sense of the choice to sideline both Quinn and the Carrie/Quinn dynamic.

[scrb]

This series seems to make Carries love life drive her professional life. She was probably most competent when she didn't have any deep attachments, instead letting some steam out by slipping into a black cocktail dress for the night, then going home for a quick change, before going into Langley.

Then she fell hard for a terrorist of all things and she's been a mess since. Next guy up was a CIA assasin and then some poor naive Pakistani boy.

She got dumped by the German hunk and now is contemplating a wealthy philanthropist with shady family history.

[Ruby25]

I still think that Quinn was a very useful character for the show's setup, romance or none. He was the badass Black Ops guy, the agent who was always in the action- don't they need a character like that for the show to go on? He does seem pretty dead though, since they even say that if he's not, he'll be permanently brain damaged, so I guess he couldn't be that guy anymore anyway.

 

That's a major bummer, if he's gone. Otto's offer was really weird- he wants to "share his life with her?" So is that like a proposal, even though they haven't had anything romantic between them at all yet? Strange.

[lucindabelle]

The final episode was" a false glimmer of hope" for Quinn's survival,  since it would have been impossible for him to do so.  He's a great agent, but he's not a cartoon, and given what they put him through this season if he survived he would have been a silly character.  I was pleased that they revealed that Allison was a Russian agent all along, she seemed to have picked up some American values, being disgusted at the prostitution ring, but otherwise her bitchy demeanor and just horrible choices allowed the CIA to pull a Sonny Corleone hit on the car without the audience being horrified at the tactics. 

 

I also liked how the suicide of the detainee was a source of ambiguity but not for Astrid and German intelligence. Laura is painted as a really horrible human being, maybe she is, but she did the right thing when it came to Neuman, so they both return to the shadows. Saul and Dar seemed to be neutered this last episode, Carrie flatly turning down Saul and Dar losing his protege. I like it better when they are not on the fringes. But I see where it's heading in terms of Carrie leaving the CIA and perhaps security detail entirely.  But,  I'm not feeling the Otto Carrie alliance.  He seems like someone who wants to play in the spy world and not get burned. He thinks by keeping Carrie, and his boorish male ego thinks that also means bedding her, that she will be able to navigate really close to the sun.  I do hope his fantasy world gets a wake up call, and Carrie really does do good work, just not for the Durring Institute.

When did they reveal that? I'm puzzled. We saw her trapped by the Russians in a flashback.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I was convinced that the last half of the episode was going to be revealed to be a dream. Carrie goes to the chapel, sees the mother and daughter in the front row, and then she presses on her injured right hand, causing intense pain, and then everything goes white, which I took to mean that she passed out and was dreaming. After that scene, there were so many deliberate shots of her right hand without the bandage/cast that I felt like they were showing us this not real. But I guess they were just saying that her injury wasn't very bad? No, let me live with my belief that Quinn is still alive!

 

I do believe that Carrie took to heart what Dar said to her about this being Quinn's worst nightmare. When you factor in what he said to her in his letter about always being pulled back to the darkness and not getting to have a real life, i have no problem believing that Carrie thought that putting Quinn out of his misery was the most generous thing she could do for him at this point.

 

Didn't Quinn have a picture of his kid in S1? So is no one going to notify the kid's mom?

 

Did Dar insinuate that they pimped out teen Quinn for a male target?  That's harsh.

Dar said, "You know we found him when he was 16. Foster home in Baltimore. The group was looking for a street kid, someone real but also pretty enough to turn the head of a Hong Kong paymaster." A paymaster can be male or female. It's also possible that they didn't have him sleep with the paymaster, but at the very least they wanted him to catch someone's eye.

[FurryFury]

What a letdown. I could leave with Quinn dead (but holy fucking shit it hurts), but such a complete and utter misuse of him in the whole season? Unforgivable.

 

Ugh, I hated this ending.

 

Don't give a shit about During. Thought Allison's ending would be climactic. Still care about Saul/Carrie, but i think I'm done with the show without Quinn.

[escapetoreality]

This is the most insightful and informative show thread on this and I depend on it to catch all the nuance I miss!   You all are amazingly observant.  So could someone please wrap up -- who was seeking to kill Carrie and why is she now in the clear -- watching the show piecemeal I am a little lost in terms of tying together the attack at the refugee camp, the plane shootdown, the off-the-meds episode, the contact with the Iraqi informant, the stolen documents, the laptop theft in Amsterdam. I get it that Allison was an enemy because of what might have been in the documents but was she behind all the adversity Carrie encountered this season?  

[EyesGlazed]

Yeah, that was a letdown in many respects.  Quinn was a great character and they shouldn't have killed him off.  Especially not in this slow, torturous fashion.  At least let him go out in a blaze of glory in a shoot-out with terrorists!  I am a total shipper for Quinn and Carrie and am not ashamed to admit it.  But even without that aspect, Quinn added a lot to the show.

 

It was karma that Allison became swiss cheese in the trunk of an ugly old car on a back road.  Yet I would have wished for a final confrontation so that she knew the jig was up and that there would be no way out.

 

As for During's "proposal":  weird!  What exactly was he proposing?  It seemed like it could be a business partnership until he put his hand very deliberately on Carrie's.  So is it both business and romantic?  Just romantic?  It was cool that he wasn't pushy about it though.  Sometimes I like During a lot and sometimes I think he's a bit creepy.  

 

By the way, congratulations Carrie on saving thousands of lives!  It says something about the finale that hardly anyone is commenting on the foiled terror attack!  Dunno what it says though.

[Haleth]

I was confused when they resolved the gas issue in the first 10 minutes.  Normally it would have been the focus of the episode with a 10 minute denouement wrapping up the other storylines.  The slow pacing was a surprise.  They left the Quinn question up in the air.  I'm afraid the writers actually did kill Peter off because it's pretty clear he is a more popular character than Carrie.  Plus it would make sense to have his death be a further reason for her to turn her back on the agency.  

 

The Otto proposal was creepy.  Honestly, I didn't know if he was talking about a romantic or a business partnership.  There was no warmth in his words.

[Pike Ludwell]

Quinn is not necessarily dead. The machine he was hooked up to was showing stable life signs. After that, all Carrie did was take off the pulse monitor from his finger, which would have no effect on Quinn. The doctor said that there was still a chance of normal recovery, though slight. The glimmer of light that suddenly appeared could have persuaded Carrie not to go through with the euthanasia. He COULD be back next season in full capacity.

Edited December 21, 2015 by riverclown

[Constantinople]

When I saw Allison get in the trunk, part of me hoped the Russians were going to drive the car into a lake.

[DrivingSideways]

When I saw Allison get in the trunk, part of me hoped the Russians were going to drive the car into a lake.

 

I thought about that too!  But then I was like, why would they waste a perfectly nice BMW.  

 

This was a weird ep.  Not bad... but I agree with the person above who mentioned all of the strange fade-outs and plays with light.  Like it was all a dream sequence, or that episode of My So Called Life when the Juliana Hatfield angel visits Angela Chase.

[beeble]

As much as I'm Team Quastrid, I for one am glad that at least Astrid was doing her job. Saul was too busy getting revenge, Dar was too busy being skulky Dar, and Carrie doesn't even have a job (when she said "I'm with American Intelligence" I thought No, you used to be...). We only saw Astrid working and trying to reset the world order. I hope she comes back next season. In fact, why not make the whole series about her? A highly competent intelligence agent who does her job without the exploitive mental illness factor or fucked up personal baggage and who doesn't take a break until her job is done.  

[teddysmom]

Maybe his contract is up and they're trying to get him back for another season?  To me, it played out more like Carrie was getting ready to end things, and then the room was suddenly bathed in light and she took that as some sign and was rethinking going through with it?  I'm hoping that the showrunners don't release interviews saying that Quinn is 100% dead, because I won't bother investing in another season if Rupert Friend is no longer part of Homeland.  I'm not sure what this show will look like if he survives, though, because he apparently has some massive brain damage.  Will there be some miraculous recovery, or...?  I'm left wondering if poor Rupert Friend really ticked someone off because they treated Quinn terribly this season.  And separating him from Carrie was a HUGE mistake, IMO.

 

That's what I thought as well.  The light made her think that he had a chance. 

 

Also, on ew.com they mentioned that during the episode, Showtime tweeted  #PrayforQuinn, so that makes me think he's not going to die.  They probably saw the outrage at GoT killing Jon Snow and how it rallied all the fans. 

 

Quinn's back story is almost as tragic as his life in the CIA.  

[bingham55]

I'm wondering about all the church/religion references this season.  I think one of the first scenes of Carrie in episode 1 was her in a Catholic Church and she has a couple of meetings in churches during the season.  In the finale she goes to the hospital chapel after she hears about Quinn's dire prognosis. That scene has the weird light effect as well as the young girl looking back at her.  The last scene in Quinn's room is ambiguous - it could be the "golden light" is God essentially killing Quinn so Carrie doesn't have to or maybe it indicates he will miraculously recover.  I Quinn dies so Carrie doesn't have to euthanize him (whether as his last "gift" to her or by some divine intervention) we get into some really strange supernatural/spiritual kind of stuff.   If he lives and recovers and Carrie thinks its because of her prayers, her ego may be even more out of control!

[Mistletoe]

I can't help but feel cheated. Rupert Friend deserved a better send-off. Did they really just end Quinn after having endured an absurd number of afflictions when they could have ended him weeks ago, going down in a blaze of glory (or a dumpster)? Thanks for giving him three weeks to nap it off (as angelic and pretty as he was in his slumber), because that's really why I tuned in to Homeland...to watch Quinn nap it off, only to be offed. (Said no one, ever.) Rupert must have ticked someone off because I just cannot accept the writers brainstormed this shite of an arc for Quinn. It was painful to watch. Why the build up to a CQ union that will never be? Ambiguous? More like blue balled...Gansa blue balled us and it aches.

Stray observation...Otto is a creeper and if they even go there...ah who cares, I'm already out.

Quinn dies, we riot.

[teddysmom]

Stray observation...Otto is a creeper and if they even go there...ah who cares, I'm already out.

 

Seriously!  Didn't he tell Jonas a few epis ago he was going to fire Carrie, that she was batshit and he couldn't have her at During any longer?

 

Out of left field much Otta?   Dude you lost to a maybe dead guy.  Let it go.  Plus you were helping that female douchebag Laura. 

[wevel]

 So could someone please wrap up -- who was seeking to kill Carrie and why is she now in the clear -- watching the show piecemeal I am a little lost in terms of tying together the attack at the refugee camp, the plane shootdown, the off-the-meds episode, the contact with the Iraqi informant, the stolen documents, the laptop theft in Amsterdam. I get it that Allison was an enemy because of what might have been in the documents but was she behind all the adversity Carrie encountered this season?  

 

I'll take a shot!  The leaked CIA documents implicated the Russians for hiding information that a key person (who they are doesn't really matter) was alive and well.  Carrie, if she saw the documents, would realize something was amiss because of her past CIA work.  So it was Russian intelligence that wanted Carrie dead.  The attack on the refugee camp, where Carrie accompanied Otto During as his chief of security, was initially thought to be aimed at During, but in fact was aimed at Carrie.  Later on, we find out that Allison was working for the Russians, and she was the one who put Carrie's name in the "kill box" where Quinn would pick up the names of his hits.

 

Once the info that the Russians were trying to hide came out, there was no more need to try and kill Carrie, so that's why she's safe (well, by her standards, anyway) for now.

 

Carrie went off her meds because her thinking is quicker and more complex during her manic phases, and she was trying to work out who might be trying to kill her.  

 

Sorry, I don't remember the laptop theft - whose laptop?  

 

I don't think the plane shootdown was related to Carrie's predicaments, except that it was also tied to Allison, i.e. she was working for the Russians, who did *not* want Assad removed from power and replaced by the general (this was the CIA's plan that Saul talked to the general about while he was in Geneva with his family getting medical treatment for his daughter).

[henripootel]

The whole dénouement with Krupin confused me.  It was a nice scene with him and Saul, don't get me wrong, but it didn't quite make sense.  

 

So Saul knows that Krupin is a fake agent (and, given his absence from his day job, now defector) who is giving them chickenfeed to back Allison's story.  I was happy to see that Allison's story didn't work, at least not for long (thanks, Dar), and I get that Saul really, really wants to catch Allison.  So why does Saul think, realistically, that catching Krupin up on current events is gonna get Krupin to say anything?  

 

First, Krupin shouldn't believe Saul, and didn't at first, but evidently came around.  Why would he do this?  The moment Krupin realizes the jig is up he should have clammed up and asked to speak to the Russian consulate.  Krupin's still a Russian agent and hasn't given the Americans anything he (probably) can't explain back home as part of his work.  Until now, when he gives up how to find Allison.  This'd be nearly impossible for Krupin to explain back home so at this point, Krupin may well indeed be a real defector.  It seems to me that the only reason he did this is so that he and Saul can have a genuine heart-to-heart as two worthy professionals, but Krupin just betrayed his country and whole life just to give Saul some closure.  This strikes me as unlikely.

 

And how out-of-left-field was Otto's proposal?  I didn't find it menacing so much as odd, and it puts the count of people professing their undying (except in one case - too soon?) love for Carrie at 4.  I was half expecting the Turkish hacker guy to say at the end 'tell Carrie I love her!' just to round out the set, but it seemed odd.  I mean Claire Danes is pretty and Carrie is good at what she does, but she's bat-shit crazy and has a complicated life, not one that was great for provoking declarations of abject devotion.

Carrie, if she saw the documents, would realize something was amiss because of her past CIA work.

In retrospect, this was the part that didn't really add up.  How did the Russians know that, should Carrie see the hacked documents, she'd put two and two together and reveal Allison as a mole?  Did they know that Allison once, years ago, mentioned an obscure bar in the Caribbean also frequented by a Russian asset?  That's an amazing deduction by them, also preposterous.  

 

And if the Russians wanted Carrie dead, why go through the incredibly elaborate, messy, and unreliable method of having Carrie killed in Beirut?  One quiet, tragic accident in Berlin and bam, done.  

Edited December 21, 2015 by henripootel

[Sarah D. Bunting]

 

I don't understand Otto's declaration of love to Carrie, if that's what it was.  I thought he, rather coldbloodedly, told Jonas to fire her when she resurfaced.

He said they wouldn't renew her contract. Düring has been giving Carrie the hairy eyeball all season, IMO, and I think we were meant to understand he was trying to make Jonas dump her with the references to her mental illness etc. -- so that he could have her for herself. I think as early as the 2nd or 3rd episode I noted in my coverage that he called Carrie "remarkable" in a way that seemed skeevy. So this was not a surprise to me.

 

It was, however, revolting.