S07.E06: Species Jump

[SuprSuprElevated]

6 minutes ago, Lemons said:

I added Sundance Now on Amazon for, I think $6 per month.  Then cancel once you've seen everything.  I loved it.  It really gave you a realistic idea of what the French intelligence is like and what they are contributing in Syria right now.  Of course the CIA is in there around season 2.  There's also realistic scenes in Iran.   No big blasts or car chases or gun rights like Homeland of course!   It's worth adding Sundance Now for a month or so.   

Thanks for the tip!

[gallimaufry]

On 3/19/2018 at 7:04 AM, dwmarch said:

I was also glad a certain 24 trope was averted, the one where a jilted lover/romantic interest/etc has to pretend they're happy after finding out they've been betrayed. At first it's going well and then they lose their shit and do something dumb which always ends up alerting the bad guy and allowing them to escape. But Carrie kept it together at least for this episode.

Yes!  Love 24 but they used this exact episode at least four times and it wasn't exactly their best to begin with.  Johannesson and Harbinson collaborated on the last 24 outing of this plot with Renee but, to be fair, weren't on staff any of the previous times.  Hopefully they'll dig a bit deeper.

Enjoying the way the season's going.  The Russian stuff feels chillingly topical and well-acted although I was disappointed to see Saul's contact offed so quickly -- I liked the old/new Russia tension they were just starting to explore.  And the exposition on the way fake news is generated and distributed was excellent.

Carrie's trap for Dante was excellent.  I was spoiled for the possibility that Dante was a traitor which is a shame because that twist was served perfectly.  I'm not convinced he is though although I can't see how it would be anything other than anti-climactic if he weren't.

Keane's death-smile at Wellington was priceless but I can't figure out the dynamic between these two for the life of me.  His betraying her a few episodes seems to be completely forgotten?  It looks like they have but I can only hope there's a really excellent pay-off for that plot twist because right now it just makes the whole White House dynamic look deeply stupid (and not a dramatic, dysfunctional way).

Still, the show is on good form again.  Can't wait for next week.

[John Potts]

I do love how relaxed Carrie is about greeting all her interrogation squad in her underwear. I'm guessing she's going to play it as "You passed out!" and let Dante run to find out who his contacts are.

Glad our "heroes" are getting on track. Is Saul going to rescue Krupin (probably not, but it's possible - he could actually see the boat Krupin was thrown off of)? Even if he doesn't, it's a giant red flag that he was killed just before he was going to meet.

On ‎19‎/‎03‎/‎2018 at 10:53 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

When Carrie told Janet that she wanted to sit in on the Simone's testimony, I thought that was a dumb move. Simone JUST saw her two nights ago in the bar bathroom when she put a bug in her purse.

I didn't get why Carrie didn't ask her to plant a bug (or hell, "accidentally" leaving her phone on). It seemed ridiculous to expose her own involvement like that.

On ‎19‎/‎03‎/‎2018 at 6:11 PM, Ottis said:

I also liked the verbal battle between the two Russians and the "old way" and the new way, and the meaning for the rest of the world.

And kudos for having a conversation between two Russians in Russian and just expecting the audience to keep up

On ‎19‎/‎03‎/‎2018 at 7:04 AM, dwmarch said:

I liked the casting for Saul's co-worker. They could have went with skinny and conventionally pretty. It's nice to see there are some real people on this show!

Loved that! And she's competent too (well, so far).
 

[ceebee]

Carrie tells Saul that it was Dante who brought Simone to her attention.  In fact it was the other way around.  Carrie’s illegal and secret (from Dante) surveillance of Wellington’s home threw up an unidentified woman.  She sent a screenshot for Dante to identify and he then ‘ran’ the picture and turned up Simone (and her parking ticket).  If Carrie has been set up to find Simone, who knew about the surveillance other than Carrie....and Max?!  Or was all that a happy accident and Simone would have been found by someone/anyone at some point?

Edited March 28, 2018 by ceebee

[Loandbehold]

From the surveillance of Wellington's house, Carrie got a picture of a woman. She gave it to Dante who provided the information, including her name, job, the parking ticket, and how she and Wellington had been seeing each other for a while. If Dante didn't come through, Carrie would have had to find out through some other means (like going onto a conspiracy message board and uploading the picture) to find out who this woman was. In that sense, Dante did put Carrie onto Simone.

[ceebee]

6 minutes ago, Loandbehold said:

From the surveillance of Wellington's house, Carrie got a picture of a woman. She gave it to Dante who provided the information, including her name, job, the parking ticket, and how she and Wellington had been seeing each other for a while. If Dante didn't come through, Carie would have had to find out through some other means (like going onto a conspiracy message board and uploading the picture) to find out who this woman was. In that sense, Dante did put Carrie onto Simone.

In order to know who is part of the conspiracy, it matters how Simone came to Carrie’s attention in the first instance.  If you were wanting to frame Wellington via Simone (having had her lay the money trail and ensure there’s evidence placing her car in the vicinity), you need to put Simone in front of someone you know will investigate.  Without Carrie’s surveillance on Wellington’s house, she wouldn’t have had a picture of Simone to ask Dante (or the internet) about!  

If the conspirators knew about the cameras, and Carrie’s spying, then they just had to make sure Simone kept visiting the house.  Eventually Carrie would cotton on.  If they didn’t know about the cameras, how were they planning to put Simone under scrutiny and make sure she was caught out?

[Loandbehold]

Simone began "dating" Wellington 4 years ago. It's the long game. They've now set him up for the general's murder. At any time, the Russians can release information that implicate him. Congressional committee investigations can go on for years, as can investigations by independent and special counsels. Even if Carrie never put surveillance on Wellington, that doesn't mean the story wouldn't come out. It just would have come out some other way. Hell, Simone could walk into the Department of Justice and say that Wellington had her pay $50K to have the general killed at the president's request.

[John Potts]

It didn't (to me) look like Wellington was being that careful about Simone (not even sure he was actually doing anything wrong in seeing her, legally speaking), so it's not like their affair couldn't be "discovered" by some random blogger. Carrie just gave him the opportunity to advance his agenda (assuming Saul is right and Dante is a part of the plot, which I do).

[ceebee]

Wellington has no reason at all to hide his relationship with Simone.  

 

I’ve no idea yet whether Dante is part of the conspiracy.  I haven’t watched the latest episode , and others may be better informed ;-), but as of ep6, it’s only so far clear that Simone is involved.  She might be a sleeper of four year’s standing, or she may have been bought off recently.  (I suspect her stoicism after being beaten up suggests a bit of “background”, though!).  Dante finding the background on Simone could simply be routine FBI stuff that any agent with access to personal records could dig up.  I guess that’s why I disagree with Saul’s suggestion that Dante gave Simone to Carrie.  If, as I think we all agree, it didn’t have to be Carrie that decided to look into Wellington’s associates, then we have to extend the same logic to Dante.  It didn’t have to be him checking her out.

 

On 28/03/2018 at 7:50 PM, Loandbehold said:

Hell, Simone could walk into the Department of Justice and say that Wellington had her pay $50K to have the general killed at the president's request.

 

Yes.  She could.  And although it would still be damaging, my first thought would be, “Is this real or a set up?”.  

Edited April 1, 2018 by ceebee
“as of ep 6” not 7

[Roseanna]

On ‎19‎.‎3‎.‎2018 at 4:43 PM, ahpny said:

Why Carrie didn't get from the spy cam conversations she and Max heard that falsely targeting Wellington was the goal - and a worthy goal from a chaos-benefitting adversary - was a bit odd. That's what I immediately thought last week. Saul set her right pretty quickly though, but like Carrie, I never saw the Dante angle. 

I have suspected Carrie's idea the whole time. The evidence was simply too obvious. Why on earth would the murderer meet a person who hired him or give him money near the prison of the General? And if Wellington had been behind the General's murder, why on earth he would have used his girlfriend and not somebody who wasn't easily connected with him.

Carrie has a habit to believe in her original idea too obstatinately, instead of keeping her mind open when collecting evidence.

I didn't suspect Dante, either. An old trick: if somebody is along from the beginning, one tends to take him as given. 

[Roseanna]

On ‎19‎.‎3‎.‎2018 at 9:31 AM, scrb said:

Framing Wellington doesn't make a lot of sense.  It will be her word against his.  What evidence is there that he ordered the hit?  And why would she go along with it?  She's playing the abused girlfriend for the viral video?  And that Senate hearing came across more like a police interrogation than a Congressional hearing, which is typically about speechifying for the cameras, not presenting a prosecutable case.

 

On ‎19‎.‎3‎.‎2018 at 1:54 PM, Pallas said:

Her sworn word -- before a committee led by a Keane opponent, on an issue where many people already assume the White House was involved -- is more than enough to disrupt Keane's administration and foster further civil unrest. She would go along with it because she's French. 

I also think that although Wellington couldn't be sentenced, even a suspicion would be harmful to Keane.

But why is Russia against Keane? Didn't she promise to stop the US to wage wars as they couldn't be won - isn't this in Russia's interest?   

[Pallas]

On 7/23/2018 at 5:27 PM, Roseanna said:

But why is Russia against Keane? Didn't she promise to stop the US to wage wars as they couldn't be won - isn't this in Russia's interest?

Not at all. I think the show believes that the Russians could not be happier than to see the U.S. enmired  in two ground wars, and was hoping to see the U.S. be misled into another with Iran, on false intelligence. That's the proposition Keane resisted last year, the cause that sparked the attempted coup. But most of all, I think Russia sees dividends in fomenting civil war in the US. Keane's spectrum of opponents gives Russia a lot to work with. 

[Roseanna]

8 hours ago, Pallas said:

Not at all. I think the show believes the Russians could not be happier than to see the U.S. enmired  in two ground wars, and was hoping to see the US back into another with Iran, on false intelligence. That's the proposition Keane resisted last year, the cause that sparked the attempted coup. But most of all, I think Russia sees dividends in fomenting civil war in the US. Keane's spectrum of opponents give Russia a lot to work with. 

It was Israel and Dar Adal that wanted the US wage the war against Iran in S6. So far, in the show there has been no evidence that Russia was behind this plot and it makes no sense whereas people like Dar Adal's having a foreign policy of his own and opposing the PEOTUS does.   

On ‎19‎.‎3‎.‎2018 at 5:42 AM, chocolatine said:

So Dr. Oleg Yevgeniy is nostalgic for the Soviet Union and thinks he can bring it back by "destroying" the US. 

I don't think he wants the Soviet Union back but he wants to Russia back as a super power that can no more be ignored. 

[Roseanna]

I must confess that I find this Russian plot a little weak. Not the part a Russian agent made a fake news but that it was so widely believed. That could be possible only if the US government had no support among its own people. Yet, as Keane was elected a President, tens of thousands must have voted her. But we never have seen her supporters.

[Rus-L]

On 3/19/2018 at 12:06 AM, Pallas said:

He touched her elbow. Simone took a dive, more or less. 

Ronaldo would be proud.  :-)

[Rus-L]

On 3/19/2018 at 8:46 PM, ruby24 said:

Supposedly her disorder helps her to figure things out and see things no one else can see, as she spelled out a couple episodes ago.

I have not seen a shred of evidence of that over the entire series.

The Wall of Crazy is the evidence.