Homeland: Designated Driver

April 13, 2020 7:22 AM - Season 8, Episode 10

No one admits to anything. Alternately, "Homeland sets the table for its finale as the bill comes due for Carrie and Saul" (EW).

Some recaps: EW, Vulture, Den of Geek.

posted by Nelson (4 comments total)

I had a rough time liking this episode. From the beginning; where is Yevgeny? How did Carrie escape? What's going on with so many characters absent from this episode, the Pakistani ISI agents and the Turkish leader? The goodbye to Afghanistan is strange too; is that the end of all those characters on the show? Given the way they left Jenna's story hanging I'm guessing we'll have some more scenes there. Mostly it felt like they had to rush through a bunch of story because there's only 2 episodes left and they had to get Carrie back to Washington, fast. I almost threw things at my TV when she just sort of rolled up on Bagram in a brightly painted truck and strolled into a highly secure helicopter maintenance facility. You know, like you do.

Focus on the good though. I was glad we finally got real confirmation the helicopter just had a bad accident. And in a somewhat believable way to keep the plates spinning since there's no proof. And I agree with Vulture's appreciation of the suicide bombing as a fulcrum for the show. It's not just some random event they dump in to increase the chaos; there's an extensive backstory to how we get to that moment, a story well told over several episodes. The depiction of the Haqqani clan has been great all season long.

Arman, the driver, he sure is a reliable friend. I'd love to see a season about his backstory. The way she hugs him in the end; he's clearly somewhat Americanized, with excellent English, but still you gotta think that kind of intimate contact with her is remarkable.
posted by Nelson at 7:31 AM on April 13, 2020

In real life, we typically vilify the types who use "I am not a CIA employee. I am a US citizen under the protection of the National Security Advisor" as self defense.

Because we have so much evidence that they would be awful like everyone else has been/ is with that kind of operational capacity with minimal oversight.

Arman, the driver, he sure is a reliable friend. I'd love to see a season about his backstory.

Definitely. Would be interested in seeing this kind of story from the bystander perspective. Choosing sides, etc. My paternal grandad was a pretend sympathizer with the Japenese when they invaded HK but secretly worked against them. But there were definitely slime who wholeheartedly whored themselves to the occupiers and sold out their neighbours.

Though I didn't read as much into it, only just familiarity, a crush, a thrill from a bit of taboo violation.
posted by porpoise at 8:26 PM on April 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

I hope this season doesn't end with the Russians having brilliantly won the game they set up using all the crazy intel they milked out of Carrie''s mind while she was incarcerated/institutionalized/whatever. Like I thought it might be going that way a few episodes ago but then I was like nahh, too much for this show, they won't do that.

I fear I was wrong now?

They certainly seem to be implying that at least parts of the various events that have happened globally and locally in this season were the result of clever Russians which , ok, but they could only be so clever if they have a lot of info they're not supposed to have unless someone (Carrie?) spilled the beans.
posted by some loser at 3:53 PM on April 15, 2020 [2 favorites]

and like yeah, the chopper went down cuz of 'mechanical failure' but also the choppers were swapped and the maintenance records were questionable so I feel like it could still be an engineered situation with the chopper going down and the 'taliban' were there with RPGs just by happenstance.
posted by some loser at 11:08 AM on April 16, 2020 [1 favorite]