Homeland: New Normal

December 9, 2015 9:38 AM - Season 5, Episode 10

While the questioning of Alison continues, the footage of Quinn is being released with threats and demands, and the search for the responsible individuals begins, all hands on deck.
posted by roolya_boolya (6 comments total)

Did she really say the worst attack since Paris?? Surely the episode had already been filmed by then, that was less than a month ago. Is it possible they edited it in post-production?

Although going into the episode I realized they would never be able to resolve all the season's issues in less than an hour, I was a bit disappointed by the fact that they resolved almost nothing (although maybe, for TV, this is the new normal).

Didn't Jonas realize that the man on TV was Quinn, whom he had recently cared for? He showed no sign of recognition.

Are we supposed to think that Saul violated Otto's trust, or did Otto burn Faisal off-screen, as part of his inscrutable game to accomplish we-don't-yet-know-what?
posted by ubiquity at 10:04 AM on December 9, 2015

I think what Allison said was 'nobody wants another Paris'. It looked like it has been edited in as she said it while the camera was on Saul.

I thought it was a pretty slow episode. It didn't really move the plot on very much from where we were last week. And they really milked the Quinn/Sarin stuff for all it was worth.

It was also somewhat implausible that Carrie could just tag along checking suspect buildings with Astrid. I can understand that they let her help with the video because of her relationship with Quinn but to just go from that to full on agent duty was stretching things a bit.
posted by roolya_boolya at 10:20 AM on December 9, 2015

Did she really say the worst attack since Paris?? Surely the episode had already been filmed by then, that was less than a month ago. Is it possible they edited it in post-production?

Since Allison delivered that line with the back of her head facing the camera, I'd bet they added it in post.

On preview: It was Dar, not Saul, but yeah, characters usually don't deliver their lines with their back to the camera.
posted by sideshow at 10:32 AM on December 9, 2015

Did she really say the worst attack since Paris?? Surely the episode had already been filmed by then, that was less than a month ago. Is it possible they edited it in post-production?

I'm guessing the original dialog was "No one wants another Tokyo," where the subway sarin attack took place in 1995, before they re-edited the footage. Very jarring to hear it, though.

And what was up with the woman and the dog, as Alison was outside having a cigarette? Was I supposed to understand the significance of that?
posted by wheek wheek wheek at 6:27 PM on December 11, 2015

I think the woman with the dog is to show us that this is not over, that Allison is still in contact with the Russians and sending them some sort of signal. Nice touch that she's signalling even as her American colleague is telling her that he doesn't believe she's a double.
posted by ubiquity at 6:35 PM on December 14, 2015

So the media, having picked up the footage of Quinn being gassed by Sarin, apparently don't show any particular interest in identifying who he is. And their global audience don't seem that interested either. Convenient!

It was also mighty convenient that the Germans keep a log of the geo-location of every building in Berlin that has a particular floor tile.
posted by rongorongo at 11:52 PM on December 15, 2015