Homeland: Fair Game
January 6, 2017 11:20 AM - Season 6, Episode 1 - Subscribe
Carrie returns home to the US with Franny to work as an advocate for Muslim Americans. Dar and Saul brief President-elect Keane.
I left the last sentence of the official ep description below the fold for obvious spoiler reasons - "Quinn struggles with his new circumstances..."
I left the last sentence of the official ep description below the fold for obvious spoiler reasons - "Quinn struggles with his new circumstances..."
Yeah, really appreciated acknowledging the hypoxia/brain injury aspect of recovery. I wonder how much of his motor deficits are also neurological, as opposed to physical? The language deficit bit where he was trying to come up with "bitch" was clever. Was that crack cocaine? I would have assumed an opiate.
The President-elect Keane scene was surreal and very uncomfortable. I am speechless/stunned trying to imagine Donald in a similar situation. To start with he'd insist one of his family be in the room.
I've been saying that the show should have ended long ago, but Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin and Rupert Friend and F. Murray Abraham and ... all emote so well with high production values.
posted by porpoise at 4:12 PM on January 7, 2017
The President-elect Keane scene was surreal and very uncomfortable. I am speechless/stunned trying to imagine Donald in a similar situation. To start with he'd insist one of his family be in the room.
I've been saying that the show should have ended long ago, but Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin and Rupert Friend and F. Murray Abraham and ... all emote so well with high production values.
posted by porpoise at 4:12 PM on January 7, 2017
Ahh I didn't get the "bitch" bit - thought he was talking about her being so persistent and dogged, but your idea makes sense! I didn't quite get the "Da-da-da-da-da Jackpot!" line either, but maybe that was just supposed to be him talking nonsense...
In terms of his disabilities, I guess as well as the initial sarin-induced hypoxia, he had a subsequent stroke, which would account for a lot of it - the left-side paralysis, lack of fine motor skills, speech issues etc. I wonder if the weird hallucinations and lights are part of that too, or whether they're going to turn into PTSD flashbacks or something. I thought his evident reluctance to shower might be not just an inability to get it together because of his brain injury, but also maybe because showers with hissing water are kind of like the sarin gas chamber!
Poor Quinn - he does just seem to be born to suffer, but he does it so well!
Yeah, I feel like Homeland loses its way occasionally (the Brody-living-in-an-unfinished-skyscraper-in-Caracas season?) but I do feel like there's still mileage right now in Carrie's story - obviously the "will Carrie and Quinn ever both be fit and well at the same time and not in hiding or on a dangerous mission and actually be able to get to together and be happy?" storyline, but also her relationship with Saul and with the CIA. You feel like she's got to go back into spying eventually, though motherhood is always going to make that a tricky one.
posted by penguin pie at 12:34 PM on January 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
In terms of his disabilities, I guess as well as the initial sarin-induced hypoxia, he had a subsequent stroke, which would account for a lot of it - the left-side paralysis, lack of fine motor skills, speech issues etc. I wonder if the weird hallucinations and lights are part of that too, or whether they're going to turn into PTSD flashbacks or something. I thought his evident reluctance to shower might be not just an inability to get it together because of his brain injury, but also maybe because showers with hissing water are kind of like the sarin gas chamber!
Poor Quinn - he does just seem to be born to suffer, but he does it so well!
Yeah, I feel like Homeland loses its way occasionally (the Brody-living-in-an-unfinished-skyscraper-in-Caracas season?) but I do feel like there's still mileage right now in Carrie's story - obviously the "will Carrie and Quinn ever both be fit and well at the same time and not in hiding or on a dangerous mission and actually be able to get to together and be happy?" storyline, but also her relationship with Saul and with the CIA. You feel like she's got to go back into spying eventually, though motherhood is always going to make that a tricky one.
posted by penguin pie at 12:34 PM on January 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Quinn is alive? WTF? I had to go back and remind myself Carrie gave him a merciful death, suffocating him with a pillow. The show earned that tragedy. I'm really mad they brought it back. Maybe if they tell an honest story about the misery of PTSD, not to mention other brain injuries, maybe that'd redeem the decision to resurrect him. Instead I fear he's going to have a miracle cure within a few episodes so he can go back to being a murder bot.
And the scene with the prostitutes in the drug den, oy, geez, that was hideous. As linked above I'm reminded of Quinn and his BBW motel manager girlfriend. They were so happy together. Why couldn't Quinn stay there, alive in an admittedly boring SoCal motel but with a fun girlfriend and no more killing and murder and terror? Reanimating him for another season seems the height of cruelty.
The rest of the show, though, it delivers. Dar Adal is still delicious and scheming. I like the new ambiguous setup with the young American man, the one with Nigerian parents. I suspect it's all gonna become a bit stupid once the ticking bomb is revealed, but right now it feels like a nicely amped up version of America 2017. Although as noted above, apparently the showrunners didn't anticipate Trump. That'd make a hell of a season of Homeland, but I suspect they missed the boat.
posted by Nelson at 9:33 PM on January 8, 2017
And the scene with the prostitutes in the drug den, oy, geez, that was hideous. As linked above I'm reminded of Quinn and his BBW motel manager girlfriend. They were so happy together. Why couldn't Quinn stay there, alive in an admittedly boring SoCal motel but with a fun girlfriend and no more killing and murder and terror? Reanimating him for another season seems the height of cruelty.
The rest of the show, though, it delivers. Dar Adal is still delicious and scheming. I like the new ambiguous setup with the young American man, the one with Nigerian parents. I suspect it's all gonna become a bit stupid once the ticking bomb is revealed, but right now it feels like a nicely amped up version of America 2017. Although as noted above, apparently the showrunners didn't anticipate Trump. That'd make a hell of a season of Homeland, but I suspect they missed the boat.
posted by Nelson at 9:33 PM on January 8, 2017
I didn't quite get the "Da-da-da-da-da Jackpot!"
Rewatched that bit... he was 'complaining'/joking about wanting to put on a seatbelt, dude in the back sez "you don't need one," Quinn starts a joke about putting his head through the windshield
but he can't recall the word 'windshield' and looses his train of thought (impaired working memory) and because he's going to cash his cheque it's probably more cognitively accessible the word 'jackpot' comes to the foreground and he blabs that out as a substitute for whatever train of thought he originally had.
I'm not so sure about the visual effects, it can be a symptom of TBI; this might be a portrayal of actual visual cortex injury or retinal damage rather than straight out PTSD. I think the PTSD is being portrayed more on the behavioural side (choices, and as you mention, the shower - but I thought that it might just be enclosed spaces, being naked, vulnerable, but you have a good point).
It's kind of ridiculous that no-one had thought to get Quinn housing from the get go. Also, why does he turn down a private care placement? Locking him in is BS, though.
Can anyone speculate on how much one of his disability (?) cheques (bi-weekly?) be worth?
posted by porpoise at 1:16 AM on January 9, 2017
Rewatched that bit... he was 'complaining'/joking about wanting to put on a seatbelt, dude in the back sez "you don't need one," Quinn starts a joke about putting his head through the windshield
but he can't recall the word 'windshield' and looses his train of thought (impaired working memory) and because he's going to cash his cheque it's probably more cognitively accessible the word 'jackpot' comes to the foreground and he blabs that out as a substitute for whatever train of thought he originally had.
I'm not so sure about the visual effects, it can be a symptom of TBI; this might be a portrayal of actual visual cortex injury or retinal damage rather than straight out PTSD. I think the PTSD is being portrayed more on the behavioural side (choices, and as you mention, the shower - but I thought that it might just be enclosed spaces, being naked, vulnerable, but you have a good point).
It's kind of ridiculous that no-one had thought to get Quinn housing from the get go. Also, why does he turn down a private care placement? Locking him in is BS, though.
Can anyone speculate on how much one of his disability (?) cheques (bi-weekly?) be worth?
posted by porpoise at 1:16 AM on January 9, 2017
Carrie gave him a merciful death, suffocating him with a pillow
Ah but they stopped short of showing her actually doing that, and there was the magical ray of light coming in the window that could have been a spiritual awakening where she changed her mind... or something!
It's kind of ridiculous that no-one had thought to get Quinn housing from the get go. Also, why does he turn down a private care placement? Locking him in is BS, though.
Yeah, I did think it was a bit odd that he'd turned down the private care placement, but I assume he doesn't want her charity - when he arrived at Carrie's basement, he also told her "I can pay..." in that sweet little boy's voice he lapses into sometimes. I guess he did accept her offer to move into the basement, but that came when he was in tears on the floor so didn't have many options. I think they're kind of treading a nice line between him listening to her (sadface in the car but then going back into the VA as she asks) and pushing her away.
In terms of getting him housing before, I guess he's needed hospital care up until now - if this is the best condition that he's been since he woke up, he probably wouldn't have been able to cope with his own housing before? As for the door locking, I figure she's just being realistic about protecting Franny, given how unpredictable he is, and that she'd just found him blood-stained and high, in his underpants, in a brothel.
You'd kinda think the CIA would have a budget for rehabbing him, but I guess maybe that's part of Homeland's message for the season - how badly damaged vets are treated. Interesting that neither Dar nor Saul have been shown asking after him, especially after Dar's oh-so-moving paternal bedside "I recruited him as a vulnerable teenager and turned him into a killing machine who is drawn to the darkness" speech last season!
posted by penguin pie at 7:11 AM on January 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Ah but they stopped short of showing her actually doing that, and there was the magical ray of light coming in the window that could have been a spiritual awakening where she changed her mind... or something!
It's kind of ridiculous that no-one had thought to get Quinn housing from the get go. Also, why does he turn down a private care placement? Locking him in is BS, though.
Yeah, I did think it was a bit odd that he'd turned down the private care placement, but I assume he doesn't want her charity - when he arrived at Carrie's basement, he also told her "I can pay..." in that sweet little boy's voice he lapses into sometimes. I guess he did accept her offer to move into the basement, but that came when he was in tears on the floor so didn't have many options. I think they're kind of treading a nice line between him listening to her (sadface in the car but then going back into the VA as she asks) and pushing her away.
In terms of getting him housing before, I guess he's needed hospital care up until now - if this is the best condition that he's been since he woke up, he probably wouldn't have been able to cope with his own housing before? As for the door locking, I figure she's just being realistic about protecting Franny, given how unpredictable he is, and that she'd just found him blood-stained and high, in his underpants, in a brothel.
You'd kinda think the CIA would have a budget for rehabbing him, but I guess maybe that's part of Homeland's message for the season - how badly damaged vets are treated. Interesting that neither Dar nor Saul have been shown asking after him, especially after Dar's oh-so-moving paternal bedside "I recruited him as a vulnerable teenager and turned him into a killing machine who is drawn to the darkness" speech last season!
posted by penguin pie at 7:11 AM on January 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
You're right, penguin pie, we enver saw Quinn's cold corpse last season. Still, boo!
I think he's not getting better treatment because he's off the books. I'm too lazy to look this up, but wasn't there a lot of dialog last season about how Quinn was on his own, no one was going to save him, rogue agent with total deniability, etc etc? So now he's on his own, falling prey to a shitheel orderly in a hospital and his junkie/prostitute friends.
For that matter it's kind of weird that Carrie still has any contact with him. I mean she's a civil rights.. lawyer? activist? for an NGO and has no connection to intelligence anymore. The only thing that binds her to Quinn is her twisted and awful manipulation of him so he does what she needs in moments of manufactured crisis. (I realize this is an uncharitable reading, but those two have a seriously fucked up situation. Foiling terrorist plots is not a good basis for a healthy adult loving relationship.)
posted by Nelson at 7:22 AM on January 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
I think he's not getting better treatment because he's off the books. I'm too lazy to look this up, but wasn't there a lot of dialog last season about how Quinn was on his own, no one was going to save him, rogue agent with total deniability, etc etc? So now he's on his own, falling prey to a shitheel orderly in a hospital and his junkie/prostitute friends.
For that matter it's kind of weird that Carrie still has any contact with him. I mean she's a civil rights.. lawyer? activist? for an NGO and has no connection to intelligence anymore. The only thing that binds her to Quinn is her twisted and awful manipulation of him so he does what she needs in moments of manufactured crisis. (I realize this is an uncharitable reading, but those two have a seriously fucked up situation. Foiling terrorist plots is not a good basis for a healthy adult loving relationship.)
posted by Nelson at 7:22 AM on January 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
But she looooves him, Nelson! ;)
That and she's feeling super-guilty for letting him crawl out of the warehouse bleeding to death and not getting around to looking for him until he had been publicly gassed.
posted by penguin pie at 7:29 AM on January 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
That and she's feeling super-guilty for letting him crawl out of the warehouse bleeding to death and not getting around to looking for him until he had been publicly gassed.
posted by penguin pie at 7:29 AM on January 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Carrie gave him a merciful death, suffocating him with a pillow
She didn't drown her baby, either (and she didn't even like the kid at the time).
posted by sixpack at 11:22 AM on January 9, 2017
She didn't drown her baby, either (and she didn't even like the kid at the time).
posted by sixpack at 11:22 AM on January 9, 2017
Was that crack cocaine? I would have assumed an opiate.
Looks like the style of glass pipe used for smoking meth to me. Crack "pipes" of the glass variety are usually just a straight cylinder with brillo or similar metal screen/mesh material in the end to act as a bed for the rock to melt into before it vaporizes. (this is the kind of "pipe" used in the Rob Ford crack video). I suppose you COULD smoke rock in a meth pipe though... never tried.
Rx Fentenyl (only opiate I've seen smoked other than classic opium or heroin) is smoked "chasing the dragon" style usually: cut a piece of the patch based on your desired dosage, peel off the one side and stick it to tinfoil. Then quick hit with a flame on the plastic backside (side not stuck to tinfoil in other words), the plastic curls up, pluck plastic off. what's left is the transdermal carrier/adhesive and active ingredient. Then use a stem to suck the smoke off while you heat it up from underneath, similar to heroin smoking.
Disclaimer/Consulting pitch: This is what it would look like if you wanted to shoot a true-to-life fent smoking scene in a show or movie, anyhow, not a howto for aspiring users. hth.
posted by some loser at 2:57 PM on January 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
Looks like the style of glass pipe used for smoking meth to me. Crack "pipes" of the glass variety are usually just a straight cylinder with brillo or similar metal screen/mesh material in the end to act as a bed for the rock to melt into before it vaporizes. (this is the kind of "pipe" used in the Rob Ford crack video). I suppose you COULD smoke rock in a meth pipe though... never tried.
Rx Fentenyl (only opiate I've seen smoked other than classic opium or heroin) is smoked "chasing the dragon" style usually: cut a piece of the patch based on your desired dosage, peel off the one side and stick it to tinfoil. Then quick hit with a flame on the plastic backside (side not stuck to tinfoil in other words), the plastic curls up, pluck plastic off. what's left is the transdermal carrier/adhesive and active ingredient. Then use a stem to suck the smoke off while you heat it up from underneath, similar to heroin smoking.
Disclaimer/Consulting pitch: This is what it would look like if you wanted to shoot a true-to-life fent smoking scene in a show or movie, anyhow, not a howto for aspiring users. hth.
posted by some loser at 2:57 PM on January 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
Thanks some loser! I had no idea that fentanyl could be vapourized smoked.
Quick googling; apparently certain formulations of the patch form allow for squeezing out small globules of the gel, which is dragon-chased. The peel-back-the-plastic also works too, but apparently pill form can't?
Yep, that's a meth pipe (after watching a few youtube vids). Learnt me something new.
(I am aware of crack paraphernalia; used to have a fancy glass one-hitter (Cannabis) that people would assume was a crack pipe; hence wondering what he was smoking or if there were advances in crack smoking technology.)
posted by porpoise at 6:14 PM on January 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
Quick googling; apparently certain formulations of the patch form allow for squeezing out small globules of the gel, which is dragon-chased. The peel-back-the-plastic also works too, but apparently pill form can't?
Yep, that's a meth pipe (after watching a few youtube vids). Learnt me something new.
(I am aware of crack paraphernalia; used to have a fancy glass one-hitter (Cannabis) that people would assume was a crack pipe; hence wondering what he was smoking or if there were advances in crack smoking technology.)
posted by porpoise at 6:14 PM on January 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
Thanks some loser! I had no idea that fentanyl could be vapourized smoked.
Fentanyl is some powerful stuff. Broke my radius a ways back, greenstick fracture. I was kind of hysterical when they brought me into ER so they stuck me in a side room & drew straws to see who would examine me. Before they could give me morphine for the pain they had to calm me down; fentanyl shot. I don't remember much after that but it did the trick.
posted by scalefree at 7:34 PM on January 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
Fentanyl is some powerful stuff. Broke my radius a ways back, greenstick fracture. I was kind of hysterical when they brought me into ER so they stuck me in a side room & drew straws to see who would examine me. Before they could give me morphine for the pain they had to calm me down; fentanyl shot. I don't remember much after that but it did the trick.
posted by scalefree at 7:34 PM on January 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
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I know some folk will roll their eyes at Quinn's largely-unexplained resurrection, but I'm glad to see him still there. And also pleased that they're at least having a serious stab at the PTSD/brain injury storyline rather than glossing over it and having him magically better. Pretty extraordinary transformation and performance by Rupert Friend, and a nice (if maybe over-obvious) reversal on the series way back when, where it was Carrie screaming out of control in hospital, and begging Quinn to leave her alone. When he pulled himself so slowly and painfully all the way up those stairs to go and visit her, and found the door locked... waaaah!
Can't watch President-elect Keane without wincing - you can't help seeing that it was written with the hope or expectation that it would be extremely timely, premiering in the interlude between Hillary's election and inauguration.
I wonder slightly how they're going to get the jeopardy way high if it's all domestic - no massive terror plot to foil. But looking forward to finding out...
posted by penguin pie at 11:33 AM on January 6, 2017 [1 favorite]