Homeland: The Flag House
March 29, 2017 9:06 AM - Season 6, Episode 10 - Subscribe
Dar plays his hand. Quinn revisits his past.
Alternate recap: Carrie fucks up, but for sympathetic reasons. Keane is very smart. Quinn visits his old boy band. Max gets caught playing with his phone. Saul revisits his past.
Alternate recap: Carrie fucks up, but for sympathetic reasons. Keane is very smart. Quinn visits his old boy band. Max gets caught playing with his phone. Saul revisits his past.
Pleasantly surprised by this season. Originally I thought they were going the 'domestic terrorism' angle but they turned it into just a minor thread leading to the 'corruption at the highest levels of intelligence' thing. Bravo.
The Max infiltrating the Breitbart/Infowars stand in is pretty interesting. Ahhh, that's who plays O'Keefe (the Bannon standin) - Jake Weber. From Dawn of the Dead (2004). Couldn't put my finger on who he was; doing a great sleazy job.
I haven't been paying attention - did Max actually spend a year smoking meth and masturbating (O'Keefe scrawling "M + M" for the missing year on the resume printout, lol!) or is it (just/mostly) cover?
Glad that the show is showing some of the background on disinformation/propaganda. Only worried that it'll be perceived by the public as "too outlandish" or "can't happen" or "that's just TV" - when real shit is even worse than what's shown on the show. BTW, that creative editing of the body cam stuff to smear the PEOTUS' deceased son caused actual very negative feels for me. Like, those stupid purple heart bandaids shit from a couple of elections ago negative feels/outraged anger. Well, good on the writers for manipulating my emotions so effectively.
I'm ok with Quinn's recovery - yes, no more weird halos but his aphasia is intact. Gradually improving, but still problems conjuring up vocabulary and he's developing (consistent from ep to ep) coping mechanisms to compensate (as well as consistent physical tics when he's frustrated). But yes, his physical recovery is nothing short of miraculous. If not keep the halos, at least use a different (less obvious/obtrusive) filter or colour palette for Quinn's POV shots.
I liked the diner scene where he recognizes the waitress. I think they went for subtle, but I think that the scene could be improved if they could somehow more effectively convey that the waitress has seen so many broken former soldiers and recognizes another one.
posted by porpoise at 12:04 PM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
The Max infiltrating the Breitbart/Infowars stand in is pretty interesting. Ahhh, that's who plays O'Keefe (the Bannon standin) - Jake Weber. From Dawn of the Dead (2004). Couldn't put my finger on who he was; doing a great sleazy job.
I haven't been paying attention - did Max actually spend a year smoking meth and masturbating (O'Keefe scrawling "M + M" for the missing year on the resume printout, lol!) or is it (just/mostly) cover?
Glad that the show is showing some of the background on disinformation/propaganda. Only worried that it'll be perceived by the public as "too outlandish" or "can't happen" or "that's just TV" - when real shit is even worse than what's shown on the show. BTW, that creative editing of the body cam stuff to smear the PEOTUS' deceased son caused actual very negative feels for me. Like, those stupid purple heart bandaids shit from a couple of elections ago negative feels/outraged anger. Well, good on the writers for manipulating my emotions so effectively.
I'm ok with Quinn's recovery - yes, no more weird halos but his aphasia is intact. Gradually improving, but still problems conjuring up vocabulary and he's developing (consistent from ep to ep) coping mechanisms to compensate (as well as consistent physical tics when he's frustrated). But yes, his physical recovery is nothing short of miraculous. If not keep the halos, at least use a different (less obvious/obtrusive) filter or colour palette for Quinn's POV shots.
I liked the diner scene where he recognizes the waitress. I think they went for subtle, but I think that the scene could be improved if they could somehow more effectively convey that the waitress has seen so many broken former soldiers and recognizes another one.
posted by porpoise at 12:04 PM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
I find it strange that Saul, when he's with Carrie, is really compelling - you can see how much he loves and respects her, and how he's constantly trying to combine that warmth and affection with the professional demands of the job. But as soon as he's away from Carrie, he's so much duller to watch, he becomes more of a plot mechanism than a character.
I'm mostly fine with Quinn's progression. I figured the halos were largely caused by him not taking his Primidone, and were precursors to the seizure - though I do find it a bit miraculous that he's somehow now managing to take it every eight hours without fail, despite the erratic hours he's keeping. And with stress and sleeplessness being potential seizure triggers, he's doing miraculously well to not have hit the deck again in the past few days.
The hemiplegia's still evident, the aphasia's still there (and worse when he's stressed), and he's still emotionally vulnerable - the steely resolve he developed from Astrid's murder was pretty quickly punctured when he saw Nikki looking so shocked at his diminished condition in the diner. And I *loved* that scene. His eyes-down, awkward "I'm fine" was so heartrending - he knew so acutely that to her he appeared anything but fine.
There's such a great contrast in him - the spy who can still do hardcore spy shit, but also a man coping with the fact that he's vulnerable - and visibly so - for the first time in his life.
posted by penguin pie at 6:05 AM on April 1, 2017 [2 favorites]
I'm mostly fine with Quinn's progression. I figured the halos were largely caused by him not taking his Primidone, and were precursors to the seizure - though I do find it a bit miraculous that he's somehow now managing to take it every eight hours without fail, despite the erratic hours he's keeping. And with stress and sleeplessness being potential seizure triggers, he's doing miraculously well to not have hit the deck again in the past few days.
The hemiplegia's still evident, the aphasia's still there (and worse when he's stressed), and he's still emotionally vulnerable - the steely resolve he developed from Astrid's murder was pretty quickly punctured when he saw Nikki looking so shocked at his diminished condition in the diner. And I *loved* that scene. His eyes-down, awkward "I'm fine" was so heartrending - he knew so acutely that to her he appeared anything but fine.
There's such a great contrast in him - the spy who can still do hardcore spy shit, but also a man coping with the fact that he's vulnerable - and visibly so - for the first time in his life.
posted by penguin pie at 6:05 AM on April 1, 2017 [2 favorites]
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I really like how Quinn has worked out this season. I was frustrated they brought him back at first but the role he's playing now is pretty solid, and the connection to his past and the central role of Dar Adal makes it pretty essential that Quinn be here. My main complaint is Quinn's medication is working suspiciously well, most of his neurological problems seem to have disappeared. No more vision haloes, no confusing hallucinations, seems to have enough motor control to do whatever he needs. It's a bit dishonest.
Carrie shows character development! She puts Franny first! I mean it's a mess she makes, but she does it for the right reasons. Thankfully Keane is smart enough to figure it all out and has the steel in her backbone to see it through.
The one weak point this episode for me was Saul. The crucial plot point here is that he's essential to the White House to bring down Dar, and Keane finally realizes that and is willing to negotiate with him. But just at that exact moment he goes to ground and is unreachable. And then he comes in from the cold and suddenly Carrie is unreachable and isn't answering her cell phone. It's a bit silly.
I love how the show's plot is mirroring current events. Intelligence agency vs. new president and the role of online propaganda, they even dropped int he phrase "fake news" this week. OTOH the morality is mirrored, here it's the intelligence agency that are the bad guys. Still love this show. This season has felt good enough to me, still smarter than a lot of other suspense TV if not quite up to its own standard of execellent. But judging by the lack of discussion here and in the media the show's star is waning a bit. Seasons 7 and 8 are already guaranteed.
posted by Nelson at 9:13 AM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]