After globetrotting the past few years, Homeland returns to the United States. All the season’s events take place in New York City, site of one of the catastrophic attacks that sparked the war on terrorism, which suggests that Season 6 will examine the impact of that war on the characters and on American society at large. Topical as in the past, the new season of Homeland features an incoming President, a tense transition involving the CIA, and a complicated case of a young Muslim American accused of supporting terrorism.
The major characters from past seasons are back, though their lives have changed dramatically. The show’s heroine, Carrie Mathison, feverishly rained death from the skies with drone strikes on Islamic terrorists in her CIA days. Now, in a complete reversal, Carrie is committed to preventing the “demonization and harassment” of the Muslim community and works for a foundation that provides counseling and legal aid to Muslims in the U.S.
Carrie’s CIA past isn’t completely behind her. Everyday, she visits her former colleague Peter Quinn in the VA facility where he undergoes rehabilitation. No, Quinn didn’t die at the end of the last season despite the massive brain hemorrhage from his poisoning by terrorists that left him on the floor of his cell writhing violently and foaming at the mouth. As a result, Quinn is now a physical and mental wreck, limping, disheveled, totally apathetic about recovery, and dismissive of therapy. He squanders his disability checks, regularly bribing an orderly to smuggle him out to a flophouse where he can indulge in drugs and sex. Once able to dispatch dangerous terrorists in a flash with his martial arts and marksmanship skills, Quinn is tricked by a pair of addicts at the flophouse who rob all of his cash while he puts up no resistance in his drug-induced haze.
Top CIA operatives Saul Berenson and the Dar Adal are still at the CIA but facing a radically changed situation. In this episode, they are first seen briefing the agency’s covert action operations to new President-elect (PEOTUS) Elizabeth Keane. The PEOTUS is no fan of CIA black ops or the current U.S. military fight against terrorism overseas. As we learn from Dar, her distaste may be rooted in the death of her son in Iraq, which she may blame on the CIA. By the end of the episode, Dar is plotting against the PEOTUS with like-minded members of the government and with Israeli intelligence. Saul, excluded from these discussions, appears more willing to entertain the President-elect’s new approach.
Against this backdrop, Season 6 introduces a new plot line concerning Seiku Bah, the young son of African immigrants who has embraced the jihadist cause and trumpets his anti-U.S. views on his website. Seiku is arrested by the FBI on charges of providing material support to terrorism, and Carrie and her foundation associate, attorney Reda Hashem, take up his defense. Once a staunch opponent of terrorists, Carrie accuses the lead FBI agent of entrapment.
Nailed it:
-Seiku Bah and his friend make a jihadist videotape for his website, which feature sites of actual terrorist incidents. The Marriott Hotel on Manhattan’s east side was the site where Meir Kahane, an ultra-nationalist rabbi and founder of the Jewish Defense League, was assassinated by an Egyptian-born American citizen in 1990. The second site is Times Square, where, as Seiku points out in the video, Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-American, parked his bomb-laden SUV in 2010. Fortunately, the bomb fizzled and a street vendor alerted the police to suspicious smoke from the vehicle.
-The intelligence community does brief the incoming President on covert action programs and the full range of U.S. intelligence activities. In Episode 1, however, it was a bit strange that the CIA Director does not attend the briefing himself and dispatches Dar and Saul to conduct it. The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) would also be involved in such briefings but the position has never figured at all in Homeland – probably too confusing for viewers, since most Americans don’t know what the DNI is.
Failed it:
-The Homeland incoming President this season is a woman, not a real estate and reality TV show tycoon. The show’s staff can’t be faulted for that choice – most pollsters, pundits, and the Russian government didn’t foresee that the female candidate would lose the election.
-Dar Adal’s plotting with the Mossad to undermine the incoming President is just a hairbreadth away from outright treason. Unfortunately, his conspiracy may only propagate the absurd notion of a rogue CIA among viewers who assume TV shows are based wholly on reality and among those who believe intelligence on Russian election cyberwarfare was designed to delegitimize the election of the incoming President. The conspiracy, however, does make for a juicy plot – it just doesn’t reflect reality.
