The central plot of this season’s Homeland has now been revealed to be a full-blown right wing conspiracy against an incoming President considered soft on terrorism. To strengthen the U.S. fight against terrorism, our conspirators have committed a terrorist act themselves and routinely murder anyone who could expose their plot. We have seen the enemy and it is us. In some degree, the plot mirrors an alleged Russian conspiracy. Vladimir Putin enhanced his strong man image by suppressing Chechen rebels after apartment buildings were bombed in Russia by terrorists. Critics alleged that Putin orchestrated the bombings to justify the brutal crackdown, and one of the most vocal, Alexander Litvinenko, mysteriously died from polonium poisoning.
Homeland often features adversaries turning into allies and vice versa. Carrie joins forces with her former nemesis FBI agent Conlin after she passes him the suspicious photos from Quinn’s phone. Conlin confronts Massoud about the stranger in the photos, but the informant denies the man was involved and sets the stage for the unfolding conspiracy: “He looks like government; he looks like you.”
Conlin traces the license plate in Quinn’s photos to a corporation in the famed government contractor haven, the Dulles corridor. He’s clearly convinced about the conspiracy once he snoops around the corporation, which is hiring applicants from national security agencies for a sensitive project. He immediately calls Carrie for a meeting at his house. Unfortunately, their budding alliance ends – Carrie finds Conlin shot to death. She barely manages to escape the killer, who just happens to be the stranger from Quinn’s photos.
Meanwhile, Saul tries to unravel the conspiracy within the larger cabal, the staged Israeli op in Abu Dhabi. He had asked the CIA’s New York station chief for the surveillance file on his Mossad contact, Tova Rivlin. The chief lies to Saul that she forgot the request, but a young officer reveals to him that surveillance was removed from the target. Improbably, Saul turns to Viktor, the local Russian intelligence chief, for the information. Viktor provides Saul with some damning surveillance photos of the Mossad agent meeting Dar Adal.
So far this season every CIA officer in the show violates rules. Saul meets an Iranian agent and Russian liaison contact without telling his Headquarters; the NY station chief, junior to Saul, lies to him, and a rookie officer in turn rats out the station chief. All these violations are trivial compared to Dar’s imprisonment of the President-elect.
President-elect Keane, frustrated by the Secret Service stonewalling her requests, escapes the compound by convincing the housekeeper to whisk her away in her truck. She manages to arrive in New York, where she is met by the press and declares she won't restore harsh counterterrorism measures urged by the incumbent President. Master conspirator Dar will be facing some challenges to his conspiracy in upcoming episodes. The President-elect isn't cowed by his maneuvers to imprison her, and Saul is now aware of his deceitful collaboration with the Israelis. Carrie is sure to join their fight – if she manages to elude the cabal's killers who murdered Sekou and Agent Conlin.
Then there's poor Quinn who triggered the unraveling of the conspiracy. Locked up in a psych ward, he retreats into his destructive paranoia, even distrusting Carrie. As the episode ends, Quinn is mysteriously wheeled out of the ward to a van –perhaps he is the next victim of the plotters. But the culprit turns out to be yet another blast from the past, Astrid, German intelligence officer and his lover from the past two seasons.
Nailed it: While President-elect Keane is escaping from the secret service, the detail leader lectures her by phone on U.S. law that prohibits her denial of protection. The agent is correct on this score – of course, holding the President-elect incommunicado may be stretching that law a bit.
Failed it: Space limitations constrain enumeration of the many "failed it" moments in this episode. Securing the President-elect in a safe location is a Secret Service responsibility. Holding her incommunicado from her staff is not. Imagine Michael Flynn and Steve Bannon, who admits he can get "hot" at times, and President-elect Trump himself all stiff armed by the Secret Service as they keep him isolated from his advisors.
CIA authorities: Throughout its run, Homeland has consistently imputed more authority to the CIA than it has. The Secret Service advises the President-elect she can't leave the compound until they receive the "all clear" from "intelligence," which might have input on security but not final approval of presidential movements. Then Saul asks New York Station for its surveillance file on a Mossad officer. It shouldn’t have any file – monitoring foreigners on U.S. soil is the responsibility of the FBI, not the CIA.
Saul and Viktor: Unbelievably, Saul turns to a hostile intelligence service, the Russian SVR, for information about an officer of an allied service. He is now indebted to the Russians and has already repaid them handsomely by revealing internal strife in the CIA – even a rookie officer wouldn't proceed down this precarious road.
