Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress

reviewing 3 Body Problem; Black Doves; Bosch; Citadel; Criminal Minds; Dark Matter; Dexter: Original Sin; Dune: Prophecy; For All Mankind; Foundation; Hijack; House of the Dragon; Luther; Outlander; Presumed Innocent; Reacher; Severance; Silo; Slow Horses; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; Surface; The: Ark, Day of the Jackal, Diplomat, Last of Us, Way Home; You +books, films, music, podcasts, politics

George Santayana had irrational faith in reason - I have irrational faith in TV.

Monday, November 17, 2014

Homeland 4.8: Saving Someone's Life

Homeland 4.8 tonight was about as good as an hour of espionage on cable TV gets these days, which is good indeed - as good or better than what we've come to expect in the best espionage movies.

There were two central stories tonight, somewhat separate but always intertwining as is the case with Homeland.

One is Saul. He escapes his capture in a great series of sequences, only to find himself on the verge of recapture at the rendezvous point. He tells Carrie he wants to die rather being recaptured and used as a pawn. And Carrie lies to him, tells him she's guiding him to safety, when she's really guiding him to recapture, because there's no hope of his escaping, and she'd rather have him alive and captive than dead.

Now, television being what it is, it seemed highly unlikely that Saul would die and Mandy Patinkin leave another series. But the story was done so well that I was close to thinking maybe we would see Saul's death, anyway. And, for all we know, we may see it yet. That's a measure of how good the episode was tonight.

But was Carrie right to save Saul's life? She feels guilty about it, but Quinn and I have no doubt that she was right. Had she forsaken Saul in the bombing of Haqqani, at least Haqqani would have been dead, too. But letting Saul die tonight served no greater purpose, other than robbing the terrorists of their negotiating card, which could lead to the release of other terrorists. But Saul is also a great asset on our side, and Carrie and Quinn might yet figure out a way to get Saul back without giving Haqqani everything that he wants. So, yeah, Carrie was right to do what she did tonight.

The other big story also concerns Carrie - and Khan. Turns out he's not a bad guy at all. Not only did he have nothing to do with Carrie's drugging, but he helped her, and at the end of the episode gives our side the best break it's gotten in a good while: identification of the American ambassador's treacherous husband. It was good to see Carrie, back in good form after her drugging, use Khan's attraction to her to make the political alliance with him.

This is a game changer, and it will be fun to see how it plays out in the remaining episodes. If I had to bet, I'd say at least Saul (and of course Carrie) will survive.