Carrie Mathison notably paused twice in the final scene of “Iron In The Fire.” First she looked in the mirror and steeled herself for the seduction of a young, possibly innocent asset, and then she seemed to reconsider, just for a second, after confirming with Aayan that he’d “never done this before.” There’s a glimmer of morality behind her eyes—nicely, subtly played by Claire Danes—that’s at odds with how season four has wanted us to increasingly view her.
Homeland needs to color Carrie with those shades of grey early, presumably so that she can find her way back to humanity later, after doing whatever it takes to stop the still-unknown terrorist plot. So far this season we’ve seen her celebrate drone strikes (and not object to the nickname “drone queen”), contemplate drowning her baby (maybe), and now have sex with a kid who she’s also lying to about who she is and what she can do to save his very endangered life. “Carrie will stop at nothing!” the show is practically yelling at us, while also having Fara and Quinn, for some odd reason, as moral barometers, asking Carrie, incredulously, whether she’s going to keep her promise to get Aayan to London. Since when are motherfucking spies supposed to keep their promises to assets?
Since Quinn killed that kid in Caracas and fell in love with Carrie, apparently. (Who knows what Fara’s excuse is.) And I’ll say this now, so you’ll know where I’m coming from: I don’t feel great about the Quinn-falls-in-love stuff, and I’m bummed that it’s being set up to factor so heavily in the plot. I’m assuming—perhaps wrongly—that Quinn is going to find out that Carrie had sex with Aayan, and that it’s going to send him into some jealous rage and further compromise his fragile psyche. He’s already trying to control Carrie by refusing to go along with her plan and snag the ISI assassin who orchestrated Sandy Bachman’s murder—even grabbing her arm. I like that it’s a complex relationship, but it doesn’t need to be motivated by romantic love. Quinn’s crazy, sure, but he’s being driven by his morals, not his penis; his contempt for Carrie’s methods wouldn’t let him remain enamored for this long. It rings a little false, and I hope it stays backgrounded, along with Carrie’s sister and kid. (One Skype session for the rest of the season, that’s all I’ll allow.)
Which isn’t to say this wasn’t a solid episode or that this is somehow a bad season—if we could live through Dana Brody’s runaway trysts, we can deal with this. And beyond that, we’re getting into the meat of the spy game now, which is what Homeland should always concentrate on, because it does it so well. The plot has thickened now that Carrie and her side squad understand the depth of Sandy’s murder: He was killed—or at least his killing was sanctioned—by the official Pakistani intelligence service, ISI. He was a target, but Carrie and Quinn weren’t. (Neat trick, I guess, faking a street mob but giving them specific instructions only to kill the bald guy.)