'Homeland' Recap: "Casus Belli"

March 1, 2017

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Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison in 'Homeland'. Photo Credit: Vulture/Showtime.

Cameron Lee ’20 / Emertainment Monthly Contributor

Spoiler Alert: This recap contains spoilers for episode 5 of Homeland

Last week’s episode of Homeland set the spark for this season’s main storyline when Sekou’s truck exploded in the middle of Manhattan. This week’s episode provided more developments regarding the mystery of who gave Carrie (Claire Danes) the phone conversation and caused tense and exciting sequences with Quinn (Rupert Friend) trying to protect Carrie’s daughter from reporters and eventually a full blown SWAT team.
Carrie receives word from Reda (Patrick Sabongui) that Sekou (J. Mallory McCree) was the one who was driving the truck. Carrie can’t believe it, so she does what every responsible parent does and leaves her child with a trained assassin (what can possibly go wrong?). She arrives at Sekou’s house just as the FBI arrives to ruin Carrie’s day again. They’re led by agent Conlin (Dominic Fumusa), who’s been awful since episode one. He berates Carrie for releasing Sekou and demands that Carrie tell him the source of the call. Carrie responds by telling Conlin she can’t say, so Conlin removes her from the scene. Carrie goes to warn her source, Roger (Ian Kahn), about the FBI but Roger tells Carrie that he did not sent Carrie the recording (what?!). Carrie frantically calls Agent Conlin and insists that she has no idea who sent her the recording. Conlin tells Carrie that a hostage situation is occurring at her house.
While Carrie was gone Quinn was freaking out about the photos he took the night before that show proof that the man who is spying on the house may be responsible for the bombing. Carrie’s name had been revealed as the person who got Sekou out of prison. The press has surrounded the house and has started to agitate Quinn and Frannie. So Quinn opens the door and shoves a reporter inside to question her on why the press are here. Quinn gets angry and throws the reporter down the front stairs, which just makes the press livid. An angry mob starts to form. Carrie’s babysitter arrives just as the mob starts throwing rocks at the windows. Quinn pulls out the gun he stole from the drug dealer and shoots one of the protesters through the hand. The mob breaks up and the police surround the area.

Rupert Friend as Quinn in 'Homeland'. Photo Credit: Slant Magazine/Showtime. — Ralph Friend as Quinn in ‘Homeland’. Photo Credit: Slant Magazine/Showtime.

Meanwhile Dar (F. Murray Abraham) picks up Saul (Mandy Patinkin) at the airport. Dar updates Saul on the President-elect’s status while Saul tells Dar about his theory that the Abu Dhabi interrogation was a setup created by Mossad. Since Dar is the most untrustworthy on the show, many people have been theorizing that he’s behind the attack. But Dar shows genuine interest in Saul’s theory and seems to be trying to put things together. It would be so obvious for Dar to be behind the attack. The writers are too smart to do that, so there’s most likely a third party in play that we don’t know about yet.
The show then cuts back to Quinn’s babysitting adventures: Carrie runs home and finds SWAT teams move toward her house in every direction. Carrie tries to make the police stand down but one of the SWAT teams moves in on the roof. Quinn takes an officer as hostage, so everyone is forced to stand down. Carrie is allowed to go inside the house to talk Quinn down. Quinn tries to tell Carrie that he has evidence on his phone that someone is spying on Carrie. But before he can show Carrie, the SWAT team kicks down the door and arrests Quinn. After everyone has left the house, Carrie finds Quinn’s phone and sees the photos of the mystery man across the street. Carrie goes outside and looks across the street and sees a man peering through a window at her.
This was another solid episode for this season. Let’s hope the show keeps this pace up as we could be looking at another robust season.