'Homeland' Recap: "alt.truth"

Cameron Lee 20’ / Emertainment Monthly Contributor
Spoiler Alert: This recap contains spoilers for the 8th episode of the 6th season of Homeland.
Poor Quinn: after getting beat up all season, things started to look pretty decent for Quinn (Rupert Friend). Sure, he was kidnapped against his will by Dar (F. Murray Abraham), but his former German girlfriend Astrid (Nina Hoss) was assigned to take care of him, so he got to live in a nice lakehouse. But now all that’s literally down the river along with Carrie and Saul’s plans. It certainly was a great episode for Dar, but not so much for our beloved trio of characters.
Carrie (Claire Danes) is still traumatized after losing her daughter to foster care. Saul (Mandy Patinkin) is in desperate need of Carrie’s help, so he goes to check on her. Claire Danes does a great job showing Carrie’s emotional duress and exhaustion from her sadness. The writers have succeeded this season in keeping Carrie’s bipolar fits in check unlike in previous seasons. To calm Carrie down, Saul tracks down where Frannie is staying so Carrie can focus on helping him set up a meeting between Javadi (Shaun Tomb) and the President-Elect (Elizabeth Marvel). Carrie picks up Javadi from the homeless shelter where he was hiding and drives him to the meeting venue. On route to the meeting, Javadi mentions that he buried Brody (Damian Lewis) in a spot that he would have liked and Carrie thanks him. This is unusual because in the past two seasons the show has rarely mentioned Brody. They arrive at the meeting with the President-Elect Keane. Unfortunately for Saul, Javadi had actually lied to him about the nuclear program and he tells Keane that there is indeed a parallel nuclear program and the agreement is broken. Keane angrily leaves the meeting while Saul confronts Javadi, who reveals that he is working with Dar.

Quinn, meanwhile, is getting very suspicious of Astrid and he questions her about why Dar left him in her care. When Astrid goes for a morning jog, Quinn finds a new passport for himself in a drawer and a loaded gun in Astrid’s car. Quinn unloads all the bullets in the gun and throws them into the lake…not a great idea Quinn. While shopping at a local supermarket, Quinn spots the man who was spying on Carrie leaving the store. After returning to the house, Quinn confronts Astrid with his findings; he also acts like a total jerk to Astrid when he tells her that he never liked her. Quinn tries to leave to find the man but Astrid blocks him in front of the door to which Quinn responds by simply punching her in the stomach and taking her car.  
Quinn drives until he thinks he’s found the man’s car at a motel. He grabs a tire iron and goes to the man’s room and knocks him out. But it turns out that Quinn followed the wrong man so he leaves the man unconscious and heads back to the house. Once he arrives, he goes to apologize to Astrid for what he did. Astrid accepts his apology, but before they can mend any further issues, a bullet comes through a window and grazes Quinn in the head. Carrie’s neighbor fires into the house trying to get a clean shot. Astrid runs outside to get the gun just as Quinn tries to tell her that the gun is not loaded. Unfortunately for Quinn, Astrid doesn’t listen and is immediately shot in the chest by the sniper and executed. Quinn screams in grief as Astrid gets gunned down. Quinn tries to make a break for it at the river but is shot in the shoulder by the sniper and thrown into the lake. The sniper scans the lake and after a few minutes leaves the area thinking that Quinn is dead. But Quinn emerges from the lake soon after he leaves and the episode comes to a close.

With only four episodes left this season, the show hasn’t given us any answers regarding the seemingly big conspiracy against the President-Elect. But like every second half of every season of Homeland, the answers will most likely be revealed very soon.    
Episode Grade: B