'Homeland' Recap: "The Flag House"

Cameron Lee ’20 / Emertainment Monthly Contributor

Spoiler Alert: This recap contains spoilers for the 10th episode of the 6th season of Homeland.

In the homestretch for this season, Homeland delivers an episode that was essentially a setup episode for the last two episodes of the season. The plot has reached a tipping point: it’s only a matter of time (and by that I mean next episode) for something or someone to light the fuse.
Quinn (Rupert Friend) had an interesting episode. He tracks Dar’s (F.Murray Abraham) assassin to a neighborhood and begins to feel like he’s been here before. He tracks the assassins steps to a local dinner where he’s greeted by a waitresses who calls him Johnny. Quinn plays it cool and pretends to remember her, but then quickly leaves after a painfully awkward conversation and goes to the assassin’s house. He gains access to the house and finds a truck from the same company that Sekou worked for before he died. He starts to have flashbacks and we discover that Quinn has been here before for a special ops meeting years ago. Quinn hears people enter the house and quickly flees.
Meanwhile Dar  is catching on to President-Elect Keane’s (Elizabeth Marvel) plans against him. Dar surprises Keane by showing up unannounced; Keane, highly suspicious of Dar’s intentions for being here, calls him out and accuses him of feeding her bad intel and leaking lies to the press. Dar responds to Keane by making vague threats; Keane calls Dar out again and kicks him out of her office. Dar calls up Keefe (Jake Weber) and tells him to release the propaganda video of Keane’s son to the public. Dar later visits Keefe in the Skynet-like social media room, which is great for M.V.P. Max (Maury Sterling) as he is able to videotape Dar and Keefe. Unfortunately, he is spotted by a coworker and taken away by security (please don’t hurt Max!).

Mandy Patinkin as Saul Berenson in 'Homeland'. Photo Credit: Showtime.
Mandy Patinkin as Saul Berenson in ‘Homeland’. Photo Credit: Showtime.
After learning about Carrie (Claire Danes) having to provide testimony about his involvement with the Russian mole from last season, Saul (Mandy Patinkin) is prepared to get the heck out of dodge. He goes to a Jewish outpost in the back of a jewelry store (I wonder if every jewelry store has a secret room for secret dealings) where he is provided with a bag of materials that contain everything he needs to disappear. He visits his ex-wife Mira to say goodbye, but she talks him out of leaving and tells him that he isn’t the kind of person to run away when things go haywire. Saul drives to Carrie’s house but discovers that she’s not home. He goes through her back door and leaves a frantic message to her. He goes upstairs and finds another wall of conspiracy theories that Carrie made which makes Saul gleefully happy. He finds her laptop and discovers Max’s video and is shocked by what he sees.
Carrie is getting ready to make her deposition about the Russian cover up when she is contacted by child services who tell her that Frannie is sick and that Carrie’s appointment with her is canceled. Carrie knows something is very wrong and walks out of the deposition just before it’s scheduled to begin. Keane’s chief of staff calls Keane to explain the dilemma to her. She believes that Dar has blackmailed Carrie. It turns out Keane was right as Carrie receives a call from child services apologizing for the mix-up and tells Carrie that her visit is still scheduled. After Carrie spends the afternoon with Frannie she returns home and finds Quinn’s old prostitute pal waiting for her. She tells Carrie that she was sent by Quinn to take her to his hiding spot. They drive to where Quinn is staked out with a sniper rifle aiming at the assassin as he watches the him and some of his former friends partake in a meeting.   
Everything is in play now; while nothing majorly important happened, it set the table for what should be a fast-paced end to this very solid season of Homeland.

Episode Grade: B

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