'Homeland' Review: "R is for Romeo"

Cameron Lee 20′ / Emertainment Monthly Contributor
Spoiler Alert: This recap contains spoilers for the 11th episode of the 6th season of Homeland.
All the pieces have finally come together. This season has been slowly chipping away its endgame episode by episode. Now it’s abundantly clear; it is and has always been all about Quinn (Rupert Friend). Quinn has been such a pivotal character this season, so this shouldn’t come as a surprise. What is surprising is that Dar (F. Murray Abraham) is seemingly is unaware of this impending attack on the President-elect. He would never frame or hurt Quinn. So, if it isn’t Dar who’s behind this plot, it has to be Keefe (Jake Webber). He was the one who had Quinn’s photo and he has access to millions of fake email accounts thanks to Dar. But how would he get in contact with a black ops military group? It just doesn’t make any sense. Plus, there is no real reason why he would want to kill her (politics aside). We’ll just have to wait and see who’s calling the shots on next week’s season finale.

Back to the episode; after Quinn explains everything to Carrie (Claire Danes), including  Sekou’s van in the assassin’s garage. Quinn wants to kill the assassin but Carrie refuses to let him do that. They argue until Quinn reveals that he knows about what happened in Berlin. Carrie apologizes profusely for what she did to him (Claire Danes still has the best cry face on TV). In the morning, Carrie goes to investigate the house and finds the van in the garage. There, she’s attacked by the assassin who tries to strangle her. Carrie gets into a brief scuffle before Quinn bursts into the house and shoots the assassin, angrily beating him to death with his pistol. Quinn tells Carrie about what happened to Astrid. Carrie calls the FBI and the Solicitor General who assures Carrie that Quinn will be granted immunity for his actions.
Meanwhile, Max (Maury Sterling) escapes his interrogation room with a secret access card that was delivered to him with his food. He escapes the facility but is immediately captured and bagged by Dar. Dar asks for Max’s help with what Keefe is planning for Quinn. Max reluctantly agrees to help. Max hacks into the database and finds fake online activity and communication, supposedly from Quinn, that portrays him as an unstable ex-soldier with his sights on President-elect Keane (Elizabeth Marvel).

Keane, meanwhile, is being shown Max’s footage by Saul and now has a clear link between Keefe and Dar. Keefe invites Keane to his radio show. She follows Saul’s advice and accepts the invitation. She attacks Keefe over the manipulated footage of her son and spills everything she has on him, including his database. Quinn finds a whiteboard in the house and sees a ton of code words on it. As Quinn was part of that group, he is able to determine what the team’s assignment is. B stands for “Bravo time” or “Middle East” and R stands for “Romeo” or “East Coast” aka New York. Carrie gets very concerned about the latter and calls the President Elect’s Chief of Staff to warn him. Carrie is outside talking to the Chief of Staff when the FBI team triggers a hidden bomb in the garage, killing several people and destroying the van. Quinn walks out of the house, shaken but not hurt, and he and Carrie tend to the wounded.
The finale promises to be an intense and thrilling end to this season. Let’s just hope they stick the landing.
Episode Grade: B+