'Homeland' Recap: "The Return"

Cameron Lee ‘20 / Emertainment Monthly Contributor
Spoiler Alert: This recap contains spoilers for the episode 5 of Homeland’s sixth season
If there’s one thing that Homeland has always been good at, it’s building tension and raising many questions. This episode did exactly that and ended with a surprise twist for Quinn with the arrival of an important character in his life.
President-Elect Keane (Elizabeth Marvel) is still trapped in a safe house without her Chief of Staff. She desperately wants to leave and go back to the city as the danger has passed from the bomb blast. She convinces the housekeeper to sneak her out of the safe house. While driving to the city, they talk about their sons who both died in the Iraq War and have a productive conversation about why the housekeeper didn’t vote for her. It’s a quiet but very effective scene; most shows dealing with issues similar to this, such as 24, don’t spend the time to really discuss the issues in play.
Homeland is a show that thrives with conversations like this, and it was definitely the best scene of the episode, even if it had little to do with the plot at large. Keane is eventually followed by the Secret Service, who, at her request, is allowed back into the city to face the large crowd of press at her hotel.
Meanwhile Saul (Mandy Patinkin) is still suspicious of the events that took place at Abu Dhabi. He learns that Mossad agent Tovah Rivlin is not under CIA surveillance. Puzzled by this, Saul gets help from an old Russian Foreign Intelligence buddy Viktor (Ronald Guttman). Saul asks for the most recent whereabouts of Rivlin. Viktor gives him the photos of Dar’s (F.Murray Abraham) and Rivlin’s secret meeting from the season premiere. Using the photos that Quinn (Rupert Friend) took, Carrie (Claire Danes) tries to convince Agent Conlin (Dominic Fumusa) that there’s something else going on. Agent Conlin gets in contact with Saad (Leo Manzari), who confirms that the man in the photos is an unknown assailant with no connections to Sekou.
Agent Conlin then tracks down the van seen in the photos to a mysterious private data company. He sneaks into a recruit session and veers off to investigate the building, but is caught and thrown out. He later goes to the parking lot only to find that the van has disappeared. We don’t get any further information about this company, but there’s a very good chance it will have a major role in the latter half of the season.

Carrie goes to visit Quinn in the psychiatric ward to ask him about the man in the photos. Quinn (who is having one rough season) is upset that Carrie had him arrested and believes that she is part of a conspiracy. He freaks out and Carrie is escorted out of the cell. Conlin calls Carrie to tell her of his findings and asks to meet at his house to talk. Carrie arrives at Conlin’s house to find it empty. She goes upstairs and finds him dead with a bullet in his forehead. Rest in peace Agent Conlin: you may have been awful this entire season, but at least you tried to make things right in the end.
Yet Carrie has no time to mourn as the man from the photographs is just around the corner. Carrie sneaks around the house to find an exit but the man spots her and she has to make a quick getaway. At the end of the episode, Quinn is drugged and taken out of the ward to a unknown van (What is it with Homeland and their use of vans this season?). In there, where Agent Astrid (Nina Hoss), Quinn’s old German fling, greets him with a simple, “Hello, Peter.” What Astrid’s role may be, we have yet to see. This season is only going to get more interesting as the pieces start to unravel.

Episode Grade: B