#i know its a serious show but i need a cut between otto talking about how daeron is the only sane one among them

[flysafepapi]

can't wait for Otto to get back to Oldtown with his "We still have Daeron, things might be salvaged yet" delusions only to find out that Daeron only looks like the most functional sibling and he's actually the equivalent to the little chihuahua that attacks and beats dogs like ten times it's size through pure feralness and determination.

You can't say anything to make me believe that he's not actually the most unhinged among them but he never gets caught and no one catches on for the longest time because he's just really good at hiding it.

[tracey1302]

Episode 601 - A Fair Game

SPOILERS FOR 601 and 602....

Hi everyone!

As mentioned last week, I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to come back to the amazing online HL fandom. Better late than never. I also acknowledge I’ve been MIA since…. Pretty much the summer. Life got in the way as term started. And I got married…

And then I was hit with a barrage of Masters marking, so spent most of Christmas like this…

Not really, but god, so much work.

Anyway I am back and ready to party. I’m gonna try an episode by episode analysis this season. But I’m not promising anything….LOL. Between now and the end of term, my book should be coming out (not on Homeland, on another area of my research) and my sister is getting married. Talk about interruptions.

Anyway, so here we go.

So ‘Fair Game’. My favourite exchange in which was ‘Let me go.’ ‘Let ME go.’ 

So before I go on and do my analysis, I’m gonna include some of my thoughts on 5x12 which I’ve posted before. Simply because they link rather well into this discussion.

“Carrie has read the letter. She’s thinking about Quinn’s words, ‘This is exactly what should have happened.’ She’s thinking about what Dar Adal said, that this would be Quinn’s worst nightmare. I’ve no doubt it would be. So, she thinks she is doing the right thing by her friend. (I don’t want to get into a debate on this again.) This is my interpretation of this scene. I don’t think there is anything malicious in it at all. I recognise that Quinn’s vitals were okay - but as we had been told in the previous scene, the prognosis for Quinn wasn’t okay. And as we know, Carrie feels a deep responsibility for him now. 

So she goes in, knows what she’s gonna do, and then the light comes into the window and onto his face. What does this scene mean for me now?

Don’t let him go.

As much as Carrie thinks she’s doing the right thing by Quinn here, her change of heart (and the fact that Quinn is alive) proves that she’s not ready to give him up. She’s not ready to let him go. And indeed, she doesn’t let him go.

This also takes on a new significance if we think about the letter and the responsibility and poignancy it has. Carrie will feel the weight of the letter through the next season. He has given her everything, is she ready to give it back?

We know one thing, she’s not ready to give it up. 

Given our knowledge now, it’s easier to view this scene this way, and it’s a really lovely way to think about an episode that we all hated when it aired, for so many reasons. We know that she doesn’t kill him, and we know that she has a close relationship with Quinn next season (whatever that means)

We have also been told that the letter will be addressed, which proves that this scene, and Quinn’s words to Carrie has some serious repercussions for their relationship going forward. 

My thoughts? Carrie isn’t ready to be with Quinn, not yet. But she’s also not ready to give up on him, and most importantly, on them. They’re not friends anymore. This letter completely changes the dynamic of their relationship because Quinn’s laying it all on the line.Two years ago, there was a shift, and they kissed and contemplated leaving the CIA to be together. Now, there’s been another shift. Quinn confesses that he loves Carrie. That she is everything to him. This isn’t just, ‘let’s try a relationship that we both know can work if we leave the CIA’ (which in itself is huge for these two). This is, ‘You are the love of my life.’

While Carrie may not yet realise exactly what Quinn means to her, we’ve had a fair glimpse of it over the past few episodes, as we’ve been shown how Carrie reacts when she thinks she’s lost him. (Totally pips Brody. Just saying.) We’ve seen how she takes care of him, we’ve seen that she is ‘waiting for him.’

And for me, this scene, and its end, though not so ambiguous now, shows us just that. Carrie will continue to wait for him. Whatever that entails. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that Carrie is poised here thinking she will remain single until Quinn comes around. However,  I do think that ultimately her decision to keep him alive is based partly on the fact that she realises it’s not her decision to make, but also on the fact that she realises she’s not ready to let him go. Their relationship will be different now, but Carrie is acknowledging that, she’s taking the letter on board, it’s something she’s willing to accept, to take under advisement, to risk… and that, my friends, tells us everything we need to know.

She has Quinn’s heart… and she trusts herself with it. If that isn’t character growth for Carrie, I don’t know what is.”

 So fast forward to Season Six. We now have a fresh faced Carrie in a new job, thankfully not Carrie During. (Let’s have a moment and think about how happy we are that THAT didn’t happen.)

The thing is, there’s an echo of the dynamic between Carrie and Quinn here that we see in 504. That distance between them rearing its ugly head once again. Except instead of emotionally stoic Quinn, we have an angry, resentful and distant Quinn. They’re trying to underline that once again, Quinn has gone through another emotional and psychological transformation and is another person. Trying to underline that this is not a romantic show. Hell, this isn’t even a romance. Yet.

I still maintain that this is all part and parcel of the ‘will they, won’t they’ journey of OTPs. Both characters have to go on journeys before they’re ready to be together. A lot of the complaints about the C/Q pairing in S4 were directed around the fact that their relationship wasn’t earned. So they’re spinning it out longer than any other relationship on Homeland - so it does feel earned. And the emotional pay off will be flawless. How could it not be, with the state they’re both in?

Anyway, back to the VA hospital.

We do get this. You could hear a ruddy pin drop after this one.

‘Let me go.’ Carrie tells Quinn to let her go. He’s got her in a physical grip. It’s not like he’s got her by the scruff of the neck. It’s a very, very gentle push.

‘Let ME go,’ pleads Quinn.

Quinn wants Carrie to leave him be. To let him rot inside his own life. And I could believe this. It is believable given that Quinn’s self deprecation is right up there with all the Noir heroes. BUT it’s just this bit of the exchange that I struggle with.

We see it. I saw it. I know you saw it. We see a flicker of old Quinn. 

Quinn doesn’t really want Carrie to let him go. He just doesn’t want her to see him like this. It’s almost like the ‘It doesn’t matter now’ scene from 504.

And I think Claire’s acting in this scene is amazing. Carrie’s eyes after she hears Quinn say ‘Let me go.’

Reference to my earlier post. She’s not ready to let him go. She can’t let him go. I see the letter in Carrie’s eyes. She knows how Quinn feels. He doesn’t know that she knows how he feels. And yet she continues to take care of him. She continues to reach out to him. She continues to keep him close by. She’s not going anywhere. She’s not leaving him. She’s not.

Only this time, she actually isn’t. I just don’t think she’s ready to confront all of the very complicated reasons why she isn’t.

There is another scene I actually found VERY interesting from a C/Q standpoint and that is the scene that she shares with Otto. On a side note, how creepy is Otto? It turned my stomach (and Carrie’s by the looks) when he’s looking at her adoringly in the meeting room. Vomit. Anyway, this is the exchange I found interesting..

Otto: If it’s not me...’

Let it be someone else...

You see, the thing is....there’s only one person who it could be. Every Homeland watcher knows this. Even if so many seem resistant to the C/Q pairing, he’s the only one now that is filling that role.

And just in case we didn’t know who that was. The writers tell us.

Cut to.... Peter Quinn. HA.

But they also tell us that hell, romance is the last thing on Carrie’s mind right now. And that Quinn is...well... a mess.

In this episode, we see so much of the writers underlining that Quinn is a changed man. No shit. IMO, they pushed him a little too far down the rabbit hole. The scene where you could actually see the woman... doing her thing with him... was just a little too much. Lightyears away from the clean cut nerd we saw in 204, no? But that’s the point. We thought we’d seen Quinn at rock bottom – this is definitely rock bottom. It can only go up from here.

Carrie’s dedication to Quinn in this episode was actually really beautiful. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t think she knows all of the very complicated reasons why she’s so dedicated to him and why she won’t let him go. Conscience is a big one, of course, she feels incredibly guilty about what happened to him in Berlin. But it wasn’t all her fault. I don’t see Saul visiting Quinn every day at the Vet hospital. I think another reason drives at Quinn being her best friend. Because he was, once upon a time, he was the person she could always count on. And she misses him. She misses her friend.

Look at her sad little face when his ‘bye’ is so dismissive.

And I’d wager he misses her. The scene in the car post crack den was heartbreaking. He misses his old life and the way he used to be. Not in S5, before then... when he was on top of his game and their interactions didn’t revolve around his care. Quinn is a very proud man and the last thing he wants is to be babysat. Especially by Carrie.

I too, enjoyed the parallels with 302 (sorry if the episode number is wrong) when Quinn was being restrained by the security guards and Carrie was looking pained. The irony and sadness of the situation is not lost on Carrie either. Another reason why she decides to take such care of him. She’s been through it... and she doesn’t want him to have to go through what she went through. Or, any more than he has already...

She can’t stand seeing him like this and the scene builds to a head (very much set off by the music) in which she finally tells them to ‘Stop it!’

Drastic action is needed. Quinn’s moving in.

And that brings us to the last reason why she’s taking such care of him....she could fall in love with this man. He could be it. Thanks Leslie/Meredith. Can never remember which of them said this.

She loves him, yes, the care she’s shown for him this episode leaves me in no doubt about that. But is she in love with him? No. Not yet. But she could be. And I think everything that happened in Berlin, the way she felt when she thought he was dead, and all the very complicated emotions surrounding what happened at the hospital have left Carrie very very confused as to how she feels about him. And the letter is a big part of that. All she knows is that she doesn’t want him to go anywhere, and she’s not giving up on him becoming the man he once was (and still is, somewhere in there.)

She’s hesitant, yes. This is a big deal and a big risk for Carrie to take. Not just because Quinn isn’t exactly stable.

But because having him there, in her house, is a very different relationship. It’s a lot more intimate. And Carrie has never had this sort of relationship with any man. Ever. Are we counting Jonas? Yawn. But Jonas didn’t know Carrie. Not the real Carrie. So no, not counting Jonas. And Jonas isn’t a main character (thank Christ), Quinn is. Quinn has three seasons on Jonas. Jonas has time, yes, but it’s not significant time, because the writers didn’t show it to us.

So yeah, big step for Carrie. So much so, she’s not really ready to make it. So she locks the door. As well she should. I would have done the same thing.

But what’s interesting about this ‘locked door’ exchange is metaphorical.

I don’t mind admitting I actually choked a little watching this scene. 

God knows what he would have said if it had been open. Maybe he wanted to apologise. Maybe he just wanted company. Maybe he wanted to say ‘thank you.’

But there is, I think, a deeper symbolism to this locked door and (spoiler alert) the fact that we know that it’s Frannie that metaphorically opens it.

Quinn is not a prisoner in Carrie’s basement. He can get out, he can go into the garden. He can go anywhere, really. Except for the place that he really wants to go. Into Carrie’s home, and by extension, her heart. Yes, I know this is cheesy, but it’s true. Everything Quinn has ever wanted, that normal life

And by extension, a relationship with Carrie...

All of that is through that door. 

But he needs to change before he can really go through it. And Carrie needs to see that change in him before he’s ready to go through it. He needs to deal with his issues and work through what’s happened to him. It’s gonna be a long time but I like the fact that Frannie is going to be a facilitator to this change. It’s kind of beautiful.

But for me, that doesn’t really matter, it’s just part of the journey. Carrie (and Frannie) for that matter, are waiting for him. She’s true to her word. No, she’s not waiting with open arms, saying ‘Marry me...’ but a connection is there, if he wants it.

I will say again, when Quinn’s ready to walk through the door, we’ll get a lot of awkward moments. Inevitably Carrie and Quinn will get closer. And it will be an intimacy we’ve never seen from them before. They’re living in the same house, for god’s sake. When Quinn works his way back into Carrie’s life, which he will (I think it’s pretty damn clear from this opening episode that that’s the groundwork and journey for him this season) when we’ll see Carrie updating Quinn on everything that’s going on in her life with the new Pres, and the new job… and Dar… and Saul…. And when he will come to be something of a protector for Frannie (spoiler again there, sorry folks!)

I think this will be a very C/Q season. Quinn is literally the most important person in her life (apart from Frannie of course!) so they will share a lot of seasons together, confronting what has happened. Promised by this...

That’s just the thing.... why did you save him, Carrie? Carrie figuring that out will be a massive part of this season and her character development.

I am excited about what this season will bring for Carrie and Quinn. Bring it on.