Homeland Season 7 Episode 9: Useful Idiot Review

Keith NoakesApril 8, 20187387 min

If you would like to read my review of the last episode, click here.

Synopsis: Carrie has problems at home. Saul and Wellington work on Paley. (IMDB)

Writer: Debora Cahn

Director: Nelson McCormick

Rating: TV-MA

Running Time: 51mins

Airs: Sundays at 9pm on Super Channel (Canada)/Showtime (United States)

The good guys get a win and Carrie has the breakdown of all breakdowns.

The episode started with Gromov and Martin driving to an airfield. Someone named Clayton called Gromov about Dante who was missing. He couldn’t go with Martin because he was worried about Dante. An upset martin boarded a plane while he drove away.

Carrie was still with Dante at the hospital and taking her medication. Saul checked in to see when he’d wake up. Without him, they have nothing. Meanwhile, Paley was being questioned about Martin but he didn’t know what was going on though he suspected the White House was involved. Saul suggested they bring Paley in.

Despite being ordered to turn around, Gromov was determined to find Dante. Clayton informed him about what happened to Dante. Dante woke up and eventually agreed to cooperate. He gave them a burn code for their operation which was a tweet that had to be replied to. They could potentially collapse their operation and identify operatives. After she left, a shady man arrived at the hospital taking pictures.

Saul informed Keane about the latest developments and asked for her assistance with mining Twitter. Wellington and Saul briefed Paley about Martin and Russia. Paley was skeptical but the evidence began to convince him otherwise. Sandy was skeptical about Dante’s motives and that they may be doing the opposite of what they think they’re doing but they launched their Twitter plan anyway.

Paley was upset that Russia designated him a useful idiot in their plan and questioned all of his actions. He was mainly concerned with keeping up appearances despite this news. Gromov got a call about the burn code but he was adamant that they not go underground. He wanted men to take out Dante at the hospital but he didn’t have a plan. He was just frustrated that his operation was falling apart.

Their plan was working as several operatives, intentional or not, were exposing themselves on Twitter. Meanwhile, Carrie went to Maggie’s house but Maggie wasn’t there because she was at a lawyer to try and get custody of Frannie so she took Frannie’s things from their house. Martin tried to convince Gromov to reconsider his plan. Gromov met the earlier shady man to plot what to do with Dante. His plan was to shoot the shady man as a ruse to get in the hospital.

Carrie went to Frannie’s school to pull her out but the school was warned of her arrival. Gromov disguised himself as a nurse to enter Dante’s room. He was cooperating because he thought Gromov poisoned him but Gromov told him that he didn’t. Dante was handed a phone that he tried to call Carrie with to ask if she poisoned him. She insisted otherwise but Dante warned her about Gromov before being smothered. She had to leave bur Frannie ran after her car. Carrie almost hit her before she was intercepted.

This led to an epic mental breakdown by Carrie where she imagined Frannie dead and all the people who have died because of her.

Overall, this was a great episode that saw the good guys get a victory on many fronts as we learned the true scope of Russia’s involvement as Gromov’s network came crumbling down. Paley will hopefully tone down his rhetoric. Carrie’s breakdown felt sudden but it was building. Claire Danes was great here and maybe this will mark a transition with Carrie. Hopefully this won’t be too big of a distraction as the story this season has been one of the best of the series.

Score: 9.5/10

If you liked this, please read my other reviews here and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter, follow me on Instagram, and also like me on Facebook.

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