Homeland (8×09) In Full Flight Review

For our review of the last episode of Homeland, click here.

Synopsis: Hayes has ideas. Carrie goes shopping. Tasneem has problems. (IMDB)

So the long game is finally coming through for Gromov. We now have some answers on what may have happened to the presidents’ helicopter while the situation in the Middle East has escalated quite dramatically as President Hayes continues to make a big mistake.

In Full Flight begins with the Kabul station monitoring Carrie and Gromov. They and Saul are clearly on much different pages. Now, Saul will have to work from Washington D.C. as he was called back. Meanwhile, the quest for the flight recorder continued as Carrie and Gromov scoured the markets for it (Kabul station lost them). There was a surprising amount of sharing going on between the two of them (he was all she had which was probably what he wanted).

Carrie eventually found Max’s bag and a lead on the flight recorder (of course it wasn’t in the bag). The flight recorder was recently sold but she offered to buy it at a much higher price. However, she the U.S. was looking for her nearby. Carrie bought herself some time by convincing Jenna to tell her the location of the safehouse of the squad looking for her (Gromov put the local authorities on them to buy some time). Meanwhile, Once Saul arrived in D.C., he tried to set Hayes straight but it didn’t work. He and Wellington were all alone.

Qureshi was wanted by Pakistani authorities for losing control of the Taliban but was busy arranging a meeting with Jalal Haqqani. Suffice it to say that the situation was much different than she expected. Jalal refused the ultimatum Qureshi delivered to either go underground or face the consequences. Little did she know, he had managed to rally the Taliban into quite a force (wow that was quick). Maybe the Americans can help?

With a million dollars from Saul, Carrie attended a late night meeting to buy the flight recorder. After some quick negotiating, she got her hands on it. As she was about to listen to it, Gromov showed up as they both heard what seemed like mechanical issues leading to a crash. This was quite some intel so suffice it to say that Gromov would not be as forthcoming to help Carrie with it. She tried to play the imperfect relationship angle and play to his ego which appeared to work until he drugged her and took the flight recorder. Meanwhile, as U.S. troops were approaching Pakistan, they were getting ready themselves with their own nuclear weapons.

The episode ended with Gromov placing Carrie on a bed.

So Gromov may have a thing for Carrie since they would not have gone nearly as far as they did so maybe he will choose her after all but it’s hard to see their story having a happy ending. Claire Danes and Costa Ronin have been great together so hopefully this will not be the end of them. Meanwhile, the series can’t end with another war so it’s very likely that the flight recorder ends it in some way (and hopefully Zabel gets what he deserves).

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.