Homeland often stretched the bounds of logic, but the final premise of the last few episodes of season 8 is the most absurd thing in the entire series. It's so stupid it makes me angry, and I'm amazed that the thing seems to have received universal praise.
First, the series has established that Carrie is not an idiot, and not crazy when on her meds, which she is for this entire season. Yet, her unilateral decision to give up the Russian asset in exchange for the black box is both stupid and insane.
1) She is an intelligent agent. She knows the value of a Russian agent. Her experiences in the season indicate exactly *how* dangerous Russia is. She knows that there is always a crisis, and that to give up all your power to win a single battle is exactly how you lose a war.
2) She also knows enough about American politics to realize this might not work. As we all learned from the Iraq War, when the U.S. government wants to go to war they will find a reason. Yes, in the series it works, but you've got an idiot, gung-ho president in the thrall of a war-mongering idiot. Even if the black box might cool tensions for a moment, a president who brought us to the brink of war is GOING TO DO IT AGAIN. She's giving up a Russian asset in exchange for maybe three months before the next crisis.
3) She also knows that while the CIA is a mixed bag, it does have smart people and resources and the information she has and her connection with the Russians could be used to possibly find the black box. Why not just go to Saul and say, the Russians made me this deal, how can we use this to our advantage? It's pretty much what would have happened in any other season. In fact, combined with the information from the translator, they probably could have located the black box and stole it back from the Russians.
4) While this may just fall in the category of general television stupidity, the whole idea that Carrie can find the asset Russian intelligence has been seeking for decades in a couple of days in order to, just in time, get the black box and prevent war, is absurd. It required *everything* to go right.
I also don't think Carrie's approach is consistent with Carrie as she has been in previous seasons. While she has often gone around channels when things weren't going the way she wanted, this generally happened after she had tried to go through channels and not been satisfied with the results. Carrie tried to get the CIA to send in a team to rescue Max. Carrie was going to work with Saul to find the black box. Her intention was to work within the system and it was when she saw the system break down that she went rogue. But in the case of giving up the Russian agent, she made no attempt to find another path. She didn't talk to anyone. She just decided this was the best plan.
Then there's Jenna. Jenna is the maggots in the middle of this s**t sandwich. Everything Jenna has seen of Carrie has been bad. She is a rogue agent, a liar, probably compromised, and has been connected with various disasters and failures during the brief time they've worked together. Carrie is persuasive, so it's somewhat understandable Jenna gave up the safe house, but after that blew up (literally) and she saw how stupid she'd been, it's a lot to believe she'd fall for it again. Her initial response makes sense; she'll tell Saul. It makes so much sense that realistically Carrie should have known that would happen and not approached Jenna. I mean, is Jenna like, the only contact Carrie has left in the CIA? Is this really the one person she can go to?
So Jenna, sensibly, goes to Saul. Saul is an experienced intelligence officer, and a CIA operative says she has important information about Carrie. My guess is an intelligence office would want to gather all information before anything else, but instead he cuts her off with a speech about how Carrie is always right about everything. And even though Jenna knows from experience that this is not remotely true, she leaves without telling Saul anything. Then she helps Carrie, because Carrie says "do you have any better ideas" and she didn't have any and thus, like Carrie, figured there was no one smarter than the two of them who might actually have a better idea.
The season was actually very solid until this concept was introduced during the last few episodes, and I did like the coda, but overall this was just beyond stupid.
First, the series has established that Carrie is not an idiot, and not crazy when on her meds, which she is for this entire season. Yet, her unilateral decision to give up the Russian asset in exchange for the black box is both stupid and insane.
1) She is an intelligent agent. She knows the value of a Russian agent. Her experiences in the season indicate exactly *how* dangerous Russia is. She knows that there is always a crisis, and that to give up all your power to win a single battle is exactly how you lose a war.
2) She also knows enough about American politics to realize this might not work. As we all learned from the Iraq War, when the U.S. government wants to go to war they will find a reason. Yes, in the series it works, but you've got an idiot, gung-ho president in the thrall of a war-mongering idiot. Even if the black box might cool tensions for a moment, a president who brought us to the brink of war is GOING TO DO IT AGAIN. She's giving up a Russian asset in exchange for maybe three months before the next crisis.
3) She also knows that while the CIA is a mixed bag, it does have smart people and resources and the information she has and her connection with the Russians could be used to possibly find the black box. Why not just go to Saul and say, the Russians made me this deal, how can we use this to our advantage? It's pretty much what would have happened in any other season. In fact, combined with the information from the translator, they probably could have located the black box and stole it back from the Russians.
4) While this may just fall in the category of general television stupidity, the whole idea that Carrie can find the asset Russian intelligence has been seeking for decades in a couple of days in order to, just in time, get the black box and prevent war, is absurd. It required *everything* to go right.
I also don't think Carrie's approach is consistent with Carrie as she has been in previous seasons. While she has often gone around channels when things weren't going the way she wanted, this generally happened after she had tried to go through channels and not been satisfied with the results. Carrie tried to get the CIA to send in a team to rescue Max. Carrie was going to work with Saul to find the black box. Her intention was to work within the system and it was when she saw the system break down that she went rogue. But in the case of giving up the Russian agent, she made no attempt to find another path. She didn't talk to anyone. She just decided this was the best plan.
Then there's Jenna. Jenna is the maggots in the middle of this s**t sandwich. Everything Jenna has seen of Carrie has been bad. She is a rogue agent, a liar, probably compromised, and has been connected with various disasters and failures during the brief time they've worked together. Carrie is persuasive, so it's somewhat understandable Jenna gave up the safe house, but after that blew up (literally) and she saw how stupid she'd been, it's a lot to believe she'd fall for it again. Her initial response makes sense; she'll tell Saul. It makes so much sense that realistically Carrie should have known that would happen and not approached Jenna. I mean, is Jenna like, the only contact Carrie has left in the CIA? Is this really the one person she can go to?
So Jenna, sensibly, goes to Saul. Saul is an experienced intelligence officer, and a CIA operative says she has important information about Carrie. My guess is an intelligence office would want to gather all information before anything else, but instead he cuts her off with a speech about how Carrie is always right about everything. And even though Jenna knows from experience that this is not remotely true, she leaves without telling Saul anything. Then she helps Carrie, because Carrie says "do you have any better ideas" and she didn't have any and thus, like Carrie, figured there was no one smarter than the two of them who might actually have a better idea.
The season was actually very solid until this concept was introduced during the last few episodes, and I did like the coda, but overall this was just beyond stupid.