Homeland's mid season lull has been a little bit perplexing and it continues to be through the entirety of All About Alison. It is not as if the plot hasn't been moving along it is just that there have been no scenes of any note and even if the plot hasn't stopped moving the pacing has been lackluster.
The final few minutes of All About Alison certainly push forward the plot but issues still surround them. Firstly Carrie working out that Alison is in cahoots with the Russians is a tad underwhelming, because it was something that was totally and utterly inevitable and although I think this was a decent time to do it, she could have worked it out episodes ago and we might be watching a more exciting show at this point.
The biggest problem though is the cost of this reveal. Namely, that we had to sit through some extended flashbacks to get there. Now I love a bit of chronology messing, but the thing with flashbacks is that they only work when they inform or answer questions about the characters we care about in the present.
The flashbacks here don't. Really there only function is that they work as part of a pretty small puzzle that tells Carrie that Alison is the mole. Now you could argue that this is a quite silly way for Carrie to work out, but Homeland needed to get from point A to point B and this did the trick. The main issue is that we have to spend ages of time with Allison that really do nothing for the character.
The reasons for why she works for the Russians are so dull and predictable that in the most part I could have worked them out myself or at least I didn't need to know why. They fail when it comes to informing Alison's actions (not that they needed much informing) and in this sense weren't worth the admission fee.
Otherwise the episode was perfectly fine. The stuff with Saul at the end seems a bit suspicious and the adventures of Quinn remain dull but at least look like they are hotting up a little.
I guess this is where Homeland is at now, to think that the last time they did a flashback episode it was when we discovered what had happened to Brody (who there was a nod to this week in the form of a picture) when he was being held as a POW, midway through the first season. Different times.
(for more reviews go to donheisenberg.tumblr.com)
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