Homeland Season 6 Episode 4 Recap: “A Flash Of Light”

Audiences have been waiting patiently for Season 6 of Homeland to pick up the pace, so while Sunday night’s (Feb. 12) episode continues to move with an unhurried stride, things literally explode in the final few minutes. At last, viewers receive confirmation that there is a common thread tying all the various storylines together. There’s a connection between Sekou (J. Mallory McCree), and the man living across the street from Carrie (Claire Danes). And there’s a link between Carrie’s work as an advisor to President-elect Elizabeth Keane (Elizabeth Marvel), Saul’s investigation in Abu Dhabi, and the devastating fate of Sekou. The explosion at the end of the episode, entitled “A Flash of Light,” is a disastrous situation for numerous reasons. First and foremost being that Sekou was driving the vehicle that blew up. While we’re assuming he doesn’t make it out of this situation alive, no one is going to believe that it wasn’t him who put the bomb in his Medina Medley delivery vehicle. And this will give whoever did plant the explosive device a long leash of time to cover their tracks. It’s unknown how many lives were taken during what the CIA is quick to dub a terrorist attack, but we do that Carrie’s neighbor, whom Quinn has always been highly suspicious of, could be the guilty culprit. And that this whole thing could’ve been an inside job. Thanks to Quinn’s unrelenting hunch, it can’t just be a coincidence that this questionable neighbor has a perfect target view into Carrie’s home. He follows his neighbor when he gets into a black car at the questionable time of 2:15 a.m. and heads to the Medina Medley, the last location Sekou was seen alive. Now Quinn has been a little caught up recuperating from his relentless PTSD to know what’s going on in Carrie’s world, but he will soon show Carrie the photos he took, and such will serve as evidence that Carrie’s client was indeed set up. However, it’s not going to be easy for Carrie to once again prove Sekou isn’t guilty. After defying court orders the day he got out of prison and outing an FBI informant in order to uphold his street cred, the authorities will not be quick to see her side. The timing of it all is just too suspect. Without Quinn’s sleuthing, it’s easy for this to look like Sekou blew up his delivery truck in the middle of Manhattan as his final act of resistance. And that all of his pro-Muslim video blogs were never innocent, but a preamble to a self-sacrificing terrorist revolt. But from the information viewers are privy to, this all seems like part of Dar Adal's (F. Murray Abraham) grand plan to take down Carrie. It’s disturbing to think that Adal is willing to kill an innocent kid in order to remove Carrie from her position in the White House, but this wouldn’t be the first time that the head of the Black Ops made a grim decision for what he sees as “the greater good for the country.” He could’ve planted the suspicious neighbor to keep on eye on Carrie, and then instructed him to take out Sekou. Or maybe Adal is innocent and it was Sekou’s friends from work, the guys who think he went soft in his mission to educate post 9/11 America, who planted the bomb. There are a lot of unanswered questions lingering. Including whether or not Carrie will dish out top secret information in order to help Keane get rid of Adal. Carrie is not a fan of him at all, but she’s hesitant to make such a deceitful move. Adal once had Carrie’s back. He’s helped save her life in more than a few sticky situations. So, aside from the fact that it is illegal for Carrie to tell Keane any classified information, Carrie would either be implicating herself, or her mentor, Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin). Keane promises Carrie that she will not end up behind bars for breaking her confidentiality agreement with the CIA, but Carrie will sooner commit suicide than break a loyalty pact or throw Saul under the bus. This is a woman who’s dedicated her entire life to doing what’s right. And while Carrie’s gone rogue before, she’s never been a whistleblower. Carrie will help Keane, but she will aggressively search for another way to take out Adal, even if it’s much more difficult, or puts her own life in grave danger. And if the Sekou situation causes Keane to lose trust in Carrie just as Adal intended, and she's subsequently fired as advisor to the President-elect, Carrie will continue her fight for justice. Because that’s just the kind of girl Carrie is.