“In case you haven’t noticed, she isn’t the most reliable.”
We had every right to expect a world of pain for Dante when Carrie and her crew of trained killers had him at their mercy. It’s a little disappointing that in the end they just have a bit of a snoop around his flat. A stirring Dante prematurely brings their fun to an end and Carrie suddenly remembers a redhead first-grader of her occasional acquaintance who needs running to school. Her dicey parenting triggers a row with Maggie and Carrie just can’t back down. She walks out of a stable home and once again, it’s Franny who suffers.
This is Carrie on tilt – her judgement flawed, her credibility shaky and her credit maxed out. When she can’t even gain entry to a low-rent motel, she accepts Dante’s kind offer to stay with him. After all, he makes banging pancakes and there’s about a 10% chance he isn’t a Russian spy. Once Team Mathison are left alone, it’s Franny who discovers photos of Dante’s first wife Audrey – the infamous bipolar ex over whom he drank himself to distraction.
A candid chat at Treasury reveals that Audrey is not bipolar and Dante was never an alcoholic. The former Mrs Allen does, however, mention that there was a simmering resentment from Dante about carrying the can for whatever went down in Kabul while a certain blonde Drone Queen got promotion after bombing a wedding party. So that’s Dante’s pique.
The man himself does some spying of his own in Carrie’s room round at Maggie’s. He discovers printouts of his LinkedIn profile and is shocked. There’s someone who actually uses LinkedIn? It prompts a frank late-night discussion between the two where they decide that there is nothing quite as alluring as a mortal enemy. It takes a team of armed men to pull them off each other. Seriously, these two.
“She trusted the wrong people, used her considerable energies to help a foreign power undermine our government.”
Saul pays a visit to David Wellington to tell him he knows he’s being set up to take the fall for McClendon and that Simone is very likely a Russian agent. He pumps Wellington for every bit of info on Simone he can get. With the presidency at stake, he can’t afford to screw around.
His next step is to strong-arm Max into working with his team. Together they unearth Russian oligarchs on the board of Simone’s NGO but that isn’t enough for an intransigent federal judge who stonewalls Saul in his attempt to interrogate Simone. It’s back to square one. Fortunately, Max comes through by cross-referencing Simone’s movements with Dante’s trips overseas. Their paths cross five times, which seems a little too much of a coincidence. If Saul can’t get to Simone then Dante is the next best thing. He swings by his place with a few close Swat-team buddies and is alarmed to find Carrie and Dante in flagrante in the living room with a severely traumatised Franny nearby. It’s at times like these Carrie is relieved she doesn’t have a job to be sacked from.
“Will the walls of this White House come tumbling down?”
Elizabeth figures that she doesn’t need to comment on the video of Wellington confronting Simone. After all, how bad can it be? While attending the ceremony for the heroes from the convoy bombing at the Virginia war memorial, she receives and reads David’s letter of resignation. She appreciates the grim irony that he falls on his sword just as she takes credit for his masterstroke. A conversation with Saul confirms that Wellington has been played like a harpsichord by the Russians. Nonetheless, she visits him that night to officially refuse his resignation. If this sorry episode has proved nothing else, it’s that David is fully devoted to her and with her enemies gathering she needs someone at her side willing to take a bullet for her.
Notes and observations
- The second personal letter from David to Elizabeth, stressing that Simone meant nothing to him was a strange one. Is David in love with her? I don’t think I’m OK with that.
- “Since what you’re really asking is whether you’ll sit in this chair anytime soon, the answer is no.” Elizabeth puts her oily vice-president Ralph Marlin firmly in his place.
- Latisha, Maggie, Quinn and now Dante – pretty much everyone who meets her gets on better with Franny than Carrie.
- There’s a welcome return for Hop the stuffed rabbit who survived the siege last year. Indefatigable.
Is David crushing on Elizabeth? Will Saul get to Simone before she testifies? Will Franny ever experience responsible parenting? The comments are open.
