'Homeland' Season 8 Episode 10 Review: 'The Designated Driver' sets series on the road to an epic end
Spoilers for 'Homeland' Season 8 Episode 10 'The Designated Driver'
The final minutes of 'The Designated Driver' made sure it all boiled down to a terror attack - one that is sure to end badly for either Pakistan or the United States. And for all the politics, the risk, the life-jeopardizing missions, nothing could stop Jalal Haqqqani (Elham Ehsas) from setting off an explosion that would change the course of the world forever.
The episode traverses a path that has emotion and respect at one end and dirty politics at the other. Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) -- jaded, burnt out and resigned -- is now looking at Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin) as her last hope after being branded a fugitive. The US' threats to Pakistan are now matters of serious consideration, and somewhere there, Jalal decides to announce his reign of terror to the world. The result: A war's brewing and it's not going to end well.
After watching the episode, a realization sinks in: the only country to gain from all of this is Russia, especially when they conveniently made away with the Black Box, courtesy, Yevgeny Gromov (Costa Ronin). The episode finally reveals his hidden motives as Russia realizes there is a mole in their midst who feeds information and the condition is simple: Black Box in exchange for that info from CIA.
There are multiple layers in 'The Designated Driver', one of them is about the relationship Carrie and Saul share. It is heartening that Saul is ready to compromise his career as the National Security Advisor if it means having Carrie back and who's now turned herself in.
While there is no doubt Saul will defend his agent and friend to kingdom come, only the last two episodes will give us a definite ending about how things will draw to a close for both these characters. What we can be sure of is neither of them will betray each other.
And what of Jalal Haqqani? Quite simply, this is a man who wants to run the country with an iron fist. It is preposterous to believe he's doing all this to avenge the death of his father, Haissam Haqqani (Numan Acar), and surprisingly his dominance helps him get the better of Tasneem Qureishi (Nimrat Kaur), who doesn't feature in this episode. The first casualty is Haissam's former right hand man, Balach (Seear Kohi), as the suicide bomber or better yet, "the designated driver."
To smoothen things, David Wellington (Linus Roache) convinces the Pakistani Ambassador to release the exfil team, and while that somehow is sorted, Balach rams into them, killing them all in the final minutes of the episode as his last act of valor. And that will set the tone for what will happen in the final two episodes.
That tinge of sadness cannot be ignored while watching the episode as it ends with one question: What more could Carrie do? However, known for its unpredictability, we can be doubly sure that all the quiet that's seen in episode 10, will be largely absent in the penultimate episode as tensions are sure to run high.
'The Designated Driver' is just the start of what could be a defining end to 'Homeland's final season.
