Carrie, Quinn and Saul have to fend for themselves in order to survive throughout "Parabiosis." After Carrie and Saul have their conversation at the top of the episode, they are all forced to go their separate ways. Each of them is doing their best to survive right now amongst a system that has turned against them. Quinn is clinging to life only to find safety amongst a group of Syrian refuges and possible terrorists. Carrie can't access the CIA information that will help explain why all of this is happening to her right now. That plus Jonas yelling at her is enough to send her on a crippling spiral of self-doubt. And lastly, Saul realizes that he is being followed and that the only person he can trust is Carrie. But he has to risk looking like a traitor in order to get her the information that she so desperately needs. It's a very tense episode - even though Saul's story is the only one that really works.It's rather miraculous that Quinn is able to survive this experience. He was bleeding out and wandering the streets. Last week's episode was building towards his death. Eliminating him from the narrative could force Carrie and Saul into action. That's not what the show wants to do though. So instead, Quinn finds a way to survive. It's simply a ridiculous plot construct though. The man who he ran into on the streets really did just want to help him. He was a good samaritan. He wasn't a person who wished him harm or who would just take him to the hospital. Against all the odds, he was a doctor from Syria who couldn't practice in Germany and thus took Quinn back to his apartment complex to save his life. That's a little too good to be true. The episode tries to keep Quinn's side of the story as tense as it was last week. It does that by incorporating a criminal who was imprisoned by the US-Germany surveillance program. It gives the illusion that this new group of people are extremely connected to the main narrative of the season. And yet, they aren't. They are simply a group during their best to stay out of Syria but their crazy boss was just released from prison. That's a fine diversion for the story to take. But it's also so apparent that all of this is just happening in order to come up with an explanation as to how Quinn is still alive. Even in a weakened state, he is a very capable killing machine. This situation could grow more tense in the future. But right now, it felt like a lame way to keep a character alive for some reason.
Elsewhere, it's a tad difficult to understand why Jonas thinks that he and Carrie can just go back to the life that they used to be living. He has been so patient with her. He has the right to explode at her after everything she has made him do in the last few weeks. But Carrie can't go back to the new life she made in Berlin until this threat to her life is eliminated. She doesn't know why the Russians want her dead. All of the answers are in the stolen CIA files. Laura doesn't have them anymore and Saul refuses to give them to her. This contentious relationship with Saul only really amounts to Carrie not getting the information she wants until the end of this episode. It's a stalling technique that really didn't create a whole lot of dynamic moments between the pair this season.
Similarly, the audience really didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with Carrie in her new life in Berlin to care all that much about her giving it up forever. However, the idea of her disappearing is a very good character moment for her. After Saul doesn't cooperate, she fully believes that she only brings pain and destruction no matter where she goes. The lives of everyone she comes in contact with are put in danger simply by their proximity to her. She has been given this chance to completely start over. She can leave her old life behind in order to forge ahead. She would be unable to see her family ever again but the title "Carrie Mathison: CIA agent" would no longer define her every action. It's a prospect she didn't take seriously when Quinn first presented it to her. She needed to find answers in order to clear her name and protect her new life. But now, she is defeated. She has hit a wall and has no one else she can turn to. It would be easy for her to run away now. She has accepted the fact that she isn't good for anyone around her. And yet, Saul does come through for her eventually. That should be enough to pull her out of this spiral. Plus, Quinn should come back to help her shortly. So things are looking up for Carrie at the moment.
However, Saul has now alienated himself from the rest of the agency. This season he has had these big plans about the conflict in the Middle East. He has put those thoughts into action. He had a crippling loss when all of his hard work exploded on a plane. That was his turning point for the season. Suspicion started to fall on him because of Allison. She is the true mole in the agency but everyone is looking at Saul. He doesn't want to believe that Carrie is telling the truth - that he is the one being followed. But he soon notices the people watching him and orders for the agency building to be swept. He wants to believe there is just a bug and not someone in the agency working against them. The audience knows that the latter is true in this case. Plus, things are only getting worse for Saul - to the point that he goes on the run as well.
Saul realizes that Carrie was telling the truth. He's hesitant to say that she is his source of information because she is no longer an ally to the agency. That creates a circumstance where Saul is locked out of the system until it can be determined that he is trustworthy again. So he goes rogue to collect the leaked documents himself. That could create a whole mess of problems in the future for him. He sure is risking a lot by getting these documents for Carrie. This could end his career in the CIA for good. He is taking classified documents illegally and giving them to a person who doesn't have the clearance to see them. Even when this is all over, that could be problematic for Saul. He is back in CIA custody. So now, everyone is more certain that he is the leak who has been working against them. He's putting his faith in Carrie being able to figure all of this out and clear his name. It's a huge task. But Carrie should be up for it. Now, all she needs is the support to investigate the truth and all the consequences that will come from it.
Some more thoughts:
- "Parabiosis" was written by Chip Johannessen & Ted Mann and directed by Alex Graves.
- Otto hasn't been all that important as a character this season. He is put in the middle of things in this episode as he's the person who can supply a plane for Carrie and the only one who can get the leaked documents to her. That definitely gives him a purpose. But it's still not much of a character.
- How long is Quinn going to stay in this apartment? One night is certain. But he should be wanting to get back to Carrie as soon as possible.
- It's a little hard to believe that Saul didn't hear about the incident that happened outside of his drop location for the operation with Quinn.
- Carrie having to delete photos of Frannie from her phone was a much more emotionally effective moment than her staring into the window at Jonas as he was cooking. That's mostly because Carrie's connection to Frannie is so much stronger than the one with Jonas.
- Of course, Dar knew that Saul and Allison were sleeping together. He wasn't afraid to use it against them either.
- Saul realizing that he was locked out of the system and then stealing the documents was a phenomenally directed sequence. It wasn't all done in one shot. But there was two one shots that happened consecutively.
