Carrie needs Allison's help. Quinn's plans change.
Throughout "All About Allison," it's unclear just how suspicious Carrie is of Allison and her connection to the conspiracy that wants her dead. Earlier this season, she took the phone off of the assassin who targeted Quinn outside of his dead drop and used it to call the only number on it. Allison picked up. That's what first made the audience suspicious of Allison. And yet, it would seem that Carrie didn't recognize the voice on the other end of the line - even though she and Allison have been colleagues for years. Carrie can remember the bar on St. Lucia that Allison once mentioned as the destination she loves to visit. And yet, she doesn't recognize her voice. That seems a bit impossible to believe. It really bogs this episode down because Carrie appears as nothing more than a fool for trusting Allison in the first place.Carrie called Allison on her way home from Amsterdam in order to get some more insight into the time they spent together in Baghdad working with their asset, Achmed. She wants to know how he could still be alive. She reaches out to Allison because she has no one else she can turn to in order to get this information. But the hour is constantly a million steps ahead of Carrie. It makes her appear horribly dim. Carrie is not a dumb person. She is an excellent spy. She hasn't lost any of those skills despite being out of the CIA for two years. And yet, this episode revolves around the tension building regarding what Carrie has found from Achmed's apartment. It's only because Numan hasn't gotten into the computer yet that Carrie goes into her meeting with Allison with very little intel. That's the only reason why she leaves alive. Allison is able to play her. It is a captivating performance by Miranda Otto as Allison carefully listens to everything that Carrie has to say about Achmed. But it's not a revelatory meeting. Neither of them leave with much purpose or clarity. Plot constructs and stalling devices are the only reasons why Carrie survives this meeting.
It is compelling to watch as Allison is unsure of what Carrie knows about this operation she is running with the Russians. It was a devastating reveal to her when she found out that Carrie is still alive. Now, she's walking into a meeting where she just as easily could order Carrie's death. But this episode also softens Allison a little bit. She's not the real threat that Carrie needs to be afraid of. The Russians are the people who are truly pulling the strings with Allison. This episode flashes back to how this arrangement first started for Allison. Back when Carrie first joined the station in Baghdad, Allison was in a complicated relationship with Achmed. He was her informant who also had a serious crush on her. It's because she wanted to flee with him and the $8 million he stole from the government that led to her current predicament. The Russians caught her. And then, they filled her head with the idea of this being a mutually beneficial relationship of intelligence. That may have been true at one time. But now, the Russians are seemingly controlling the conversation. Allison is just in the crosshairs and has so much to now lose. That's the only reason why she continues to put the Russians' interests above all else. She's connected to this conspiracy that could end things very badly for her should they be exposed. And yet, that doesn't make her willing to kill Carrie. Again, they were friends at one time. It just makes the situation more complicated while making Allison more human.
And yet, the flashbacks are carefully constructed and placed in this episode. At one point, it seems as if Carrie is remembering all of these questionable moments between her and Allison. And yet, that seed of doubt never really comes into the action. She just pleads her case to Allison. That keeps her alive. But it's also frustrating for the audience because it makes the reveal at the end of the episode so lazily predictable. It's not surprising at all that Carrie is able to connect the pieces regarding Allison's involvement with this conspiracy. The audience has known that for weeks. It's not shocking at all. It may make Carrie more aware and a better protagonist in the future. But it doesn't make this episode any better for her. It may establish a connection with Allison that Carrie will be able to exploit now that she knows the truth. But again, it was never made clear enough across this episode - and the ones preceding it - that Carrie never had any doubts about Allison. It's just a story this season that doesn't track well and didn't seem to have much purpose.
At least, Carrie and Allison are active characters in this hour though. Saul and Quinn just sit around and wait for things to happen. And then, they are just rushed into big plot developments at the end of the hour to add some excitement to those concluding moments. Neither one of their stories is all that engaging or exciting either. They are just in holding patterns until they can be brought back into the main narrative again. Quinn's trip out of the country makes no sense because it's not clear at all how it's going to pull back into the main story. It's just another threat that everyone else will have to deal with all of sudden. That's just going to needlessly complicate the season's narrative. And then, Saul is just stuck in an apartment trying to escape the inevitable capture from the CIA. It's something he can only escape for so long. He can't run - until he is just magically able to in the end. It just doesn't work that well.
Some more thoughts:
- "All About Allison" was written by Ron Nyswaner and directed by Dan Attias.
- Of course, the show thinks it's necessary to linger on a shot of Carrie looking at a picture of Brody on the wall of people missing in action during the 2005 Baghdad flashbacks.
- Also, Allison's hair in the flashbacks was pretty awful. It didn't take away from the emotional moments of the story. But it was still very distracting.
- This season has a problem of people just listening to whatever Allison has to say. It establishes that Carrie, Saul and Dar really do trust her. But that trust really hasn't been earned. And then, the audience also knows that she is fooling everyone with her secret relationship with the Russians.
- The show no longer cares about doing an accurate representation of technology and hacking. That was one of the main themes at the start of the season. And now, it's basically reduced to a plot construct. Numan can only successfully hack when it leads to the big end of episode revelation.
- Otto remains such a boring character. He calls to check in on Carrie and then just doesn't tell her about Jonas when she asks. He just makes no sense at all. It's not interesting in the slightest.
- The big twist at the end of Quinn's story with the Syrians going back to Berlin instead of Syria was so painfully telegraphed. Quinn may have been even more foolish than Carrie was this week.
