5x08 All About Allison

I like the idea of this episode--slowing down a bit and telling the story of how Allison got involved with the Russians in the first place--but the execution was pretty clumsy.

I don't mind the flashback interspersed with developments in the present structure, but it is a bit played out and they made it really obvious when scenes from the past were meant to inform the present. For instance, Carrie telling Numan to google "Banana Joe's in St. Lucia" after seeing the guy's screensaver was more than enough to let us know that she'd put two-and-two together without needing to cut back to the scenes where Allison mentioned St. Lucia.

The story itself was a bit too paint by the numbers. Spy gets frustrated and wants to escape, skirts the rules, gets caught and turned is pretty standard stuff, and it's not as though there was some specific twist on it here than made Allison's journey through it more interesting. The dialogue didn't help either. Both the actress who plays Allison and Claire Daines haven proven themselves to be superb actresses in the show so far, but their exchanges in the flashbacks were awkwardly worded and pretty stilted. What could have been an interesting dive into Allison's psyche and what brought her to where she's willing to play turncoat became more of the facile backstory type bit that wouldn't feel out of place on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The other big stories are puttering along. I'm still not a fan of the Quinn story the show's embarked on in the second half of the season. Him becoming the pirate king was suspect to begin with, and again, it feels a little too convenient that he just happens to fall into the gang of terrorists who are planning to unleash a dirty bomb of some sort on Berlin. If too much of your story relies on coincidence, and the reasons for getting all your major players in one place are a bit contrived, it's hard to buy in.

Saul's story continues to be a highlight. I've always enjoyed the backroom dealing and horse trading sides of espionage that the show occasionally traffics in, and there's enough twists and turns in his story to make it interesting. I assume Etai is lying to Saul or at least not telling all that he knows (collaborating with the Russians?) so I'm curious to see where it goes.

Similarly, there continues to be more to During than meets the eye, but I can't for the life of me figure out what his game is. Maybe he's trying to embarrass the intelligence community writ large? Sleep with Carrie? Both? Who knows.

But overall, this was a weaker episode that had the right idea in deepening Allison's character and making us care about her journey, but couldn't really get the execution right to make it actually happen.