5x09 The Litvinov Ruse

Certainly one of the most taut thrillers of an episode the show has done this season. Giving the episode a more singular focus, the hunt for Allison, not only allowed the episode to feel more direct and powerful, but it led to the smaller details around that main story feeling more salient as well.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the acting on this show is what has kept it worthwhile even as the storytelling has been more uneven from season-to-season and even episode-to-episode. The quiver of Carrie's lower lip as she looks at Saul for the first time since he told her off before he embraces her, the light in Saul's eyes when he tells Alison "I was asleep for ten years. You woke me up," the subtle pain and mild regret in Alison's eyes when she hears those words, was all masterful and added personal stakes to the larger spycraft story being told. The actress who played Alison did a particularly good job here, communicating her characters steely grace, fear, and determination in equal measure.

But the direction and cinematography deserve serious kudos as well. There were several images of the same person duplicated in multiple frames in this episode -- Alison on multiple surveillance screens, Quinn being videotaped by the terror cell, his soft-hearted would-be savior walking into his own reflection in a room full of reflective glass. The easy read of this motif is the multiple sides to these individuals, the way that Alison is a double agent, that Quinn cycles through identities, that the man who sympathizes with Quinn is both a terrorist but also a human being with empathy. But at base, it reflects the idea that there are multiple sides to these individuals.

And the way the episode's director put together the scenes of Allison's attempted escape and capture were superb at conveying the tension and pressure of the moment. Surveillance has been a recurring visual theme in this show, people's most personal moments watched through a digital frame, and it worked well here. But even when the show switched to steadicam and showed Alison weaving through the Berlin train station, it conveyed her sense of panic, of how tenuous Saul and Carrie and the Germans' hold on her was. It's one of the series' stand out sequences, and the (momentary) payoff to this season's game of cat and mouse was a satisfying one.

Unfortunately, Quinn's storyline was something of a drag. His plotline has been the weakest on the show since he all-too-conveniently found his way into a terror cell planning an attack on Berlin. The idea of the terrorist who has second thoughts about what he's planning and who is both humanized and sees the humanity in the people he's fighting against is a legitimate story beat, but it's also a bit of an easy one,, and there's not much of a distinctive take or twist to it here. Chekhov's sarin antedote injenction was a predictable turn in the story, and the entire enterprise feels like something to keep Quinn busy until it's time for him to rejoin the main plot of the season.

But still, the effort to trap Alison, the personal moments between Carrie and Saul, and the bits of spycraft we witnessed in both efforts, elevated this episode to being one of the best of the season so far. Alison's attempt to spin the events with Ivan as her asset is an interesting story direction, and while I have no doubt that Quinn will survive, there's still lots of intrigue going into the final three episodes of the season.