Quinn Is Given A Horrible Task On 'Homeland'

Well, this is one horrible situation. On Sunday night’s episode of Homeland, Quinn’s secret task of killing people continued, after bringing some horribly dark scenes already. But after Quinn killed a woman who was recruiting young teenage girls as terrorists, he received yet another victim. Unfortunately, after he decrypted the coded message with the target, he discovered the name Mathison. Yes, Quinn has been ordered to kill Carrie on Homeland, which raises two very important questions. Who from the CIA is behind the hit, and will Quinn actually go through with killing Carrie?

Whoever actually ordered this hit must know precisely Quinn’s relationship with Carrie, because this is such a horrific situation for all parties involved. Quinn clearly showed he had feelings for Carrie on the Season 4 finale when he kissed her and then tried to persuade her to get out of the CIA life with him, once and for all. So to now be tasked with killing Carrie might be the worst scenario possible for Quinn, despite his insistence that he wouldn’t have any issues taking on this secret hitman assignment. I have to believe that there is no way Quinn will actually go through with this. In fact, if you watch the trailer for Homeland Season 5 below, you may notice that Quinn is clearly trying to warn Carrie that someone is after her. Plus, we know from seeing the video of Walid being tortured that Carrie already knows she’s being targeted.

Quinn will definitely be tormented by this situation, because despite the two-year time jump, he likely still has feelings for Carrie. But if Quinn tries to help Carrie out of this life-threatening situation, there’s no way that the CIA will leave him alone. He will most likely be harshly punished, at the very least, if he tries to warn her and is caught. There's also a chance he could be targeted himself for helping Carrie.

What I’m most worried about is just how much Quinn's psychological issues will be aggravated from this situation. We’ve already seen how quickly Quinn can snap (albeit silently) in different situations. His time in Syria affected him in a way we may never understand, but those feelings he has for Carrie and a longing for the outside/non-CIA world must still be there. Quinn's character development is so fascinating this season, as in just two episodes alone and with very little dialogue, we can already see so many layers to him, which makes what happened to him during the time jump that much more intriguing.

I'm confident that Quinn won't kill Carrie, but we'll have to wait and see how the two of them will keep each other safe as they work to figure out who ordered the hit. I have to say, the person who delivered the coded message looked a lot like an older man of Saul's height and build. Still, I can't believe that Saul would let anyone in the CIA have Carrie killed, so Dar Adal is a more probable suspect. He's a sketchy guy and I would not be surprised to see him stoop this low in Homeland Season 5.

Image: Stephan Rabold/SHOWTIME