review of Homeland 6.8 

Homeland last night - 6.8 - which was about the best Peter episode we\'ve had so far this year.

Despite Peter\'s near-death experience and what it did to his brain, he still has the instincts, even the smarts, of a master spy.   He has the sense that people are out to kill him.  He may be a little paranoid, but in this case, as the cliche goes, he\'s not paranoid at all - because, for whatever reason, the same people who killed the FBI guy and were watching Carrie\'s house, are indeed hunting Quinn.  (I\'ll get to who they may be in a minute.)

Since Peter is a little paranoid, he thinks he sees the guy who\'s been stalking him, and that turns out to be the wrong man.  He\'s worried that he can\'t trust Astrid, and astutely takes the bullets out of her gun, likely thinking that, if she tries to stop him from leaving at the point of that gun, he can safely ignore it.  Tragically, the strategy backfires and leads to Astrid herself getting shot to death, as she tries to defend Peter when the real bad guy attacks their cabin.  It was a pretty good and stinging irony in this spy drama.

I said last week that Dar is the arch villain this season, and I\'m pretty sure he still is.  But I don\'t quite get why he would visit Peter, and try to turn him against Carrie (a despicable move, presumably for some future leverage), only to send someone to kill Peter, almost the next day.  Something doesn\'t quite add up about that - maybe Dar isn\'t the ultimate villain, or at very least not the only villain,  at work here after all.

Dar is presumably responsible, though, for Saul\'s Iranian contact lying to the President-elect and saying the Iranians are indeed cheating on the nuclear arms deal, after Saul took great pains, including recruiting Carrie, to set up the meeting.  Well, at least Saul\'s getting wise to some of what Dar is doing.

See also Homeland 6.1: Madam President-Elect ... Homeland 6.2: Parallel Program ... Homeland 6.3: Potentials ... Homeland 6.4: "A Man with Painted Hair" ... Homeland 6.5: The Attack on Carrie\'s Brownstone ... Homeland 6.7: The Arch Villain

And see also Homeland 5.1: Moving into the Age of Snowden ... Homeland 5.2: Who Wants to Kill Carrie ... Homeland 5.3: Carrie and Kerry ... Homeland 5.5: All Quinn ... Homeland 5.6: Saul Wises Up ... Homeland 5.7: Tough to Watch ... Homeland 5.9: Finally! ... Homeland 5.10: Homeland and Homeland ... Homeland 5.11: Allison as Primo Villain ... Homeland Season 5 Finale: RIPs

And see also Homeland 4.1-2: Carrie\'s State of Mind ... Homeland 4.3: Quinn and Carrie ... Homeland 4.4: Carrie\'s Counterpart ... Homeland 4.5: Righteous Seduction ... Homeland 4.6: The Biggest Reveal ... Homeland 4.7: The Manifestation ... Homeland 4.8: Saving Someone\'s Life ... Homeland 4.9: Hitchcock Would\'ve Loved It ... Homeland 4.10: The List ... Homeland 4.12: Out of this Together

And see also Homeland 3.1: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 3.2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 3.3: Two Prisons ... Homeland 3.4: Twist! ...Homeland 3.6: Further Down the Rabbit Hole ... Homeland 3.7: Revealing What We Already Knew ... Homeland 3.8: Signs of Life ...Homeland 3.9: Perfect Timing ... Homeland 3.10: Someone Has to Die ... Homeland 3.11: The Loyalist ... Homeland Season 3 Finale: Redemption and Betrayal

And see Homeland 2.1-2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.3-5: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.6: What Brody Knows ... Homeland 2.7: Love Me Tinder ... Homeland 2.8: The Personal and the Professional ...Homeland Season 2 Finale: The Shocker and the Reality

And see also  Homeland on Showtime ... Homeland 1.8: Surprises ... Homeland Concludes First Season: Exceptional

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Paul Levinson, PhD, is Professor of Communication & Media Studies at Fordham University in New York City.  His 8 nonfiction books, including The Soft Edge (1997), Digital McLuhan (1999), Realspace (2003),  Cellphone (2004), and New New Media (2009, 2nd edition 2012), have been the subject of major articles in the New York Times, Wired, the Christian Science Monitor, and have been translated into 12 languages. His science fiction novels include The Silk Code (1999, ebook 2012), Borrowed Tides (2001), TheConsciousness Plague (2002, 2013), The Pixel Eye (2003), The Plot To SaveSocrates (2006, ebook 2012), and Unburning Alexandria (2013).  His short stories have been nominated for Nebula, Hugo, Edgar, and Sturgeon Awards.  Paul Levinson appears on "The O'Reilly Factor" (Fox News), "The CBS Evening News,"  “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” (PBS),  “Nightline” (ABC), NPR, and numerous national and international TV and radio programs. His 1972 album, Twice Upon a Rhyme, was re-issued in 2009 (CD) and 2010 (remastered vinyl). He reviews the best of television in his InfiniteRegress.tv blog, and was listed in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Top 10 Academic Twitterers” in 2009.

Chronicle of Higher Education puts Paul Levinson in Top 10 (#7) of Academic "High Flyers" on Twitter ... Online University Data puts PL in "Top 50 Online University Professors on Twitter Worth Following"...

Dear Paul, I just dreamed of airships flying between raindrops. I just returned from 2042 CE, where I sold my hardcover copy of The Plot to Save Socrates for seventy million Neo-Euros, because it had your response to this e-mail from way back in 2007 scotch-taped onto the inside of the cover. A Paul Levinson collector paid top Neo-Euro, because of the authentic archaic e-mail printout from you. It turns out that not many of your e-mails from before your tenure as CEO of HBO/Cinemax and terms as United Nations Secretary General will survive that far into the future. So, please respond to this e-mail, to help found my great-grandchildren\'s fortune. My Will will stipulate that they must share with your great grandchidren. Thanks! Tom

President, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, 1998-2001

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Twice Upon a Rhyme reviewed in Jan-Feb 2011 Shindig Magazine

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Paul Levinson appears on "The O\'Reilly Factor" (Fox News), "The CBS Evening News," "Nightline" (ABC), the "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" (PBS), "The Dylan Ratigan Show" (MSNBC) and frequently on NPR and all-news radio...