review of Homeland 5.2 

Well, lots of people want to kill Carrie, but the question posed at the provocative end of

Homeland 5.2 is who gave Quinn the encoded order to take Carrie out?  Unless Quinn is in the grip of some kind of schizophrenic split-personality episode, and gave the order himself - highly unlikely - he\'s the only one we can rule out as the originator of the kill command.

But the others don\'t seem very likely either -

Saul was the one who put Quinn on the overall hit man job, but it\'s all but unimaginable that Saul now wants to kill Carrie.  It would be an insanely unexpected twist, with the emphasis on insane.  It can\'t be Saul.

Dar is a suitably dislikable character.  He certainly has the clout to issue such an order.  But he\'s far too obvious a choice.

The only other person I can think of off-hand is the now fired CIA head in Germany.  But how would she be able to break into Saul\'s system?   And she seems too lightweight to play such a pivotally powerful position in our story.

So that leaves us with no one that we know very well, or much about at all.   There are two groups of candidates for issuing the death warrant for Carrie -

Hackers - perhaps one of whom we\'ve already seen (or not), knew enough to crack the CIA code, and issue the order, and make it appear that it came from Saul.   I have no idea if the savvy to do this is on the same level as what was needed to lay bare the US-German digital correspondence.

CIA biggies back in the US - other than Dar, I\'m assuming there are others in that room we saw in the first episode who have the wherewithal, and could command the tech support, to issue a kill on Carrie.   I have no specific idea just who that could be, though.

So we\'re left with an excellent mystery, on top the excellent scenic action, as the fifth season of Homeland gets going.

See also Homeland 5.1: Moving into the Age of Snowden

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

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

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...