If I can fanwank it, perhaps Carrie knew that their was a play, but not exactly what it would entail until it was time, need to know and all that. Which would explain her surprise. She possibly did not expect it to be based upon her mental state.
IIRC when Quinn and Carrie are talking in the parking garage she makes it clear she was always in on it. If I’m bored enough later I’ll try and find and transcribe that scene as well.
Although I think we’re already spending more time on this than the writers did.
It makes sense that Carrie and Saul hatched their plot soon after the bombings, so that it was in motion before the season even started. I think some things were still not part of their plan, though. Like Carrie going off her meds - that seemed to be her decision alone. And while she may have been aware that Saul was going to burn her in the public eye, I don’t think she had planned to get herself locked up. She told Saul “you shouldn’t have left me in there.” Here’s what I think happened:
Carrie goes to the journalist (on purpose)
Goatee man presses Saul to get Carrie locked up
Carrie gets locked up but expects Saul to get her out eventually
Saul decides to just leave it to Goatee man and not interfere (to make the rift between him and Carrie seem real)
Carrie sees Goatee man at the hospital and realizes that Saul’s plan is to leave her in there until the Iranians bite
So Carrie’s agitation at being in the hospital was real, I think. She hadn’t banked on being trapped there for so long and the whole thing hinged on the Iranians taking the bait, so maybe she was truly afraid of being locked in there indefinitely. I think she had to have been in on the secret plan before the hearings, because she never confronted Saul about it privately (if I am remembering correctly) it was always in public where others could see.
That’s my thoughts as well. It’s one thing to know Saul is having you institutionalized, but another to see your name slandered on TV in a Congressional hearing. That isn’t going to be taken back when all this over, so she’ll have to live with that the rest of her life.
But she probably loves that, deep down inside. She’s a CIA agent, and lives for the adrenalin rush that all of that entails.
That’s exactly where it was heading when I left it last season. The only thing holding it together then, imo, was the nuanced, layered and still credible central relationship, but once you stepped away from that it was falling away really quickly into lobotomy tv.
I’d find it difficult to believe S3 isn’t about milking the cash cow.
I think Carrie was in on it from the beginning as well. I think even though she was well aware of the machinations at play, when she watched the senate hearings in real time it’s difficult as a human being to hear yourself being thrown under the bus with clear eyed detachment. I think as she watched she was more than surprised and hurt at the cold, triumphant way Saul declared her mental state and her fraternization with a traitor to the world. Moreover, this plan had to work, she had to now completely give up her life to Saul, and whatever happened next, was in his control, and his alone. Certainly when they hatched the plan he would have given her assurances about her stay in the institution, but what neither of them would know is how the institution would react to her not on her medication, and how the procedures they have in place to numb her upset her to the point of blaming Saul for leaving her. In terms of the plan it works perfectly. In terms of feelings of betrayal, it can’t be helped, so Saul came to apologize.
It’s a pile on of hits, he thinks he’s going to be told he’s number one for the job he’s born to do, then he gets word he’s passed over for a political appointee who let the CIA rot after the bombings, and only grudgingly acknowledged Saul’s work in getting a number of those responsible. The Senator is a light weight with a lot of power, extremely dangerous to the country and everything Saul got in this business for in the first place.
Then he comes home to his wife’s indescretion, but his major concern is his plan is unravelling and Carrie was made. It’s only when Quinn reports Carrie’s abduction that his world is right again. The plan is back on and despite the danger to Carrie, he’s a happy man. That’s kind of a sick symbiotic relationship he has with Carrie. His wife is secondary, and I can almost believe he’s relieved she has a companion so he can concentrate on what he really loves, his work.
My take on it was that Saul made and carried out the plan on his own, leaving Carrie completely in the dark until after she was finally sprung from the mental hospital by the Iranian’s lawyer.
When Saul tells Quinn it was the plan all along, it was Saul’s plan all along, not Carrie’s.
In the parking garage when Quinn is kissing Carrie’s feet she rolls with it, pretending that she knew all along both to milk it and because part of her had to be embarrassed at how fully she’d been played by Saul for so long.
I think that was the case. Remember that Saul knows betrays quite a lot about Javadi, including who his favourite footballer was. He also mentions that its the hardest thing to do is to turn an Intelligence officer against his own country. Which was interestingly what the 1979 operation in essence was. It went south. Saul, who already had a thing for Mrs Javadi seduced and convinced her to move west, he says that it was revenge.
Am I the only one who just doesn’t care what’s happening on the show now? I think I’m on the cusp of not watching anymore. I’m not interested in anything any of the characters have going on, nor any of the new plot devices they’ve introduced to keep this show going
Red Barchetta, no, you’re not. I was waiting to subscribe to Showtime until I’d read some reviews of the new season. From what everyone is saying (here, Sepinwall, AV Club), it’s not worth it.
I think they’ve kept the tension up pretty well. I don’t know why they’ve kept the Brody arc going, as his story was pretty much over at the end of last season. It’s become the Saul & Carrie show at this point, with some pretty interesting cast changes.
