In episode 10, “Clarity,” we find that Carrie may lose custody of Franny, President Keane may play into the hands of Russian objectives, and Saul wants to re-team with Carrie in a longshot to save the presidency. In the opening moments, it becomes painfully clear that Carrie had a major psychiatric meltdown after Dante’s murder in the previous episode. She is being given the latest round of electroshock treatment. Saul visits Carrie and ends the visit trying to enlist her help with the operation he is planning to extract Simone from Europe. Saul’s CIA team has figured out she is alive and a love interest of Yevgeny.
Even Saul's backup plans have backup plans. #Homeland #Showtime pic.twitter.com/EVyXf3RTzU
— Homeland (@SHO_Homeland) April 15, 2018
While Carrie gains clarity, Keane loses it
Carrie tells Saul that she needs to focus on Franny now and preparing for the custody hearing brought on by her sister Maggie. She struggles with how hard she should fight for custody and whether she should play dirty, introducing evidence in the hearing against her sister’s questionable practices in helping Carrie cover her mental condition years ago.
Meanwhile, President Keane is making the wrong decisions at every turn and becoming more rigid in her attempt to retain the presidency. With Dante’s death, Senator Paley now believes it is another murder perpetrated by the president, to cover up her administration’s unconstitutional actions.
Instead of moving towards impeachment (all too familiar to the Trump administration), he works to invoke the 25th amendment, and have a majority of the cabinet sign off on President Keane being unfit to serve as president. He also needs the agreement from the Vice President, played by the great Beau Bridges.
Although the vice president is sticking by her side, President Keane is paranoid and doesn’t trust him.
She plans to remove all cabinet members she believes may be wanting her out, against the pleas of the Vice President and her chief of staff, David Wellington. They know that this move will send the country into a constitutional crisis. Vice President Warner warns President Keane, that if she continues to pursue her cabinet removals, it would be tyranny, and she would no longer have his support.
Saul and Carrie are back
With President Keane heading down the slippery slope towards a constitutional crisis, the one chance the country has, to avoid playing into the Russian’s hands, is for Saul’s plan to extract Simone from Europe to be a success. Of course, this means he needs an expert extraction team and the perfect person to lead it. He wants Carrie, but she says she is putting her job behind her. She is going to focus on Franny now.
The episode parallels President Keane heading down the wrong path, while Carrie begins to make the right choices. After much reflection, Carrie decides not to use information that would jeopardize her sister’s medical career and does not contest the custody change to her sister.
As part of the agreement she maintains visitation rights and she and her sister have an emotional moment when they both realize they are doing what is best for Franny.
Team Carrie and Saul are back together, time to kick ass. #homeland
— Tina (@lostdogs20) April 16, 2018
In the final moments, Maggie tells Carrie to “Go do what you were born to do.” We now know Carrie will lead the extraction team and she leaves the house, getting in the SUV with Saul, and they are finally back as a team.