Useful Idiot (Homeland)

When Dante (Morgan Spector) awakens, Carrie (Claire Danes) persuades him to further elaborate on his collusion with Simone Martin (Sandrine Holt) and the Russians. Dante tells her of a secret code — "Darwin loves Bitcoin" — the use of which is an emergency signal meant to alert Gromov's agents to dissolve their network. Saul (Mandy Patinkin) presents a plan to Keane (Elizabeth Marvel) which pushes legal boundaries: to broadcast the code by compromising Twitter's servers, and violate the privacy of U.S. citizens by tracking who posts confirmations in response to the tweet. Keane reluctantly agrees. Keane and Wellington (Linus Roache) bring Senator Paley (Dylan Baker) into the loop, detailing Simone's and Dante's roles in the elaborate scheme to undermine the government, and Paley's own unwitting role in the subterfuge.

Clayton (Thomas G. Waites) informs Gromov (Costa Ronin) that Dante was arrested and is now in the hospital. When the cyberattack is successfully deployed by Clint (Peter Vack), Gromov realizes that Dante has to be cooperating with authorities. He calls his handler, "Mirov" (Merab Ninidze), to request aid in breaching the hospital and killing Dante, but is only told to stand down. Gromov ignores the order and meets Clayton at the hospital. Gromov then shoots Clayton in the abdomen and drags him inside. As he hands Clayton off to the doctors, he swipes one of their ID cards. He uses the card to enter Dante's room.

Carrie goes to Maggie's house to try and reconcile, but instead learns from Bill (Mackenzie Astin) that Maggie is meeting a lawyer to seek custody of Franny. When Dante accuses Gromov of poisoning him, he denies it and tells Dante to call Carrie and ask her if she was responsible. Dante calls Carrie, who is picking up Franny from school early. He realizes that Carrie is lying to him, but nonetheless he tells Carrie that Gromov is in the room with him. Gromov puts a pillow over Dante's face. Carrie opts to leave Franny at school in her rush to the hospital, but Franny runs after her and is almost accidentally run over by her mother in the parking lot. After learning that Dante is dead, Carrie has a psychotic break at the hospital as she is overwhelmed by thoughts of what she nearly did to Franny, as well as flashbacks to the deaths of Brody, Aayan and Quinn.

The episode was directed by Nelson McCormick and written by co-executive producer Debora Cahn.{{cite web|title=Homeland - Season 7 Episode 9, Useful Idiot {{!}} SHOWTIME|url=http://www.sho.com/homeland/season/7/episode/9/useful-idiot|website=SHO.com|access-date=30 April 2018}}

Useful idiot is a term attributed to Vladimir Lenin, principally in Soviet use, for a person overtly supporting the interests of one country (e.g., the USSR) in another (e.g., a member of the overt Communist Party of the second country). Soviet intelligence practice was to avoid such people in the actual clandestine operations, regarding them at most useful as distractions to the counterintelligence services.

The episode received an approval rating of 78% on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 9 reviews.{{cite web |url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/homeland/s07/e09/ |title=Useful Idiot |publisher=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=April 16, 2018}}

Brian Tallerico of New York Magazine rated the episode 3 out of 5 stars, evaluating it as "a perfectly fine hour that’s something of a letdown after the intensity of the last few episodes, even as it puts interesting pieces in place for the final stretch".{{Cite web |title=Homeland Recap: The Useful Idiot |last=Tallerico |first=Brian |work=New York Magazine |date=April 8, 2018 |access-date=April 12, 2018 |url=http://www.vulture.com/2018/04/homeland-recap-season-7-episode-9.html}} Entertainment Weekly's Shirley Li rated the episode a "B+", noting that "this episode dramatically upped the stakes".{{Cite web |title=Homeland recap: 'Useful Idiot' |last=Li |first=Shirley |work=Entertainment Weekly |date=April 8, 2018 |access-date=April 12, 2018 |url=http://ew.com/recap/homeland-season-7-episode-9/}}

The original broadcast was watched by 1.24 million viewers.{{cite web|url=http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/daily-ratings/sunday-cable-ratings-april-8-2018/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180411174535/http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/daily-ratings/sunday-cable-ratings-april-8-2018/|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 11, 2018|title=Sunday cable ratings: ‘Walking Dead,’ ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’ improve|work=TV by the Numbers|last=Porter|first=Rick|date=April 10, 2018|access-date=April 11, 2018}}

{{reflist}}

{{Portal|Television}}

• [http://www.sho.com/sho/homeland/season/7/episode/9 "Useful Idiot"] at Showtime
• {{IMDb episode|7386422|Useful Idiot}}

{{Homeland}}

Category:2018 American television episodes

Category:Homeland season 7 episodes