【Playboy Wet And Wild 2 (1990)】

This recap contains spoilers for Homeland Season 6,Playboy Wet And Wild 2 (1990) episode 4, "A Flash of Light." Refresh your memory with our recap of episode 603 here.

Homelandhas always been a bit of a slow burn, though some seasons get off to a faster start than others. With Season 6, the first three episodes felt a little disjointed. The storyline with Saul (Mandy Patinkin) and Dar (F. Murray Abraham) was only overlapping with Carrie's (Claire Danes) plot a little, and the Quinn (Rupert Friend) recovery plotline was almost entirely unconnected to everything else.

All that changed with episode 4, "A Flash of Light," which brought everything to a head and finally succeeded in getting us excited about Season 6.

First off, Saul is still in the Middle East, going to see an Iranian friend of his -- a Red Guard member -- in the middle of the night to talk about Fahrad Nafisi (Bernard White) possibly developing a parallel nuclear program for Iran with the help of North Korea.

His friend waves him off, but Saul isn't convinced and his little nighttime sojourn doesn't look to be the best idea, especially when Etai Luskin (Allan Corduner), the Israeli ambassador to Germany, shows up at Saul's sister's house to haul Saul in for questioning about it.

They attempt to keep Saul there indefinitely, but later events have Israel sending our favorite grumpy spy back to New York City ASAP.

Meanwhile, Dar is still trying to undermine President-elect Keane (Elizabeth Marvel), planting news stories that imply Keane is friendly toward countries that may be violating the nuclear deal (like Iran).

Her take-down of Dar is terrific: "I will not have my agenda mischaracterized and undermined before I even take office ... what's not wise is peddling unverified and politically motivated horseshit to the press. And if you can't find me the career officers responsible, I'll get someone who can."

But that doesn't mean she's right. (She maybe right, there may be nothing to the nuclear deal suspicions.) But until Saul can figure things out, no one knows for sure. It doesn't stop Keane from asking Carrie for some dirt on Dar so she can control him. Keane has big plans to reform the CIA and she can't have rogue agents like Dar running around undercutting her at every turn -- a savvy move, or one that will come back to bite her?

In what seems like an unrelated storyline, Sekou (J. Mallory McCree) is released and the charges against him are dropped, with the big caveat that he cannot go to the press with what happened. Naturally, Sekou cannot keep quiet about things, so he makes a new Internet video about how his friend is a narc for the feds.

He takes the video down after Carrie explains to him how bad it will be if the FBI decides he violated the conditions of his release, but it's the Internet and nothing is ever truly gone.

And here's where a couple of storylines converge in an unexpected way. Quinn is still convinced that someone across the street is watching Carrie's apartment -- and, shocker, it turns out he's right. Quinn does a little recon and finds a stool in front of a window that implies pretty heavily someone is indeed keeping an eye on her.

So Quinn follows this neighbor at night and he ends up at none other than the freight company warehouse where Sekou works. The next day, Sekou returns to work and is driving his first delivery of the day when suddenly the van blows up and Saul gets word that he needs to return home because "there's been an attack in New York."

It's a great way to bring all the storylines together -- which is something we were really wondering about, especially in terms of how the show was going to get Quinn involved in the action -- and also present a mystery that could go in several different directions.

The explosion could be what viewers have come to expect from Homeland-- a terrorist attack. Maybe it has something to do with Sekou's outspoken friend Hakim (Kade Wise), the one who is convinced Sekou has turned federal informant. What if he's the real terrorist and was ordered to take Sekou out because they think he's a liability now?

But it could also be the FBI wanting to take Sekou out under the guise of a terrorist attack. Or maybe it has something to do with the nuclear deal and the fact that Carrie is advising the president, using her client Sekou as a cover? Maybe Homelandis going full-on 24and the president-elect herself is behind it. Who knows?

The point is, after a few rather meandering episodes, Homelandnow has a focus again, and we're excited to see where the show goes with it.

Homeland airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on Showtime.