Season 5 Episode 9 - Allegiance, rating: B. SPOILERS ALERT

I had thought that the previous 'Motherland' would have been the transition episode, to pivot from the themes of the previous seven episodes. To prepare for what could have amounted to a more involved end-of-season wrap-up, tying-up all the frustrating loose ends that Season 5 has left dangling.

No luck. Instead, 'Allegiance' continues the somewhat infuriating pace of the previous episodes. Okay, there was some movement, also introduction of new themes which hopefully will be tied up in Ep. 10. But there are numerous, formerly-developed plot points still dangling on the wire.

Will episode 10 be three hours long?

Where's Mrs. Keyes and Janine? How's Ezra Shaw doing? Moira and Rita have been reduced to brief cameos, will we hear anything from them? Where's Emily? Just because Alexis Bledel has moved on, is there not at least something from Gilead about the hell Emily is raising? Serena's previous sojourn into No Mans Land and subsequent illegal reentry into Canada - remember her detention? - is all but forgotten, as her sub-plot races ahead and becomes more divorced from June.

I guess there is one new plot point, Serena escaping the Information Centre with Noah, flagging down a car and racing away down Main Street, now completely illegal in Canada. I hope they tie-off that new development, it was bordering on unlikely. Okay, we get it, Alanis Wheeler is an even bigger bitch than Serena ever was.

Also, Nick appearing in Canada for a brief thank-God-they-didn't-kiss moment with June. How does Nick move seamlessly like that over the border? Doesn't Mackenzie suspect ANYTHING?

I should confess - I'm Canadian. I totally 'get' the emergence in Canada of a populist, anti-refugee movement. We've just had the Truckers' Convoy, which paralyzed the nation's capital for their anti-vaxx views.

So I get the protest at the ending of Allegiance, the faux-Westboro Baptist protests, where otherwise polite Canadians shout slogans at an American memorial for dead soldiers - right in front of their grieving families.

What I don't get - by now, is that average Canadians would have organized counter-protests in disgust at their populist fellows, countering the anti-immigrant, anti-refugee bleaters. Where's that?

Okay, enough. There was still a lot to work with, so 'Allegiance' rates a solid B. Season 5 has been a fairly decent recovery from the restrictions forced on to THT in Season 4 because of Covid restrictions. But with only one episode to go, THT has a lot to contend with of its own making.

PREGNANCY JITTERS

"I want you home tonight, Nick," Rose pleaded. She had just a minute ago herself drifted off in the warmth of their bed, seemingly resigned to another of his absences. But then Nick's arrival had woken her. Her dis-ease in sleeping was more than just that there was now no real comfortable position for her to sleep. She really did need to prop up herself beside Nick, both for his warmth but because she could get somewhat comfortable.

"I'm home all night, Rose. This time, I promise." A promise Nick did not keep.

She could tell he was worn out by the day, because of the speed in which he got ready for bed. The sense of purpose he seemed to have in sliding in beside her and making sure the covers actually covered her, it gave her hope he was simply too exhausted to be a Commander tonight, just a prospective father to her child.

"Last night was horrible, Nick, it really was," Rose said almost in tears. "I'm sorry, I really am, I know what Commanders have to do, the decisions they have to make. The people's lives they impact. Mom used to say that that had been the toughest thing for dad to face. It really hardened him, not in a good way."

"I'm fine, Rose," Nick said, putting his hand on her swollen belly. "I just want us to have this birth and get on with our lives."

"You weren't here, Nick. You were gone all last night." Rose started whimpering again, "I'd just been for one of my last prenatal appointments. You should have heard them, Nick. The doctor, he was out in the hall. The door wasn't closed. He matter-of-factly said, 'I think we need to prepare for a shredder'."

Nick propped himself up on one arm. "He said that!?"

Rose didn't turn, but said, "you heard the other Wives. I don't remember Wives being that cruel. All I could do was remind them that all of this, all of it, it's in God's hands!"

CHAOS

You wouldn't have known that it was just after midnight. Almost everyone was there at the Consulate, at their stations - at work. With perhaps little to do. But everyone was running, to and fro. Everyone seemed to be on their cellphones. Tapping had assigned one staffer to watch the CBC Newsworld 'breaking news' and report immediately anything of impact.

"Like what?" the staffer had asked.

"Jesus," Tapping had said, "I don't know! How about any more Americans being shot on the streets of Toronto!?"

Rachel Tapping knew enough not to just send people home. Not tonight. There was still so much that was unknown - even unknowable, after the chaos at the memorial service. Better that Americans were here.

The whole operation, it had been Tuello's. So Rachel Tapping, she had turned over the organization of the memorial to him. The whole thing. The contact with the 30 families of the children - now still in Gilead - also the contact with the families of US Service people, now dead.

Tuello seemed worn-down by the impossibility of the task. He was not a counselor, nor was he clergy. What had invigorated him, though, what had made him mad was that Gilead had refused the request from Anchorage to repatriate the bodies from the crash-sites in Montana.

The only good news? The three countries which had expressed sympathy to Gilead, then congratulation for stopping the now highly public, failed raids - were Russia, China and North Korea.

But Tuello, he was dealing with the deeply personal. Tuello had never done a funeral before. In fact, no one had ever done one quite like this anyway.

It should have been in an American-controlled space, he knew that now. But there was no room at the Consulate for the numbers expected to attend. When they settled on the park across the street, it had been the Toronto Police Service which had shown up unannounced, raising the security concerns. Surely, the Canadian knuckleheads, they wouldn't protest a memorial!? The TPS, they had already canceled leaves of members, knowing that such a public display of American grief would attract the Canadian anti-refugee crowd.

What no one had counted on? Actual gun-fire. During the Pledge of Allegiance, for Christ's sake! Wasn't it Americans stereotyped as gun-toting?

When Tuello was manhandled by a Consulate security vehicle back to the Consulate, he'd had to run a phalanx of protesters there, too. Of all the signs being shoved in his face, the one that made him want to punch the guy, was, "They should have got you all."

It was only when he had he passed the rifle-at-ready US Marine, that Tuello finally took a breath. 'Little America' had never seemed so small and so vulnerable. The events of the evening, Tuello thought, rivaled their flight from Foggy Bottom in the DC metro area during the original insurrection.

He went straight to Tapping's office, knowing that she'd have already set up a command post. Tapping did crisis well. Seeing him, she sternly and tersely said, "What the hell, Mark!?"

He just got into it, "don't ask, Rachel, don't fuck with me, not yet. Me, I thought June Osborne had been hit. But before I could get through the bodies, security had grabbed me and next I knew I was on the floor of an SUV."

"Was Osborne hit?" Tapping asked, backing off a bit, but only a bit.

Mark yelled his reply, "I told you, I don't know. I don't know!"

"I've got three people on the phones, we're mostly having to field calls," Tapping said. "We can't call out. Everyone in Little America wants to know what happened, and we don't know! We need to figure out what happened. Who is, who isn't in hospital."

"Or who's dead," Mark spat.

BACK HOME

Rita put her phone down, and said, "9-1-1 has a fucking busy signal!"

Luke said, "well, you're lucky to get that far, I can't dial out."

At that, Moira came bursting in through the front door, just as Sylvia was coming down from upstairs. Sylvia said, "I think Nichole is sleeping, but Oliver, he says he wants to go home. I told him it might be a while."

Ignoring all else, Moira looked around and asked in a panic, "where's June? I thought she was with you?"

"Jesus," Luke cried, "I thought she was with you!"

Luke said that they should phone Tuello, both his office and his cell. He looked at Rita who said, "I'm on it." Rita could dial but the signal had been just as busy for Tuello as it had been for 9-1-1.

Sylvia said, "look, let's all just sit tight. I bet in two minutes, she walks in through that door."

3 AM in BOSTON

Nick had not kept his promise to Rose.

Lawrence still did not have Marthas to take care of the front door. When it was 3 am, he had wondered about his abilities to run a house that way. As he was tying his robe and descending the stairs, he considered that if things worked out with Naomi and Angela, at least she'd insist on Marthas.

Hell, Naomi would probably employ marthas who actually martha-ed, rather than run resistance groups. As he got to the bottom of the stairs, he noted that Aunt Lydia was asleep in a chair in the sitting room. For propriety's sake, he actually did not know where Naomi Putnam was sleeping - but with Lydia riding shot-gun, that would cover any perceived sin anyway.

So it was he opened the door, to see Commander Nick Blaine standing there. Lawrence had thought briefly of putting on his own, 'I am not amused' face, but Nick had beat him to it. Nick pushed past him, went into the greeting-hall, almost went into the sitting room. But seeing Aunt Lydia there, Nick said without so much as a how-do-you-do, "Joseph, your office. Now!"

Nick was already standing at Lawrence's desk when Lawrence entered, Nick just pointed to the big chair opposite and said, "sit!"

As soon as Lawrence hit the chair, Nick accused, "was it you, Joseph? Or was it Mackenzie?"

Lawrence had a few cobwebs still, he asked, "what's happened now?"

Nick said accusingly, "you're a slippery bastard, Lawrence. I've vouched for you. I was the one who convinced Chancery that you were more valuable to us alive."

Lawrence rubbed his eyes, put on his glasses, then said, "Look, Nick, if you yell a little louder, I'm sure you'll wake Lydia. Please, humour me, what the hell is going on at 3 am?"

Nick renewed his accusation. "It was either you, Joseph, or it was Kyle. Someone ordered the American memorial service in Toronto to be shot-up." Nick tightened his face, "June may have been hit. Fuck, she was probably the target. You heard Mackenzie!"

Lawrence finally got mad. "Geez, right in the middle of our charm offensive, someone shoots up the Americans! Will someone tell those D.C. clowns about the fundamentals of P.R.!?"

HERE I AM STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU

At that Lawrence's phone rang. By now it was 3:15 am, so Lawrence just looked at Blaine and said with resignation, "what the hell, why not!?"

"If that's Mackenzie," Blaine shot back, "tell him he can't be invading Canada!"

"Hello, Joseph Lawrence here," Lawrence said in as even a voice as he could manage. "No problem, I was already up. The affairs of State, you know." Lawrence listened a bit, then said, "okay, put him on."

Blaine noted the surprised look on Lawrence's face. Lawrence listened to the voice intently, then finally said, "Stop, stop, stop." Blaine could hear that there was now no more talk from the other end.

"This is what you're going to do," Lawrence finally said, making it sound like he was talking to a child. "You're going to find her. Or we're pulling the plug on your whole operation." At that, Lawrence slammed down the phone.

"What!?" Nick asked, "What now!?"

"Serena Joy. She's on the run. On the streets of Toronto. That was Wheeler, he doesn't know where she is."

Then Lawrence smiled, "So tell me, Nick, how's Rose?"