It was a signal of some sort to her handler. The dog lady was a Russian spy and Allison was somehow communicating with her through the cigarette, similar to how the signal with the sniper in Potsdam was the cigarette.
At least that's what I assume it was, but I'm open to other suggestions.

Ah, the Hauptbahnhof in Mitte? Yeah, I'm getting so nostalgic watching this season. Whenever I recognize a location, I get a bit giddy. I so wish I could move back there.

To be fair, Berlin (particularly West Berlin) is a fairly compressed city. It can take hours to get from one edge of Los Angeles to the other, but Berlin is pretty quick to get around in for a large, major city. Not to mention how boring it would be if they spent an entire episode showing us Carrie and Astrid's drive…

The eye-rolliest bit for me was the fact that a foreign civilian in the form of Carrie would have any access to the war room in the BND. Really? I understand why it was narratively necessary, however, and it was a wonderful episode so I'm willing to suspend disbelief.

Hahaha! I had the same emotional response as your wife and then quickly came to the same conclusion you did.

So the Quinn story line is still not entirely working for me, but whatever, another phenomenal episode all around.
The two moments of the episode that absolutely nailed it for me were 1) the scene with Carrie and Astrid studying the video. Having two of Quinn's blonde paramours working together to track down his…

His mispronunciation of "persona non grata" made me cringe.

We should all know by now that "big reveals" are where Murphy always fails. Nothing — and i mean NOTHING — will compare to the lameness that was the reveal of Sarah Paulson as the "supreme" in Coven. That was about the dumbest fucking shit I've ever seen in my life.

The only other option was Chloe Sevigny until she became a vampress herself. By process of elimination, there was no other suspect besides John. I don't think anyone who spent from than 2 minutes thinking about it thought otherwise.

I'm so glad I wasn't the only one laughing like a crazy person at the Whitney / Noah scene. I was going to keep that dirty little secret to myself until I realized the reaction was more common than I expected.

The awkward dad / daughter moment was one of the funniest things I've ever seen on tv. It was so wrong but so raw all at once.

I'm not a tv / film person by trade, but I was greatly admiring the production work in the episode. As a former resident of Germany, I was so pleased to see them get into the countryside. And that safe house (palace?) was just extraordinary, particularly that dramatic drone camera zoom onto Ivan.
I got so excited for…

Carrie: "So tell me… what's in Switzerland!"
Gay Saudi diplomat: "I don't know… cuckoo clocks?"
[cue laugh track]

This show feels like the movie Groundhog Day. For the record, I hated Groundhog Day. We're stuck in a nightmarish loop where we retread the same plot lines over and over. And over. At this point I'm only watching to admire Michonne's wig.

Astrid's one of the best. The show is oftentimes excellent on the supporting cast front (ohne Dana Brody). The other standout I'd mention would be the ambassador to Pakistan from last season. She wasn't funny like Astrid, but I was totally into everything she was giving us. Or the Saudi diplomat in season 1 who was…

Ah, ok. I think I get it now. So when the ISIL-with-heart dude gave Quinn the knowing glance, it was to create the diversion to give him the opportunity to give him the injection? Or am I still misunderstanding?

I didn't understand the injection. I vaguely remember The Rock, but can you please explain it to me? I assumed he had to be dead, but I freely admit that I didn't fully understand exactly what was happening.

Astrid's straight-woman brand of Teutonic humor is so spot on. So very German. She's hilarious without ever cracking a smile.

Not to mention a polygraph. They don't fuck around with this type of stuff. Even a bobble on the polygraph would have her detained indefinitely.

No, you're not. I hate when they assume a stupid audience.