Showtime
Where we left off: The Langley crew set up a plan to draw the bomber out of hiding, Quinn shot Carrie to stop her from blowing their cover, and Saul took a trip down South to say hello to Brody.
“One Last Time”
In this week’s episode, Brody hogs all of the camera time with his withdrawal symptoms, while Carrie stands idly by, presumably waiting for the perfect moment to tell him that she’s pregnant with their maybe child. (Unfortunately, she never does tell Brody that little gem of information, even though the Downton Abbey lover in me kept on shouting at the TV: “Carrie, tell him he’s probably the father of your unborn child. Do it, Carrie!” Oh well, I’m crossing my fingers for the next episode.)
After bringing Brody back to the states in a deathly state of health, Saul somehow manages to convince Carrie that the best scenario for everyone is for her to get Brody to once again be a double agent. Saul’s dream plan to change the Middle East forever — nice, casual plan, Saul — is for Brody to head back to Iran, assassinate the head of the Revolutionary Guard (which will allow Javadi to move up the chain of command), and then get his U.S. Marine-al Qaeda ass the hell out of there. Because Carrie is just as crazy as Saul (and Homeland’s writers), she agrees to the plan. Although she’s probably only doing it so she can reach out to Brody in the hope that her gentle touch will evoke months of memories of passion, terror, and insanity — what every man wants while they’re going through withdrawal after months of being caged up in Venezuela.
While I was hoping that the return of Brody would help bring Homeland back to its roots, all it did was flop. Stacked up against last week’s episode of espionage, shootings, and turning higher-ups in the Iranian government, the focus on Brody was barely entertaining, and, at some points, completely annoying. He spends over half the episode hitting his head and scratching his arms while he’s going through withdrawal, and it gets boring after approximately five minutes. Additionally, Homeland seems to have not-so-successfully crammed four episodes worth of plot progression into one 60-minute chunk. At this point, we’re all well aware that Saul is on a tight time schedule to advance his CIA agenda before he’s ousted from the agency, but having Brody be re-turned in one episode is just too rushed. We need time to readjust to his return, and to his crazy eyes. (Also, using Brody as an agent in Iran seems like the dumbest idea ever. Saul might be losing it.) Hopefully, next episode will be a tad more realistic, a pinch less rushed, and totally filled to the brim with baby talk. Carrie, give us a ring when your baby registry is all set up.
When Carrie Should Tell Brody She’s Pregnant:
– While he’s propelling into Iran.
– While he’s being questioned about his loyalty.
– When he’s just about to shoot the head of the Revolutionary Guard.
– While he’s sleeping so he can’t really hear her.
– When he (maybe) comes back to the U.S. (Hopefully as soon as he gets off of the plane.)
Highlight of the Episode: Mira’s lover is in cahoots with Senator Lockhart and Saul calls Lockhart out on it so he can use the information as leverage and get a few more weeks of being director of the CIA. The only move that could have made the scene better was if Saul had karate-chopped Lockhart in the face like he did to Javadi.
Upset of the Episode: Dana reappeared as a motel maid. But on the positive side, she told daddy dearest that she never wants to see him again. Although we all know that angsty Dana doesn’t really mean that.
