Homeland Recap: With Friends Like You, Who Needs Enemies of the State?
The following recap contains a major spoiler from this Sunday’s episode of Showtime’s Homeland.
This week on Homeland, Brody packed a bag, Jessica got a surprise visitor and Carrie made a new friend as she reunited with an old one. Here now, our debrief on Season 2, Episode 4.
Saul has seen the video of Brody’s confession. Carrie has seen it. Now it is Estes’ turn, and the way he reacts makes me inclined to think he isn’t the mole, though I’m by no means ruling it out. He and Saul plot their next move — to not bring in Brody yet but let him lead them to Nazir’s master plan — then debate over looping in vice president Walden. And here we have to take a tiny leap. Because I would think that as bad as it would be for the CIA to let Walden know that a terrorist come thisclose to blowing up him and his team, letting him “pal around with a jihadist” is just as gnarly. But, true, if they ultimately thwart the next terror plot, Estes looks like a hero. And it makes for a better Season 2 storyline. So they agree to put a team on Brody, including a guy Estes insists be a part of the op.
Meeting up in an off-campus space tricked out with tech, Estes eats a bit of crow as he congrats Carrie on being right all along, then introduces her to crack analyst Peter Quinn. The two circle each other throughout much of the episode, as Carrie angles to vet his credentials. Quinn meanwhile is admittedly a huge fan of Carrie’s work, and soon enough gets to see her to do some of it, when they set up a sitch where Brody sees Carrie exiting the CIA building. As hoped, Brody is visibly thrown, and it is he who makes the first move to reconnect. There is a cute moment where, at first, Carrie reminds that she is to stay away from him. Carrie then plays coy, allowing that she is “in a way” working on something, but “I have good boundaries now!” They shake hands and declare “peace,” theoretically putting those wacky crazy times behind them.
The team keeps tabs on Brody, even as he checks into a hotel. Keeping watch at night, Carrie and Quinn are mulling their next play when barfly Brody goes to make a call — and Carrie’s phone rings. He invites her for a drink, and she seizes the opportunity to oblige. At the bar, they hint at old times — how them sharing a drink together never leads anywhere good — and she “lets slip” that her new CIA gig is in the name of taking down Abu Nazir himself aka the man who “stole” eight years of Brody’s life. Brody asks Carrie about her ECT treatments, leading into an awkward bit about how honky dory such therapy is. (“Mondays and Thursday, for six weeks,” like it’s hot yoga.) When Brody calls it a night and heads up to his room, Carrie fears that she has been made. What to do…?
Answer: Head right upstairs after him, under the premise that Brody, that horndog, purposely blurted his room number to the barkeep. They do that flirty dance for only a half-second, though, until Carrie shocks, Quinn, Saul and I’m thinking most every viewer at home with this info dump:
CARRIE | It reeks, you know, your bulls–t…. Do I want to be friends with a demented ex-soldier who hates America, who decided that strapping on a bomb was what the answer to what ailed him, despite his daughter, his son, people who loved him in real life and not in the mind-f–k world of Abu Nazir? Who in the end didn’t have the stones to go through with it but had no problem sending me to the nuthouse? Yeah… no thanks. I don’t think I need a friend like that.
BRODY | OK. Not friends. [As everyone at home's blood turns to ice.]
CARRIE | So what are you going to do now, you going to kill me? Blame it on rough sex, maybe? How long can you get away with something like that?
BRODY | I’ve had a pretty good run so far…. I seem to be good at this, if nothing else.
CARRIE | You’re special.
BRODY | I liked you, Carrie.
CARRIE | I loved you!
And boom. A team storms the room to pin down Brody, throw a hood over his head and….?
Elsewhere in the hour:
* Jessica admits to a repentant Brody that she doesn’t trust him anymore, and if he doesn’t have anything true to say to her, he should pack a bag. As noted above, he did just that, later eliciting from Dana an eye roll and this choice snark: “Well that‘s a good sign.”
* Speaking of the Brody daughter, she finds herself (slightly) torn between not getting stoned with Zander and getting romantic VIP tours of the Washington Monument from Finn Walden.
* A liquored-up Lauder shows up at the Brody house determined to “get to the bottom of this murky s–t” surrounding Walker’s sniper gig and subsequent death. After Mike picks him up, the former unit members compare notes and conclude that Brody is possibly working for… the CIA. Sigh. But at least they’re trying, right? Plus, now that Brody’s been nabbed, what does Mike and Lauder’s storyline become? Unless, of course, Brody’s traitor status is kept on the QT as the CIA tries to retain his cover with Nazir.
What did you think of this week’s episode of Homeland? Where do you think the show goes from here, with Brody in custody?
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