Carrie goes to court (Showtime).
“It’s been 58 days since the attack on Langley, in which 219 Americans lost their lives,” says Senator Andrew Lockhart (Tracy Letts), in the opening scene of Homeland’s calculated, if not tepid season three premiere. Since we last left Homeland, the proverbial shit had hit the fan as Abu Nazir’s final post-mortem attack saw a devastating car bomb rip apart the CIA headquarters at Langley during the memorial service for Vice President Will Walden. In the time since, a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence—headed by the aggressive Senator Lockhart—has been established to investigate the CIA’s questionable relationship with the alleged bomber, Congressman Nicholas Brody (Damien Lewis).
Of course, as we saw in last season’s finale, Brody is supposedly innocent, and in the moments following the blast, Carrie helped him escape the country and go into hiding somewhere in Canada. But, after the ramifications from the confession tape Brody made before he strapped on a suicide bomb vest in season one, no one will ever believe that, and he’s now Public Enemy No. 1. With the Senate Select Committee investigating the CIA’s questionable tactics from last season under a fine microscope, the threat of Carrie’s dubious relationship with Brody being revealed by the public is greater than ever.
With all this, plus the Brody family struggling to keep it all together after the Langley bombing, and hints at the new villain that’ll be replacing Abu Nazir, Homeland shows a lot of potential for this season. Let’s investigate, Senate Select Committee Hearing-style.
“How can the CIA protect this country if it can’t even protect itself.”
With CIA director David Estes killed in the Langley bombing, Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin) is now the CIA’s new head honcho, but it seems to be something that he doesn’t want. With the Senate and the rest of the country looking at the CIA with raised eyebrows after the Langley bombing and their failure to prevent it, Saul is under pressure to do something big to help boost the country’s faith in the agency.
Of course, the only way to do that is to capture Brody, who’s whereabouts are still unknown at this point. Instead, Saul and his team track down six lower-level members of the terrorist network—located around the globe—that planned the Langley bombing. With a brief, 20-minute window, they manage to assassinate all of them in one foul swoop (anyone else get Breaking Bad flashbacks from that scene?), and thus have something victorious for Saul to report at the Intelligence Committee at the end of the episode.
But the fact remains that the CIA is a shell of what it used to be before the attack (the hole from the attack that hasn’t been repaired yet is a sobering reminder of that), and they’re not going to win over fans until they can capture Brody, thus closing the book on the Langley attacks once and for all. Though it’s fairly clear from last season’s finale that Brody was set up, only Carrie knows this (it’s unclear whether or not Saul believes her), so it looks like this season is setting up to be The Great Manhunt For Brody, presumably, while Carrie tries to find any evidence she can to clear his name.
The Return of “Crazy” Carrie Matheson
While the first season hinged on the exposition of Carrie’s crumbling psychotic state while trying to out Brody as a terrorist, season two found her medicated, stable, and reinstated into the CIA (but mostly because she was right about everything and they needed her). But after the Langley attack, Carrie’s off her meds and her descent into becoming the stark-raving mad woman from season one is all but inevitable, right?
Carrie’s crazy notebook (Showtime).
At this point, Carrie’s in a fragile position for the CIA. Basically, her relationship with Brody and her past mental problems make her the perfect fall guy for the CIA’s fuck-ups, but Saul—forever looking out for her—won’t let that happen. “I won’t do that, I won’t throw Carrie under the bus,” Saul says early in the episode. Yet, that’s exactly what he does at the Intelligence Committee hearing after someone leaks information to the press about Carrie and Brody’s relationship. Clearly, Saul had no choice but to “throw her under the bus,” but even so, based on Carrie’s reaction, this is probably the end of her and Saul’s friendship.
There’s no way this season will end well for Carrie.
Dana’s Psychotic Breakdown
As the CIA struggles to keep it all together in the aftermath of the Langley bombing, so is the Brody family. We quickly learn that Dana Brody—who went through hell and back last season with Finn Walden—has taken it the hardest after she tried to kill herself by slitting her wrists in a bathtub.
Image via Showtime.
In this episode, we find her on the last day of her month-long stint in a psychiatric ward. She’s got a new boy toy who she see sexts with after she gets out, and the doctor tells Jessica Brody that she’s doing well, but she—and the whole family— still needs a lot of therapy. While the entire Brody family has been going through great financial and emotional strain since the Langley bombing, Dana is the one that seems to be the focus. It’ll be interesting to see how Jessica can keep the whole family together and bring in some money to keep them afloat, but all eyes will be on Dana to see if she has another psychotic breakdown.
New Villain?
During the briefing before Saul launches the assassination of the six members of the terrorist network responsible for Langley, he briefly talks about the guy who the CIA thinks is the mastermind behind it all, Majid “The Magician” Javadi. “Why do they call him the magician?” asks a White House representative. “Because he liked to make people disappear,” Saul replies.
Now that Abu Nazir is out of the picture, Homeland will need to find a new central villain for Carrie and the rest of the CIA to hunt. All things indicate that this guy is it. But tracking him down doesn’t seem like it’s going to be an easy task. “He hasn’t been seen in public since 1994,” Saul says. “Nobody, not even the Israelis know where he is. Our own analysts think he’s dead,” Dar Adal adds. One of the strongest elements of the past two seasons was the hunt for the illusive Nazir, who was always one step ahead of Carrie and the CIA. It’ll be interesting to see how they introduce a new central villain this season, but so far, I’m intrigued.
Saul’s Fragile Emotional State
As the episode shows, Saul’s new role in the CIA is clearly taking its toll on him. With Mira back from Mumbai, her and Saul’s relationship is still unclear: They’re sleeping in separate rooms. In the lone scene we get with them alone, Saul reveals that this is a job he “never asked for,” and the stress of it is clearly getting to him. Might we be in for a Saul Berenson psychotic episode this season as well?
Peter Quinn grows a conscience?
The episode opens with the mysterious black ops operative Peter Quinn carefully constructing a homemade bomb in a ramshackle house somewhere in Caracas, Venezuela. As it turns out, it’s meant for his target, one of the six terrorist network operatives. At first, Quinn has the opportunity to place the bomb on his target’s car, but backs down when he sees a kid in the car. Later, after he infiltrates his target’s house and eliminates him, he accidentally shoots and kills the kid. There’s a brief pause and look of utter horror and regret in Quinn’s face. After we were introduced to the terrifyingly stone-faced operative from last season, this could introduce us to a different side of Quinn, and potentially lead to some interesting developments with his character.
F. Murray Abraham!
The biggest change in this season is the addition of F. Murray Abraham to the cast as Dar Adal, a retired black ops specialist, and Saul’s “lapdog” as Carrie so delicately puts it. I think he was a bit underutilized in this episode, but I’m excited to see how the writers will use him in the show. I imagine he’ll stare down Carrie into submission a lot.
I mean, just look at that stone-cold stare. LOOK AT IT.
F. Murray Abraham is not impressed (Showtime).
Carrie Mathison Tear-O-Meter Rating: 6.
Image via Showtime.
By my count Carrie teared up only three times this episode, but her whole breakdown at Saul when she found out about the newspaper leak was pretty great, so I award bonus points for that.
