So it turns out that Alain was a spy sent by Senator Lockheart to listen in on Saul. I thought that maybe he was working with Saul to keep an eye on Mira, until I realised that made absolutely no sense whatsoever. This sudden reveal came out of nowehere, and went nowhere. Just another loose end that needed to be tied up before the bobsleigh ride that these next few episodes are hopefully going to be.
I’d like to say that I care about what happens, but the truth is, I don’t. Showtime’s ordered Season 4 (as I’m sure I’ve pointed out before) so the ending can’t be as clean as these episodes would suggest its going to be. There’s either someone ahead of Saul, getting ready to launch (or having already launched) a counter-scheme to catch him out, or not everything goes to plan. Or the actual murder of the Iranian defence minister doesn’t happen this season. Given that in the world of Homeland Brody can go from non-functioning heroin addict stabbing himself in the arm with a chair leg to functioning, card-memorising, normal-jogging handsome bald guy in sixteen days, who knows how quickly he will rise up through the Iranian ranks of influence.
I think its also telling that we’ve seen absolutely nothing of Javadi since he went to Iran. He may be the eponymous “Big Man in Tehran” – episode 11’s title – or he could be back in the US, or in Caracas, or anywhere else. To tell you the truth, I couldn’t tell you what the hell is going to happen. It’s going to make or break the season, and the series as a whole. I just hope that for the last three episodes, Homeland dispenses with the summing up and actually gets to the nitty gritty action and gives us something to really chew on.
That said, I did not see Brody and Dana’s tete-a-tete being so emotional. I didn’t think she’d have so much hate burning inside of her for her own father. It seems so long ago that she walked in on him praying, and wanted to learn more. But that Dana is gone, destroyed by Brody. Another corspe in his wake. She says as much to him in this episode, laying the blame for everything that’s happened squarely at his and Carrie’s door, and rightly so. It’s worse for her in a way, because she gets no relief. At least Saul, Carrie and the like are allowed to actually hack away at their problems, feel like they’re acheiving something. They’re pushing back. Dana has to just sit and dwell on what has happened, and isn’t allowed any respite or right to reply. She just sits and takes it, and doesn’t get a choice in the matter.
Is it weird that I also hope we never see her again? Not sure why, just a gut feeling.
A lot of stuff happened this week, but that’s all it was – it just stuff that happened. No judgements, no morality, nothing. Saul rescued Brody, trained him up with Carrie and a few of the guys, and shipped him to Iran. But now the scene is set, most loose ends are tied up, and all that’s left is to see what goes down in Iran. In light of recent real-world developments regarding Iran, I hope it doesn’t reflect too badly on them.
Random Robservations:
- Nobody tell Brody he has a son, too. Let’s see how long it takes him to remember.
- Virgil!
- Brody stabbing himself with a broken chair leg is up there in Homeland‘s Most Horrifying Moments, alongside Javadi stabbing his ex-wife in the neck with broken glass.
- Goddamnit, Saul is looking so smug as of late. Surely something goes wrong, it just has to.
- A lot less Senator Lockheart than I’d like, if I’m honest. I like his role as the anti-Saul.
- Carrie’s baby is still OK, everyone! Part of me thought that part of Carrie knew getting shot would put the baby at risk, and accepted that as collateral damage. I don’t think she’d be that callous though.
See you next week!