Homeland TurboWatch Episodes 5 & 6
Click here and here for the first two installments of TurboWatch.
What the ever loving f*ck, Carrie?
The one thing I never doubt is Carrie’s commitment to her job. I know she wants to cement him. I know she has that sixth, tenth, fourteenth sense that tells her not to let Brody off the hook. So going to these lengths to get him to trust her? Doing him in the back of her car? How much of it is desperately misguided strategy that she really believes will work, and how much of it is OH MY GOD what if Carrie’s working with him? Is this – is she the cleverest double-agent of all time? Does she get drunk and somehow keep her inhibitions? Clozapine? Is she a brilliant sociopath who’s just occasionally reckless or does she have a spot in her cheek where she stores the booze? Is that part of CIA training?
This is not conventional wisdom where TV’s concerned, by the way. Being smarter than your audience, and telling them that you’re smarter, and all they can do is wait for next week, and see where the twists and turns go, is not necessarily palatable for viewers who want to feel smart.
I don’t feel smart, I am utterly and totally in their thrall. That is fine with me. I will lead where they want me to go, and I will gasp at every turn. No problem.
And while I was less enamoured with the implication that Saul can’t relax and that’s why he’s flunking the polygraph OR IS IT, the show’s key players keep me engaged. I love David. I hate Brody, which is the point. I’m not sure if I’m also supposed to hate Mike or feel sorry for him, but I mostly just roll my eyes in disgust at his lameness. He deserved to get decked, and even Jessica had the good sense to be kind of horrified.
I guess I should care more about Brody’s kids and how this is going to affect them, but it’s not really hitting me. I mean, they didn’t have him for 8 years and they continue not to have him, so in that way, I guess it’s not that big a deal? I don’t know. Neither Dana nor Chris seems really anxious to have Daddy back in their lives so is it going to be a great loss when he turns out to be whoever he turns out to be?
This development is so breathtaking that the other plots are fine even when they’re not compelling – I’m looking at you, here, Saul’s marriage - but it’s worth noting that Aileen the sleeper-cell did not endear herself to me any more this episode, nor did she inspire confidence, seeing as she got her boy/friend (unclear, right?) killed in very short order. Did she manage to get rid of the car? That’d be a start.
But really, let’s just go back to Carrie and Brody. I don’t know what he’s thinking, but we’re not supposed to know. On the other hand, the show is trying to tell me something about Carrie. So is she just sure that this most unorthodox tactic will work, get her into Brody’s head and screw the consequences if she’s in pursuit of her goal? Is he so good at being a double agent that she’s attracted to his brain? Have they been into this for longer than we realize?
Part of how you interpret this depends on how much you think Brody knows, which in my opinion is about 40% more than he’s shown to know. Like how he waited for someone else to tell him about Mike. Or how he can beat polygraphs.
But I have trouble believing Carrie Matheson can be read that easily. I’d like to believe she’s still one step ahead of him, but things might be a lot more interesting if she’s not.
Attached - Claire Danes and Damian Lewis at the Homeland Season 2 premiere last week
