Homeland Season 1 (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

Carrie's role also shifted; it's obvious that while she viewed him as someone who had been "turned" the other thought in her head was also: "this is a guy who was turned under the worst of circumstances.. I can be the one who turns him back". I think she honestly is drawn to him in some ways as someone who can bring her a lot of personal redemption, and that if she can save him it's the forgiveness she's really after.

I didn't read it quite as a Florence Nightingale situation; I think the hard part of her that's the CIA spy was steadfast in her belief that he'd been turned and was the enemy. At the same time, she watched him for hours and hours on end for a month, experienced the complexities of his life and situation, and fell in love with him. She sort of separated in her mind Sgt. Brody the suspected terrorist and Nick Brody the human being, segregated them into different spheres of her life. Probably BECAUSE she thought he was a terrorist, he was someone she could be with without feeling judged. Or maybe through her surveillance she just realized he was someone who is as broken as she is, and that resonated with her.
One other detail I found fascinating: the daughter, while getting stoned with her friends who are clearly "badder" than she is, still insisted on honoring her mother's punishment. She mouths off to her mother about fucking around, but when there's no enforcement present her instinct is still to listen to her mother. It's counter-intuitive, but I believed it. Her speech to Mike also reminded me strongly of Amber's speech to Seth on "Parenthood".

 

[mattCR]

I don't know if I mean this as a Florence Nightengale.. just that she in some ways sees herself as being able to redeem past mistakes by proving she's right about Sgt. Brody and "turning him back" by whatever she needed to do. I think somewhere along the line, she did fall for him.

Agreed on the situation with the daughter. And when Brody explained that it was so hard to go home because so much had changed and it was just so much "work" it rang very true. He wasn't pushing off the wife or using her as a prop - the circumstantial evidence we had before - he just.. he didn't know how to pick up where he left off and so that move to him seemed very difficult.

 

[Joe_H]

Wow, that was just amazing, especially as a shock episode that comes relatively early in the season (7th out of 12 I believe). I'm sure there will be another twist at some point, and so I'm not sure I believe anything fully yet, but still, wow.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I'm sure there will be another twist at some point, and so I'm not sure I believe anything fully yet, but still, wow.

I'm about 50/50 between Brody have something else nasty up his sleeve still, and/or the show evolving to have Brody and Carrie as anti-terrorism partners as he continues to adjust back into his home life.

 

[mattCR]

Same here. Either Brody is going to turn into the hero they want him to be, with tons of scars and war wounds.. or he's going to still be suspected. But I think the suspicion is changed; he's now played himself as "I was too weak". I think that's going to be compelling.. whether or not the big reveal is that he gave away secrets at some point, and what secrets he gave away, and if this story becomes one about his redemption or if he stays a suspect.

Either way, this has been a hell of a season so far. All of the pay networks have really upped the ante with quality programming the last few years. Damian Lewis has turned in one of the most nuanced performances I can remember.. as he took to counting his prayer beads in front of Carrie using his hands, and he kept the order in tact from the early episodes. That's great attention to continuity and it's a really solid presentation for the viewer. That was great stuff.

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt /t/315194/homeland-season-1/30#post_3870594
I'm about 50/50 between Brody have something else nasty up his sleeve still, and/or the show evolving to have Brody and Carrie as anti-terrorism partners as he continues to adjust back into his home life.

 

[mattCR]

And they yank the carpet RIGHT out from under us in the last 10 minutes.. Can Brody win himself free? Is he totally out?

One of the best scenes this week was easily the moment where Carrie turned to Saul: "I had an epiphany.. I'm going to end up alone.." Everything about that scene was great

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I love what they're doing with Brody, the line he's walking. He really did love Abu Nazir, and now he feels like a jilted lover. He might not have been THE guy, but him being found was always part of the plan.
I also loved the beat you mentioned. Carrie being to understand a fact that Saul was no longer able to avoid. Two colleagues seeing the toll their incredibly important job has taken.
Edited to add: Brody's known he's a killer for a long time, but for the last few years he carried around the burden of being a murderer, too. What must it feel like to have that burden lifted? How angry would you be at the people who led you to believe it?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Wonderful reveal of why Abu Nazir kept Brody alive all of those years, or at least the reason Brody thinks he was kept alive all of those years. It's so counter to our cultural expectations of what a soldier is and what a turncoat is. Brody was retained to teach a young child English, and in the course of that experience he grew to love that child. An American-led attack bombed Nazir's compound, and in the aftermath the child is dead. In response, Brody vows to dedicate himself to some unspecified cause on behalf of Nazir.
Questions I have: Were the children actually killed in the coalition bombing, or were they sacrificed for propaganda purposes as the US government insists? Either way, was Issa really Nazir's son, or was he intended all along to gain Brody's trust and then be the sacrificial lamb that convinces Brody to do whatever they want him to do? It's fascinating how we've gone from Brody being an enigma, to understanding Brody but seeing him as a puppet for unseen purposes. The tension now comes from wondering where his loyalties will ultimately lie.
As brutal as the scene with all of the charred bodies of children and mutilated survivors was, it only stoked my anger further toward Nazir. Here is a man who engages in the most dangerous pursuits on the planet, and he surrounds himself with children. He made that compound a valid military target, and he is the reason all of those children are dead.
Quirks: Why is the vice president making such a prominent address? If it was about defending the administration's actions, it should have been the president out there. If it was about damage control, it should have been the press secretary out there. I get that the drone program was near and dear to the vice president's heart from his CIA days and he's being set up for a larger role next week, but it just came across as weird. I'm also not sure what's to be gained besides the most rudimentary of sighting of that rife when you're talking a stationary target a couple hundred feet away. If he's going after the president or vice president, we're talking targets in motion with a very limited window perhaps a mile away from the landing pad for Marine One.

 

[mattCR]

He wasn't the Vice President when he made that address that he saw on TV.. Nazir points out he was director of the CIA.. he then became Vice President, who's in office now that Brody is home. He has goals on being President.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

He wasn't the Vice President when he made that address that he saw on TV.. Nazir points out he was director of the CIA.. he then became Vice President, who's in office now that Brody is home.   He has goals on being President.

That would have made a lot more sense. Nazir pointed out that he was the director of the CIA before he was vice president, but the network caption on the TV in the flashback clearly labeled him as vice president.

 

[Joe_H]

Maybe I'm a bit of a cynic, but until the TV was turned on, I was half-convinced that Nazir blew up his own compound as part of turning Brody against the US.

 

[Paul D G]

/t/315194/homeland-season-1/30#post_3874866
Maybe I'm a bit of a cynic, but until the TV was turned on, I was half-convinced that Nazir blew up his own compound as part of turning Brody against the US.

So did I.

 

[mattCR]

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt /t/315194/homeland-season-1/30#post_3874797
That would have made a lot more sense. Nazir pointed out that he was the director of the CIA before he was vice president, but the network caption on the TV in the flashback clearly labeled him as vice president.

I just checked this again, and it didn't label him. I think he was the incoming VP, former head of the CIA.. now he's the VP.. it's been years later, and he's prepping to run for the Presidency. Eagerly awaiting tonights ep

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I just checked this again, and it didn't label him.  I think he was the incoming VP, former head of the CIA.. now he's the VP.. it's been years later, and he's prepping to run for the Presidency.  Eagerly awaiting tonights ep

Okay, I'm glad to be wrong on that one, because it makes much more sense. The only dangling question mark is why Brody didn't recognize the man whose speech effectively turned Brody to Abu Nazir when he shook his hand in the pilot.

 

[mattCR]

Last night's ep was gangbusters.. I was completely caught off guard with what happened in the park.
Carrie's threat of the Saudi Ambassador was a brutal, though fully legal one - and it showed the stark difference that even the Ambassador knew were there: your daughter can keep her life her, or go home to a country that will know her father is gay, and she sure as hell won't be at Harvard.

Brody is back amongst the suspicious category Is he really doing what Nazzir wants? Even getting elected won't necessarily provide Nazzir anything meaningful.. yet.. or at all.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Brody must have ruined Carrie in the cabin in the woods.
I still think the mole is the CIA guy (of African descent) that Carrie reports to (not Saul), at least I thought she reported to him and not Saul, but maybe I'm confusing the organizational structure in the CIA.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I still think the mole is the CIA guy (of African descent) that Carrie reports to (not Saul), at least I thought she reported to him and not Saul, but maybe I'm confusing the organizational structure in the CIA.

Yeah, Carrie's Arab partner is the obvious choice for red herring, and the black guy who's heading her department is the obvious choice to be the shocking reveal.
But I think it'd be more interesting if Saul turned out to be the mole. I actually think there's a dark horse chance that the vice president is the mole, a sort of Manchurian Candidate who made a deal with Abu Nazir in exchange for an early elevation to the presidency.

 

[mattCR]

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt /t/315194/homeland-season-1/30#post_3876614
Yeah, Carrie's Arab partner is the obvious choice for red herring, and the black guy who's heading her department is the obvious choice to be the shocking reveal.
But I think it'd be more interesting if Saul turned out to be the mole. I actually think there's a dark horse chance that the vice president is the mole, a sort of Manchurian Candidate who made a deal with Abu Nazir in exchange for an early elevation to the presidency.

Yeah, that's what I'm wondering too.. about the VP.. that he hasn't cut deals both ways and he thinks he's using Nazzir to trump up his "war on terror" creds to get to the presidency.. then again, watch it turn out to be some analyst we haven't yet seen.

It couldn't be the arab partner - no chance to get the razor blades to the one guy.

 

[MarkMel]

My bet it still on Saul. He's disenchanted with the life he's built in and out of the CIA.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Yeah not sure what the point is with the VP, it cannot be to kill him Brody could've done that in his living room.