Quick Take: Homeland, "The Weekend"
Brody and Claire get real on a weekend getaway.
Review: Homeland, "The Weekend"
(S0107) It is clearly getting crazy up in here. Carrie (Claire Danes) is so far over the line that she doesn't even recognize it anymore, Brody (Damian Lewis) is showing some clear signs of PTSD, and Saul (Mandy Patinkin) wants to play cowboy and bring back the suspected terrorist. To say that Homeland has me sucked in would be a massive understatement.
I hate to admit it but I am speechless when it comes to Carrie's relationship with Brody. She is so convinced that he is a terrorist and an enemy of the country that she spied on him and his family for weeks and then insinuated herself so far into his life that she had sex with him. Now she's alone with him in a remote cabin. I'm starting to think she doesn't really have a plan and is making this all up as she goes along.
Watching Saul at the diner reminded me of Dead like Me. There is no better way to get somebody to open up then by putting a sandwich in front of them. What's fascinating about Saul's road trip is not the conversation he's having but the fact that he is sharing all of his information in hopes of finding out anything at all about a potential attack. It's truly amazing to watch.
It's no accident that every character on this show has a reason to be pitied as well as despised. The one I still end up empathizing with is Jess (Morena Baccarin). Her only mistake, it seems, is trying to move on when she thought Brody was dead. Call me cold blooded but I think that after eight years, that's perfectly understandable.
I'm even willing to give Mike (Diego Klattenhoff) a pass since Jess is so crazy gorgeous, but Dana (Morgan Saylor) is absolutely right. If the Brody family wants to go back to the way they were, Mike needs to be out of the picture.
As with any great drama, Homeland doesn't answer any questions without asking more new ones and it's that kind of brilliant storytelling that keeps me watching.
A truly amazing and remarkable hour of television.
Perhaps most significant is that Brody reasonably addressed all of the major questions both Carrie and the audience had about his allegiance to the United States.
How great were the performances throughout? I totally bought Carrie's commitment to her job, her suspicions about Brody, *and* that she was kind of falling for him all at once.
And I would love to go on a roadie with Saul (and great reminder about Dead Like Me, love that show to pieces) though hopefully with a purpose other than me being softly interrogated!
Jessica never thought that Brody was dead. That point was made clear when she had apologized to Tom Walker's wife for bitching about the latter's willingness to believe that her husband was dead. So . . . Jessica was guilty of adultery.
If your spouse was MIA/POW for eight years or so, isn't it reasonable to think that he/she is dead at that point?
I really think Brody is innocent. Seeing him come face to face with his traitor buddy will be awesome.
I think the great thing is that all of us don't know where the Brody storyline is going and we're all dying to find out.
I'm starting to agree that Brody is innocent as well (and if he's not, that will actually take some very deft storytelling at this point) and that the show may evolve to something like Lucas is talking about, where Brody teams up with the CIA to take down bad guys.
The soap-y stuff there could be a lot of fun, with Brody trying to put his marriage back together and the history/baggage with Carrie.