“BROKEN HEARTS”
Meter Reading: 88/100
You know what I learned this week? Dar Adul enjoys diner food
every Tuesday for lunch. Who knew we had something in common which did not
involve our mutual love for Brody? Homeland opens with Saul getting to the
bottom of the Peter Quinn / John X storyline. But in reality he gets nowhere
and Dar Adul leaves him pondering whether or not Estes can really trust him to
run this operation. Saul confronts and threatens Estes by saying Quinn was
hired to insure Brody does not go public with the information about the drone
strike that killed Issa. Estes proceeds to get very defensive…
Another episode of Homeland means another week of quite possibly
the most dysfunctional family in America (well 2nd, behind Los
Kardashians). Jessica is a cheater and a manipulator, Chris still has no idea
who his father is, Dana is still the unhappiest teenager in the world (she
needs her fix of killing) and Brody, well, he’s actually quite normal in
comparison besides the whole plot to commit treason.
While Brody and Jess are in the middle of their silent
conversation, Brody receives a skype date from none other than Abu Nazir with
streaming video of Carrie being bound to a pipe and gagged at the mouth. By the
way, glad to hear that the Gayborhood aka 17th street aka Ben and I’s
‘hood aka the scene where Carrie gets involved in the hit and run and gets
abducted got a shoutout. If you look close enough, you just might be able to spot
a Webber (trademarked).
Abu Nazir demands that Brody go to VP Walden’s office and get the
serial # of Walden’s pacemaker. Apparently the New York Times did a great Op-Ed
piece on Walden’s pacemaker and Abu Nazir was apparently in its readership! Abu
Nazir plans to use the serial # to wirelessly access Walden’s pacemaker and
cause it to malfunction, killing Walden. Let me step away for a second; so I don’t
know if it’s the shaved moustache but Abu Nazir has really lost his edge with
me. During the first season, I had nightmares about Abu Nazir. He was as brilliant
as he was terroristic. Sure, he is still a badass and was able to sneak into
the United States. In fact, he was caught on camera at 7-11 where he bought a
lotto ticket and a tuna salad sandwich and even went to the Hertz-Rent-A-Car
Mass. Ave location and rented a car (he has Gold status, obviously) before
abducting Carrie in this most recent episode. Where is the homeland security,
Homeland Security???!!!. But I think his frequent on-camera presence is ruining
the mystique for me or maybe it was that he professed his undying love for
Brody (TV gold / awkwardly strange). Also, how do terrorists know how to
face-time?
As all people in love do, Brody goes to extreme lengths and
retrieves the serial # from Walden’s office. Abu Nazir frees Carrie at the
request of Brody (this also made me question Abu Nazir’s commitment to his
terroristic faith) and commences the wireless access into Walden’s pacemaker.
While Brody confides to Walden that he no longer wants to be on the ticket,
Walden begins to feel the chest pains and goes into cardiac arrest while Brody stands
there loving every second of it. Brody then drops a line for the Homeland ages,
“You still don’t get it, do you? I’m killing you”. Poof, Walden dead.
After Carrie calls Saul and lets him know she is alive, Saul runs
to the rescue only to be stopped by officers who let him know he needs to be
seen upstairs, or was it downstairs? Estes is about to lay down the hammer…
As in familiar Carrie fashion, we are then left with her returning
back to the scene where Abu Nazir had held her captive, and she disappears into
the darkness, metal pipe in hand, hoping to find her man…
Predictions:
1.
First scene:
Carrie goes looking for Abu Nazir only to find he is gone, but he leaves behind
something which can be traced back to him
2.
Roya
Hammad and/or her crew will be broken out from prison
3.
Brody will
kill at least one more person this season
4.
Carrie
will not inform the CIA that Brody was involved in the killing of VP Walden
5.
Saul
will be taken off the case
6.
Abu
Nazir will change his disguise
7.
Homeland
will be longer than 45 minutes
Character(s) of the Week: Apparently Galvez had just dislocated
his shoulder and was fine the whole time.
·
Hrach
Titizian – http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1553955/
i'm still laughing from that character of the week line....
ReplyDeletesuch a sick episode - brody is pretty resourceful after all - somehow he managed to uphold both his commitment to abu nazir and to the cia. although his fingerprints are gonna be all over that thing with the serial number. glad that magnifying glass was so handy as well
i never thought i'd say it but dana is startin to piss me off. smile for once, god damn it
I thought it was a great episode too, but apparently that feeling is not universal out there in the digital commons. I just read the Grantland review, but I couldn't really get past the bombastic style. Their general impression was that this episode wasn't really in line with the rest. I would agree with that, but I don't think different is necessarily bad. Pretty much nothing happened in the past two episodes, so I'm happy that the house came down in this one.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog Yousef, but I can't agree with you giving this week's ep a lower rating than last week's - SO GOOD! A few of my observations:
ReplyDeleteI blame Carrie's kidnapping on the damn JAZZ.
I also liked the fact that there was a handy dandy magnifying glass ni Walden's office - it's like a game of Clue!
Welcome back from the dead, Galvez - I've missed you.
Maybe your prediction of Dana and Finn killing again will come true, as he was stupidly reintroduced.
HOW DARE estes say fuck you to saul
U crushing as always, sav, sav, sav
ReplyDeleteSo Blackberry, aka frailberry, is now the king of facetime gets the MVP for Team Terrorist, Most Improved goes to magnifying glass, really beat expectations.
Also disappointing that the previously on Homeland did NOT include naked Jess, that was a key moment of last week's ep and deserves mention.
Abu Nazir living up mastermind label with kidnapping and leveraging on Brody, almost losing it by leaving a saw blade around next to a prisoner, but then regains it by having extra zip ties (6th man for Team Terrorist). Glad to see Brody is still conflicted about what side he is on, i predict he will be waiting for Quinn and will get him 1st.
Less Dana, zero Finn please. Chris with strong Hearts (can you play Hearts with only 2 people?) performance, sadly a Nazir had to break up it up before he shot the moon.
Now on to greatest of concerns...Saul
Unacceptable attitude from Estes, just jealous how much better Saul is at being a spy. And those henchmen need to back off! Looking forward to Saul staring someone down in the interrogation room.
Carrie kills Abu Nazir going off at (+2500), think he's gone or will escape, hope she bashes Estes with that pipe.
if saul is killed off the show i will stop watching
ReplyDeletefranchise that was an amazing comment. you and yous should team up and give out awards and post lines every week. i forgot about that hearts scene LOL not really a two person game.
ReplyDeletealso i'm listening to the grantland podcast with andy greenwald (why are people hating - i agree with you guys) and he mentioned that Clair Danes has 3 doubles on the show - one of which is a belly double b/c she's pregnant. thought i should share that.
My prediction:
ReplyDeleteNow that Waldon is dead, 2 scenarios:
(1) The hit and run story line is back. The CIA no longer needs to protect Waldon's son and if Brody drops out they can let Dana get got to. They may use this to leverage Brody.
(2) Brody runs for President. He is next in line and the only person who knows he was dropping out of the race is now dead.