IGX

Grandpa's Spells wrote:The only crappy thing about this episode is that some major character is gonna get kilt. Has to.

Grandpa's Spells wrote:The only crappy thing about this episode is that some major character is gonna get kilt. Has to.

sanchezero wrote:the only thing i don't like about this show is that the nudity has trickled off to nothing!

baffled wrote: I'm a loser.

Ed Zachary wrote:Is Homeland a gay bar? I didn't read the thread.

Jezebel Jones wrote:Yes. And the only thing I can think to keep posting is "holy fuck!"

Quinn is a prick, but I hope he lives.

baffled wrote:

Jezebel Jones wrote:Yes. And the only thing I can think to keep posting is "holy fuck!"

Quinn is a prick, but I hope he lives.

Seriously. That guy's character is rad.

How insane was the interrogation? Legendary. Right?

The righteous anger and concern that Carrie showed last week about this subject -- her utter confusion and rage that the man she loves could love a man that took so much from him, and that's poised to take so much from everybody -- blossoms into an on-the-cuff, improv game of mental cat and mouse: Her attempt to interrogate the truth out of Nick Brody becomes an attempt to interrogate the crazy out of Nick Brody. And she does, actually, pretty well.

While they have the Real Or Not Real, multiple-layer compartmentalized spy-identity thing in common, Carrie's never been brainwashed or radicalized or converted to a new religion. So she approaches with what she knows of him, what she knows of the betrayals of reality that madness can bring about, and an appeal to the thing they're both so desperate and thirsty for: Actual, authentic truth.

With heartbreaking compassion and some radical admissions -- "I want you to leave your wife and children for me" is just one of the insane, true sentiments she airs over the hour -- Carrie manages to break through years of Nick's conditioning. At least, enough that he turns over Roya Hammad and some details about the life and death of the Tailor (Still funny! How?) and, by episode's end, has assumed an entirely new shape.

There are a number of strong female characters on TV these days, many of whom are reverently referred to as "badasses" by the online commentariat. Yet from hacking Brienne of Tarth to slashing Michonne of Zombieland, the bulk of them are lauded mainly for doing the bloody work usually shouldered by men.....

I was struck by how Carrie's gentle performance — and it was a performance, wasn't it? — was the opposite of swaggering masculinity: She was thoughtful, sensitive, considered. She opened up her own heart before unlocking Brody's cuffs. She flirted and teased him; she pushed then pulled back. Carrie stripped away Abu Nazir's deceits and manipulations a layer at a time, leaving Brody weeping and increasingly exposed. At times, her words and actions flitted between maternal and sexual in strange and surprising ways: practically nursing him with a water bottle before taking his hand and urging him on to a truthful climax. Afterward, she patted his head; he'd been a good boy. Unlike The Master, this wasn't an intractable war of wills; it ended in a peaceful, haunted surrender. "All dead," Brody whispered like a ghost, although he hasn't joined them yet. He's still alive, just emptied.