Homeland 2.10.
Dec. 3rd, 2012 10:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which parallels are drawn, and big bads revealed, or rather, reminded, and it's a great episode all around though I started off thinking "oh no, show, you don't", but then it came through.
The "oh no, show, you don't" was of course at the idea of Carrie being reduced to damsel in distress to be kidnapped and rescued. However, it played out very differently, and also, the kidnapping was about the only plot device to allow Carrie and Abu Nasir to meet and have a face to face chat. Which was not only a great scene but dramatically necessary, as this season repeatedly paralleled Nasir with Carrie in regards to Brody, situationally, behaviourally, methodically. I did not expect the show to to do it in dialogue and text as well, but lo and behold, it did, with Nasir telling Carrie that emotional transference works both ways after she brought up the way he conditioned Brody, that they both come to love Brody while breaking him. Not exactly true, as Carrie's feelings for Brody predate that, but, you know: enough true to make a powerful impact. Also justifiying, on a Watsonian level, why Nasir didn't simply have Brody killed after the Walden assassination plot didn't work out the first time around.
Speaking of parallels, Nasir bringing up drone strikes versus Carrie bringing up suicide bombings is intercut with the other storyline going on, which the audience is aware of but Carrie isn't yet, to wit, Estes' plan to rid himself off Brody as soon as they don't need him anymore to catch Nasir, which as it turns out when Saul figures it out also encompasses dealing with Saul (evil cliffhanger is evil) and presumably Carrie (not that difficult, given her track record). Which makes Estes this season's ultimate antagonist, which makes sense and I should have seen, but didn't until last ep's Quinn reveal. Nasir, having accomplished his revenge for his son, won't survive the next episode (I'm assuming Carrie will kill him early in it, given she want back to deal with him and that he's her personal bete noir as well as her parallel, and Walden didn't survive this one as being blackmailed with Carrie's life on a Doylist level allows the audience to see that yes, Brody by now feels strongly for her (how much of it is conditioned given the explicit Carrie and Nasir parallels, being given a child to love, being given a woman to love, is up to the audience), and on a Watsonian level gives Brody the final impetus to go through with what he originally wanted to do in the first place - kill the VP. (And this time in a manner that gets no one else killed.) Note the careful staging of the VPs death. Brody, having delivered the MacGuffin, err, number that allows Nasir to trigger a heart attack, could have made his excuse and then left if it had been only about fulfilling his end of the bargain, but stays and waits until Walden actually starts showing signs of a heart attack, and then additionally makes sure Walden can't reach the phone to call a doctor. And of course he can't resist, at the last moment, telling Walden what's what. This is the first death we see Brody take an actual satisfaction in, and given that Walden has been written as the most boo-hiss worthy person of the show (including Nasir; not for nothing does this episode point out that not only does Nasir love his late son, and in a twisted way Brody, while Walden gets to say "fuck your family", meaning his as well as Brody's, and declare that nothing is as important as power), so does the audience. However, this makes things easier to Estes (I suppose Walden would have been furious to find out, if he ever did, that the CIA let him keep Brody at his side while already knowing the truth about Brody), and might be recorded if there was surveillance in Walden's office. Not that Brody doesn't have more immediate life threatening problems, as he's about to become expendable the moment Carrie kills Nasir (which, as mentioned, I expect she will at the start of the next episode).
So, at a guess: the next episode will start with Nasir's death and the CIA retrieval team coming for Carrie who has no reason to suspect anything and will go with them. Having already sort-of-arrested Saul, Estes will then order Quinn to kill Brody. (BTW, it occurs to me Estes, like Walden, is another character the episode compares to his disadvantage to Nasir, who keeps his word and lets Carrie go while Estes never planned to keep his and always intended to kill Brody.) Brody, however, will be busy being interrogated by a couple of suspicious people at the VP's residence about Walden's death, which means he can't be killed discreetly, and this will delay matters. Carrie will smell a rat when there's no Saul to debrief her about Nasir, plus she knows about Walden (note that on the phone she only told Saul about Nasir, and pointedly did NOT mention the VP was in immediate danger of being assassinated by Brody), so I wonder whether the final eps will include some on the run time. It also could include a big dilemma for her: the one way to get rid of Estes (and get Saul free) is to make his involvement in the drone strike public. Which she could if Brody's original confession tape were to be made public. Now this would obviously not only be terrorist recruitment fodder (see Estes' arguments to Saul last season) but also doom Brody, and of course bury any type of future with the CIA for her.
Obviously, I was wrong about the hit-and-run cover up bringing down Walden, but I'm still expecting some fallout from it (i.e. someone using it in some way) before this season is over, though the scene between Dana and Finn feels like an emotional wrap up for their part in it as well as their relationship.
I enjoyed the Dar Adall and Saul scene for the actors involved, but I am still clueless (and suspicious) as to what Adall's purpose as a character is going to be. Hm, given we just basically got conformation of Estes as the season's ultimate antagonist, Adall will take over as CIA director in s3? Bring on next week!
The "oh no, show, you don't" was of course at the idea of Carrie being reduced to damsel in distress to be kidnapped and rescued. However, it played out very differently, and also, the kidnapping was about the only plot device to allow Carrie and Abu Nasir to meet and have a face to face chat. Which was not only a great scene but dramatically necessary, as this season repeatedly paralleled Nasir with Carrie in regards to Brody, situationally, behaviourally, methodically. I did not expect the show to to do it in dialogue and text as well, but lo and behold, it did, with Nasir telling Carrie that emotional transference works both ways after she brought up the way he conditioned Brody, that they both come to love Brody while breaking him. Not exactly true, as Carrie's feelings for Brody predate that, but, you know: enough true to make a powerful impact. Also justifiying, on a Watsonian level, why Nasir didn't simply have Brody killed after the Walden assassination plot didn't work out the first time around.
Speaking of parallels, Nasir bringing up drone strikes versus Carrie bringing up suicide bombings is intercut with the other storyline going on, which the audience is aware of but Carrie isn't yet, to wit, Estes' plan to rid himself off Brody as soon as they don't need him anymore to catch Nasir, which as it turns out when Saul figures it out also encompasses dealing with Saul (evil cliffhanger is evil) and presumably Carrie (not that difficult, given her track record). Which makes Estes this season's ultimate antagonist, which makes sense and I should have seen, but didn't until last ep's Quinn reveal. Nasir, having accomplished his revenge for his son, won't survive the next episode (I'm assuming Carrie will kill him early in it, given she want back to deal with him and that he's her personal bete noir as well as her parallel, and Walden didn't survive this one as being blackmailed with Carrie's life on a Doylist level allows the audience to see that yes, Brody by now feels strongly for her (how much of it is conditioned given the explicit Carrie and Nasir parallels, being given a child to love, being given a woman to love, is up to the audience), and on a Watsonian level gives Brody the final impetus to go through with what he originally wanted to do in the first place - kill the VP. (And this time in a manner that gets no one else killed.) Note the careful staging of the VPs death. Brody, having delivered the MacGuffin, err, number that allows Nasir to trigger a heart attack, could have made his excuse and then left if it had been only about fulfilling his end of the bargain, but stays and waits until Walden actually starts showing signs of a heart attack, and then additionally makes sure Walden can't reach the phone to call a doctor. And of course he can't resist, at the last moment, telling Walden what's what. This is the first death we see Brody take an actual satisfaction in, and given that Walden has been written as the most boo-hiss worthy person of the show (including Nasir; not for nothing does this episode point out that not only does Nasir love his late son, and in a twisted way Brody, while Walden gets to say "fuck your family", meaning his as well as Brody's, and declare that nothing is as important as power), so does the audience. However, this makes things easier to Estes (I suppose Walden would have been furious to find out, if he ever did, that the CIA let him keep Brody at his side while already knowing the truth about Brody), and might be recorded if there was surveillance in Walden's office. Not that Brody doesn't have more immediate life threatening problems, as he's about to become expendable the moment Carrie kills Nasir (which, as mentioned, I expect she will at the start of the next episode).
So, at a guess: the next episode will start with Nasir's death and the CIA retrieval team coming for Carrie who has no reason to suspect anything and will go with them. Having already sort-of-arrested Saul, Estes will then order Quinn to kill Brody. (BTW, it occurs to me Estes, like Walden, is another character the episode compares to his disadvantage to Nasir, who keeps his word and lets Carrie go while Estes never planned to keep his and always intended to kill Brody.) Brody, however, will be busy being interrogated by a couple of suspicious people at the VP's residence about Walden's death, which means he can't be killed discreetly, and this will delay matters. Carrie will smell a rat when there's no Saul to debrief her about Nasir, plus she knows about Walden (note that on the phone she only told Saul about Nasir, and pointedly did NOT mention the VP was in immediate danger of being assassinated by Brody), so I wonder whether the final eps will include some on the run time. It also could include a big dilemma for her: the one way to get rid of Estes (and get Saul free) is to make his involvement in the drone strike public. Which she could if Brody's original confession tape were to be made public. Now this would obviously not only be terrorist recruitment fodder (see Estes' arguments to Saul last season) but also doom Brody, and of course bury any type of future with the CIA for her.
Obviously, I was wrong about the hit-and-run cover up bringing down Walden, but I'm still expecting some fallout from it (i.e. someone using it in some way) before this season is over, though the scene between Dana and Finn feels like an emotional wrap up for their part in it as well as their relationship.
I enjoyed the Dar Adall and Saul scene for the actors involved, but I am still clueless (and suspicious) as to what Adall's purpose as a character is going to be. Hm, given we just basically got conformation of Estes as the season's ultimate antagonist, Adall will take over as CIA director in s3? Bring on next week!
no subject
Date: 2012-12-10 01:52 pm (UTC)I was surprised that, having stayed on to oversee Walden's death and told him what he was doing, Brody didn't mention Isa, particularly as he had effectively rededicated himself to the revenge mission by swearing on Isa's immortal soul, reasserting the one indelible link to Nasir. Also, despite the flatline, I wanted to be reassured that Walden was permanently dead and wouldn't revive with inconvenient memories about Brody trying to kill him, though I suppose that might be one reason why Brody wasn't allowed to give him the full explanation.
I thought the raising of the drone attacks was politically necessary, as the show has been suspected of expressing an anti-Islamic all-Muslims-are-terrorists agenda and it was useful to remind a predominantly American audience that, even if Abu Nasir's actions are wrong, there's a reason why he exists. (Again, that meant I was surprised that Brody didn't mention Isa, as an assertion of Family against Power.)
I initially wondered whether this was half of a two-parter, as the final moments of Carrie approaching the door seemed oddly low-key, despite their dramatic potential, but I suppose it can't have been given that you've only just reviewed the next one, and they'd be unlikely to run the last-but-one-and-two and then have a single finale.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-10 05:34 pm (UTC)And yes, the conversation was the scene I had meant. Agreed that the story is better for Nasir's emotions as real, not feigned.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-10 05:47 pm (UTC)