This weeks review is brought to you by our very own Laura Deacon
For the next three months we have more to look forward to than ballroom dancing, Z-list popstars and upstairs-downstairs costume drama. Yes, Antiques Roadshow returned last night much to my joy!
But that’s not what I’m here to write about. Last night, nearly 3 million eager viewers tuned in to the return of Homeland. Each week we will write an episode review and we want to know what you think!
Be warned, there are spoilers contained in this review!
What happened in this episode:
I loved the shift from Washington to the Middle East. People are disgruntled, they hate the West and Saul finds himself in the middle of it all. He is asked to meet a former CIA informer, Fatima. She has information of a possible terrorist attack in the US but she only trusts one person: Carrie Mathison. Carrie is being nursed by her family, picking vegetables from the garden and teaching English. That is until David Estes (Director of CIA’s Counterterrorism Unit and all-round wet fish) turns up on her doorstep asking her to return to Beirut to meet with Fatima.
With a slightly manic look in her eye, Carrie accepts the challenge, changes her hair colour and makes her way to Beirut to be greeted by a disgustingly huge fruit basket and a meeting point. But Saul and Carrie are being watched. But then, so would you be if you chose to conduct a CIA meeting in a street-fronted café.
And what about Brody? He has been asked to be running mate for the Vice President. His wife is overjoyed. So overjoyed that she also has a slightly manic, fame-hungry look in her eyes. That is, until Dana reveals that Brody is Muslim. If he is to succeed in Government, he has to let go of his faith. His wife is enjoying her new-found politico status far too much for Brody to ruin it.
When Brody is accosted by TV journalist Roya, he thinks he is being asked for secrets from his past. Roya tells him that her family is connected to Abu Nazir and that the CIA has information on potential terrorist attack sites in the US. She charges him with breaking into Estes’s safe to retrieve the list. She knows he killed Tom Walker; they’ve essentially got him over a barrel.
In what is the most incomprehensible part of episode 1, Brody makes his way to a meeting with Estes. Half-way through, Estes is called to the Press Office to meet Roya. He happily leaves Brody alone in his office and begins chatting to what can only be termed the world’s worst journalist, Roya from “World News”. Surely Estes would send a minion for this kind of chat? Brody, armed with the safe code, finds a list of sites and completes his first challenge of Season 2.
The episode ends with Brody burying his Quran after his wife’s outburst – it is tainted, pages have been torn out. Burying it with help from daughter Dana, we are made abundantly aware of her continued importance to the plot. I just feel sorry for the brother. There were a lot of holes and coincidences in this episode but I was still on the edge of my seat for the most part!
My prediction for the rest of the series:
David Estes will be killed. Either by choking on spaghetti over dinner with Roya or by Brody after confessing he was responsible for the drones unit (and therefore responsible for killing Nazir’s son). Let’s hope so. Anyone who leaves a civilian in a CIA office whilst he goes off for a chat should probably not be in charge of a Counter Terrorism unit!
“This does not mean you have your job back” – David Estes
I think we can safely say that after her triumph in the market at losing her pursuers, Carrie will be reinstated. She’s bloody good and that was one of my favourite moments in the episode.
Dana will continue to suspect her father to the point where he has to choose between his daughter and Nazir.
I hope and pray for some love interest for Saul.
But what do I know? Fellow Homeland obsessives, I look to you!
If you missed the first episode and want to catch up before next week then follow this link
