Good Night - HL

Homeland episode 3-10 "Good Night"

Written by Alexander Cary
According to IMDB and Wikipedia, this guy is Scottish nobility and carries the name Plantaganet (holy crap!). He was also a member of the Scots Guard (not Scotchgard, that is something else).  One of the most interesting writer bios I can remember.

Directed by Keith Gordon
Directed A Midnight Clear, which is a great WWII movie that is uber sad but still a great Christmas watch.  I will gladly lend you the DVD.


If last week's purpose was to build a bridge, this episode was also building a bridge, but from the other side of the river.

The entire episode is dedicated to inserting Brody into Iran under the guise of him seeking political asylum.  At first, all is well as Brody bonds with his special forces sherpas, but then it all goes pear shaped.

While last week left a bad taste in my mouth, the high point was certainly the introduction of the special forces guys who are tasked with drying Brody out and then being his running buddies through the forest.  Between their weird camaraderie* with Brody, their humor, stoicism under fire, as well as their general courage, competence and way of doing things, they a team I'd like to see deployed on several other shows.  Despite the short time they've had onscreen the last two episodes, you really root for them to get out of this mission alive.

*At least it's written believably, and not in that fake way where it's obviously written with the intent of creating rapport, via lame jokes, name calling, laughing too hard and punching each other on the arm

Bite it hard, Carrie!

Carrie's shrillness and grossness continue on in this episode.  For someone who sure complained a lot to Saul about how she was treated while they executed the plan they agreed upon, she doesn't have much concern for the other military personnel involved.  Sure, the point of the op is to get Brody across from the safe lands of Iraq* into hostile Iran, so reporting on Brody's status is essentially the same as reporting on the mission's success/failure...but when she reports the outcome to Saul, she does not mention the fact that one of the Americans is taken prisoner.  Obviously Saul is going to find this out so I don't see any strategy in Carrie withholding this information...the only explanation is that she is still so hung up on Brody she has tunnel vision when it comes to him.

* When Iraq is the friendliest of the two territories, you are in some stuff

 The equine cruelty I find in this show's treatment of Brody-Carrie far exceeds any complaints people had about Luck.

With two episodes remaining it feels more like less is giong to happen this season than I originally thought.  Two episodes dedicated to bridgebuilding can sure fill up some time.  Saul outlined the plan with Brody and we've spent close to the last two hours seeing that plan in effect.  There are conflicts and starts and stops along the road there, but essentially things are exactly as Saul laid them out.  There are no turns or detours.  Being that Saul told us everything that's going to happen, seeing all they play out near exact as he planned is not the most exciting thing in the world.

For example if you tell us you're going to have your army attack Casterly Rock, you can instead subvert expectations by killing everyone.   

One possibility of what's to come next is a half cocked redemption of Brody who went from too scared to complete the mission to completing the mission despite orders to abort.  After extended bonding, he helped saved one of our special forces friends make it out injured, but alive.  He digs deep and finds his way across the border to complete the mission* all while working in concert with his military brethren.  After his buddy gets his head blowed off by Javadi, I wonder how close he'll stay to the original mission parameters.  Brody could do an entirely different kind of damage to the United States by unseating or killing Javadi. 
 
* Note that Carrie is all about the mission in this episode when Brody and the mission are intertwined , but nearly blew the whole operation on the off chance she could clear (the completely irrelevant) Brody as the CIA bomber question.

Maybe it's a Walter White-esque level of redemption * before he eats it, or maybe Gansa and Gordon are simply drawing out Brody's life so Showtime has a flagship. 

* Redemption to the extent possible, relative to how deep of a hole he's dug himself