Homeland

I am beginning to think the over-arching message of this whole series is now one individual influences, brainwashes, and ultimately recruits them to their cause. By the time this entire series is over, we will see Nazir -> Brody -> Carrie -> ?? -> ?? are all just puppets in a never ending spiral action/re-action of death and misery. Without a doubt, this attack was Brody's doing and Carrie is way too far gone to see it or admit it now. She is completely compromised and I expect to see her strapping bombs to her chest at some point in the future.

A real bummer of a season, but I would be lying if I said I wouldn't be tuning in next year. They cleared some pretty big pieces off the chess board season 2, and it is going to be interesting to see how the remaining pawns, rooks, and knights play the game out.

How the hell is Carrie going to explain where she was for the day that she was missing? How is she going to explain that they never will find Brody's body? There were a LOT of recovered bodies there, I would imagine they can probably account for everyone there. Massive plot hole to start off season 3.

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It's only a plot hole if they dont address it. For all we know, he might ask her where the fuck she's been, and she may flat out tell him, Brody didnt do this, i got him away safely, let's figure out who did. She's brainwashed enough by her love for him that I wouldnt put it past her.

Lithose_sl said:

I'm thinking there is still a far larger plot underway, and somehow the mole in the CIA, and Brody, are going to carry it out. It's the only reason I can think of for Nazir acting like a moron, becoming a foot soldier and putting on that ridiculous skype-drama show in front of Carrie--all as a means to cement her trusting Brody, so Brody could worm his way into something important. (Which would also explain why Brody all the sudden went from mistrusting her to being head over heels in love with her).

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Pretty much as expected. Nazir died to throw them off their guard and allow for a bigger attack, that Brody needed to be given access to in order to make work. I guess they left it open as to whether Brody was in on it, but from what we can tell, either Brody was in on it or the mole, which still hasn't been found out, moved Brody's car. I think the former is the only thing that doesn't leave gaping plot holes though, considering the mole wouldn't have been able to make Brody go to this thing and it also doesn't lead to the plot hole of how Brody's car was wired without his knowledge (Since it's something like 200lbs of C4? I posted on the other board that only half was used in those batteries. They said 400lbs in the chest, then they were very specific to say each battery was 50lbs, so they definitely wanted it out there that there was 200lbs floating around.)

In any case. Brody crying when Nazir died, and then Nazir predicting they will never see each other again, despite knowing Brody wouldn't die in that foiled bomb plot that he "betrayed" Nazir on, then Brody not admitting to the CIA that he and Nazir prayed together, which was supposed to cast doubt on him telling the whole story and then Brody's massive attitude shift, along with Nazir's little drama spectacle after being so secretive his whole life--it all fits that it was all done to cover Brody still being a terrorist. But with a bit of sloppy/fast writing, it also fits that Nazir was using Brody without his knowledge. I'm sure they will play up the dual options next season as Carrie and Saul butt heads over whether they are helping or hunting Brody (For more drama, of course.)

Strong ending to a season with very big ups and downs (Strong>Weak>Strong end.) Definitely worse than S1 overall, but I'll still be watching next season and looking forward to it.

I can only presume Carrie's deciding factor on basing her resolve that he didn't do it is on the "Why did someone move my car?" line just before it detonated. He had no reason at all to say that, she hadn't seen it out the window.

At least she didn't run off with him, that would have been the worst ending.

Quinn must be thinking "Doh!" right about now... Although he as well as Saul/Carrie knows the video was made for the previous non-attack so presumably he'll be back as part of Saul's sekret backroom team with Carrie in charge trying to find out who really did it and how. The CIA "mole" + helpers must still be around as I doubt any beardy terrorists would have been allowed in the car park. Then again it's probably for the best that the car bomb being there isn't nit picked too heavily anyway, suspension of disbelief and all that.

There's things there that make it no sense for it to have been Brody behind it. It wasn't his idea to leave the service when they did, it was Carrie's, he mentioned his car moved, he could've just killed Carrie once he had the gun (because if he was really behind it, he would've known there's no way he'd get away with any of it). So with the information we have, Nazir setting it all up this way makes the most sense, however I felt like the more interesting play was Brody being legitimately bad.

Next season I look forward to the opening shot of Brody looking in the mirror, having grown a full on 'feelings' beard.

ham_sl said:

There's things there that make it no sense for it to have been Brody behind it. It wasn't his idea to leave the service when they did, it was Carrie's, he mentioned his car moved, he could've just killed Carrie once he had the gun (because if he was really behind it, he would've known there's no way he'd get away with any of it). So with the information we have, Nazir setting it all up this way makes the most sense, however I felt like the more interesting play was Brody being legitimately bad.

Next season I look forward to the opening shot of Brody looking in the mirror, having grown a full on 'feelings' beard.

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As for not killing Carrie, that could be as simple as he is fucked in the head and has feelings for her. They do a pretty good job of showing he's not a +/- character, which I think is a strength of the show. It's not difficult to imagine someone playing both sides of the game, eventually forming specific loyalties on both sides. As for leaving the blast site, Brody was freaking out sitting there--which is why Carrie decided to leave with him. He could have been building to going over and telling her "I can't sit though his hypocritical bullshit" ect.

I'm on the fence with Brody being in on it or not from a plot point of view. But the writing, overall, would be a lot stronger if he was (There have been a ton of clues indicating he was still with Nazir.)

Killing Carrie, feelings aside, could have done him a lot of harm if he was involved. Escaped with her help - which is necessary as a plot driven point because... if he escaped with terrorists help we'd already have our answers to past and future events. She's crazy and believes it wasn't him, wants to clear his name, will go on vendetta to do so.

I figured out the bomb thing at the very start of the episode just from the tone, but I didn't see the framing coming til it happened. A pretty great way to continue the value of his character considering his interest level was at 0 before.

His motives aside, I don't know how whatever happens with him in S3 will be as interesting as S1 S2 ep 1-6. If I were to make a guess, it would be that he didn't have anything to do with it, and is now considered the new Abu Nazir when they don't find his body. The interesting part will be what the rest of the remaining team do that saw the videotape beforehand, including what Dana heard, how they're received if they speak on hiding a potential VP as a terrorist.

lanx_sl said:

for season3 to be good, brody family must die, even the companion(i forget her name). Actually that could be the only thing to bring brody out of hiding, that his whole family was house bombed and he's back, please let this be the story, otherwise it's going to be all the bad seasons of 24 all over again.

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Nazir did hint at that if Brody flipped, his family would be in danger. Terrorists could take them, get in contact with Carrie to get in contact with Brody, that if Brody isn't the new figurehead of terror... his family goes. Jessica would probably die, but the kids wouldn't. Probably just written off.

At least I got the bomb at the CIA part of my prediction correct. I feel dumb not thinking there was a third possibility of how to keep Brody around and involved in the plot.

It seems a really thin premise that Nazir planned everything to happen the way it did. I guess I'll suspend disbelief, but it's hard to imagine that Nazir would allow himself to be killed and then hope that Bordy would still be alive and have access to the CIA building. And why would Nazor think there would be a service at the CIA HQ? Obviously they had to concoct a reason to have a large gathering of people at the CIA to drive the story, but the guy was the sitting Vice President. He would get a state funeral. I could see a memorial service at the CIA after the official funeral, but not before. The VP's wife and child would still have Secret Service protection this soon after his death, hard to imagine that standard CIA protocol and the Secret Service would not have a bomb sniffing dog around the front gate checking cars and people as they entered or allow cars to be parked close to the CIA building.

Plus, the CIA windows would havethis on them to mitigate the damage.

Lastly, there's no way the actual CIA is not covered with security cameras. There is no way there is not a video of whoever it was that moved and parked Brody's car. As for the spy, Saul obviously did not move the car, he was on an aircraft carrier. So if Saul is a double agent, there is more than one. Galvez is the likely spy, but that's not enough to make a full season out of and there has to be a Galvez wrinkle because it's too obvious.

As up and down as this season was, they've got me for a third season.

Is Saul Muslim? I cannot remember if that has been stated in the show. Otherwise, the prayer not being Christian at the end was really out of place.

Ah so that was Hebrew, nevermind then. I'm too ignorant to be able to hear the difference.

It showed him doing something similar in season one with the prisoner who mysteriously was able to slit his wrists in secure custody. They haven't been very overt with his Jewishness though, i.e. the little hat and him not saying "Oy vey!" when shit goes down etc.

The original reason I know that Hebrew sounds very similar to Arabic is from a West Wing episode which had both sides intoning their prayers at the Camp David peace summit.

Presumably Saul's sunny smile at the end will last exactly up to the point he says "So Carrie, where have you been?"

Fazana_sl said:

Presumably Saul's sunny smile at the end will last exactly up to the point he says "So Carrie, where have you been?"

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Yeah. I'm curious how they are going to deal with that. In the real world, it's a 16 hour round trip drive from DC to the Canadian border and back, plus time spent at the storage locker and at the forger who made Brody's paperwork. How do they even make it past the front gate after an explosion?

They bought back a lot of good will with a strong finale. I particularly liked Quinn going allThe Lives of Otherson us. I found the music really stood out during this episode too.

Finale was a marked improvement over the 2nd half of this season. Not quite as good as the first season in general but a lot better than a lot of the shit that's been happening in the show the last few weeks. At least interesting enough for me to at least start season 3 when it happens.