Review of Homeland ‘Q&A’

(CHANNEL 4)

SPOILERS: Do not read this if you have not seen episode 5, series 2 of ‘Homeland’

Following his shock arrest at the end of last week’s episode, this week’s dose of Homeland begins logically enough with Brody in custody and awaiting interrogation.

Despite her best protestations, interrogation duties are handed to Peter not Carrie, not entirely surprising given she no longer actually works for the CIA. Saul’s reminder that she is “lucky to be in the building” seems something of an understatement given her unpredictability and flagrant disregard for orders.

Fortunately it turns out Peter is a skilled interrogator, making Brody look extremely stupid by showing him his own suicide video just after he has denied all of the information on it.

Away from the interrogation of Brody, Dana and Finn arrange to go on a date, unaware that their seemingly happy storyline is ultimately heading towards disaster.

Despite his apparently hopeless position it is not very surprising that Brody, a man who was brutally tortured for years on end, does not immediately confess everything but instead tries to worm his way out of the situation. However, what is surprising is Peter’s crazy reaction to things, which ultimately leads him to stabbing Brody in the hand. While this is explained away later as all being part of an elaborate ‘good cop/bad cop’ routine, it does seem a bit extreme.

It does though allow Carrie to take over proceedings and in doing so show that she actually is good at her job, instead of just arguing with her superiors which is what she seems to spend a lot of her time doing. Using a highly effective combination of interrogation techniques, Carrie’s persona blends a caring ‘good cop’ persona with that of a slightly crazed stalker.

Whether it is through the huge amount of guilt-tripping that she does or simply because her whole performance is completely terrifying, particularly as she appears not to blink for pretty much the whole thing, Brody eventually breaks and spills the beans to her.

Elsewhere Dana’s date with the vice-president’s son ends in disaster, when her urging him to drive faster predictably ends in tears, or more specifically a hit and run incident. I don’t expect this to be the last time we hear about this in the series.

Brody is then given the not entirely difficult choice of either going to trial for his crimes against America, bringing disgrace on his country, family and (worst of all?) the marines, or working for the CIA to stop the planned terrorist attack. And in doing so bring to justice the man who captured and savagely tortured him for years before brainwashing him into almost blowing himself up. Unsurprisingly he opts for the latter.

On returning home his wife forces him to explain where he has been and he, rather unconvincingly I felt, tells her that he is working for the CIA, an excuse that she seemingly happily believes. Several things about this seemed slightly odd to me. Firstly that Jessica was convinced so easily even though Brody told her in such a shifty way, which in itself is strange as he actually is now working for them, but also because I can’t believe he hadn’t thought of saying it before.

It really would have saved him a lot of grief and helped to explain his disappearances, now it just seems like a convenient and implausible excuse. However, it does now mean that Brody is firmly on the side of good, which in many ways I think is a bit of a shame as the slightly ambiguous nature of good and evil and the blurring of the two sides in the series was something that set it apart from other programmes.

Then again we may discover next week that Brody has played Carrie and the CIA simply to get himself out of trouble, I doubt it somehow but you just never know.

You can follow the writer on twitter: @thesportsfox

Recent Posts on Arts

• Doctor Who 'The Name of the Doctor' - Series 7, episode 13
• Friday Book Design Blog: Blurb special
• Something For The Weekend in London: May 17-19
• Brighton Fringe 2013 – Predictably unpredictable
• The Fall 'Dark Descent' - Series 1, episode 1

• swell

  “Brody is firmly on the side of good”, obviously you ween’t paying attention, He didn’t give up the lady (can’t remember her name/role) thats been hes recent conduit to Nazir, only those already dead. That was the whole point that you missed, that he is still blurring the line doh

• Emily Thorne

  null

• greggf

  They are making it up as they go along!

• Jean des Esseintes

  He did give up ‘Roya Hammad’ which is why her picture stayed up on their board. It seems actually that ‘obviously you weren’t paying attention’…

• Seren

  He did give her up, her name is Roya, that’s why her photo was pinned up on the new board at the end by Saul and Peter, it’s obvious you weren’t paying attention!
  And Emily, the Veep’s son is called Finn – Xander was her previous boyfriend she ditched for Veep Junior.

• creggancowboy

  Focus switches from Carrie to Dana, but in terms of reality if the V.P’s son did get away from the secret service surely all they had to do was “radio ahead” and block the street?

• http://www.facebook.com/garywhitehead79 Gary Whitehead

  That wasnt a review it was a summary of the plot, we dont need to know that, we watched it ourselves.