"Being a spy isn't the same as sitting in a hide, waiting for the enemy to come under your guns. You're in the jungle, usually in the dark, with bad information and unreliable partners. The senator's made a career of criticizing the agency he's about to lead. His first job, in my opinion, is to win the hearts and minds of those men and women in harm's way..."
-Saul Berenson
-Saul Berenson
After being mired in Dana/Leo and Carrie/Brody nonsense for much of its last sixteen episodes, Homeland returned to its espionage thriller roots in "The Yoga Play", an excellent outing that raised the kinds of questions that only this show can.
Are the "old games" that Senator Lockhart spoke so condescendingly of really outdated? Can an intelligence agency do what it needs to do relying on drones and other technology? If you subscribe to the theory that human intelligence is better, is it worth the trail of broken homes, broken lives and broken people it leaves behind?
We're familiar with Carrie's brokenness, and so is Jessica Brody; she called on her husband's mistress when her daughter went missing, precisely because of it. If anyone would know a way to get through to someone blinded by love, it would be Carrie. Carrie's yoga play finally, mercifully, put an end to the Dana/Leo subplot.
We haven't been let in on all of what makes Quinn the broken, detached super-spy that he is, but we know that he's one of the good guys, and Saul trusted him enough to bring him in on his and Carrie's operation. We saw several instances of Quinn using the old games, and had Saul given him the okay, they might have been effective enough to keep Carrie from harm.
It's hard to imagine a more emotionally broken man than Saul Berenson, and boy was that evident here. Saul trusts people. He believes in people. He trusted that he would be able to make his marriage work, only to come home to find that his wife, albeit his estranged wife, had a dinner date in his home. He trusted that his work at the CIA would have him in line to be named the next director of the agency, only to have that pulled away from him by a calculating politician, a man that makes sport of taking people's dignity as easily as he shoots ducks. Er, geese.
But even though his personal life has been compromised by his work, even though all his trust has gotten him to exactly where he is right now, Saul still believes in Carrie. He believes that even though she's off on her own now, working their operation blind, that she'll come through.
Carrie believes in Saul, too. It's a belief that had her startled awake, stripped and blindfolded and taken away to meet with Javadi, a high-level Iranian intelligence official. Off her meds, her fully alive, wild, unstable self, Carrie must now handle the next phase of the operation on her own.
"She's always been on her own," Saul said.
It's time for Saul to believe in Carrie, and it's time for us an audience to trust that the rest of this season of Homeland will give us more good stuff like "The Yoga Play".
Are the "old games" that Senator Lockhart spoke so condescendingly of really outdated? Can an intelligence agency do what it needs to do relying on drones and other technology? If you subscribe to the theory that human intelligence is better, is it worth the trail of broken homes, broken lives and broken people it leaves behind?
We're familiar with Carrie's brokenness, and so is Jessica Brody; she called on her husband's mistress when her daughter went missing, precisely because of it. If anyone would know a way to get through to someone blinded by love, it would be Carrie. Carrie's yoga play finally, mercifully, put an end to the Dana/Leo subplot.
We haven't been let in on all of what makes Quinn the broken, detached super-spy that he is, but we know that he's one of the good guys, and Saul trusted him enough to bring him in on his and Carrie's operation. We saw several instances of Quinn using the old games, and had Saul given him the okay, they might have been effective enough to keep Carrie from harm.
It's hard to imagine a more emotionally broken man than Saul Berenson, and boy was that evident here. Saul trusts people. He believes in people. He trusted that he would be able to make his marriage work, only to come home to find that his wife, albeit his estranged wife, had a dinner date in his home. He trusted that his work at the CIA would have him in line to be named the next director of the agency, only to have that pulled away from him by a calculating politician, a man that makes sport of taking people's dignity as easily as he shoots ducks. Er, geese.
But even though his personal life has been compromised by his work, even though all his trust has gotten him to exactly where he is right now, Saul still believes in Carrie. He believes that even though she's off on her own now, working their operation blind, that she'll come through.
Carrie believes in Saul, too. It's a belief that had her startled awake, stripped and blindfolded and taken away to meet with Javadi, a high-level Iranian intelligence official. Off her meds, her fully alive, wild, unstable self, Carrie must now handle the next phase of the operation on her own.
"She's always been on her own," Saul said.
It's time for Saul to believe in Carrie, and it's time for us an audience to trust that the rest of this season of Homeland will give us more good stuff like "The Yoga Play".
For Homeland news, including a great podcast that breaks down the latest episode each week, check out http://www.homelandpodcast.com
Subscribe to them on iTunes here: http://homelandpodcast.com/itunes
Or on your mobile device here: http://homelandpodcast.com/stitcher
Follow them on Twitter @HomelandPodcast
Follow me on Twitter @EthanRenner or @ethanwritescom
Subscribe to them on iTunes here: http://homelandpodcast.com/itunes
Or on your mobile device here: http://homelandpodcast.com/stitcher
Follow them on Twitter @HomelandPodcast
Follow me on Twitter @EthanRenner or @ethanwritescom