"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

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Are the "old games" that Senator Lockhart spoke so condescendingly of really outdated?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".

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

There's an adage among entertainment promoters, particularly old-school pro wrestling guys, who had to draw a crowd every Friday night back before cable television changed that industry:

Save your lies.

You build up equity with your audience by putting out a good product and following through on what you've advertised. If you deliver on both fronts over a long enough period of time, your audience will be more forgiving if ever a situation arises that may lend itself to bending the truth a bit.

What does this have to do with Homeland?

The show spent the better part of the first four episodes of this season lying to its audience.

It told us that Saul had decided to throw Carrie under the bus in an attempt to save the CIA's reputation, that Carrie was so frazzled and unstable that she might go so far as to turn on her country and her agency, only to reveal in the final scene of "Game On" that Carrie and Saul had been running their own operation all along, that most of what we have seen so far had been a ruse, that Carrie was deep undercover at Saul's behest, in an effort to draw out some of those responsible for the attack on the agency.

The twist made for an exciting moment, and an eventful end to Season 3's first act. How we as viewers responded to it likely depends on how much we've enjoyed the show of late, and whether or not we feel that this was the right time for Homeland to use up one of its lies.

I wasn't particularly happy with the big reveal. After a stellar first season, the show dipped in Season 2, and felt very much like a bad season of 24 to me, writing itself into corners and using preposterous plot devices. Yes, this is entertainment, and a certain suspension of disbelief is required, but Season 2 stretched even the truest of believers.

I also didn't care for the twist at the end of "Game On" because I believe that the entire episode was deliberately slow-paced in an effort to make the reveal feel more impactful. I'm not someone that needs car crashes and explosions and gunfights to keep my interest, but "Game On" edged along at a snail's pace. As I watched, I felt like I was being set up for something. And I was.

In a season where the big bad guy is called "The Magician", Homeland set me up for a magic trick. If I was watching and writing about a whodunit, I'd be more willing to go along for the ride, and wouldn't feel so duped when the big reveal happened. As it was, I just felt manipulated and lied to.
Why were we treated to the scene of Carrie incredulously watching Saul's testimony before the congressional committee? So we would fall for the trick. That's not playing fair with your audience.

While I'm being Mr. Negative here, let's talk about Dana.

Unspeakably awkward sex scenes aside, I haven't hated the focus on Dana this season. some of that is probably because of all of the fan backlash against her was far too reminiscent of all of the Skyler White hate from Breaking Bad fans.

In both cases, it seemed to me that people who criticized both characters did so from a vitriolic place that I don't want to visit. Their hatred of both characters seemed to come from of a hatred for women and a lack of understanding of character development, rather than from a desire for intellectual discourse about television shows.

The Dana storyline jumped the shark for me in "Game On." Her boyfriend isn't just crazy, we were told, he's also a murderer. What. And the way that Mike delivered that tidbit to Jessica, "Details are sketchy..."

What could be sketchy about the details? Did he kill his brother or not? Wasn't there an investigation?

On a positive note, I'm actually pleased that Carrie and Saul are on the same page again. I like both characters and I think that their relationship, not Carrie and Brody's, is the heartbeat of the show.

I'm not thrilled with how we got there, but I'm glad we're back.

For more Homeland, 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

"Everywhere you go, other people die, but you always manage to survive. Did you notice that? You're like a cockroach, still there after the last nuclear bombs go off." -Dr. Graham

Has there ever been an easier episode to recap than "Tower of David"?

Brody is back. Brody is being held in a place that he doesn't want to be, taking a drug that he doesn't want to. Carrie is being held in a place that she doesn't want to be, taking a drug that she doesn't want to.

This is Homeland, though, so of course there is more than meets the eye going on here.

Carrie was visited in the psych ward by a mysterious lawyer, who has a connection to some outside source that has some use for Carrie. She seems to think that it might be the Syrian or Israeli government that wants to pick her brain, and she doesn't want to have anything to do with him. But her wheels are turning; so much so that she actually called for her lithium, to help quiet the noise in her head brought on by her mysterious visitor.

And Brody? Oh, Brody. What fresh hell will you bring on this time?

We caught up with Brody, who had two bullets in his gut, in Venezuela. I'm sure it's no coincidence that the country at the center of the CIA's multi-pronged attack on The Magician's terrorist network is where Brody found himself.

Once there, and once recovered from his wounds, Brody was eager to get moving again. It seems that since Carrie left him at the Canadian border at the end of last season, he's been staying in motion constantly, as he seemed more concerned with the condition of his passport than his own physical well-being.

Both Brody and Carrie thought that they had found escape hatches. For Carrie, she thought that it was Saul that was going to visit her and take her out of that place. For Brody, he thought that the nearby mosque would be his ticket out of there, with some help from his captor's daughter.

In both cases, our protagonists were incorrect. Brody found himself dragged out of the mosque, his would-be rescuers killed by his captors. Carrie did not find Saul willing to get her out of the psych ward, rather a man that simply wants to use what she knows.

When the hour was over, both main characters were seemingly resigned to their fate, and taking their medicine. For Carrie, it was lithium; heroin for Brody.

But as Dr. Graham, a fantastically rich character that I hope we get to see again this season, said of Brody, both he and Carrie are survivors. They may find themselves temporarily waylaid, but if what we know of them holds true, they'll be back to shaking the world soon enough.

This was a stripped-down episode of Homeland, free of Saul and Quinn and Dana and Jessica and anything else that might distract from the very straightforward story that "Tower of David" wanted to tell.

While that might not lend itself to the thousand-word recaps I'm used to writing, it served us well as an audience, allowing us to focus on the show's two chief protagonists and setting up what should be some high-quality storytelling for the rest of the season.

For more Homeland, 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

Welcome to Homeland, where the crazy kids, Carrie and Dana, might have a firmer grasp on reality than the establishment does, where the cold-blooded Peter Quinn has more empathy for his fellow man than that old teddy bear, Saul Berenson, and where the second episode of the third season was spent busting up the heart of the show, Saul and Carrie's relationship.

Dana might be crazy, but she might have a better understanding of what went wrong in her life than her mother does. Of course it's silly for her to assert that her new boyfriend is her North Star, but she also isn't afraid to confront causes her inner turmoil, unlike most people.

Carrie is crazy, but her madness is mixed with a bit of genius, and she might be better off putting that into practice, if not for the fact that her employer, and her mentor, seem intent on scapegoating and burying her.

"Uh... Oh... Ah..." advanced the larger plot of the season only marginally, but served its purpose, which was to re-draw battle lines. It probably fell in the bottom tier of Homeland episodes in terms of overall quality, but there was plenty here to get us thinking, and plenty of opportunity for Claire Danes to cry, kick, scream and otherwise put on an acting clinic.

Episode Recap

Carrie dropped by Saul's house to give him hell. He wasn't home. Mira tried to calm her down, but to no avail. Carrie left.

We then met Fara, an analyst that the agency brought in to go over the data that Quinn recovered in Venezuela. Saul seemed bothered by something, perhaps her? We learned that she had been working for the CIA for an entire eight days.

Saul met with Dar Adal, who warned him that Carrie planned to meet with a reporter to give her side of the Brody story. Adal promised to shut her down, and he did just that. As Carrie met with the reporter and started to spill her guts, the police arrived and placed her under psychiatric detention.
We sat in on a counseling session with Dana and Mrs. Brody. Tension. Issues bubbling under the surface. After, Dana saw Leo out in the lobby. They said that they missed each other. Meanwhile at the hospital, Carrie met with a doctor . She was freaking out.

Saul met with Fara. So far, she didn't have any connection between the information she was brought in to analyze and The Magician. That frustrated Saul, who also gave her a tongue-lashing for wearing her head scarf. It seemed out of character for Saul to make such an overtly xenophobic statement like that. It seems far more likely to me that he said that to light a fire under her. He was playing a part, the role of the old, grizzled racist, in an effort to motivate her. I think. Fara suggested that they bring in some questionable bankers from New York that had some shady dealings in Iran. There might be a lead there, she surmised. Saul agreed to bring them in the next day.

Quinn went to visit Carrie at the hospital, to try to talk some sense into her. She would have none of it, though. Dana sneaked out of the house to visit Leo. He was able to sneak her into the facility, where they got down to business in a laundry room. So awkward. They were discovered there, the next morning.

Saul went to Carrie's house, where her dad and sister were preparing for Carrie's commitment hearing that same day. Saul told them that believe it or not, he was still on Carrie's side, but that they had to reign her in. He got through to them, obviously, because they showed up at her hearing with a very CIA-friendly battle plan, involving Carrie's dreaded medication. Carrie tried to bolt from the hearing, and ended up back in protective custody. Quinn had been there, apparently independent of the agency, simply to be a character witness for Carrie. He watched as she was hauled away, kicking and screaming.

In the meeting with the bankers, Saul presented them with some information that Fara had uncovered. She was able to tie their institution to the funds that were used to attack the CIA. They had used a series of dummy transactions to conceal the origin of the funds. In essence, the CIA was asking the bankers to give them the names of the people who had actually done the transactions. Fara tried to press them, and they balked. The agency would have to litigate their way through the mess.

Back at the Brody residence, Dana tried to tell her mother that her suicide attempt had not been a cry for help, but a real attempt to end her life. She said she couldn't take it any more, but now she could, since she had Leo. She said that she and Leo weren't crazy, that her father was crazy and had ruined their lives.

Quinn met with Saul. He told him that he wouldn't bail on him in the middle of a mission, but that he was not okay with what the agency was doing to Carrie. Saul told him that it would all be worth it, as long as they got The Magician. Quinn wasn't so sure. He said that he had no faith in the agency, and that when this mission was over, he was done.

In an effort to expedite the mission, Quinn dropped in on the shady banker. He threatened him, and strongly suggested that he play ball. His tactic worked, as the guy turned over a comprehensive list of names and transactions. Fara went over the data and traced the funding for the attack on the CIA to people inside the Iranian government.

She was also able to determine that some of the funds in question had seemingly disappeared, somehow funneled off to some unknown source. Hmm. To Brody? Saul asked her to keep that bit of information between the two of them, for now.

Back at the Brody's, Dana looked at some old family photos and dug out her dad's prayer mat.
At the hospital, Carrie was strapped down and force-fed her medication. Saul went to visit her later, and apologized to her. She would have none of that.

For more Homeland, 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