Homeland Season 2 Episode 9

Another brilliant episode again, finding more & more about Quinn, so basically Brody is a dead man walking. I knew Jess couldn't help herself with Mike & as for Dana she is loose time bomb.

Still dont trust Estes & i'm still not trusting Brody either, like i always said, I trust Saul & Carrie, really getting exciting now.

OK, I think Quinn is an undercover agent for the Canadian government. I mean, why else would he bring in coffee for everyone from Canada's famous chain of Tim Horton's Coffe and Donuts shops (brown cups with yellow and red logo)??



Kidding aside, this has been a great series so far. Personally, I have my doubts about Saul's agenda. First, ther is his non-American wife. Secondly, in sesaon one, it was he who "discovered" the dead prisoner but he never went through with the lie detector test that Carrie arranged. Did we ever find out who killed the prisoner? Also, in the finale of season 1, when Carrie phones Saul to tell him that she believes Brody is wearing a explosive vest, why does Saul "decide" not to believe her and call for other agents to apprehend her, especially after he has constructed Carrie's time-line and seemingly believes her theory? And in season two. why does Saul happen to have an extra pair of eye glasses to "leave" with Aileen allowing her to commit suicide? If Saul is a "good guy", the shows writers have done an excellnt job of misleading me. If he's a "bad guy", they've done a great job of providing us with very subtle clues. I watched the first season's DVD in three nights. Frustrated that I now have to wait seven days between episodes. So glad to see that a third season is planned.

Holy crap. Homeland just took the cake again this week which is surprising since having the Dexter lead-in it's often hard to top Dexter. Brody gets dropped off twelve hours after being flown via helicopter to Nazir. He calls Carrie on a borrowed phone to tell them that he's ok which is good because they were just about to grab Roya Hamad and blow his cover wide open. Brody tells the CIA everything that happened but left out the part about him praying with Nazir. Nazir's need to be courageous and Brody finally questioning the doctrine that Nazir had used to compel him to avenge Asa's death last season was a nice turn around in showing how he's grown considerably since he was found in that camp in episode 1. Brody is no longer the stay-in-the-corner PTSD guy he was for the first part of season 1 he's making choices of his own thanks to getting his life back and making himself one of the most complicated characters on television. His first request is to have his family moved to a secure location and to stop any Nazir surveillance from catching on to the CIA involvement they send in Mike to move them to a safe house. Jess reigniting her sexual relationship with Mike may have had me think of it as betrayal last season but Jess has been through so much and her getting to be happy and connect with someone is something she needs right now. The show has really sold me on Mike being a decent guy and I hope that the two fledgling couples of Mike/Jess and Carrie/Brody can be together when this is all over. Carrie and Saul's investigation into Quinn hit an interesting blip this week as we found out that he was more than an analyst to which the question of why would someone with a high powered rifle cleaning kit and signs to see if anyone was breaking into his place be simply an analyst when they play out more like a wetworks operative. Estes clearly put him on the taskforce for a reason though to which was only partially answered in this episode, Saul visiting his baby mama to find out his real name for an IRS cover was interesting. This whole side-story had me scratching my head until the ending payoff. My only complaint is that the writers seem to have turned Chris into a Family Guy's Meg, even when on the phone with Brody he can only stand thirty seconds until Brody wishes to speak with a more significant character. He just seems like a placeholder in the family and isn't really developed other than that he plays sports, looks up to Mike, and seems to have an affinity for being excited when there's a TV in every room (whoopee doo, you don't need one in every room). Dana not wanting to talk to her dad and harboring resentment is to be expected but even when Mike has every reason to say "yeah, screw that guy" he defends Brody like the true friend that he is and says that no one came back from overseas without damage done to them. Max follows Quinn, who gets a call about Saul's visit from his baby mama, and hops a few buses to meet with a man who is a supposed high level intelligence guy whom Saul knows from off the books ops in Somalia in the 90's. Brody discloses that the Vice President and he are to attend the homecoming of 300 returned veterans and that is where the attack will happen and the only part he has to uphold is convincing the VP to only let Roya broadcast the event and to also have Brody be endorsed for VP himself. Carrie's reaction to Nazir being in the country was to be expected as well as the VP's because somewhere out there someone screwed up although to be fair his face is far from recognizable without the beard. The back and forth between Brody and Nazir about Allah and choosing what one must do because no one can know Allah's will was powerful. Brody it seems is finally aware of how poisonous Nazir is and his "F**k him" he says after being threatened to be tortured after he lost eight years of his life shows me that he really has turned to working with the CIA. The CIA sits on Roya's news van the day of the would be attack where the munitions guy who hit the shop in Gettysburg gets out and he and other cell members begin replacing camera batteries from Roya's van with explosives. Tac teams move in and take down the hostiles and the car that Nazir is flipped but the body they find isn't his. When Quinn leaves the operations room with Saul asking questions Estes merely says that he's wearing "Two Hats today" which is the title of the episode. As typical with Homeland, nothing is what it seems and it was sad to hear Brody tell Jess that things'll get back to normal doesn't seem likely to happen since I've got this vibe that now that she's slept with Mike again their relationship is in its swan song which is purely by circumstance. At least Jess can now fully believe that Brody is working with the CIA. Is it a little weird and racist that they refer to Nazir as "Sandman?" I thought so, even if not just a little. Nazir calling Bin Laden a pussy was funny too, taking the fight to the enemy as he calls it being the more honorable way out. Normally I wouldn't expect the attack to be stopped for another two episodes but it seems that there is so much more to tell this season as the stories just keep being churned out masterfully. With Nazir still out there and the explosives still in his hands, he will now have his sights firmly set on Brody for betraying him putting everyone he loves in danger. Also in the end of Quinn, about to kill Brody until told to stand down, and then saying that he's Brody's best friend and just there to watch his back for the day was a suitable bit of irony. What's Estes's game? Why bring Quinn on? Sure I get that Estes saying that Quinn is there to "kill terrorists" and then almost shooting Brody in cold blood was fitting but can he really get away with that? Or is someone higher up like the guy that Quinn met with, who is really a wetworks guy of some sort, calling the shots since it seems that Estes loves to get in bed with people high up on the political ladder. Either way this was one of the best episodes of the season almost as gripping as "Q&A" but there are still three episodes to go and so much more to see.