Episode Title: “A Red Wheelbarrow”
Writers: Alex Gansa & James Yoshimura
Director: Seith Mann
Previously on “Homeland”:
It’s no coincidence that the past two episodes of “Homeland” have been the best installments of the season. Without the teen drama of Dana Brody (Morgan Saylor) and the angst of the Brody family, “Homeland” has been able to refocus on its strengths, which includes Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) and Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin) engaging in various spy games to take down threats to America.
However, the creative team of “Homeland” seem to really want family drama to remain an integral part of this show. To fill the Brody void, “A Red Wheelbarrow” adds a family subplot for Fara Sherazi (Nazanin Boniadi) while adding a twist to Saul’s troubled relationship with his wife, Mira (Sarita Choudhury). Fara’s father (Parviz Sayyad) may not play into the show’s larger storyline, but Mira has unwittingly been transformed into a pawn by someone she cares about. That reveal has huge implications for the rest of the season.
There are full spoilers ahead for “A Red Wheelbarrow,” so if you missed last night’s episode of “Homeland” then you should probably skip this review or else you’ll have to share a room with Brody.
Even the most ardent viewers of “Homeland” probably weren’t aware that the creepy guy whom Mira has been seeing on the side is named Alain Bernard (William Abadie). And while Alain plays the jilted lover when Mira decides to give her marriage another shot, his real agenda is revealed when he breaks into her home and bugs Saul’s computer.
Unless Saul is suddenly overcome by an abundance of caution, that bug may prove to be extremely dangerous. Saul feels safe in that house and he openly discusses his secret operations there. That’s the kind of thing that can get his operatives killed and sink Saul’s career faster than Senator Lockhart (Tracy Letts) can assume control of the CIA.
And then there’s Mira herself. It may be a little farfetched that her lover is a spy, but it makes perfect sense for someone to target Mira to get at Saul. Mira is Saul’s greatest weakness. His love for her has often been one sided and she’s hurt him emotionally several times. But nothing would crush Saul’s world more than Mira’s death. And do you think that Alian won’t kill Mira if she stumbles upon the truth? A man like that will do anything. The only real question is who is Alian working for.
As far as Saul is concerned, these are the best days. Mira seems genuine in her desire to give their marriage another chance, he’s seemingly turned Majid Javadi (Shaun Toub) into the CIA’s most highly placed asset in Iran and he’s still running circles around Lockhart. None of that maneuvering will matter once Lockhart is in control. But it’s undeniably fun to see Saul get under Lockhart’s skin by forcing him out of an intelligence briefing.
Meanwhile, Fara is taking sick days because she’s upset that Javadi was sent back to Iran without consequence after everything he’s done to hurt her homeland. The fact that Javadi murdered his ex-wife and daughter-in-law also weighs down upon her. Unfortunately for Fara, the CIA is all too aware of what she’s been doing, including her drive by appearance at the victims’ home and the half hour she spent in her car deciding whether to come into the CIA for the day. To make matters worse, the visit by the government agent finally clues in Fara’s father on whom she really works for. According to her father, Fara is endangering their relatives in Iran if her activities are discovered.
From Fara’s perspective, she is an American. But she is torn both by what she has been asked to do by her adopted country and by the idea that she is putting her loved ones in danger. That’s not bad, but I wouldn’t want to check in on Fara’s father every week.
The heart of the episode centers on Carrie as she spearheads the investigation into whether Leland Bennett (Martin Donovan) was involved in the CIA bombing. Surprisingly, Dar Adal (F. Murray Abraham) turns out to be one Carrie’s allies in this operation as he slyly tips off Bennett about the investigation to force Paul Franklin (Jason Butler Harner) into contacting Carrie.
It’s a bit hard to believe that Franklin is Bennett’s go-to-guy for everything related to attacks on America. So, the guy who helped set up the Langley bombing is also tasked with assassinating their inconvenient assets and recruiting new operatives like Carrie? That’s a lot of dangerous knowledge to put in the hands of one man.
Peter Quinn (Rupert Friend) is also by Carrie’s side even as it’s clear that he’d much rather be done with the CIA at this point. Whatever his feelings are about Carrie, they’re strong enough to keep him around… but not enough to keep him from shooting her when she nearly blows all of the CIA’s carefully orchestrated plans just because it would harm her attempts to prove Brody’s innocence.
If it had been up to Adal, the shot that hit Carrie would probably have been fatal. Instead, Quinn hit Carrie in the shoulder while Franklin dutifully executed the real Langley bomber and began disposing of his body, “Breaking Bad” style. Even now, it’s still my pet theory that Quinn and Carrie will eventually be a couple on this show. The shooting is a little hard to get past, but if she can forgive Brody for everything that he did to her then what’s a single bullet between friends?
Which brings us back to Brody himself, in only his second appearance this season. It seems that Saul slipped out of town to either check in on Brody’s captivity or to bring him home. Either way, Saul has apparently had full knowledge of Brody’s whereabouts for months; which is something that he neglected to tell Carrie.
As for Carrie, it was confirmed this week that she really is pregnant with Brody’s child… and she’s been hitting the bottle and dropping Lithium even after she knew about it. I don’t think that Carrie wants this kid as much as she wants Brody back in her life. Carrie’s refusal to even know the sex of her child plays into that. The baby is irrelevant to her. She only cares about Brody. That’s been her problem for the run of this show.
It’s encouraging to see that “Homeland” can still create compelling storylines and I am enjoying the operation to take down Bennett. But “Homeland” has a bipolar streak just as unpredictable as Carrie’s. And it’s anyone’s guess when that will disrupt the show yet again.
