Homeland ‘Clean Skin’: What Lies in the Bedroom

Last night’s episode of Homeland was the best yet, and started to draw the outlines of what is going on this season (albeit a very, very broad outline). While the episode again ended on a conventionally dramatic moment (this finds two new house owners closely studying the flight paths of planes from the airport nearby), there were a lot of strong character moments, and a fair amount of plot stuffed into 50 minutes. Even when one of those moments revealed themselves too early – we all saw the death of Lynne coming in this episode, thanks to Carrie’s reckless promise of protection to someone not considered important by everyone around her. But the true reason of her death ignites the story in the final third of the episode, turning what appeared to be a two-episode throwaway arc into an important trigger for the chess game being played around (and by) both Carrie and Brody.

Bedroom scenes continue to play a large importance in Homeland, especially for Brody (although I don’t think we’ll go the entire season without seeing Carrie in the bedroom herself). It’s refreshing to see a show that isn’t flaunting its nudity (Game of Thrones) or just using it to be creepy (True Blood). Instead, Homeland‘s bedroom scenes are revealing (if not very disturbing) and unobstructed views into the mind of Brody and his wife. While the scene with Brody and Jessica was quite disturbing (as was the violent one in the pilot), it wasn’t there to make you squirm, but make you think about how fucked up Brody really is right now.It also speaks to how much Jessica is continuing to ignore it with her desperate attempts to rekindle her marriage quickly, before he finds out about her and his best friend’s little romps in the sack.

It was another episode driven by strong performances by Danes and Lewis, and while Mandy Patinkin only gets two or three scenes a week, he continues to kill each one with his muted demeanor and sharp intellect. We weren’t given much insight into Carrie’s instabilities (although it was noted she has decade-old pasta in her cabinet), and the same goes for Brody – although I’m starting to wonder if these flashbacks he’s experiencing are more than simple thoughts in his head, or if he’s really having some serious issues dealing with the reality around him. He’s admitted it’s been hard, but when the cameras are on, and he’s asked how it feels to be home, he doesn’t say a word. He looks around, and smiles appropriately when his daughter makes the politically-correct comment to try and keep the family appearance up. But make no mistake – Brody is very fucked up in the head right now, and just like Carrie, we’ve only touched the surface of what is going on in the heads of these two.

Couple other thoughts:

– Really love the intro theme, and how it sets the tone for the world we enter in Homeland: sure there is black and white (good and bad), but the gray areas in between make it so hard to distinguish. Great parallel to the themes of the show, and something OTHER shows should take note of (I’m looking at you with your happy little hippie rock theme, Boardwalk Empire).

– I particularly enjoyed the scene between Jessica and daughter Dana at the drive-thru, where she rips into her mom for sleeping with Mike and continuing to hide it. Jessica really didn’t have a good answer for it, and Dana calls her out on the selfishness of her idea to try and fake normalcy.

– last week, Carrie’s father was alluded to. How long will it be until we see them have a conversation?

What did you think of last night’s episode? Is there any competition for Best New Show of the fall at this point? I suppose some of the competition has yet to reveal itself (Hell on Wheelsis still three weeks away), but it’s certainly making a mockery of any new network dramas.