Homeland “Grace”: Testing of Faith

(the following contains spoilers about last night’s Homeland episode. Be warned.)

Last night’s Homeland episode examined an important aspect of the life of confidential intelligence: faith. Most of them weren’t as overt as the display in the last scene of the episode (where its clear Brody found himself a new religion in his eight years away), but ideas of faith and alliances were being sprinkled throughout the episode. There is Carrie’s faith in her mentor, who in turn, is feeling his faith tested every time he sees the illegal surveillance Carrie enlisted Virgil to install. In turn, he’s trusting she has whatever mental illness she’s trying to hide from the CIA under control enough to keep him out of federal prison. That as-of-yet undefined illness involves Carrie’s sister as well, because she’s skimming pills for Carrie to keep it on the hush hush. And let’s not forget Carrie entrusting a glorified prostitute with getting important information, because after all, that girl is acting on the lie Carrie told her about being protected at all times.

It’s a complex web that’s forming here, and for the most part, is working quite well. There are some missteps in the story here and there: the story of Brody’s wife continues to feel a bit like a distraction from the plot. This is in part due to the structure of the show (we aren’t really watching to see what happens to Brody’s family, we are here to watch him), but as the show gains footing and kicks into high gear in the later episodes, hopefully the family drama will become more nuanced and engaging. I did enjoy the understated comment by Brody when he informed his wife he knew of the “Uncle Mike” nickname bestowed upon his captain (and friend who was banging his wife) Mike, and it does suggest things are going to get as complicated on the home front as it was in that holding cell in the Middle East.

Otherwise, another episode with a fairly large amount of set-up for future episodes, but not many weak links among them. In the pilot, Carrie’s mentor Saul appeared to be a pretty by the books guy, but with the little blackmail operation he pulled with a judge, he’s showing a little more of an interesting side, if not a glimpse into the reason Carrie has some of the habits and behaviors she displays today. I’d like to see more of his character as the season continues, because there is an opportunity for a very interesting character here.

The acting continued to be strong, with Brody’s scenes alone in the bedroom interspersed with flashback sequences standing out, and showing us a little of Damien Lewis’s wide range of talents. However, the show needs to avoid the endings they’ve had in the first two episodes, or the show is going to feel a little bit formulaic. I don’t need every episode to end with a piece of the puzzle; spread them throughout the 50 minutes, and keep us on our toes a bit. I’d hate to see Homeland suffer from some of the conventions of the ‘reveal’-centric conclusions, because it can really drain the audience quickly with constant misdirections and ambiguous images.

Couple other thoughts:

– Really liked the constant parallels drawn between Carrie and Brody: her curled up on the couch, watching him curled up on the floor, her waking up from a nightmare we thought was Brody’s (as he awoke at the same time). It almost feels obligatory, because these characters won’t be on screen together often, we need as an audience to feel their connections. They did a good job of expressing this visually without bogging us down in some aggressive, overstated imagery.

– Hopefully we can get past this bullshit “How nuts is Carrie really” act, and get some knowledge on why she does what she does, and what mental problem she inherited from her father (another character I’m expecting to appear soon).

– Will we watch Brody’s act grow stronger as the season continues, or will we witness the facade completely erode in front of his eyes? There are times he seems to be teetering on what his true mission is (whatever it may be), and the struggle may drive him into some dark, dark places (the bruises on his wife’s arm show the damage he can do, even in his sleep).

What did you think? Stop back next Monday to talk about “Clean Skin”.