So, the season seems to be picking up with the major Javadi arc, and thankfully there was a lot less Dana than usual tonight (although even in her limited screen time she still managed to be obnoxious and irritating). We also got a major (but slightly confusing) revelation about Carrie, so this episode was on par with the last one as far as intrigue.
When we last left Carrie, she'd been taken by the Iranians to a secret location to meet Javadi, the director of Iranian intelligence, and when we meet up with her this week she's hooked up to a polygraph machine as she waits in the room for him to show up. Quinn, Fara and Max are tucked away in a safehouse, trying to pinpoint Carrie's location, but it turns out they lost the Iranians somewhere along the way, after tracking their car to the place they abandoned it. Saul's kind of pissed about that, but they have no choice but to sit back and wait for Carrie to contact them.
Javadi finally enters the room to question Carrie about her job and her life, and asks her if she's willing to give him information on the CIA. Carrie dodges it, and it looks like her heart rate starts to go up on the polygraph. Mira comes downstairs to see Saul at his computer, watching the security footage, and tries to explain the guy she had over the night before. Turns out he was her boyfriend in Mumbai and Mira says she left behind a whole new life she'd started when she decided to come back to him. She admits to still loving this guy, which Saul accepts tacitly and starts to leave the house, telling her he's not getting nominated as CIA director. Mira tells him to express something towards her, whether it be anger, sadness, whatever, but Saul again, just turns away from her. Poor Mira.
Back with Javadi and Carrie. Carrie tells him she agreed to speak to him alone and asks for the security people in the room to leave. Javadi acquiesces and the minute they're gone, Carrie rips off her wires and fesses up about her and Saul's plan, letting Javadi know they realize he's an enemy to his own government, after having embezzled $45 million through the Iranian World Cup star. Javadi immediately knows he's caught and he and Carrie ditch his people to talk outside. He's somewhat admiring of Saul's tactics, but Carrie tells him she's supposed to bring him straight to Saul, to have him work for them as an asset. Javadi says he can't go with her or his people will be suspicious, but offers to meet up with her in 7 hours if she agrees to bring him evidence of the CIA assassinations they pulled off. Carrie accepts this and the deal seems to be set, but Javadi ominously warns her to treat him with more respect as he walks off.
Saul shows up at the safehouse with the rest of the gang and prepares for the new operation while Carrie is taken by Javadi's goons into a car and driven away. She's nervous, but they drop her off under a bridge and tell her she's free to go. Fara meanwhile goes to Saul to get the latest info about his history with Javadi, and it turns out they knew each other back in the late 70's when Saul was in Iran at the time of the revolution. They were working together and his job was to transport four Iranians out of the country, but Javadi executed them before he had the chance, in order to shore up his position with the new regime. Saul then got his revenge by moving Javadi's wife and son out of the country and into Witness Protection, but he says he's unsure how eager Javadi will be to turn on his own country.
Dana time. She confronts Jess about wanting to change her last name to Lazaro, which is Jess's maiden name, because she just "can't be Dana Brody anymore." Oh, please. It's supposed to be touching (Jess is moved) but I have no sympathy for this character, as you know.
Carrie gets back to her house and calls Saul, telling him about the new plan to meet up with Javadi at a diner in Falls Church, which Saul isn't happy about but trusts her anyway. Carrie then gives them the location she was at (I guess it was easy for her to find that out?) and expresses her doubt about this mission going well, but Saul assures her and tells her to get some rest. This is where we get the big reveal, and surprise- Carrie's pregnant! She takes a pregnancy test, which is of course positive, and then places it in a drawer filled with what looks like a hundred positive pregnancy tests, before collapsing on her bed with worry. Ok, I have a couple of qualms with this. One, this explains the real reason she didn't want to take her meds, I guess, but wasn't she locked up in the hospital for a month, being forced to take the lithium? Second, I could have sworn we'd seen her drinking tequila this season. Third, this is Brody's baby, I presume? Or is there a chance it's the Brody lookalike? How much time has actually passed between when she was last with Brody and when she had the one night stand? And also, when has she had time to take all these pregnancy tests? Are they from before she was in the hospital? So many questions (and possible plotholes).
Lockhart meets up with Dar Adal to tell him the agency's a mess and he's demanding radical change, which Adal appears to agree with, but it's hard to know if Adal is working his own agenda, or loyal to Saul or what. That character remains kind of a mystery right now. Quinn then shows up at Carrie's to give her a new phone and take her to the diner, and he also sees her map of Brody sightings, but doesn't judge her, saying it's her job to find him. As we've seen this season, Quinn is very much in Carrie's camp.
At the courthouse, Dana and Jess are filling out the paperwork to complete her name change, and the clerk guy tells them he's praying for them. Yeah, whatever. Carrie and Quinn pull up to the diner now and Carrie goes in with her earpiece ready- meanwhile, Saul, Max and Fara are tracking Javadi's car as it looks on track, headed towards the diner. Adal then updates Saul on Lockhart's desire to reshape the agency, but he gets called back into the room when Javadi's car goes off track. Carrie and Quinn are sent out to follow him as Javadi veers wildly off course and ends up headed directly towards that house he stopped to watch in the last episode, the one with the baby outside. Fara finds out that the house is the home of his ex-wife and daughter-in-law, and the baby is in fact, his grandson. Saul is shocked and tells Quinn and Carrie to stop him from going in, but Javadi goes right up to the door and shoots the woman who answers (his daughter-in-law) directly through the head. He then goes to play with the baby and when his ex-wife comes in the room, he brutally stabs her repeatedly in the neck with a glass bottle. It's pretty bloody. Carrie and Quinn finally get in there and arrest him, but Saul orders them to leave the baby and the bodies where they are as they bring Javadi back to him. Carrie doesn't want to leave the kid (now having her own baby issues of course), but they follow orders anyway. Saul is defeated and upset, once again.
At the Brody house, Jess's newfound friend Angela (where the hell did she meet her?) rings the bell and says she's here for Dana, who's moving in with her. Jess is shocked and upset, but Dana insists that she can't live this life anymore and has to leave. Jess cries and hugs her, but I'm baffled as to why Jess thinks she has no power in this situation. Is Dana still under 18? She doesn't have to "let" her do anything. But alas, Dana tearfully hugs her mom and brother goodbye, and takes off with Angela (seriously, where did this person come from?) and a $300 credit card as a parting gift from Jess. Frankly, if this means the last of Dana and the Brodys for a while, despite the stupidity of this scene, I'm ok with it.
Carrie and Quinn haul Javadi into the safehouse and handcuff him to the desk, while Saul broods as he goes for a walk, wondering how he let this guy get the better of him after all. Carrie then stops for a coffee break on the steps as she ponders out loud to Quinn that she doesn't know how she is, and then Saul calls them both in to start questioning Javadi. Javadi smirks at Saul, telling him he doesn't look like somebody who just landed the biggest asset he's ever had, and Saul reacts by punching him squarely in the face. And that's the end of the hour, folks.
This was a very talky episode, and my biggest response is to Carrie's pregnancy, which has to be Brody's right? I wonder if they'll use this opportunity to have him sacrifice himself for Carrie and his unborn child, thus removing himself from the show for good. Supposedly he makes his next appearance a couple of weeks from now, so we have that to look forward to, at least. Until next time!
