Well, this was a very good episode tonight. More than made up for what was (to my mind) a fairly lackluster one last week. Lots of excitement, suspense, exotic locales- everything that Homeland should really do more often, frankly.
We open with Saul being escorted to a padded prison cell, where they are now holding Alain, Mira's agent boyfriend. The feds have apprehended him and Saul needs his help to arrange for Brody's new extraction plan. Alain refuses, but Saul threatens him to make it happen with his contacts in Tel Aviv, to provide for some assets on the ground. Brody's being interrogated now (and he has hair again, yay!) after what must have been some time since Javadi got him out of the prison. He's sticking to his cover story about wanting asylum, and denies the interrogator's questioning whether he has AIDS, because of his needle marks. Javadi's there too, putting up a front, pretending to question his sincerity for the cameras that are recording him. Brody asks for a break but is denied, as they keep going.
Meanwhile, Carrie arrives in Tehran with a new hairdo (she's now a brunette/redhead) and gets herself set up in hotel room, looking around suspiciously at everyone surrounding her in the lobby. I know she's supposed to be good at this but she always looks SO obvious when she's undercover at these things. When the attendant leaves her alone in the room, Carrie sets off on her own to presumably get things in order for Brody's new extraction plan. Javadi, meanwhile is called into General Akbari's office (the assassination target), while Carrie meets up with Fara's uncle. Despite his unhappiness to be involved with this plan, she convinces him to cooperate by giving him a picture of Fara, and then he gives her a phone to communicate with the CIA.
Akbari questions Javadi about Brody, which gives him an opening to set up the meeting between Brody and Akbari, by convincing him to meet Brody himself to see whether he seems honest about his intentions. Akbari buys it and Javadi looks to be in the clear. Carrie calls Saul to tell him how it went with the uncle, while he tells her to be expecting two assets on the ground thanks to Alain. While on the phone we find out Brody's gone through three days of interrogations without cracking (how'd he grow so much hair back already?), but Carrie is suddenly distracted when she gets a look at herself in the mirror and sees her now visible baby bump. As always, she appears conflicted, but hey, I guess she's having it now- I mean, there's no turning back at this point, plus she seems to be growing a super soldier in there who can survive smoking, drinking and gunshot wounds.
The next day she meets up with the two Tel Aviv guys, who are skeptical about the plan and want to know more details, so Carrie tells them everything except who the assassin is. One of the guys provides the murder weapon for Brody to use (it's a cyanide device), for which he has to get extremely close to be able to pull off. The plan is for them to create a diversionary explosion long enough for him to get away in the chaos. When Carrie get back to her hotel two men confront her and escort her down some stairs and through a back alley way where Javadi is waiting to retrieve the device from her. He tells her Akbari seems to have set up a meeting with Brody for the next day and Carrie hands the cyanide over to him, planning for the operation to now go into action. Javadi's not thrilled about all the effort they're going through to extract Brody, because as far as he's concerned, this is all about taking out Akbari, with Brody getting away being "optional."
Saul gathers the CIA crowd in a meeting where he explains what's supposed to go down, and as usual this season, everyone will be watching from a control monitor. Brody is set up with the device and everything he needs to complete the task, while Quinn asks how come Carrie hasn't left Tehran since she already put everything in motion. Saul explains that she thinks she needs to be there while it happens, and Quinn looks a bit dubious (he's so going to tell Saul about the baby). The next morning Brody is woken and dressed, wraps the cyanide in his sleeve (yeah, great hiding place), and heads out with security to a car. Carrie and the Tel Aviv dudes are watching from down the street, but the plan seems to have changed, as Brody is now being transported somewhere, instead of Akbari coming to him, as was the setup.
Carrie follows the car as it heads to a busy, populated area, while the guys at the CIA watch in confusion. The car eventually pulls up to a wide open street and the roads are cleared by Akbari's security, with Brody being pulled out and seemingly ready to meet Abari in the open space, who's also pulled up to the spot. Carrie wants to follow through with the diversion plan, but one of her assets thinks they should pull back. She refuses, as it looks like they're still going to meet. Brody and Akbari face each other and Brody slowly walks over to him, openly clutching the cyanide in his hand (seriously, how does no one see that? it's not that small), but at the last minute, Akbari gets in the car and takes off. Brody is ushered into the house behind him and placed in front of a woman who turns out to be Abu Nazir's widow. The CIA is baffled back at HQ, along with Carrie, but this is just another test of Brody's allegiances.
Brody sits down for tea with the widow, who observes that he seems to be a hero now. Brody tells her about Dana trying to kill herself and having lost everything, and she reassures him. I think we're supposed to wonder if he's being sincere here, but the truth is, I never for one second believed Brody was turning on the CIA in this episode. He comes out in the streets and is hailed by the people as their hero, where he faces the crowd and explains how he wants asylum in Iran. Carrie comes out and joins the people, looking bewildered herself as Brody gets in the car and is told by a security guy that he's a big man in Tehran now. As the car heads back he leans his arm out the window and crushes the cyanide device, letting it fall to the ground in pieces. But yeah, I still didn't buy that he'd given up.
Not so much back at Langley though, as it's now 6 days later and apparently Brody is all over youtube and the news, giving speeches about his new allegiance and insulting his home country, which worries Lockhart, who's come to see Saul about this. The president that we've never seen wants this issue dealt with, and Lockhart and Dar Adal think it's time to take Brody out. They don't know if he's actually turned, but even if he hasn't, Lockhart thinks he's unstable and there's no way he's getting close to Akbari, so it's not worth jeopardizing their asset in Javadi (wait, so now Lockhart loves the Javadi plan?). Saul basically agrees and calls Carrie to give her the bad news. Except that he doesn't do it, because Carrie is still gung-ho about Brody going through with this and doesn't believe that he's turned at all. Of course. She reminds Saul she's always been right about him, which Saul agrees with but nonetheless tells her to get on a plane and come home. Saul then tells Dar Adal to send in the hit squad for Brody.
Carrie hangs up the phone and is now worried, so she calls Brody even though they weren't supposed to have any contact. He's handed a phone on his way in to the place where he prays, so he takes the call and Carrie tells him she's facing him across the courtyard. Brody stares at her as they talk over the phone, and as the CIA guys are watching over the monitors (how can they not intercept this call?). Carrie tells him she thinks he's in trouble from the CIA and wants to get him out of there. Brody refuses, saying there's nowhere for them to go, but Carrie says they can go and hide someplace using her contacts. Brody is sick of that though and says he won't put her through it. Carrie sees the hitmen coming and begs him to come with her, but Brody hangs up, telling her to get out, and manages to dodge the assassins. Saul, Lockhart and Adal watch this all take place and pretty much see in real time that Carrie warned him, since he "looked like he was on the phone" (lol), and Saul is furious, calling Carrie to yell at her for letting him go.
But Brody runs straight to Nazir's widow and tells her he wants a meeting with Akbari. Why didn't he do this earlier, if it was that easy? She arranges it though, and Akbari's men pick Brody up and take him straight to him. I think what was coming here was pretty obvious, but Lockhart and Adal get word and think Brody is blowing the whole thing by ratting them out. Saul at least looks ambiguous about it. When Brody is taken to Akbari he's left alone in the room with him, as security shuts the door (yeah, that would never happen), and for a few more minutes the show tries to fake you out, as Brody admits to him that Javadi's working with the CIA, along with himself and that he was ordered to kill him. Akbari tells him he's done the right thing by coming to him and then Brody confirms that he spoke to Nazir about him in that very room. Akbari says yes, and Brody is satisfied that "this is the place where it all started," before taking the glass ashtray of the desk and knocking the guy out cold. Even though the body hitting the floor makes a noise, no one comes in (lucky) and Brody then grabs a pillow and smothers Akbari to death in a very painful looking manner. After it's done he grabs the phone on the desk and calls Carrie (how did he know her number?), tells her he killed him and then says "get me out of here." Uh, how the hell is she going to do that? Of course, that's where the episode ends.
Quite a cliffhanger. According to the previews, next week could very well be the end of Nicholas Brody, in fact I'd be surprised if it's not. My guess now is that Carrie will have the baby as a consolation prize for his death so that there's some continuing legacy of Brody on the show, but yeah- I don't see much more of Brody on Homeland after next week. Then again, maybe they'll throw a curveball, but I doubt it. See you for the finale!
