Homeland - "Uh Oh Ah" Review

by Lee Padrick, October 15, 2013

WARNING:  This review contains spoilers.

Homeland's second episode of the season gives us a good idea of where the writers are taking us this season.  And the destination looks like ... well, nothing we haven't seen before.  Carrie (Claire Danes) is full-blown manic and unmedicated, and she spends the majority of the episode walking around bug-eyed.  Something we've seen in Seasons One and Two.  Carrie is taken into protective custody by police officers as she's sitting down to spill national security secrets to a reporter (who also appears skeptical of anything Carrie tells her).  And Carrie is scheduled for a Commitment Hearing, but she loses it at the beginning of the proceedings.  She is institutionalized and sedated against her will.


In teenage romance news, Dana (Morgan Saylor) is getting frustrated and bored with her homebound status.  Yes, she has tried to kill herself, but having everyone treat her as if she is fragile is driving her crazy.  She sees Leo (Sam Underwood) as she is coming out of a therapy session with her mother (Monica Baccarin), and decides to sneak out for some sexual healing.  Morgan Saylor is really upping the "sexual situations" portion of her resume this season.  I'm uncomfortable watching. Her mother is panicked as Dana goes missing for twelve hours, but Dana explains to her mother that she is okay and wants to live.  In the laundry room with Leo.  I can only hope that the writers wanted us to see the damage that Brody has wrought on his family, and now that story arc has run its course.  I'm over teen romance on this show.

Saul's (Mandy Patinkin) story is much more interesting.  With Dar Adal (F. Murray Abraham) playing the Devil on one shoulder, and Quinn (Rupert Friend) playing the Angel on the other shoulder, it is unclear exactly who Saul is.  Is he the no-nonsense cutthroat CIA Director who will throw troubled employees under the bus, or is he the good family friend who pleads with Carrie's sister and father to help get her back on her meds?  I still could care less about Saul's wife (Sarita Choudhury) and their relationship.  And Carrie views her as irrelevant as I do, after the way she dismissed her when Carrie was looking for Saul.

There's a new CIA analyst in town, her name is Farrah (Nazanin Boniadi).  Our latest head scarf-wearing addition to the cast is a fresh recruit who is an expert at investigating financial crimes.  And she gets an awkward and harsh reception from Saul and Quinn.  I can only hope that Farrah will not represent an opportunity to lecture the audience.  We don't know yet if Farrah is a face or a heel.

And then there's Quinn, who is oddly serving as the fulcrum of morality.  Sure, he's a trained assassin, but he cares about kids and co-workers.  Quinn visits Carrie in the hospital and warns her about divulging agency secrets, but Carrie throws him out of her room.  Then he confronts Saul and tells him that he is out of the game after this case, because he is uncomfortable with Saul's treatment of Carrie.  And he threatens the Evil Banker.  Something tells me Quinn will go rogue in support of Carrie, but time will tell.

Homeland needs to pull itself together and give us a story to care about.  Or, at least give us reason to tune in until a Brody update.
 
Random Thoughts:

- Didn't Saul fail a lie detector in Season One when they were looking for a mole?

- Where's Brody?

- That was a lot of clean sheets.  I can't imagine the laundry guys were thrilled about coming to work and finding two naked teenagers on all the clean laundry.

- Senator Lockhart needs some character development.


What did you think?

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