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Gay Girl’s Goggles – “Homeland” SnapCap (1.10): Representative Brody

Have you recovered from this week’s Homeland episode yet? All of the stories are starting to come together, to very chilling effect. And the collateral damage is mounting.

AFTERELLEN BAIT

For a few hopeful hours, Carrie thinks that she’ll get another chance with Sgt. Brody. Regardless of how we feel about that prospect, we’re very happy to see Claire Danes in slinky date attire.

Maybe one of these days, Carrie will realize she’d be better off with the other Brody. And speaking of Jessica, she did actually utter the word “lesbian” this week: “Dana’s convinced she’s a lesbian because boys disgust her.” If that were the main criterion, we’d rule the world.

FEELINGS, FEELINGS, FEELINGS!

As frightening as the terrorist plotline of Homeland is getting, what makes me feel the most feelings is the sense of loneliness that seems to run through the characters. Saul scavenges the CIA kitchen to find something for “dinner” and ends up alone in his office, spreading peanut butter on crackers with a ruler from his desk. Brody spends most of his time sitting and staring into space, knowing that he has no real allies in his “mission.” Even Saudi ambassador Sahrani elicits our sympathy when we discover his solitary visits to a bathhouse for anonymous gay sex. But the most heartbreaking character is Carrie.

Despite her realization a few weeks ago that being a dedicated CIA agent means that she will live her life alone, Carrie hopes that a visit from Brody will turn into a romantic evening. Even knowing what we know about Mr. Brody, seeing her go from hope to heartache is devastating.

And later, when Carrie cries in her hospital bed after the explosion, we understand that the real pain has nothing to do with her injuries.

THE LYING GAME

Brody is back on task for Abu Nazir, assuming he doesn’t have another agenda in running for Congress. The VP comes to personally ask him to run and, after a little convincing, Jess and the kids agree that holding office would be a good way for Brody to serve the country. (An example of the realistic writing on this show is Jessica’s initial reaction when Brody tells her the VP stopped by: “In our house? It’s a mess!”) In light of the sergeant’s mission, Mrs. Brody’s adoring looks at her husband while he accepts the nomination are disquieting, to say the least.

One of my favorite scenes this week is a lesson in how the rules of the intelligence game are changing. When Carrie and Saul interrogate Al Sahrani, the plan is to use his gay “activities” as blackmail, threatening to tell his family and his government. Sahrani’s reaction? “Go ahead and share the photos. I suck c*** and I love it. Yummy, yummy, yummy.” (Can you imagine the writers’ room during that bit?) What does sway the Saudi is the threat to send his daughter, a national merit scholar studying at Yale, back to Saudi Arabia. Of course, the irony is that he’s paying for his daughter’s U.S. education with money from helping terrorists destroy the U.S.

THE FOREBODING

Al Sahrani may have saved his daughter’s future, but he can’t save himself. By agreeing to help the CIA, he unwittingly signs his death warrant. While the VP and Estes watch, Carrie and a team of agents cover not-Farragut-Square, where Sahrani has signaled Walker to meet him. But the mole inside the government has signaled Walker, too, and he hires a homeless man who looks like him to meet Sahrani – with a bomb. The scene is incredibly tense and well done, especially when Carrie suddenly realizes what is about to happen. In her effort to stop it, she becomes a victim.

Carrie’s worst fear has happened: Another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. And she wasn’t able to stop it – because of a traitor in her own circle. The list of possible suspects is very limited, so things are about to get even more complex. I can’t wait to see what’s next.

What did you think about this week’s Homeland? Have you narrowed down the suspects for the inside informant?

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