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Gay Girl’s Goggles: “Homeland” SnapCap (1.12)

The Homeland producers promised us two things for the season finale: that we would have a sense of resolution and that new developments would leave us chomping at the bit for Season 2. Mission accomplished.

AFTERELLEN BAIT

If good acting is as sexy to you as it is to me, you needed to sit on a towel by the end of Homeland Season 1. I’m still in shock that the Screen Actors Guild failed to recognize Claire Danes and Damian Lewis. At least the foreign press watched the show and came through with Golden Globe nominations. I hope that’s enough to get the Academy’s attention.

The only nominally lesbian thing I can pull out this week (dirty!) is that the smartest, most intuitive person on the show next to Carrie is Dana Brody, who a few weeks ago said she thinks she’s a lesbian because boys disgust her. Dana saved hundreds of lives and averted an international crisis this episode.

If she’s not actually gay, she’s definitely a lesbian from the neck up. I mean, only a brilliantly sardonic mind could respond to her dad’s explanation that he didn’t tell them about his conversion to Islam because he didn’t want to upset them with, “Good thing you didn’t shoot a deer or step out on Mom or beat the s–t out of Mike.” Go, Dana.

FEELINGS, FEELINGS, FEELINGS!

Oh, Carrie. You are so right and the world treats you so wrong! Sure, life isn’t fair, but this is ridiculous. This week, as the time for the big blow-up grew close, only Carrie knew what was about to happen. Even in the throes of the crippling depression that follows mania in BPD, Carrie’s instincts were strong enough to get her out of bed and close to the action.

But nobody except Virgil believed her. Even thought that she was being irrational and sicced security on her. Did that stop her? No! She drove straight to the Brody house to talk to Dana, the only one who could talk Brody out of his mission. We don’t blame Dana for freaking out, but she saw something in Carrie that made her call her dad anyway. And as Brody broke down talking to Dana, so did we. (This scene will be Lewis’ Emmy submission, I’m sure.)

The most devastating feeling came from the realization that Carrie finally agreed with what everyone was telling her – that she was delusional. She had no way of knowing that she’d prevented an attack. She only knew that she could not go on as she had been – and electroshock was the only way she knew to get past it. No one who watched Carrie realize the connection between Brody and Issa, tell herself not to forget, and then give in to anesthesia and could fail to be heartbroken. My insides jumped with Carrie’s every convulsion from the shock treatment. Damn.

THE LYING GAME

We still don’t know who the “mole” is, but we definitely know that Vice President Walden and David Estes are callous d-bag opportunists. They wiped out all record of the U.S. drone attack on the school that killed Issa and 81 other children. Thanks to Carrie, Saul found one redacted account, with which he confronted David, who was working for Saul at the time and hid it from him. Then he confronted the VP, whom he used to work for.

Estes finally shows Saul a video of the decision to attack the school (I’m not sure why he still has that, if everything was supposed to be destroyed) and Saul wants the government to apologize. Otherwise, he will go to the New York Times with the story. David knows better, since that would endanger Americans around the world, but I doubt Saul will drop it. He does tell Carrie that she was right about Nazir’s mourning period – at least she has that. Not that she’ll remember.

I had a thought last night that Saul might use what he knows to “convince” David to give Carrie a job. I don’t know if that’s possible, given her illegal activities, but Saul proved this week that he genuinely cares for Carrie. I’m almost ready to say he’s in the clear, mole-wise. (Except one that might be under that beard.) Almost.

THE FOREBODING

Now we know that the plan was for Walker to shoot someone besides the VP to get Brody into the bunker wearing the vest. I wasn’t too surprised that the bomb failed; I thought it might be a test of Brody’s resolve. But Nazir seemed not to have considered the idea of influencing the administration from within – a little surprising given his big-picture thinking. I’m also surprised that nobody seemed concerned about what happened to the memory card with Brody’s pre-explosion confession. I’m sure it will turn up again.

The stage is set for Season 2 to be kind of a reboot. Brody has a new mission – why kill a man when you can kill an idea – and Carrie may not remember anything she knew about the previous one. And that persistent mole has yet to be removed.

What did you think about the Homeland finale? Give us your thoughts – and share what you expect next season. Can the show sustain the kind of tension and twists of the first season?

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