This is a great point. I'm hopeful that even though not every episode seems to be great, at the end of the season everything will sort of snap together in a 'shiiiit, that was good' kinda way.
Oh Dana. I used to like your little asides when they had to do with you and Brody, but now you're actively pulling Mike back into the show? Mike was not one of the very best parts of this season. Or, hell, the last season either. Please stop making me know he exists. His only acceptable function is to transport invisible boy to and from karate. Stick with your strengths. Also, in a show that is as thorough about bipolar disorder as this one, shouldn't Chase or Skitch or Mick or whatever the new CIA guy's name is be having some sort of PTSD type thing? I mean, dude got shot a whole bunch. I also have to say that I don't really one hundred percent get the continued Brody and Carrie thing. I'll give them Carrie - she's supposed to have a kind of crazy that I don't have, so I'm willing to give her whatever sort of weird motivations they need - but I don't quite understand why Brody keeps delivering his face to be maked out upon. I mean, don't get me wrong - Claire Danes is super pretty. I would totally go out with her. But in this universe, she has spied on Brody, ruined his life, and displayed not a whole lot more than creepy obsession. That is not an attractive feature in a partner. Is one throw in the backseat of a car and half a weekend really enough to make up for all the other terrible that she has brought with her? And while we're in the neighborhood, that whole episode with the dresser did not sound comfortable for anybody, though it might be hilarious if the guy in the room next door just lost it and beat them both to death with a baseball bat because he's got a goddamn meeting at seven the next morning and some of us are trying to sleep for chrissakes. Not that it wasn't a pretty decent episode for the main story, though I do wish that this show, not unlike Game of Thrones, would stay away from the dark because my living room don't do all good with those low light scenes so I feel like I'm missing stuff I'm supposed to be seeing unless I turn off every light in my house. If that was supposed to be a shaven Nazir, that might be a little far fetched, but it seems about right for the two lead writers on 24, and things could be a lot worse.
I think the Brody/Carrie thing is supposed to be a dependency bit. They're both basically completely screwed and completely alone. To Carrie, her "way back" pretty much depends on Brody. To Brody, his key to not getting completely fucked over is Carrie. I would bet she's the only one he trusts and feels comfortable around. I mean, even during their cabin thing he knew that she thought he was a terrorist. But she uh. Didn't quite mind. So she's the only one that really sees him, etc, etc. He constantly has to lie to his wife about everything. She flipped her shit when she found out he was a Muslim so that's not a happy thing there. So I think it's believable that Carrie and Brody gravitate to each other. As for Mike, I'm actually glad he's back. I think he's a great counterpoint to Brody--he's an actual hero in every sense: been to war, came back, took care of a family that wasn't his--not just fucking the wife, but raising the kids. He's a good guy. He's THE good guy. Brody? Brody's the bad guy. However he might be tortured about it, he's the bad guy and he's bad for his family. And I like that the show hasn't forgotten about that.
Don't forget that he also stepped aside as a surrogate father/husband when Brody resurfaced. Really, my only problem with Mike is that in a show full of fantastic actors, Diego Klattenhoff is probably the weakest link.
Mike as a concept is fine, and could have been good. Mike in practice....less so. It doesn't help that he looks like the guy you get when you really wanted Mark Wahlberg but didn't have Transformers money, but his character has also been mostly an irritant for his entire stay. Last season his entire functional purpose was to act as a sort of sandy grit between Inara and Brody (and drive the boy to karate), and this season he's spent most of his time being an idiot, most famously trying to privately investigate his ex-bestie for a murder he has little or no legitimate reason to suspect him of. Last episode he was good, but it's the only time he's been okay this season. If Homeland wants to rehabilitate the character to make him the good guy he obviously could be, I'm all for it.
I figured that at first he was humouring the vet that's on crutches and then the CIA told him to back the fuck off, which piqued his interest until they told him no seriously, back the fuck off.
Yeah, ditto. His interest was almost entirely accidental and would have been mostly non-existant if the CIA hadn't stepped in to tell him to back off of this thing that totally is nothing right? Right.
Oh come on, show. What lady, when she's running from terrorists and being hidden by the CIA and having her kids sleep in the same bed with her, packs a fucking lacy/satin nightgown? I know they'd never do it, but I wish they'd have Nasir kill Dana. She's so annoying. Are teenagers really that annoying? I don't remember being that bitchy all the time.
One who's been told not to panic and to pack what she needs? I accidentally read this post before I watched the episode and I was expecting Morena Baccarin to be wearing a basque, suspended stockings and a pair of crotchless knickers. Imagine my (brief) disappointment when it turned out to be a fairly innocuous nightdress.
That was not a fairly innocuous nightdress. That would be a cotton thing with flowers printed on it that went down to her ankles. I don't know about the other ladies here, but I usually sleep in a t-shirt/pants/shorts combo. Say someone shows up at my house and is like "There might be a terrorist attack we need to pretend things are okay and go to another location while your husband is still MIA." I don't think while packing I'd think "Hm. I think I'll bring my best satin nightie."
It didn't stick out to me at all, it's also a TV show, and they're going to dress her in ways that flatter her figure.
Also, maybe that's the only kind of nightdress she has? If I had Morena Baccarin's figure, I'd wear that kind if negligee all the time as well.
I, for one, am not going to hold it against the show if those in charge of Morena Baccarin's wardrobe err on the side of sexy. That aside, I thought this was a thoroughly entertaining episode. I was on the edge of my seat, but unfortunately I feel that the show has turned to mostly just entertaining. Nothing like Homeland last season or any season of Breaking Bad. And I actually don't think they'll be able to really pull this season off while still making sense. I really hope I am wrong. Acting is still great, and Patinkin was superb again. If they make a spin off show that's just him interrogating people I'll watch it. I also really liked David Harewood's reaction this episode when Saul made it clear that they had Quinn figured out. I am also relieved they didn't expose Quinn as part of some kind of stupid twist. I still fear a bad one though, I have a feeling something is about to twist, and twist hard. And I don't think a big twist will do the show any favors at this point. (Still hope I am wrong).
I felt like some of the strands are starting to come together and in a way that's mostly satisfying. I have some theories (some of which rely on the previews featuring some misdirection, which they generally do), so I'm intrigued to see how it goes.
I want a spinoff show about Virgil and Max. They end up with some of the most important work and they get trusted with the biggest secrets, but they don't even get government benefits on their relatively crappy salary (1000 a day for both, which also has to pay for their gear, according to the first season).
I think she was actually wearing it when Mike showed up to whisk them away. Already deleted off the DVR, though, and I'm not punching up eleven menus of On Demand to check.
I sometimes wish that these interrogation sequences were a little bit clearer. I think the flashbacks are supposed to be what actually happened and not what Brody is saying, but I'm just basing that mostly on the end and the fact that I doubt he'd admit to warning Nazir in Lebanon, and if I'm right, I have no idea what he actually said, which is something I would like to know. I think maybe the show got a little too fancy for me there. I would have probably been at least as happy with the What Happened and some explicit testimony happening at different times. On the other hand, I'm kind of warming up to Mike. I particularly like how he shut down Dana. I suspect that the writers knew they were making her just a little bit insufferable and executed that very well. I still officially hate the whole investigation subplot, but outside of that, Mike is working his way into a really good character with these past two episodes. I'm not the biggest fan of putting him inside Jessica just now (I would have held off, operating under the assumption that the family will still be in the show next season - if they're not, then I'm guessing this was the only opportunity), but whatever. It makes sense. I don't really like the two of them together as a couple, since I have a whole lot more attachment to Brody at this point, but I get it. How many episodes are left at this point, though? I think we just saw 9, which means......the last three of the season are all going to take place over a couple of hours? That seems like packing things in a little thick, but I guess if the next episode is whatever the actual plan was presumably not going completely according to specification, there could be more room after that for events.
The show very clearly wants you to want Brody to be with Carrie at this point. They've shown Jessica and Brody are miserable together but that he's good with Carrie and Carrie is stable with Brody and Jessica is happy with Mike. We're seeing the puzzle pieces all moved around here so that they can do some big relationship shakeups I think. Especially what with Carrie being kidnapped next week, which is a perfect time for Brody to realize how much he loves her or whatever. I like Mike. I think he's a solid character, for what little we've seen of him. He's a standup soldier guy that got totally fucked over by his friend being alive and that made him super fucking guilty. And then angry because of how Brody treated the family. And then suspicious and still he's the most grounded character on the show besides Max and Virgil.
How convenient that pacemakers can be configured over Skype. Or was there some other mechanism used for that? Maybe I missed some of the technical details. I'm still interested in seeing how Saul does in the basement though. He didn't fare too well on the polygraph last time.
it was some command line tool. I thought they were playing pretty fast and loose with the limits of technology there, considering the tool the VP had for modifying the pacemaker required skin to skin contact (or at least appeared to).
Yeah. Unless that guy was setup in the basement of VP headquarters, I'm not sure how he was doing that. So bets on the mole? Also I'm thinking Esties or whatever plans to kill Brody and Carrie and Saul if they get in his way. If he can't discredit Carrie he's gonna kill her. That's why he sent Quinn. I'm glad to see Carrie's friend survived the hospital, though, and I hope he's not the mole. Now are they going to go for actual mole or is it going to be that the terrorist group has magically hacked cellphones or something?
I have no idea what's going on with Quinn, that guy in the coffee shop, and Saul. Can anyone explain it? I feel like I missed something from the first season or something.
I thought he was for a long time (he was a muslim, and I'm profiling!), but it wouldn't make sense since he knew Brody was turned. Nothing from the first season. Quinn is a black ops assassin, not an analyst like Estes originally said. The guy from the coffee shop is Quinn's normal boss, the head of the CIA's black ops department. Saul figured it out, and is wondering why Estes brought in a black ops type for what is supposed just an intelligence gathering operation.
If that was really Highway 50 between Middleburg and Chantilly, it would be covered in tract homes, not abandoned mills!! I hate living in the location of a series.
I guess it would be kinda like having management bring in an expert consultant to manage your project. Then finding out your new project manager's consulting company specializes in shutting down offices....
Hey, Ehrmentraut. You watching this? That's how you ziptie a person's wrists. Flat to flat. It was still a little loose, but much better than Breaking Bad. However, you might want to consider actually talking to the guys who are writing Dexter to figure out if they're going to run your lines the week before you use them, because Jennifer Carpenter did the whole wake up in the morning thing better and all that Quinn or Aidan or Flint or whatever that kid's name is did was distract me for about ten minutes trying to remember where I had heard basically that exact same speech before. This week's stupid nit to pick - Why were the plastic things still in Brody's collar? I take those out either before they even hit the washer or they end up migrating out in the process. For the episode....eh. The WiFi enabled pacemaker was pretty 24 of the show, but at least they didn't try to beam in the commands over the infrared. The casting with respect to Quinn's boss (that's F. Murray Abraham) leads me to believe that he's supposed to be more significant than he has been thus far, but maybe they just got him for a day or something. At this point, I also think that this show's going to have a real problem if Brody survives the season finale. He's just about out of motivations and interesting things to do. And it looks like we'll be getting back to the leak story. That's good. I would have thought the CIA might have put a higher priority on finding out who was doing that, but whatever. I'll take it.
They're collar stays and they absolutely should be in your collar when you wear a dress shirt, what the fuck is wrong with you people?
We are talking about two seconds of a throwaway shot of Brody putting on a tie as his car approaches the Vice President's residence. Obviously.
