Homeland season 4

Episode 1

"...this hasn't been a 14 year war we've been waging, but a one year war, waged 14 times."

After a mixed season 3, Homeland is back on our screens and it's more fearless, confident and unapologetic than ever. Season 4 answers the key questions of what a post-Brody Homeland looks like and how everybody picks up the pieces from , and which damaged intelligence asset will Carrie sleep with this time? Dive in for a recap and analysis of Homeland season 4, episode 1.

Sorry for the late review folks, but better late than never!

Between seasons 3 and 4, one could’ve been forgiven for thinking that more than a decade after 9/11 and the end of the Brody storyline, Homeland was somewhat passé and dependent on the greatly diminished al-Qaeda for its material. For a while, the dominant discourse was not about terrorism but how Arab societies were throwing off the shackles of dictatorship and letting a thousand voices bloom. However, then ISIS burst through the barricades to remake parts of the Middle East, Boko Haram kidnapped children across Nigeria and al-Shabaab massacred shoppers in the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi. Suddenly the world looks more dangerous than ever and Homeland’s depiction of the (American) intelligence world looks highly relevant. 

But then for some people, the War on Terror never went away. And this is essentially what this season seems to be all about, the effect the WoT has on ordinary lives – Peter Quinn’s repentant soul, Carrie’s increasing narcissism, the pilot who dropped a bomb on a wedding, the Pakistani youngster whose family was killed that day, and so on. The main dynamic of this episode is that all the main characters start the episode in one place and end it in entirely different places. This is particularly true for the fate of the Islamabad CIA station chief, Sandy Bachmann. So where was everybody is at the start of the episode?

(1)    The episode starts in Afghanistan but then moves to Pakistan, where most of the subsequent actions happens. However, film shooting took place entirely in South Africa.

(2)    Carrie is the Kabul station chief, having turned down the cushier Istanbul job. She has left her baby (remember him?!) in the care of her infinitely patient sister, Maggie.

(3)    Saul is working for a private contractor (sort of like Blackwater?) but seems to be exhibiting withdrawal symptoms from not doing true intel work.

(4)    Peter Quinn is severely disillusioned with the dirty business of intel work but serving the American Ambassador to Pakistan anyway.

(5)    Sandy Bachmann (Corey Stoll from House of Cards, where he also dies) – a new character, the CIA station chief in Islamabad.

(6)    Ayaan Ibrahim (Suraj Sharma from Life of Pi) – enjoying himself in a wedding before the Americans drop a bomb on it. Ironically the central event in this episode didn’t even involve drone.

I hope this episode puts to bed the question of “is there Homeland without Brody?”, because this ‘reset’ has allowed Homeland to respond to recent events, rather than being locked into the anodyne Brody family storyline, which sucked the life out of the plot. Instead, the new cast list feels tighter and more directly linked to the action, whereas the Brodies were only indirectly linked to the action. Every minute with them was a minute lost in the main plot.

In summary, this episode was about 20mins of thrilling, balls-flying-in-the-air TV and the remaining runtime being the slow build-up of relationships, office politics and family lives. The writers clearly didn’t know what to do with a non-CIA Saul, so they used him as a cipher for some of their observations and criticisms of the War on Terrorism:

(1)    War strategy – the US has been fighting with short term goals, which is why it is doomed to repeat its failures.

(2)    Drones have dehumanised the war on terror, with Carrie becoming increasingly desensitised to the carnage.

(3)    Every drone strike has a personal cost – to Aayan, Carrie, the pilots who helped carry it out, etc.

"There were a lot more people in the farmhouse than we thought."

The episode starts off with the botched assassination of a major terrorist (botched because a lot of innocent people died) and the fall-out from this debacle. The episode then engages in setting the scene for Saul and Carrie’s home life until it shifts into top gear with a magnificent finale (which I look at in more detail at the bottom).

As usual, Homeland’s strengths lie primarily in fleshing out the heart-pounding action and intelligence machinations you see in films like Zero Dark Thirty. The control centre/bombing sequence was efficiently executed, ending in an anti-climactic silence as they watch an explosion on TV. Then they have cake.

For once, Homeland also spends time with the other side, the young and callow Ayaan Ibrahim. He spends much of the episode in tears, which is understandable given that his entire family has just been blown to bits. His character is the only one whom I can’t fully place yet, although perhaps Homeland is setting him up as part of the War on Terrorism allegory: the innocent boy who becomes a terrorist in response to the wanton destruction of his homeland by American might.

Bachmann: “Those guests put themselves at risk by associating with him”

Then we see the other end of the sausage machine, where the US Ambassador to Pakistan, which is sort of the political wing of the security establishment, gets into gear and calls the Islamabad station chief so that they can 'spin' these events for media consumption. The Islamabad station chief has an evidently “realpolitik” view of these events: the 40+ civilians were collateral damage, pure and simple.  Some foreign relations are defined by security concerns and the US-Pak relationship is one of those.

An issue that is already becoming evident is the uneven detail – the sets look great, but then there’s a goof-up in the language: people in the Afpak tribal region speak Pashto, not Hindi/Urdu. Presumably, because filming took place in South Africa, all of the ‘brown’ actors they were able to recruit were South African Indians, who could only speak Hindi/Urdu. Badly.

Then the crucial event of the season happens - Bachmann's identity is revealed by an anonymous tip (his source?) and apparently, this is basically a death sentence for a CIA station chief in Pakistan. So Sandy finds himself in the centre of the city with a bullseye on his head. I love this sequence, but there are threads you could tug at. For example, how could the mob be SO bloodthirsty such that even when Quinn starts picking them off with his handgun, none of them even flinch? Aren’t ordinary Pakistanis terrified of attacking an American diplomatic vehicle, much less murdering an official? Are we to believe that Pakistan is full of jihadis who are perfectly willing to die just to kill the American CIA chief, who will just get replaced by somebody similar?

Anyway, the locals come after him, but Carrie and Quinn arrive just in time. Phew. But wait...then this happens.

First off, the execution of this scene is technically brilliant - every extra is in the perfect place and the facial expressions, though slightly cartoonish, are entirely "on message". The scene sets up a truly hellish scenario and gives literal meaning to "besieged". There are furious young men on all sides of the jeep and they are out for blood. Sandy calls for back-up.

Suddenly, Carrie doesn't look so composed - the battlefield is not her area of expertise. The crowd manages to break through the windows and opens the car door. Strangely, nobody is trying to open Carrie or Quinn's door. There is a breach and a couple of guys grab hold of Sandy Bachmann. As for Quinn, he's had enough - shit is about to go down.

Suddenly somebody swings for Carrie's window, but Quinn's having none of it. Just look at the bloodspatter...

The situation is now out of hand and basically, Bachmann "belongs to the mob now". In the 2nd panel, you can see on Quinn's face the resignation when he realises the game to save Bachmann is over. Carrie, for some reason, thinks they can still save Sandy. But no.

Finally, Quinn and Carrie make their getaway, leaving Sandy to be kicked to death by the mob. As they are leaving, backup arrives, too late by half. The look on their faces says it all. Homeland is at its best, connecting moments of kinetic energy with its characters state of mind: Quinn's face in the last panel brings to life all the disillusionment and disappointment he experienced with his line of work, in season 3. In a strange way, it's only with this bloodbath that Homeland finally connects with its subject matter.

Carrie and Quinn have differing reactions to this set of events, as Carrie thinks they could've saved Sandy and Quinn doesn't. Quinn was flabbergasted by the futility of what they'd just done, while Carrie just views it as part of her job. This is why she's a station chief and he's just a tired soldier.

AM

P.S.

Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5

Episode 6

Outwitted

Episode rating – 8/10

Episode 6 was a cracker, ratcheting up the tension that’s been building all season with a fitting mid-season finale. Despite some weak characterisation, this episode showcases Homeland at its best by focusing sharply on the intrigue and ignoring the Quinn and Carrie “forced love story”. Dive in for a recap and review.

There was a tragic feel to Aayan’s story this episode, with both of the women in his life longing for him and wanting to help him. The happy pictures of him with his friends seemed ominously portentous and sure enough, he was shot at the hands of his infamous uncle Hassam Haqqani. And as the identical 4x4s branched off in three separate directions, leaving the CIA Reaper three choices to follow, Quinn’s (Rupert Friend) expression said it all: confusion, embarrassment and anger. So often do these emotions go together, they might as well have a word for the collective noun. Confusion as to how Haqqani flushed out Carrie’s plan (Fara should be able to help on this), embarrassment at a multibillion dollar operation being outwitted by a medieval warlord and anger at missing out on their target and suddenly being at the target’s mercy. All in all, this episode helped Homeland gallop forward in terms of plot, but how did we get there?

The episode starts off with Carrie and Aayaan being cosy in bed, with the latter practising his new identity. It’s hard to square Carrie’s new crush (and this clearly is way more than just “softening” the target) with her previous crush, the bad boy Nick Brody. Brody was seven shades of trouble, whilst Aayan wouldn’t say boo to a goose. But the counter-terrorism world is an odd beast and stranger things have happened, so ok. Carrie likes being with a much younger, less complicated man (boy). It’s extremely irresponsible, but you understand her emotional fragility.

Then Carrie asks Quinn for support, which is not forthcoming due to aforementioned shacking up with a teenager. “I’ll try somebody actually willing to do their job”, Carrie says. Suddenly Agent Redmond appears. Hmm.

Cut to Aayaan at university, picking up his last few things, only to be ‘caught’ by Kiran. Now these two were clearly ‘involved’ and as Kiran learns that some female journalist is whisking Aayan away to Britain, you can feel the quiet anger in her voice. They were obviously close (“when I will I SEE you again”, as Kiran said a couple of episodes ago). However, in a rushed scene, Aayaan just tries to make a quick getaway, almost as though he never cared about her anyway. Aayaan has put all his trust in Carrie and seems to think he needs nobody else. Bizarrely, Kiran then asks him to take her with him but Aayaan leaves anyway, only to find that he’s being followed. Fortunately, he loses his tail fairly easily and returns to Carrie.

“Not loveable eccentric…like hardcore chemical”

Then we get an odd scene with Quinn and traitor Alan Hensleigh, who as you’ll remember has been selling secrets to the ISI (Pakistani Intel) in exchange for, um, them to not publicly humiliate him? He’s a strange character, since he doesn’t have anything to trade for – all he gets in return is his life and dignity intact. Anyway, he bumbles into the CIA office (!) pretending to leave a note for Redmond but really just came to grill Quinn on Carrie. Unfortunately, Hensleigh is the Ambassador’s husband and also the Embassy’s local drunk, so nobody pays him much mind. Somehow, Hensleigh manages to find Carrie’s safe house location. This will become relevant later.

Alongside all the Carrie and Hensleigh stuff, there is a quiet panic building up about the fact that Saul can’t be found, although this stays in the background for most of this episode. As we already know, Saul’s been kidnapped by Ghazi, the local hoodlum employed by the ISI. This will also become relevant later.

Then we get probably the second-best scene of the episode, when Aayan tells Carrie about being followed. What follows is Carrie in near-hysterics about the whole thing, except she wasn’t quite pulling it off. At this point, for me the other shoe fell: she had arranged the whole thing. This is the bonkers Carrie Mathison, the woman who goes around sleeping with intel targets…why would she worry so much about a tail? There was a fake quality to her alarm, which, it should be mentioned, was superbly played by Claire Danes. Danes had to play somebody pretending to be alarmed, which can’t be easy.

Clearly she wanted to delay his plans, although I didn’t fully appreciate there was more to it than that. I also didn’t realise that the full extent of her plan involved her getting assaulted (her underlings no doubt taking advantage of the hurly burly of the “assault” to get one over on Carrie) and carted off. It was a risky plan – what if Aayaan seriously injured himself? I think Claire tried to scare him using the tail, but when he persisted, she signalled for the “break-in”. Of course, there’s the obligatory “reveal” scene in the CIA van afterwards, in case not everybody had realised what was happening.

“I am not the enemy”
Carrie seems to have finally had it with Quinn and Fara, and unloads entirely onto Fara. For her part, Fara explains that Carrie only knows about Haqqani because of her, but for Carrie, there is almost a performance issue at stake: Fara and Quim just aren’t doing their jobs, even if it requires them to be ruthless and cold-blooded. To be fair, if you join the CIA, you can’t accuse colleagues of being too cynical – it’s in the job description, particularly after 9/11. “I am not the enemy”, Fara says. But then anyone who gets in Carrie’s way is the enemy.

So Fara cleans up the teen sex den, I mean CIA safe house, while Carrie gets some kip and Aaayan takes a bus. However, Hensleigh, remember him, has found the house (I think he was tailing Fara) and manages to rummage through the bags to find pictures of Aayan, later showing them to the foxy lady from ISI (Tasleem Qureshi, played by Indian actress Nimrat Kaur). Unbelievably, Fara thinks nothing of the spilled bags AND the cardboard on the window having been moved. Somehow I don’t think she’s cut out for this work.

As if the good guys weren’t already in trouble, Aayaan gets into a snafu with border Police/random soldiers, paying them off with the 1,000 Pounds Sterling Carrie had given him. Somehow, a soldier going to a forex shop to convert £1,000 into Pakistani Rupees seems odd. Carrie becomes filled with hope at Aayan’s success in negotiating this. However, we know how this ends.

For the first time in a while, I was becoming quite confident that Homeland will treat a grown up subject in a grown-up way. And so it did – Aayaan’s death was Carrie’s biggest nightmare come true: she vested the time, effort and most significantly emotional energy into this “boy”, only to see him executed at point blank range. The final sequence brings together so much of what happened in this season that it is worth looking at this more forensically:

if Carrie had not been so involved with Aayan, they MIGHT have nabbed Haqqani the first time Fara saw him.

Then going further back, if Sandy Bachman had not been killed, [ISI agent] would not have turned the screws on Hensleigh, who wouldn’t have trailed Fara and would not have put Carrie and Aayan together for the ISI.

If Quinn had responded to Saul’s disappearance more quickly, they might have found Saul before Haqqani whisked him away.

The finale was a great bit of TV – it was so superbly shot that I honestly wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference between this and a Hollywood movie (although the movie would probably have ended in the drone strike). The appearance of Saul surprised me at the time but now I’m not sure why! It’s quite bold for the terrorists to kidnap a former head of the CIA, although I think the show dropped the ball by not showing him with some armed protection. I mean, if the CIA ex-Director is that important, wouldn’t he get protection the way former Presidents get?

So what to expect for the next episode? I shudder to think what will happen to Saul once they find out he’s a Jew, on top of the danger he’s in anyway. Carrie needs to find a way to salvage this op, although given the dirt she has on Lockhart, I suspect she’s ok for now. Quinn et al gave Carrie’s odd behaviour the benefit of the doubt but this was an unmitigated disaster: Carrie lost the asset, didn’t take out the target AND lost the ex-Director of the CIA in the process. Catastrophe. This episode's storyline isn’t so much "from A to B and back again" but two steps forward, three steps back.

AM

P.S. As an aside: why do I have the feeling that Sandy and Hensleigh were having an affair? I just get the odd feeling that putting together the terrible Hensleigh marriage and the way Sandy was texting his contact (assuming it was Hensleigh) puts it in the semi-romantic category.