‘Homeland’ Recap: Carrie Is Pregnant; Saul Comes Face-To-Face With Javadi

by uInterviewNovember 4, 2013, 12:00 amNews >

Homeland returned on Sunday with Carrie Masterson (Claire Danes) strapped into a chair and hooked up to a lie detector test in the foreboding presence of Javadi (Shaun Toub) and his men.

The lie detector test indicates that Carrie isn’t telling the truth – specifically about whether or not anyone else knows about their rendezvous. Instead of cowering in the face of his intimidation, Carrie demands that Javadi’s men leave the room, as the deal had been for the two of them to meet in private. Once alone, Carrie brings up Nasser Hejazi – Javadi’s alias – the name of the Iranian soccer player that’s been used to steal money from the banks of Iran.

By asserting her knowledge that he’s made himself an enemy of his homeland, Carrie appears to be in control. Javadi wants to know why, if she and Saul (Mandy Patinkin) know his hidden identity and corresponding activity, they haven’t arrested him. She tells him Saul wishes to chat with him first, which Javadi sees as in keeping with Saul’s tendency to risk others’ lives for the sake of ego. He agrees to meet with Saul, but it’ll have to be later at a set meeting point.

Meanwhile, Saul, with Quinn (Rupert Friend) and Fara’s (Nazanin Boniadi) help, is trying to track Carrie’s location. Saul appears to be at the end of his rope, nearly convinced that they’ve lost his protégé for good. Wrecked, fearing the worse for Carrie and knowing his aspirations for higher office at the CIA are destroyed, Saul skulks about his kitchen. Mira (Sarita Choudhury) tries to engage him in conversation, opening up about her dinner companion Alan Bernard. She doesn’t hold back, admitting they were an item during the separation, that he made her happy, made her laugh and makes her days better – ostensibly in ways that Saul no longer does. He chooses detached passive aggressiveness over anger, which only serves to further alienate his wife.

After telling Mira his hopes of being the CIA director have already been crushed, Saul heads to the CIA safe house. There, he informs Quinn and Fara of his history with Javadi. Back in the 70s the two men had collaborated on a mission, but Javadi later backstabbed Saul in order to get in with the new Iranian regime. In return, Saul vengefully enabled the escape of Javadi’s wife and child to America. Since then, the two have had no contact.

Dana Brody (Mogan Saylor) briefly graces the screen in a scene in which she makes a superficial attempt to distance herself from her father – changing her last name to her mother’s maiden name. Now that she's Dana Lazara, Jess (Morena Baccarin) thinks that her daughter has found a way to mend her brokenness following Nick Brody’s (Damien Lewis) terrorist activities. The mother would be wrong though, as Dana has also decided to move in with a friend to get out of the Brody house connected with so many ill feelings.

At Langley, Sen. Lockhart (Tracy Letts) fittingly throws his weight around, belittling the CIA as it currently stands and promising to usher in a new and more effective intelligence agency. Dar Adal (F. Murray Abraham) listens on and agrees with everything Lockhart has to say. Is he trying to cement his own job security? Truly in agreement with Lockhart’s analysis? Or bluffing for both his and Saul’s sake?

Carrie, meanwhile, has managed to find her way back home after getting dropped off in an unspecified location by Javadi’s men. First thing she does is call Saul, informing him about the meeting that's to happen. When Saul lets slip he’d lost track of her, Carrie tries to understand how that happened but Saul brushes her inquiries aside. He then confidently asserts that Javadi will keep his word and meet them at the appointed location. Carrie and Quinn are less certain, but they agree to go forward with the plan.

After hanging up the phone, Carrie heads to the bathroom and pulls a pregnancy test from the shelf. It’s positive; she’s pregnant. Judging by the plethora of used tests with the (+) clearly showing, Carrie has been aware, albeit in denial, about being with child. Whether it’s Brody’s, her two-night stand's that she met at the liquor store or someone else’s has yet to be revealed. Nor has it been revealed how this is meant to fit into Homeland's larger plot.

The following day, Quinn and Carrie’s skepticism regarding Saul’s plan turned out to be well founded. Javadi bypasses the appointed meeting point and heads to a suburban neighborhood. He goes to the front door of one of the houses and comes face to face with his daughter-in-law Susan Roberts. He shoots her square in the head. Javadi’s grandson begins crying and his ex-wife appears. After knocking her to the ground, he smashes a bottle and proceeds to stab her with the shards as she yells, “You betrayed us!”

Carrie and Quinn get to the scene too late to save either woman. Javadi, having done what he came there to do, willingly gets taken into custody. Saul orders his two agents to act as though they weren’t there, and to leave the crying young boy with his slain relatives. Police get there quickly, however, so Saul has to tell them all the grizzly details. And then, Saul gets his chance to interrogate Javadi, something significantly less sweet now that he’s murdered the people Saul took pains to save from him years ago. Expressing his pent up anger and frustration, Saul cracks Javadi across the face, breaking his nose.

Homeland airs Sundays on Showtime at 9/8c.

– Chelsea Regan

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