Contributor: Edmund B.
Written by Chip Johannessen
Directed by Michael Cuesta
Carrie’s instability, balanced against Brody’s implacable cool, has become the early motif for “Homeland” this season. Both come into spectacular play as the action ratchets up in “Beirut is Back.” And after all the assaults on Carrie’s credibility, vindication may finally be at hand.
After her personal victory, Carrie’s enthusiasm gets the best of her. Improvising her contact with Fatima, for the audience, feels like a sign the old Carrie was back. It’s not until she gets back to Saul that she, and we, realize she’s not on solid ground. The rooftop scene where she decries her loss of confidence is heartbreaking, mainly because we know the core of that doubt, being wrong about Brody, is false itself.
Brody, meanwhile, has his own issues juggling the demands of his two minders, Vice President Walden and Abu Nazir. His outbursts to Jess after being buttonholed at the party and Nazir’s contact after the situation room show that his composure is starting to fray at the edges. And the discovery at the end of the episode threatens to explode that composure completely.
The text message warning from the situation room did verge on implausibility. However, that is more in hindsight, because the tension of that sequence was so high it steamrolled objections at the time. From the early doubts about whether Fatima had set Carrie up, to the kill shot and Brody’s decision, through Carrie’s mad dash back to the apartment, the entire sequence was a high-wire act expertly plotted and shot.
This show doesn’t indulge in filler, so I’m sure the two sub-plots, Brody’s former comrades digging into Walker’s death and Jess’ introduction into the Washington wives club, will also wind applying more pressure to Brody. But, for the immediate future, Saul’s discovery of Brody’s suicide tape will drive the action. It was an exquisite reversal, just as Carrie’s recklessness seems to be reinforcing her instability, it nets incontrovertible proof. However, by reappearing so early in the season, all signs point to further complications. The possibilities are myriad, but the one certainty is these characters will find a way to keep dancing around the truth.
Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 3/4
Final Score: 9/10