Bringing it all back home
Carrie Mathison is crazy again. Not in the schizophrenic, bipolar sense but in more of an “it’s so crazy, it just might work” kind of crazy. Her pupils are dilated, her hair is stringy, and she’s got that look on her face again as if she’s about to succumb to a nervous breakdown. Having just escaped from the clutches of arch nemesis Abu Nazir, it would be plausible to think that the proper mode to mental recovery would be to relax at home, collect her thoughts and think of a Plan B. But that’s not how our lovable Homeland hero responds to anything. Instead in this latest episode, “In Memoriam,” we find Carrie sticking to her crazy guns and finally getting some results. We can all take a collective breather, including Carrie Mathison herself.
The episode picks off where the last left off, with Carrie deciding to return to the warehouse in a frantic attempt to take down Abu Nazir once and for all. Their cat and mouse chase eventually takes a detour as she is led out of the building only to find that the rest of her CIA team has arrived. Now with two full teams of FBI agents and a barrage of surveillance equipment they surely should be able to corner in their target. Well, the ever-elusive Nazir somehow evades their search and conspiracy theories begin to fly.
Back at Langley, Saul has been secluded in an interrogation room and is subjected to a “CIA mandated” polygraph test. At first, he believes the test is simply to tie him up from heading over to the warehouse and getting involved with the search Nazir. However, after an FBI officer is brought in to question him on Eileen’s death at the prison and whether or not he supplied her with the murder weapon, Saul begins to get a little wary. He eventually puts the pieces together and is able to surmise that the test is an attempt to prevent him from leaking information about the possible assassination attempt against Brody. Estes, all of a sudden, seems to have a personal vendetta against his loyal, bearded companion, a dark turn for a character who always seemed to have a rough edge but was ultimately loyal to his colleagues.
Meanwhile, at the warehouse, Carrie’s sixth sense starts tingling and she begins to suspect the only reason they weren’t able to capture Nazir is that a rogue agent must have helped him. After a rebuttal from Quinn, Carrie concludes that it had to have been someone who was directing the mission. And who just happens to have been directing the mission and is currently missing at the moment: the recently returned and injured Galvez. To most, Galvez may seem like a pleasant, down to earth guy, so Carrie brings out the big guns: he’s Muslim. After hunting him down and pulling him out of his car, it turns out he was only leaving the warehouse to go to the hospital and fix up some recently torn stitches. Carrie’s crazy senses have let us down here, but this isn’t the last shot she’ll have.
As this is going on, Saul is attempting to figure out why Estes seems to have it out for him and attempts to rectify the situation. When the two sit down to discuss the results of the polygraph, the conversation boils down to a single but essential point. Because Saul knows about the plan to take out Brody once Nazir is captured, Estes wants him out of the agency as soon as possible. The concern over the unfortunate incident with Eileen at the prison is an obvious attempt to frame Saul and push him out of the agency. Saul is such a likable character, a hard-working man who truly appreciates his job, and to see it squashed in front of him is almost hard to watch.
When Carrie returns to Langley, she sneaks into the interrogation room where Roya Hammad is being held. This is something of a plot hole, as Estes had warned Quinn against letting Carrie talk to Roya, yet she is able to easily get into the room without any difficulty at all. Following the botched questioning, in which an attempt to sympathize with Roya is thoroughly rebuffed, Quinn doesn’t seem upset that she went in without permission but instead simply tells her to go home and get some rest. Recent episodes have shown a new side to Quinn. Although he may now be identified as Brody’s potential killer, he seems to have taken on a much more placid façade, especially when dealing with Carrie.
After leaving Langley, Carrie starts to let those ridiculous ideas stir around in her head and once again obeys orders for relaxation and heads back to the warehouse/potential Nazir hangout. With the FBI crew wrapping up the operation and ready to give up, Carrie frantically stops the last SWAT team available and offers to go in with them one last time and attempt to capture the terrorist once and for all. A final search leads Carrie and one of the officers to a small room at the back of the warehouse. The hidden room turns out to be Nazir’s hiding place, confirming that he had in fact been in the building during the entire search.
With this newfound knowledge that Abu Nazir may well in fact still be in the building, Carrie attempts to spread the word around to the rest of the team. Soon after, one of the officers is killed and a foot chase ensues between Carrie Mathison and her target, Nazir. After eventually cornering him, the terrorist attempts to reach into his vest but is shot by an officer before any action can be taken.
Here lies the ultimate villain of the show, dead, with Carrie Mathison on the sidelines – yet something feels unfulfilled. The episode closes with two touching moments; one between Brody and Jessica, and another with Brody and Carrie. Each conversation captures Brody’s immense struggle that he’s left with. He wants to tell Jessica the truth but she doesn’t want to hear it. He can tell Carrie the truth but he’s ready to leave it behind. Homeland’s excellent second season only has one more episode left and with Abu Nazir out of the picture, where we’ll be left off seems like more of a mystery than ever.
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