The CIA interrogates Brody, attempting to coerce into an admission of his involvement with terrorist mastermind Abu Nazir.
Carrie Mathison is a miracle worker. When the odds are stacked against her and all seems lost, she never backs down, never allows her weaknesses to overtake her intuition.
When we last left Homeland, Brody was taken into the custody of the CIA, and Agent Mathison had finally found vindication. However, in “Q&A,” the latest episode in the series’ superb second season, it seems Brody’s shell is tougher to crack than previously imagined, and once again our loyal heroine steps in and saves the day.
We find Brody handcuffed in an undisclosed location, locked away in an interrogation room. Instead of Carrie handling the questioning, newcomer Quinn is given the task. Even with Saul backing up Carrie, Estes doesn’t allow her to take the first swing.
Quinn’s interrogation technique begins with a series of simple questions that Brody the congressman would surely lie about. With no knowledge of the CIA having a copy of his suicide bombing confession, he continuously denies any connection to Abu Nazir and plays the “Carrie is crazy” card. As Carrie and Saul observe the interrogation from another room, the sense of restlessness pervades both of them. Brody, however, seems trapped. It’s as if he can anticipate the CIA’s next move, but revels in every question he seems to evade or deny.
The cat and mouse game only gets more interesting when Brody is finally shown the tape of his suicide bombing confession. Watching Brody see himself in full uniform admitting to this unspeakable terrorist act is almost gluttonous. Here’s a man who viewed himself as untouchable, whom Abu Nazir had trained to take on an almost iron armor-like approach to life, where no outside influence could break him down. But here we see Brody in his most bewildered state, beaten down mentally from all angles.
Having fallen into their trap, Brody now owns up to his time under Nazir, his relationship with Issa (Abu Nazir’s son and Brody’s student), but outright denies having ever worn a suicide bomb vest with the intention of assassinating the vice president. He claims that the tape was made in a fit of anger, which he then threw out in the trash when he came to his senses. Quinn, at this point thoroughly irritated at Brody’s lack of compliance, lunges at the suspected terrorist with a knife and stabs him in the hand. He later plays off this act of madness as simply being a “Good cop, bad cop” moment, but I think there’s more to this Quinn character. He’s been an interesting addition that should play a nice foil to Carrie.
After Quinn’s outburst, Carrie is sent into the interrogation room to ease the situation and settle Brody down. Claire Danes may have the role of a lifetime as Carrie, and her masterful manipulation of Brody will certainly go down as one her finest moments.
She begins her questioning by shutting off all the cameras in the room, allowing Brody to feel at ease. Unbeknownst to him, Saul and Quinn may be unable to see him, but they can still hear every word of the conversation. Guilt can plague the conscious, and Carrie uses every ounce of it to crumble Brody into submission. She begins by detailing how he systematically ripped apart her own life. From their occasional escapades to their climactic weekend away at her family’s cabin, Carrie fell in love with Brody. It’s hard to tell whether Brody truly did have feelings for Carrie or if it was all part of the game, yet either way the look in Damian Lewis’ eyes is haunting.
As Carrie details how Abu Nazir was able to rebuild a broken Brody back to life only to watch him deteriorate after the death of Issa, the emotions begin to run high. Danes perfectly balances the line between uninhibited, raw emotion and a sense of constant awareness that she’s dealing with a suspected terrorist. As tears swell in Brody’s eyes, you can tell he’s defeated. The final blow comes when Carrie puts the pieces together and correctly assumes how his plan to assassinate the vice president was nulled with a single call from his daughter Dana. The guilt trip is too much to bear, and Brody cracks.
With that sudden rush of overwhelming emotion, the floodgates open up, and Brody begins to offer up any information he can summon. He ousts Roya Hammad as an Abu Nazir sympathizer, he gives the name of the “tailor” who built his suicide bomb, and, most importantly, reveals that Nazir is planning an attack on America. Yet he does not know when the attack will take place.
The last shot of Brody in the interrogation room is of the former marine huddled up on the floor in the fetal position. Abu Nazir tore him down to nothing leaving him vulnerable and naked, only to rebuild him and give his protégé a newfound purpose in life. What Carrie and the CIA have just done is rip that right out from underneath him, leaving him once again in a state of weakness.
Brody is now in debt to the CIA. He’s given the ultimatum of either standing trial and facing life in prison or fully cooperating and leaving town for a new life, one certainly void of politics. Where this new Brody may lead Carrie for the rest of the season is going to make for one of the more intriguing storylines of the fall television season. Nicolas Brody is back to square one, and Carrie Mathison is walking out with a victory for the first time in a long time.
