Homeland Recap: Season 2 Premiere!!!

Recaps

By MrsMiaWallace | Wednesday, October 3, 2012 | 6:28 pm | 8 Comments
Tagged: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in: Homeland, Recaps

“So when Rayanne Graff told me my hair was holding me back, I had to listen. ‘Cause she wasn’t just talking about my hair. She was talking about my life“

Homeland is back!!!

This is my first attempt at covering something dramatic instead of funny and/or ridiculous so I will do my best, but I truly love this show so hang in there and I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it! I will start with a short and crappy recap of last season that you can probably skip!

Last season – We met Carrie Mathison, portrayed by my favorite 90’s actress Claire Danes, as a CIA operative who was in the Middle East and received a tip that an American POW had “been turned”. Her information becomes relevant when a before unknown bearded GI Nicholas Brodie shows up and is immediately launched into American hero-dom and politics. Assured he is the guy, Carrie launches her own unsupported mission to prove his treason. She tries unauthorized surveillance, ill-advised personal contact and eventually screws and falls in love with Brody. That always works, right? Although her unorthodox methods and her hidden struggle with severe schizophrenia kept her from getting the support of coworkers and family, she does have help and at least sympathy from one thorny mentor agent Sal Berenson, played by an awesome Mandy Patinkin.

When another GI surfaces and is caught playing sniper, even Carrie feels she was wrong about steely-faced Brody and confesses her motives. Although she tries to further seduce him away from his family, he is now wary of her and claims harassment to get her thrown out of the agency and off his trail. As viewers we find out she is right even as she is mourning a lost love and wondering if she made a mistake in judgment. We learned he was turned by the spiritual al-Qaeda leader, Abu Nazir, who allowed him to live freely in his home and teach English to his youngest son, Issa, and eventually taught Brody the religion of Islam. Brody truly felt hate for the West when an air strike targeted a school and killed his young student/friend. Brody was then trained to return to the US to perform a revenge mission to execute the Vice President (considered responsible for the cruel drone mission) and many high powered DC players. Luckily his courage fails, but Carrie is finally convinced he was innocent.

We leave the show with Carrie about to undergo shock therapy to “cure” her, while Sal urges her not to, claiming she was right about her theory about an attack being related to a personal tragedy for Abu Nazir and tells her about Issa’s death. Just before the anesthesia kicks in Carrie has a flashback of Brody waking up in bed during their weekend tryst screaming “Issa!”. So now she can be sure… but will she remember?

Season 2!!!

We open with a focused and healthy-looking Carrie gardening outside her sister’s house while her sister and father have a discussion in the kitchen to fill us in on what happened to our little electric shock victim since we last saw her. Her father, who also has schizophrenia, argues she is on an unnecessarily high dosage of lithium, while her sister claims that it is for the doctor to decide and Carrie is in “a good place finally” and to butt O-U-T. Didn’t he do enough damage to Michael Douglas already when he pretended to be a doctor? When Carrie comes inside she mentions she needs to grade papers and that they can turn the news back on, proving her level of awareness is still there and she has some kind of teaching job.

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MrsMiaWallace is an east coast girl with a  penchant for travel, libations and great cuisine. She is not known to turn down a mimosa or a martini and finds the transition between the two a good way to mark the passing of time since she can never remember to wear a watch. Her secret love for reality tv and addiction to Bravo have drawn her like a moth to the glittering snark of TVGasm,  where she finds there are others like her... hopefully also nursing Bloody Marys.

8 Comments

  1. 1
    JKW
    Posted October 4, 2012 at 1:02 am

    I LOVE this show. Carries big ass smile at the end was great. I had a big smile and was laughing . One thing I remembered when I saw the previous season re-runs they had on. When Sol took the lie detector test the needle spiked when they asked about slipping the terrorist a razor blade. He ran out of the room and never finished the test. I hope he is a good guy but it’s something to think about. So great to have this show back. Good job on the recap…I am sure it’s tough to recap with everything going on. Carrie and her dad are bipolar.

  2. 2
    MrsMiaWallace MrsMiaWallace
    Posted October 4, 2012 at 6:48 am

    @JKW – I loved that moment of her being back on her game too! I had forgotten about Saul (spelling correction alert!) having a possibly shady backstory, but as her only supporter it makes sense that he has an unorthodox story somewhere too.

    Also thanks for the correction! I don’t know why I was thinking schizophrenic, I even read recently that Claire Danes did an extensive amount of research on the behavior and affectations of bipolar people to study her role. She’s getting major kudos from the medical and mental health community for her portrayal.

  3. 3
    Bridget
    Posted October 4, 2012 at 6:56 am

    Now I am interested. What does the US Embassy in Beirut look like? I am always interested in how television shows or movies portray other countries especially when they get it wrong. Was the portrayal of Beirut at all factual? Okay back to recap.

  4. 4
    MrsMiaWallace MrsMiaWallace
    Posted October 4, 2012 at 9:16 am

    I am very biased because Lebanon and Beirut specifically is one my favorite places. Beirut is moder, metropolitan, diverse and developed. The cafes, clubs and shops are some of the best in the world. Beirut used to be called the Paris of the Middle East and has worked very hard to rebuild that since the war. The most “rustic” thing about the city is the bullet holes that still riddle many of the buildings.

    My guess is the filming took place in a smaller village outskirt in Israel or Jordan. It looks like Egypt but there’s no way they could have filmed there recently. Also Lebanon is very liberal. The offices we worked with had women in headscarves and also women who looked like they shopped at Bebe for work clothes. It was more conservative in more rural regions, but I travelled from Tripoli to Tyre and was never looked at askance in short sleeves, long shorts and an uncovered head.

    As for security, the US building there are extremely guarded. In general all embassies are compounds with perimeter walls that are mandated to be a certain height and thickness. There is also a regulation on how far from the first building the wall must be (space for people outside with rocket launchers etc), and how thick the outside walls of the buildings must be. In regions with strife the roads and entrances would be cordoned off and heavily patrolled and guarded. I was there in a relatively peaceful period 3 years ago and we still never left the hotel without a convoy of armored, tinted cars. Much less driving out of an Embassy in a single sedan through the front entrance. Its laughable.

    The regional unrest and deepseated strife is a shame because Lebanon is lovely and very lush. Their national symbol is a tree because of their dense forests. Beirut is located on the sea and has a lovely coastline and mountainous topography. The city is very hilly and views of the harbor are breathtaking. The food and hospitality of the Lebanese is fantastic and traditional dinners are a hours-long 50+ plate affair. The cost of war is dear in both lives and culture for us all.

  5. 5
    TiredinTacoma
    Posted October 4, 2012 at 5:34 pm

    Glad you caught the Schizophreniz vs Bipolar disorder diagnosis. Many people with Bipolar are very high functioning in high stress careers and remain stable with meds & stable schedules, big difference with schizophrenia! Love the recap, looking forward to the next episode!

  6. 6
    vallegirl vallegirl
    Posted October 4, 2012 at 7:50 pm

    Nice recap, Mrs. Mia. As a fellow “prestige premium cable” recapper, I know how hard it is to focus on being funny about a show you love. And you don’t even have Paul Sparks and Bobby Cannavale making a meal out of every piece of scenery they can find to make it a little easier.

    And while my own experience isn’t nearly as exotic as Beirut, whenever I watch Dexter I rupture tiny clusters in my brain spotting all the Long Beach landmarks that they use to sub for Miami, most egregiously the Long Beach convention center’s mural of blue whales. In Biscayne Bay. Really? Maybe it’s Showtime that doesn’t bother with continuity.

  7. 7
    JKW
    Posted October 4, 2012 at 10:34 pm

    Correction noted Mrs Mia. I was assuming Sauls name was short for Solomon. Hope her sister sent a load of her meds with her or she will be bouncing off walls. Claire Danes does a great job and so does Damian Lewis. It sounds so weird when he speaks in a Brit accent. He was great in Band of Brothers. I have watched that over and over for yrs.

    It will be interesting to see if Carrie goes off the map. After Saul turned her in at that VP affair, she may not trust him.

    I don’t know if anyone else saw this but….this was an original series from Israel.

  8. 8
    Goldie
    Posted October 5, 2012 at 8:21 am

    Wow, references to MSCL and The Game in one recap? I am impressed! Love this show, love Claire Danes. I am looking forward to the next episode like I used to look forward to seeing Jordan Catalano every Thursday!

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