Homeland Recap: Season 2 Premiere!!!

Recaps

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

Cut to Washington, DC. Brody enters what we are to assume is his own office to find the VP waiting for him. We learn Brody is now a US Congressman. The VP, who was almost blowed up by Brody last we saw him, is about to run for office (presumably the sitting president is on the end of his second term), and is offering Brody a position as his running mate.

“I think you’d be a dynamite candidate”

The Veep tells Brody that his team had Brody checked out and could come up with nothing. I guess they missed when Brody killed a deer in his suburban backyard. Or when he and a CIA agent beat up some rednecks in a bar on their way to fuck in a cabin in the woods. Or that he is now a devote practicing closeted Muslim. Or that he arranged a rendezvous with a co-POW that was formerly assumed dead and then wanted for treason and attempted murder, which he then killed in a culvert in DC. Or that he strapped a vest of explosives to his chest and attempted to blow up a room full of politicos. I feel like those would all have been considered red flags.

Cut to Carrie who, it turns out, is teaching English to a class of immigrants. All seemingly middle eastern, which makes sense given that she is fluent in Arabic. Stick to what you know! One of her old buddies from the Agency interrupts her class. She is immediately unsettled and we get those great Clair Danes crazy facial expressions as he tells her that Estes, her former boss (the one who had an affair with her and then hated her because his wife moved to Florida with his kids), needs to see her. I am guessing the undercover that came forward in “Beirut” is one of her plants and will only speak to Carrie.

“You need a favor from me?”

She basically tells the messenger to put this message where the sun doesn’t shine and that Estes was right when he apparently told her “you never belonged in the CIA”. I know that was painful for her to say, but as a woman with a severe mental disorder, she really didn’t. She returns to class rattled and telling her students the visitor was “nobody”.

“Sylvia’s happy/ so why can’t you leave her alone?”

Cut to Brody’s house and happy family. His stunning wife has grown her hair out a little (MrWallace liked her better with the supershort hair, I like it this way), and is all smiles about his possible VP bid. This is the same woman I remember being concerned that a run for office would be hard on the family and their teenage kids. I guess the Washington Insider bug has bitten her hard. The disillusioned 16 year old girl, Dana, who was the only one to notice Dad Is Different last season, is sighing around the house and we learn she is unpopular in her new fancy school. I suspect she again has a pivotal role to play in this drama.

“Why can’t you just fit in and not notice that things are batshit crazy around here?”

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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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