#HOMELAND SEASON 2 SERIES#

Now that she's had her car crash and been roughed up, and fixed it all with a quick splash of water in the CIA bathroom, she's left with romance. She would never have made such a glib assumption in season one, and it doesn't matter that she was wrong. And then there was the moment that caused me to scream at the screen, regarding Galvez being the mole: 'He is a Muslim.' The metamorphosis to Carrie Bauer is complete. Her lies to Quinn about how she got away from Nazir – 'I escaped' – were rubbish. Returning to the tunnels not once but twice, with nothing but a flashlight, was very Sarah Lund of her. Yet there were also many un-Carrie moments. Carrie's gently persuasive, do-the-right-thing approach has been unfeasibly successful so far – it was great to see that she was no match for the sheer rage of her adversary. I also enjoyed the interrogation of Roya. I did wonder for a second if Abu Nazir had really been there, or if it was in her mind, as Quinn seemed to think, too. There was also a suggestion that she might be losing her grip on reality, too, as she emerged from the tunnel for the first time. The writers seemed to remember who Carrie actually was for at least a portion of this episode, which was a relief – she took her medication in the car, a reminder that she is fallible and that the trauma of the past day did have an impact. He's the only one Carrie listens to any more, so I hope he gets to stay for season three. Mind you, I'm a fan of Quinn, even if he is black ops and deadly. The fact that the big story now is whether the CIA will bump off Brody or not just doesn't have the import of the season one finale, and the muted, bruised romance of Brody and Carrie isn't the reason I like the show.

#HOMELAND SEASON 2 SERIES#

I'd got used to the bonkers pace of this series – indeed, this felt like the payoff for Homeland losing its senses, plot-wise – but this didn't quite work for me. For a penultimate instalment, this had an odd pace – it felt like a lot of Big Things happened with the death of Abu Nazir, but the action was also disjointed and, dare I say it, slow. I wonder what prompted the last-minute change? If this was Old Homeland I've have thought the original a wry dig at US attitudes this time around, it could easily have been gung-ho patriotism, so perhaps that swap was for the best. Unsurprisingly, it is no longer called that. This episode was supposed to be called The Motherfucker In The Turban.

Homeland season 2