Homeland

Caught up today, and yes, this episode had substance to it and actually moved the real story forward. Make the Brodys go away. This is way better

supertouch_sl said:

I still wanna know who the mole is. Galvez is dead, too much about Saul has been revealed. Who are the likely suspects?

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the only possible candidate really is Dar Adal, there is literally no other character it could be who has been on the show from season 1 (Quinn wouldn't make sense given what we have seen, Sauls wife was gone too much, others are all dead?). It could also be the senator I guess, but that would just be stupid.

iirc the only "mole-ish" things that happened during season 1 was someone passing a blade to the brown guy they had in custody, and someone calling Abu Nasir to warn him. We already know Brodie did the second thing, and it stands to reason he did the first thing too so maybe there is no mole. All the other stuff like warning the tailor, Brodie initiated too I think?

Dar Adal makes the most sense, it was bizarre the way he just abandoned the senator/director-nominee and backed Saul, who seems to have absolutely no patience or ability to play Washington politics. I just hope they don't turn the senator, lawyer and "second bomber" manhunt into an "evil corporate cabal is behind all this" stupid conspiracy plot, where a couple of rich old white guys are pulling the strings because they want bigger defense contracts and control of the middle east.

I would happily watch a season of Saul truly setting up an event catastrophic enough in Iran that it left Javadi the head of Iran's intelligence agency and Saul the head of the CIA. Then let the cat and mouse spy games ensue. Plus more Peter Quinn assassination action please.

The Senator replacing Saul has to be one of the most one dimensional characters ever to appear on TV. He literally serves no other purpose other than to antagonise Saul and make the viewer root for Saul.

The guy has been in four scenes for a grand total of 15 lines and is here to represent the post-'human assets' take on intelligence so what did you expect at this point?

Don't say that. He'll call his mommy (the president) on you!

There is a not insignificant portion of people in real life who agree with his sentiments. I think we are meant to sympathize with them, after seeing how clusterfucked the Brody operation was and seeing the kid get murdered in Caracas. Human intelligence definitely has some potential for failure.

and Homeland had a great opportunity to make Saul a more interesting character, by having the Senator/director-elect give a speech to Saul and Dar Adal about how we should never let evil doers walk free, that their slippery slope of making deals with people and covering up shitty things is what gets America into trouble, that its time for people who think and act like them to go because they corrupt the entire system. He could have agreed that Iran will just install another bad guy, but they will find him too and kill him and the next guy and the next guy but they won't compromise their principles in doing it. And THEN having Saul and Dar Adal work against him would be interesting.

but instead he is just a cartoon Dick Cheney who wants to predator strike anyone brown and only cares about scoring political points.

I really don't think that his position is so much different than what you just posted. It isn't political points that drive him, he has a fundamentally different vision of what intelligence should be in the modern world. And he comes at this as kind of an outsider, versus Saul and Dar who have been working on the inside for decades.

Yea he's just a cartoon villain who is evil for the sake of the plot. He's never really explained why his ideas are better, or even what they are for that matter. But because Team Saul fucked up he's trying to burn the entire system down, because the viewer needs someone to root against.

He explained his views pretty specifically, both the logic behind it and exactly what his vision for the future is. He even had the added dramatic impact of the giant fucking crater being a result of the Brody fiasco and used it in one of his dialogues about his views. And he's right in part, the entire Brody thing was a clusterfuck.

The justification for his views is irrelevant, felldoh gets it

What should be kept in mind IMO is Dar Adal being aoff the booksCIA manager, which means he's abehind the curtainsSaul type, he'd lack management skills and he'd need to rely on senior guys hierarchy wise. Whenever official management is in jeopardy, he'll have to do anything to secure his position. These kind of guys are all about patriotism and survival, they'll do anything to secure their positions, sometimes for the greater good.

Dar Adal feeding on both moralefag Senator and Saul's ideologism is quite comprehensive ; he's aware about US politics while having his own survival agenda. He knows moralefag senator is balls deep into making press busts rather than dwelling into backhand spyshit politics. Bethesda cops not being able to indict Quinn is quite relevant ; Quinn feeling aside, it's about how national security can get rid of the Law out there. Dar Adal, being an oldfag, has experience about shit going down the drain when it's about major spy play revelations. In my opinion he's just taking care of both ends : sticking with Saul while playing the "I told you so" card in case moralefag senator will take CIA directorship. Win-win, since we always need black ops guys, especially within a top national intelligence agency.

I thought it was a very solid episode, possibly best so far this season. Pacing was good and everything seemed pretty relevant and starting to come together for the end of the season. It's about friggin' time.

BoldW_sl said:

Spoiler

I think it was because there was no Brody Family involved. I'm thinking Saul is going to bring Brody back and charge him with the bombings. This should take care of the Senator problem, but will open up more Carrie being stupid and irrational. It also seems like the smart thing to do with having Saul's gambit in play and not risking the intel they're about to get from Javadi.

Getting some story on Fara is interesting, though it seems a bit cliche to me, and I'm sure they'll put in some moral dilemma (choose her Iranian heritage or her new American identity) that also happens to have national security impact at some point.

Nitpicking: The tub the lawyer was trying to melt the bomber in was a cheap plastic variety. Everything I've learned from TV murders says it needs to be ceramic otherwise it gets eaten through.

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lanx_sl said:

i think everyone did, ha, i was like FINALLY!, i thought he was gonna puss out too, but nope, he really is all pro.

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Yeah, when he shot her I was relieved. Thank fucking GOD.

Great episode. This season is on an upswing, I am glad I went ahead and watched it.Brody looked like shit.

I just noticed in the credits that they brought James Yoshimura on the producing/writing team for this 3rd season. He was one of the driving force behind Homicide's quality and also worked a bit on Treme. I suspect he is no stranger to the bullshit-o-meter being set firmly lower than in the previous season.