Homeland - Recap: Burn Notice
Recap and review of Homeland - Season 3 Episode 11 - Big Man in Tehran:
So Nicholas Brody pretty much has to die, right?
That's really the only play Homeland has at this point if it wants to remain even halfway credible. Brody (Damian Lewis) has basically been kept alive by magic since the end of season one anyway, and that amount of Plot Armor strains credulity in a show that ostensibly aspires towards verisimilitude. Hell, they're having a hard enough time making sense of the CIA's continued trust and faith in Carrie (Claire Danes), so the show's continued reliance upon the Doomed Lovers angle between she and Brody, to the detriment of other, more interesting plotlines, is among the more troublesome aspects of the series. But dammit...that chemistry between Danes and Lewis could sell me on a root canal. "Big Man in Tehran" leans heavily on the Carrie/Brody dynamic, but it invariably leads to an episode of amazing narrative momentum, thanks largely to the central question of whether Brody will compromise the mission, burn the CIA's operation and run off with Carrie, or if he'll stick to the plan and risk sacrificing his own life in the process. Homeland appears to be tying up loose ends, and "Big Man in Tehran" is step one in that process -- a process that's been a long time coming.
Much of the episode focuses on three very separate, yet very intertwined, trajectories: Brody is attempting to get close to Iranian Defense Minister Akbari; Carrie is in Tehran to ensure Brody's extraction; and Saul (Mandy Patinkin) is managing the s***storm on the homefront, dealing with an asset, in Brody, who has become more of a liability. The most compelling stuff of the episode, naturally, belongs to Brody. His strange journey towards acceptance by the Iranian community is really engrossing to watch, particularly the vetting process that leads to his acceptance. After enduring excessive questioning from Akbari's men -- including Javadi (Shaun Toub) -- Brody is taken to what he believes will be a meeting with the Defense Minister. In preparation, he rolls the cyanide needle -- slipped to him by insiders during his physical -- into the sleeve of his shirt, and gets into the car with his handlers. Carrie and her Javadi-provided assistants follow. The plan is for Brody to get close enough to Akbari to inject him with the needle, at which point one of Carrie's assistants will detonate a bomb hidden in a motorcycle nearby, which should provide Brody with enough of a distraction to kill Akbari and escape through the back exit of the compound. But things don't quite work out as neatly as planned, as Brody is not brought to meet with Akbari, but instead Abu Nazir's widow. It's a rather shrewd vetting tactic, but one that works fairly well, as Brody sells himself as a remorseful soldier in a war against American values that have been twisted beyond recognition. It's a poignant point of comparison with Nazir's widow, who similarly wonders what this all has been for, and it's a credit to Damian Lewis that Brody's true motives remain in doubt even now.
Credit: Showtime
But even though Brody finds acceptance, he never receives his opportunity to meet with Akbari, prompting the CIA to call for his extraction. However, Brody refuses to give up on the mission. In fact, he goes one further by plunging himself even deeper into his anti-American rhetoric, going on Iranian talk shows to badmouth the United States in Farsi. Saul is completely humiliated after losing control of his asset. The president is furious and Senator Lockhart suggests the very real possibility of cutting losses and just having Brody killed altogether. And Saul agrees to it, because really, what choice does he have? As Lockhart states, Brody is a man given to changing his mind, and so it's hard to know just when he's been compromised. The key goal now is to keep Javadi in play, and that unfortunately means Brody must be taken out of the equation.
Credit: Showtime
However, Saul makes the mistake of telephoning Carrie -- who has set up a safehouse for Brody's extraction through Fara's uncle -- and telling her it's time for her to come home. She immediately intuits that the plan is to neutralize Brody, so she arranges to meet with him in a town square. The staging here is impeccable, as Carrie and Brody are in the same square but must speak from opposite ends of the plaza over the phone, signifying the simultaneous levels of closeness and remove between the two. Carrie pleads with Brody to come away with her -- "Where?" Brody asks. "Anywhere," Carrie responds. But as Brody told Nazir's widow, he's sick of running. All he sees is an endless stream of escapes, concealments and crappy CIA plans, and he wants no part of that cycle. Of course, right as he makes his fateful decision, Carrie notices the two men the CIA has sent to kill him, and she warns him over the phone, which sends Brody on the run. Saul is positively incensed, and I continue to wonder how much longer his patience with her can possibly hold out.
Credit: Showtime
Unbeknownst to Saul, however, is the knowledge that the CIA's attempts to kill him has catalyzed Brody to finally finish the mission. But the show tries to keep it ambiguous as to whether or not that's what he's actually doing. Saul is mortified that Brody will meet with Akbari and blow Javadi's cover to spite the CIA for trying to kill him, and although I don't think the show really expects us to believe this, Damian Lewis does a tremendous job selling his righteous anger, to the point where it's not entirely outside the realm of possibility that he would turn again. The writing team even takes it the extra mile by actually having Brody blow Javadi's cover after all: he approaches Nazir's widow and pleads with her to get him a meeting with Akbari, saying that he has information on Javadi that he believes Akbari needs to hear. And so Brody gets his meeting, although without his cyanide needle, which he disposed of following his acceptance into Iran.
Credit: Showtime
What follows is an incredibly tense scene, in which Brody meets privately with Akbari and spills it all -- Javadi's involvement with the CIA, the plan to have Akbari killed in order to replace him with Javadi, and his own wavering commitment to the cause. It's a wonderfully nuanced performance from Damian Lewis, as it's hard to be 100% certain that Brody isn't just playing Akbari until the moment he smashes him over the head with a glass ash tray. As Brody suffocates Akbari with a pillow, Brody begins to sob, as if recognizing the futility of his choice. So what if he gets back to America? It's not like he's about to be hailed as a returning hero. He's essentially a man without a country. But even then, he's a man who's accomplished the task his country set before him. He calls Carrie and asks her to get him out of Iran, and that's where we end, with Carrie uncertain of how she's going to pull off this mammoth task, and Brody appearing uncertain as to whether or not this is something he even wants anymore.
Credit: Showtime
"Big Man in Tehran" is a gripping episode with potent performances from Danes and Lewis, moving the characters to the point of no return. It's reminiscent of Homeland season one, which lived to put its characters in untenable, Point of No Return scenarios, and then found a way to write them out of the corner into which they'd been painted. Granted, Carrie Mathison has quickly gone from being one of TV's most routinely infuriating, tedious characters, and Nicholas Brody one of the more needlessly persistent, but there's still the kernel of a great show here. No matter what happens in next week's season finale, I don't know how the show is going to write its way into keeping the Carrie/Brody story alive, so I'm particularly fascinated to see what the show will become, moving forward. It's very likely that this will be the last season of Homeland as we know it, as it becomes more and more of a given that season four will be a brand new slate for the show. Of course, similar sentiments were expressed this time last year, so who even knows? This show is subversive of its own formula, but it also has a certain dedication to the status quo. But given how this season is ending, something has seriously got to give.