Homeland - Recap: An Old Man In A Dry Month

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While it should be enough that Javadi (Shaun Toub) is in custody and in a position to be turned into an asset for the CIA, things aren't exactly going smoothly. Quinn (Rupert Friend) was photographed on a neighbor's security camera leaving the scene of the double-homicide Javadi committed last week, and now the entire operation is in jeopardy. Carrie (Claire Danes) offers to call in a favor with a police captain in Bethesda who owes her, hoping that the Bethesda police will simply sweep the entire matter under the rug at the mere mention of the words "national security," but the police captain (Clark Johnson) proves to be stubborn about letting the matter go when Carrie refuses to explain who committed the murder, why it happened, or what importance it holds to national security. And so Quinn is pretty much on his own, left to meet with the Bethesda cops to straighten things out -- and to confess to a murder he didn't commit in order to buy Saul enough time to get Javadi out of the country.

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And this is where the episode finds its chief point of interest. So much of Homeland has been centered around the concept of turning men against their own countries, and the question of whether this can ever truly be done. As a man whose precise, if not occasionally reckless, approach is slowly losing relevance in an age of less carefully-considered aggression, Saul desperately tries to turn Javadi by essentially blackmailing him: with the information Saul and his team have stockpiled, he could either send Javadi back to Iran as his asset, or he could send him back to Iran into the arms of the revolution, a group that will publicly torture Javadi as a traitor before executing him. The scenes between Saul and Javadi are among the best of the season, as we're reminded that these were two men who'd been close in the 70s, having shared dinner tables and birthday celebrations with their wives, before the revolution sent their world into turmoil. Saul shows Javadi a picture from when they celebrated the 21st birthday of Javadi's wife over thirty years ago, and speculates that they never could have imagined back then that they would be in these present circumstances, with Javadi bathed in his wife's blood while Saul threatens him with possible salvation or definite execution.

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While Javadi is clearly a madman, the episode never attempts to disabuse us of the notion that Saul, himself, is more than a bit crazy to be trusting this man in the first place. But what choice does he really have? So he sends Javadi away, with Carrie as an escort, to get on a plane back to Iran to act as his double-agent within the Iranian government. Before going, Saul gets confirmation from Javadi that Brody wasn't the one who moved the Langley bomb, a revelation that will have repercussions as the series moves forward. As for Javadi, Fara (Nazanin Boniadi) is far from okay with the arrangement, as she feels a war criminal is getting away with murder. She proclaims to Carrie that although the Langley bombing was bad, the atrocities Javadi committed in Iran were significantly worse, and he must be brought to justice for those crimes. Yet Carrie, like Saul, is looking at the bigger picture of what Javadi can do for them in the future, instead of the equally big picture of what Javadi has done against them in the past. This conflict is part of the larger contrast between the necessity of what the CIA does, and the ambiguous morality behind it, as there's a real argument to be made about whether the ends justify not only allowing a known terrorist to leave the country, but to then be placed in a position of power within his homeland's government.

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As Saul explains when he's brought in by Senator Lockhart (Tracy Letts), he's intending to embed Javadi within the Iranian government as a plot to finally bring the ceaseless cycle of attacks and retaliations to an end. America and the Middle East have been playing tag for decades, attacking one another in a desperate bid to get the last laugh, and it's a cycle Saul means to break, even if it means trusting a man like Javadi. But Lockhart is outraged that Saul would be so reckless, and demands that Javadi's plane be grounded so he can brought back to face American justice. Unlike Saul, Lockhart can't see the benefit of the Javadi operation, though Dar Adal (F. Murray Abraham) quickly goes from opposing Saul's insane plan to fully backing him. Dar Adal is a notoriously difficult man to read, and it's even harder to know what his endgame is beyond being close to whomever is in power at any given moment. Perhaps he's simply a man who looks to retain access to power for its own sake, which would place him in contrast to a man like Javadi, who cares less about retaining power than about what using it towards destructive ends. In many ways, Javadi is a bit like Lockhart, who wants to destroy Saul's career once it becomes apparent that Saul has no interest in playing by his rules. Lockhart attempts to go over Saul's head to report him to the president, but Saul cleverly tricks the Senator into entering a soundproofed conference room with blacked-out windows. Saul locks the Senator in the room, allowing Carrie enough time to whisk Javadi away to Iran.

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As for Carrie, Javadi eventually chips away at her curiosity about Brody. Though she resists his intimations that he knows the truth about Brody's involvement (or lack thereof) in the Langley Bombing, Javadi is ultimately able to pique her curiosity, and right as Javadi is about to leave on his plane, Carrie shouts after him. The two have a brief talk in which Javadi reveals that Brody wasn't involved in the bombing, adding that the man responsible for making the bomb wasn't killed in Langley that day. He survived, and the man who knows the bomber's location is Bennett, the lawyer through whom Carrie arranged her meeting with Javadi. So now Carrie has a new mission: to exonerate Brody and bring the real Langley bomber to justice, which I suppose is a decent enough storyline to pursue, especially if it allows us to push aside the tiresome business of Carrie's pregnancy, which just seems out of place on a drama like this.

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However, even with the brief reminders of Carrie's pregnancy (such as her morning sickness at the Bethesda crime scene), the episode still manages to get the most out of Claire Danes's minimalist performance this week, such as the scene in which she meets with Quinn after he's falsely confessed to the double-homicide. Quinn has been rattled by the police captain's declarations that the CIA seems to exist for no other reason than to make things worse, and it's a condemnation Quinn accepts wholeheartedly, as he continues to feel guilty about the child he murdered in Venezuela in the season premiere. His faith in the cause is shaken, and he confesses to Carrie that he no longer believes in the justness of what they do. Quinn wants out of the CIA. But Carrie, in a great moment of understated desperation from Claire Danes, pleads with Quinn to help her on one last job -- finding the true Langley bomber, and clearing Brody's name. And Quinn, ever the good soldier, swallows his resentment of the CIA and accepts. For Carrie. (I have a hard time believing this decision won't eventually get him killed, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for him anyway)

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The episode ultimately circles back around to Saul, who returns home to Mira and apologizes for the way he's been, stating that he'd forgotten just how beautiful she is. Of course, Mira is still dealing with residual guilt from sleeping with her boy-toy Alain, who'd been in Saul's bed mere hours before (and during a phone call in which Saul bared his soul, no less!). Saul may think he's slowly getting things back on track, but the fissures in his home life, beneath the surface, are indicative of the cracks in his work life that he just isn't seeing. For all he knows, Javadi is sending Carrie on a wild goose chase after a bomber who may or may not actually exist. And to what end? Revenge? Distraction? And even if Javadi is telling the truth, then what? It's not like Brody can just come back to America with open arms. That video of his showed intent to commit acts of terrorism. He'd still be seen as a traitor to his country, despite not actually having gone through with his suicide bombing plot. Saul is being fooled as to the certainty of his plans and their likelihood of success.

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Just like the old man in the T.S. Eliot poem that gives this episode its title, Saul is "an old man in a dry month," at the end of his rope. Yes, he still has plenty left to contribute, but he's become something of an anachronism, a man in an age with limited use for him. So it's no surprise that he's proving his worth by attempting to correct the mistakes of his youth in the 1970s, his failures to extract his assets whom Javadi murdered. Because Saul, if nothing else, is a man burdened by his past. "Gerontion" is an episode that illustrates the lengths to which Saul Berenson will go for some measure of redemption. For Mandy Patinkin's performance alone, it's one of the most engrossing episodes of the season. But on its own terms, "Gerontion" manages to compel interest by focusing on one of the show's strongest aspects, the business of espionage.