The titular smile comes at the end of the episode, but it's an unexpected doozy: After Saul comes across an old asset of Carrie's in Beirut with information about an attack on the U.S., he and Estes manage to talk her into leaving her very healthy, very quiet life for one last mission. She's been living with her father and sister, teaching English and working in the garden, and seems to be doing great, but the second the CIA stuff comes anywhere near her, that old sparky weirdness comes back into her eyes and she just flails around looking for somebody to yell at. Eventually, thanks to Saul, she is convinced to strike out for Beirut for a very short mission to talk to this lady, the wife of a Hezbollah commander whom she really never got to use as a spy when she originally recruited her.
Prepping her cover story with a handler played by my fave, Valerie Cruz, Carrie starts realizing that probably just being a spy even a tiny bit is going to make her crazy again, but she eventually pulls through and heads out to meet with Saul. As luck would have it, this little reunion is interrupted by bad guys, so Carrie immediately goes rogue to save the mission, pulling out a few tricks and twists before leaving her shadow on the ground in the middle of a marketplace -- and that's when we see the Smile. Somehow I don't think this mission is going to end as quickly or as simply as she, and they, would have liked.
Back home, an oddly contrived moment develops in which Dana Brody, unhappy at having transferred to Sidwell Friends, lets everybody know her Congressman father is a Muslim. She's being pretty righteous when she does it, and it leads to some excellent places, but it's a rare misstep for this show in the way it all comes out. Nick is close to being named the Vice President's running mate in the election, but he's got like a million other things going on, so when his wife flips out about Dana's behavior, he just sort of comes clean and tells Jessica that he's been a Muslim for a while now. She reacts... poorly. She also tosses his Koran on the floor, resulting in an episode-ending father/daughter bonding moment where they commit the desecrated book to the ground in a midnight burial. It's sweet. Jessica, of course, is still only redeemed by the actress playing her, but it seems like she'll get some good stuff to do soon.
Other things Nick Brody has going on, in addition to being a Congressman and future VP with an ambitious wife and a sassy daughter and all kinds of PTSD: This sexy reporter lady just happens to be connected to Abu Nazir's people, meaning she can pass on orders and information in the regular course of the day. Turns out Abu's not really as into Nick's plan to "change from within" as Nick (weirdly) believed, and would like to go back to doing terrorist violence. The first step? Crack Estes's office safe during a CIA briefing and steal information about upcoming terror targets. He flirts with the idea of letting Abu down, but of course he ends up stealing the data. I guess anything's better than a suicide vest, and frankly I like it when anybody pulls shit on Estes.
So Carrie's in Beirut and Nick's on the way to the White House, probably, as long as nobody notices that he is also crazy as hell. Jessica's ambitions have never come across quite so nakedly, although as she points out his dishonesty (about his faith; about the "CIA Woman") is really kind of shocking. "This can't happen, do you get this?" she says, about his religious secrets, and it's a compelling argument, but not one that will last. I think it's smart to at least start with Carrie and Nick on different continents -- taking bets on how long it takes them to find a reason to get Nick to Beirut -- but I will say it was a bit painful to come so close to a Carrie/Saul reunion and have it taken away again like that. For an episode built around tense setpieces, that one was probably the most stressful just because of how good it was almost about to feel.
Week: Carrie finally connects with Saul, giving in to a whole new meltdown; the VP and Reporter Roya pressure Nick in various convoluted ways; and Mike starts looking into that one lady that got assassinated so they'd herd everybody into the bunker so Nick could blow them up; at her wit's end, Jessica tries for the Hail Mary pass of being anything other than a total bitch to Dana. Oh, and Carrie hits somebody in the head with a giant rock.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!PREVIOUSLY
Holding herself responsible for 9/11 did CIA operative Carrie Mathison's struggle with her hereditary bipolar disorder few favors, as she created a life of working overtime to keep us safe from further terrorist threats. After an asset on his way to execution warned her that an American soldier (or two) had been turned by terrorist leader Abu Nazir, she set her sights on the recently rescued Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody, MIA for seven years. Plagued by the disconnect between her infallible intuition and the evidence as presented, her obsession slid into attraction, and eventually became mutual. Needless to say, finding out the one person he'd formed any connection with was also under the assumption he's a Al-Qaeda spy was pretty hard on Nick... Especially since it's true.
After a bomb knocked her brain loose, Carrie slid off her meds and into the complicated hell of her own beautiful mind -- which gave her the clues to the mystery, but no way to communicate them to anybody else. A last-minute wild-ass visit to Nick's house spurred his daughter Dana into investigating her allegations, which in turn led to Dana talking her dad down from his ultimate mission: Suicide bombing the Vice President. In the wake of this missed chance, and encouraged by his ambitious wife Jessica, Nick has become a Congressman and he's offered to let Abu Nazir hitch a ride on his rising star, working to destroy the US from within.
On her way in the opposite direction, Carrie was fired from the CIA for her mental issues and dumped unceremoniously by Nick (whom she'd come to believe), and she eventually submitted to memory-obliterating EC therapy in a last-ditch attempt to get some control. Unluckily, her last thought was of proof that the whole thing was true all along: Nick's motivation for coming after the US government was his indoctrination at Abu Nazir's hands which brought him eventually into the Nazir household, and thence to a close personal relationship with Nazir's young son, who was killed in an American drone strike -- and whose name Nick still screams in his sleep.
MATHISON
Israel has copped to bombing five nuclear sites deep inside Iran, which killed at least 3000 people (according to Iran) and has caused the inevitable demonstrations outside various US embassies.
Maggie: "Dad, turn that off. You know how Carrie gets about international policy and bombings..."
Dad: "Your sister's in the garden digging up vegetables for lasagna, it's fine. Also, she's aware that the Middle East exists."
Maggie: "Still. Her mental health is very important to me. Because I am a loving sister, but mostly because she is a pain in the ass."
Dad: "Well, I think her lithium levels are too high. When mine were too high I couldn't even read for six months, just fucked around in that stupid garden like your mother used to. Like Carrie currently is."
Maggie: "The difference between me and her doctor, versus you, is that we are doctors."
Maggie: "Still. Her mental health is very important to me. Because I am a loving sister, but mostly because she is a pain in the ass."
Dad: "Well, I think her lithium levels are too high. When mine were too high I couldn't even read for six months, just fucked around in that stupid garden like your mother used to. Like Carrie currently is."
Maggie: "The difference between me and her doctor, versus you, is that we are doctors."
Carrie: "Hey guys! These vegetables sure are fresh. Listen, I've got some exams to grade before my ESL class I'm teaching, so you go ahead and watch the TV to learn about current events."
Maggie: "Gah! She's like, psychic."
Upstairs, Carrie takes her pills. All of them, all the pills. She looks in the mirror and she does not smile.
BEIRUT
Is nuts, you know, like how Beirut is always nuts.
CIA Flack: "Saul, a random pretty lady says she's an asset and knows the codes and she has intel about upcoming American trouble."
Saul: "Somebody here is running her, presumably."
CIA: "No, we don't know who she is. Do you recognize her?"
Saul: "Not at all."
CIA: "Okay, well, you're meeting her at a dead-drop in two hours. Hopefully she will not blow you up or otherwise act tricky. Remember how the last unconfirmed asset we trusted blew himself and five of our dudes up?"
Saul: "Whoa, dark! I feel like I am getting mixed messages here."
Saul: "The important thing is that the Ayatollahs are going crazy because of these bombings and blaming the US, because every time Israel pulls this shit they blame the US. Accurately enough."
CIA: "So you're saying this lady's not a coincidence?"
Saul: "I'm saying it's the opposite of last year, when Abu Nazir's return 'coincided' with Brody's rescue. That was a coincidence. This on the other hand is a lady telling us something we already presume, plus she has details."
They drive through the shitshow of Beirut, eventually picking up a tail. Notably, it's a car Saul's seen before, which causes him to remark on their unprofessional ways. Various ladies stare down from windows and bridges, like always happens. Eventually they get to the dead-drop, where beautiful Fatima loses her nerve the second Saul walks up.
Fatima: "Who, me? I'm not a CIA asset. I'm just naturally sketchy."
Saul: "Lady, driving through Beirut is like the least fun you can have. Don't dick me around."
CONGRESS
Let's check in with the third of our three leads, the Congressman and secret terrorist Nick Brody. He's pedeconferencing down the hall to his office when his assistant Betsy lets him know that Vice President Walden, his surprisingly sexy old man of a former assassination attempt, is hanging around in his office being off-putting and yet appealing at the same time.
Walden: "Our wives are becoming very close. I mean, hello."
Brody: "Yeah, between my wife's Lady Macbeth shit and you guys being swingers, it's coming along great. Thanks for getting our kids into that famous DC Quaker school we never say the name of."
Walden: "My wife is a smooth operator who runs an entire economy of favors and nepotism. Anyway, do you want to be my Vice President? We're about to announce the campaign and a list of running mates."
Brody: "Is that too high-profile for me, being a radicalized Muslim terrorist, or is it just high-profile enough? Hmm."
Walden: "Don't shilly-shally me, Brody. Just say yes."
Brody: "Okay, sure! Sometimes it's fun to pretend I am just a normal person who keeps getting these ridiculous opportunities in his face out of nowhere, instead of a terrorist who gets the same."
Walden: "Okay, Congressman, I just have one question."
Brody: "I hope it's not what I think it is."
Walden: "Kind of it is. I just want to know what horrors you are hiding. Not even the FBI can figure it out. Not even crazy ladies at the CIA."
Brody: "I was captured by the Taliban for eight years, sir. I have only just discovered internet porn. Between that and being a terrorist I haven't had time to get into much trouble."
Walden: "Good answer! I will get you on The View or something. Do you like David Gregory?"
Brody: "I do. I liked him better when I thought he was gay, but I still like him."
Walden: "Cool. You should read up on Israel bombing Iran, probably."
Brody: "Yeah. Middle East current events, I am not at all aware of. Promise."
ESL SCHOOL
Carrie does her Arabic/English teaching thing, adjusting their pronouns and wearing non-spy clothing. It's sweet. This soft-but-brilliant side of Carrie we have just barely seen before. There's a knock at the door and it's one of Estes's guys we recognize, and so does Carrie, and a jolt goes through her, and the soft part goes away by the time she's in the hall.
Carrie: "What do you want?"
CIA: "Hello, Carrie! Why, how are you?"
Carrie: "What do you want."
CIA: "Sorry I didn't visit you in the mental institution after you lost your shit."
Carrie: "It was not that fun actually. What do you want?"
CIA: "Estes needs to see you."
Carrie: "You can tell him to fuck right off. Go away."
CIA: "But it is a very interesting thing that is happening!"
Carrie: "That's what I'm afraid of."
CIA: "What do I tell Estes?"
Carrie: "Tell him he was right. Tell him I never belonged in CIA in the first place."
CIA: "Do you even believe that?"
Carrie: "It is the fucking Red Wheelbarrow right now."
BRODY HM
Jessica: "So yeah, he's on the short list. Along with a Senator Laughton, whom we'll be mentioning every five seconds in this episode, but I don't care at this point what happens. Brody's accomplishments, and the reflected social halo I get to enjoy, almost make up for our creepy sex life and the fact that my husband is a lunatic who cheated on me with another lunatic. Anyway, thanks for calling!"
I tend to be pretty hard on Jessica, but for the record: When we talk about the characters we identify with in this story, she's pretty much the only person on this show who I understand or identify with even slightly. I like her, she's complicated and smart, she's been through by my count at least four different kinds of hell, and frankly at this point I, too, would just want to put on a pretty dress, take my kids to Quaker school, and hope I don't wake up with a PTSD hand around my throat.
Son Chris: "Everybody wants to be my friend on Facebook!"
Jessica: "Me too, but in real life!"
Brody, arriving: "What if I was the Vice President?"
Jessica: "I would probably forgive a great deal more of your nonsense than I already do."
Brody: "What about the stress on the family? Of a campaign?"
Jessica: "First of all I don't give a shit. Second of all, you might as well double down on the ludicrous hellride you've already put us through. How much worse could it get?"
Dana: "I'm leaving for an hour or so. Hate you guys."
Jessica: "Where are you going?"
Dana: "Like dinner."
Jessica: "With whom?"
Dana says the kid's name, and Baccarin nails this very specific, evil-stepmother/exhausted mom tone: "Can you speak up, please?" It's one of my favorite moments in the whole episode, just this unnecessary slapdash attempt at parenting that arises out of irritation and desperation to connect, both. Gave me chills from both sides of the equation.
Jessica: "You should go out with more of your new school friends! So their parents will invite me to things, but also so I can feel like we are normal humans."
This, too, I rewound several times: There's an ashamed, hiccupping laugh in the middle of it that just kills:
Dana: "I don't have any friends at my new school. Are you done interrogating me?"
She bounces, Jessica makes it all about her, Brody tells her to lay off, Chris still doesn't matter, and Jessica fires up the litany she usually keeps hidden away:
Brody: "Her attitude sucks? Uh yeah, she's 16?"
Jessica: "When I was 16 I was working two jobs! Saving money for junior college!"
Brody: "Sure. And I was repeating my sophomore year in high school. And which one of us is a national treasure?"
Jessica: "Valid."
They are cute together. They heal things in each other in a way I like. It was so nice last year, seeing her pull away from Mike in a way that seemed less about honor and duty and more about how there is a door in her marked NICK BRODY and she'd locked it up when he died, and now it was opening again. They make sense as a couple in a way that their particular brokenness and the lies and inauthenticities doesn't really come close to harming.
MATHISON
Maggie: "Carrie! It's very hard to micromanage you when you turn off your phone!"
Carrie: "Asked and answered, dear."
Maggie: "Well, Saul Berenson's been calling all afternoon."
Carrie: "Ah. The big guns."
She wakes him up when she calls. It's always so distressing when Saul sleeps sitting up, or eats hot dogs out of the plastic or whatever, like, this is why he needs a wife. Some guys just do. I mean, I loved her and she is awesome and made him look good, yes, but also Saul is five seconds from homeless at all times. He looks on the outside like Carrie -- who could sleep in a gutter and still look like a friggin' supermodel, assuming she doesn't make That Face -- feels on the inside. Feral. Or at least, how she felt before treatment.
Saul: "I am very happy to hear your voice, I hope my tone conveys that. Also, I can't actually say anything about anything, because we are spies on a telephone."
Carrie: "Whatever it is, I'm willing to listen. To you specifically."
Saul: "I hate myself for even asking..."
Carrie: "Can it wait until tomorrow?"
Saul: "No, your ex-boyfriend David Estes is sitting outside your house right now, creepily enough."
Carrie: "Allow me to illustrate where I'm at right now. This is anecdotal, okay, but it's also a metaphor, so pay attention. Tonight is Thursday. I cook dinner for the family on Thursdays. I'm making vegetable lasagna, with vegetables I picked this morning from the garden."
Succinct. He's now seen every flavor of Carrie that there is, even this latest one. He stays quiet, and she sighs.
Carrie: "Don't make me talk to him, Saul. He ripped out my personhood on a level that goes way beneath job performance, or mental health, or even gender inequity, okay? He made me doubt myself ontologically, and the whole world became a conspiracy to make me feel crazy, and it turned me absolutely crazy, and he was the most active mover in getting that done. Not to mention the fact that my whole life has become about not thinking about this stuff, because if I think about this stuff, I have to think about that stuff, and I'm never more than two steps away from remembering how 9/11 was my fault."
He Sauls her, quietly and softly, saying no more than necessary, but he already knows he's got her. The panic in her voice, in her sabacthani, is heartwrenching:
"God! Why are you doing this to me?"
OUTSIDE
Carrie Mathison gets off on the spy stuff, yes, that's what the eponymous Smile is about. But what I've always thought was more central, and harder to unpack, is the particular way in which her messianic mania expresses herself. It's a manta that's easy to fall into, and hard to back out of, and it goes like this, round and round:
If I'm as gifted as I think I am, and I am, then I can save the world. And if I don't save the world, then I'm not as gifted as I think I am. But I am as gifted as I think I am.
It's inflated and manic, but it's also true to a certain extent. Of everybody, the ones who don't recognize it most of all. So you have an entire complex here getting shoved down -- with surgical precision -- that is equal parts caged anger and deeply mournful disillusion. Remember in Neverending Story when the Rockbiter guy is like, "They look like big, good, strong hands. Don't they? I always thought that's what they were. My little friends... I couldn't hold on to them. The Nothing pulled them right out of my hands." Or Catcher In The Rye, a book fewer people have actually read than a straw poll would have you believe:
"...I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around -- nobody big, I mean -- except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff -- I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day."
It's not as simple, I'm saying, as Numb Carrie vs. this glorious, electric, feral beast we'll glimpse at the end of the episode: It's not a switch you turn on, it's not about the adrenaline of the escape or the power of being stronger and faster and smarter and better than everybody else. Those things are already present. The moving part of the mechanism is this: The guilt that goes along with being held to a higher duty by those gifts, and seeing yourself fail. Catastrophic becomes apocalyptic, when your purpose is to save the world.
Estes glad-hands her on the porch, and she just tells him to make it fast. She recognizes the woman in the dossier immediately, of course. Just as she'd said she would.
Carrie: "Yep. Fatima Ali, first wife of Abbas Ali, Hezbollah district commander. I recruited her at the Académie des Beaux-Arts. She had a weakness for American movies, she loved Julia Roberts."
Estes: "Why did you run her off-book?"
Carrie: "So she'd stay alive? Our networks were blown, it was right around the time we lost Garrett Hedges. I made the approach over a matter of months."
Estes: "How'd she work out?"
Carrie: "She didn't. I got transferred to Baghdad before anything went down. Last contact was March of 2005, right before I left Beirut. I wanted to farm her out to another case officer, but she only trusted me."
Estes: "Well, she's back. With information about an attack on America. But that's all I know. She won't talk to anybody else..."
Carrie: "Oh, for fuck's sake. Don't tell me you..."
Estes: "Three days in Beirut. That's it. Meet her, hear what she knows, write it up, come home to your vegetables and bluebooks. I know you're doing well, making progress..."
Carrie, verbatim: "After all the shit you dragged me through? The unceremonious humiliating way you ran me out of the Agency?"
Estes: "This isn't about your job. This is about being an American. Your kryptonite."
Carrie: "I haven't said yes yet."
You just did.
UPSTAIRS
Maggie: "Carrie, please! Do you have any idea how hard it will be to micromanage your mental health in Beirut?"
Carrie, packing: "I know, and it's going to drive me right around the bend. But I have no choice."
Maggie: "You always have a choice!"
Carrie: "When I say I have no choice, what I'm saying is that this is my choice."
Maggie: "But you're doing so great! Lasagna! My child who has vanished for this episode! Vegetables! At least call your doctor."
Carrie: "Honey, they're waiting for me. And Saul's in Beirut, which is like optimal. He'll be there to hold my hand. At first metaphorically but probably for real, eventually. This is going to be the softest possible going-crazy I have ever accomplished."
Dad: "Maggie, you're treading close to treating her like she's disabled."
Maggie: "Kind of she is!"
Dad: "And yet."
Maggie: "...And yet."
Carrie: "Okay. Love you guys. Mathison out!"
Downstairs, Estes introduces Carrie to Major Joy Mendez (Valerie Cruz! Holla!), who's escorting her to Cyprus so they can get her story together and see if her spy skills are up to snuff. Carrie and Joy are friendly and funny with each other immediately, because how can you not instantly fall in love with Valerie Cruz?
BRODY OFC
Betsy brings in the first major new character of the season, Roya Hammad. She's a reporter for World News, I assume the BBC one, and she's very mesmerizing. Also, she is a total Nazir plant. The idea is, how do you establish a connection in the story to the Nazir network when they've made him a Congressman? Easy: Cone of silence with a reporter. A blunt force solution, but also a fun one because it turns the surveillance theme of the show outward. Brody's always been on the global stage, in fact has used this to get out of some scrapes, but now that very conduit is also bringing news back to him.
Betsy: "Fifteen minutes on the Veepstakes. She's just been down the hall with Senator Laughton."
Brody: "Roya, hello. How's Senator Laughton?"
Roya: "Pissed as hell, now that you're on the shortlist. But I'm not really here to talk about that. Listen, do you have any bugs or anything in this office?"
Brody: "Er, no. How come?"
Roya: "Look, we're both terrorists here, right?"
(He protesteth. She does not careth. Eventually he gives in.)
Roya: "Right, so Abu Nazir. Our families have been close since 1947. They were refugees from Palestine together..."
Which I guess is why he'd care about the Israel stuff? Did we know this about him? I am, I will tell you right now, shit for Middle East politics. Realpolitik in general interests me less than matters of faith, which makes decoding this stuff a lot tougher, literally because of how my brain works. But I'll try to stay on it for you as much as I can.
Brody: "Herm hmm bleghhh you should leave."
Roya: "For real, okay. Issa's birthday is Monday. He would have been 13, had he survived the drone strike. Do you remember what you gave him for his tenth birthday? He was scared of the big, black crows that perched on the villa walls. You made him a slingshot."
Brody: "I'm listening. You said the magic word."
Roya: "Nazir wants you to do something tricky. David Estes is briefing you tomorrow morning on homeland security. Here's the code to a safe in his office which contains the encryption key to a database of potential targets."
Brody: "Meaning you're planning hit one of them, I assume."
Roya: "Pronoun check! I think you meant 'we' are."
Brody: "Listen, I told Nazir I'd influence these lawmakers by becoming a Congressman. That's a full-time, scary terrorist job. I do not need two jobs."
Roya: "I know you honestly think that. And it's adorable, but..."
Brody: "No matter how unlikely it is that I would be able to maintain this 'working within the system' fantasy, I'm still not willing to consider myself a terrorist. I gave that up once I took off my suicide vest."
Roya: "Well, first of all you are totally a terrorist. But maybe we should Luntz it up and call this a justifiable act of retaliation."
Brody: "Uh, it's still innocent civilians getting killed..."
Roya: "And the 3000 Iranian civilians Israel just took out?"
Brody: "Those numbers are bullshit. Iran and Israel both have different reasons for okaying those numbers, but come on."
Roya: "Either way, blatant aggression against a sovereign nation cannot go unanswered. What are they, Palestine? Iran is a real country! You come on."
Brody: "But it will be hard!"
Roya: "No, it will be easy. You leave this up to me."
He whines about how he killed Tom Walker, which proves he's committed, and she's like, "Again, it's cute that you thought it would end there, but no."
SIDWELL FRIENDS
It's a Quaker school, which means Quaker Meeting, which is Quaker church, which amounts to sitting around staring at each other until somebody stands up and says something, and then you think about what they said and stare at each other some more. It's a unique spiritual experience for sure; also, if you do it to high school kids you have a high probability of shit going haywire which is also very unique.
Artsy Girl: "I couldn't sleep last night. All I could think about was Israel bombing Iran to try to stop Iran from bombing them. The whole logic of that just makes me want to scream. I think maybe the whole human race is insane."
Dana grins, because none of this is actually theoretical or up for high school debate. The two boys that come are Walden's kid Finn, I think, and the son of the Undersecretary of State, Tad. The first one seems fairly sweet and rational, the second one is essentially Cato: White, fairly beefy, not that informed and chock-full of privilege.
Finn (?): "Uh, I think sometimes military force is necessary. I mean, the Iranian president keeps saying he wants to wipe Israel off the map, so... They have every right to defend themselves."
Tad: "Plus, the Arab religion doesn't value human life the way we do. I mean, we're the infidel, right? And these Arabs believe if they kill us, they get to go to heaven. And we're supposed to let..."
Dana: "They're not Arabs, idiot. Iranians are Persian. There is no Arab religion."
Quaker lady tells her to simmer down, sit there and think about this blatant ignorance as though it has merit, and whatever. Dana, in this scene, manages to become something new and wonderful. I didn't have anything against her last year, shitty attitude notwithstanding, but you can see her turn on her intelligence -- from both parents -- and connect the dots in a way that is not only insightful but also very sympathetic.
Tad: "Persians, Arabs, what's the difference? They both want the same thing, which is to annihilate us. Why shouldn't we hit them first? Maybe with a nuke or two of our own."
Dana, accurately: "...Douche."
Quaker Lady: "We don't tolerate name-calling..."
Dana: "And what about mass murder? Do we tolerate that? I mean, because that's what he's really saying, isn't it? Turning Tehran into a parking lot?"
Over the rising din, Tad literally goes to this place, and gets a shock:
Tad: "Who do you think you are and what do you know about any of this anyways? What if I told you my dad is undersecretary of state?"
Dana: "Yeah well, what if I told you my dad's a Muslim?"
This still doesn't sit right with me -- shades of Dawn Summers inviting vampires in -- but the fault doesn't lie with the actress, who gives this blurt her best shot. There's a wiggly moment of silence, and Finn steps in, defusing the situation as best he can:
Finn Walden: "Right! And mine's a Scientologist."
Dana feels too dumb to even be grateful. Or she will, when she's less pissed.
CYPRUS
Mendez runs Carrie through her story, drilling her on the cover: How to spell "Kate Morrissey," Kate's mother's maiden name, her date and place of birth, hometown hockey team. Over and over and over. It's worth watching because of Carrie's frustration -- like reaching for your gun and finding it's not there; like realizing things are blurry because you don't have your glasses on -- at being less able to do the thing she was always best at.
Mendez: "Want to take a break?"
Carrie, kind of meaning it: "...I think I want to go home."
Mendez: "I understand, and you will be home. In a short 72 hours."
Carrie: "When do I get to see Saul? That's really the best thing. No offense, Valerie Cruz."
Mendez: "They briefed the shit out of me, lady. I know what I'm working with, and I'm doing a good job at it, so chill. You'll get your instructions once you check into your hotel in Beirut."
Carrie's so exhausted that she can't even bother to hide her disappointment when they set down her non-vegetarian dinner. Mendez is like, "Oh, girl. We'll rustle you up some veggies. Just stop making That Face."
BRODY
When Nick gets home, Jessica is once again losing her shit on Dana, who has endangered her school career among other very important things. Apparently the Dean called, about her disrupting Morning Meeting, and Jessica would like to have a hysterical family meeting about it.
Dana: "It wasn't a fight-fight, it was just a couple of morons who..."
Jessica: "They are not morons!"
Dana: "Actually, though, they are."
Jessica: "Well, one of them is Finn Walden, who is my new BFF's son. And yours, Nick. I will not have my legacy as future Second Lady of the United States jeopardized simply because of our daughter's awareness about basic global politics and culture."
Brody, awesomely: "What did these dicks say?"
Jessica: "Let's stick with what Dana said. You're gonna love this."
Dana: "Okay, Dad. First of all, I'm real sorry. But I kind of blew your spot and told everybody you secretly converted to Islam. It's a new school! I get nervous!"
Jessica: "So like why would you say something like that? Just to guarantee that everyone at your new school thinks you're out of your mind? To make it impossible for me to show my face there? To blow up your father's relationship with the Vice President? Seriously, these are the only options I can fathom. Is this about getting attention?"
Dana: "I feel stupid, trust me. But the important thing is that nobody believed me..."
Jessica: "OF COURSE NOBODY BELIEVED YOU! THAT IS NOT THE ISSUE!"
Brody: "Welllll..."
The beautiful Aristotelian unity of this show, when you glimpse it, is so enlightening. Like, part of the reason Jessica wasn't allowed to figure this out, until now, was because we had to balance our suspicion and bigotry against Brody's very appealing personality in order to make sense of things. Watching him pray, while seeing what a good American he is, kept us off-balance all season, and it no longer applies so Jessica can know now, it turns the story appropriately. I mean, even as we got further into his relationship with Nazir himself, there was still this feeling of, "But maybe his devotion to Islam really is a second thing. Connected, but not necessarily the result of brainwashing." Maybe it's me. But the attraction of Islam for a lot of converts, and for a lot of born enthusiasts, is that it provides a way of getting around your thornier existential questions with a sense of predestination you could compare to Plato's Republic: Everything is in its right place, and there is nothing bigger than God. In a world as upside-down as Nick Brody's life, being a Muslim would be even more attractive than being a Christian. It is a comfort. And that is a beautiful thing, to me. Not so much Jessica Brody, though.
Dana: "Dad, it slipped out..."
Jessica: "Say this shit to me one more time. And our daughter knows this about you? Like, cheating on me with Crazy Carrie wasn't enough, you've got secret deals with my one enemy in this house?"
Brody: "No, it's not like that. She found me, walked in on me praying in the garage..."
Jessica: "The fuck you say. Uh, BRB."
GARAGE
By the time Brody's assured Dana that she is absolutely in the clear and chased his wife back to the garage, Jessica's done wrecked shop.
Jessica: "No wonder you're always out here!"
Brody: "Yeah, you have to pray, like, all the time."
Jessica: "I don't even care why you did this or how this happened right now, all I care about is that you lied to me. Every time that you came in here, you were lying to me."
If I could send screenwriters of the world one little suggestion, it would be that you have to have everybody in the scene. Nine times out of ten when something pisses me off or feels wrong, it's because the person wrote the scene from one person's viewpoint, and the other character(s) is there as an object, to talk to or react to or whatever, which is how men see women anyway, which is why it happens so often.
In fact, I believe that if you look back through the Emmys and Oscars and the most-lauded shows and movies, though, I think the common thread you'll see is that what elevates good writing to Best Writing is that writing in which every person is present. You could watch or read the scene through every character's eyes, and it would still be vital and interesting and make sense. (Try it with your other shows this week and see what you decide about this.)
This show is one of -- if not singularly -- the best on television. Therefore, it's an interesting and educational exercise to play with sticking on Jessica's side of these confrontations, because it makes you a better person to stay outside yourself, it makes you a better viewer to cross the scene into the person you like least, and it provides you with a lot more appreciation of a scene or show or actor when you can see through their eyes. She's mean usually, she's aggressing here in particular, she's Betty Drapering his secrets we've conspired so long with him to hide, which means she's also attacking us in a way... And she has a valid point. She's actually in the right, here, if you think about it. But we've spent so long learning to love Nick, in spite of his one million problems, that you could miss all of that and just cut to, "She is a bitch." Which is absolutely true, but not the point here. This is:
Jessica, verbatim: "Do you know how fucked up that is? Do you know how much that hurts? I don't understand! These are the people who tortured you. These are the people who, if they found out Dana and Xander were having sex, they would stone her to death in a soccer stadium."
Getting carried away, Jessica hurls his Koran to the floor and he swoops to pick it up, going a little Gollum, to be honest, in the process.
Brody: "That's not supposed to touch the floor!"
Jessica: "Did you actually just say that?"
Bottom Line: "I married a US Marine. This... This can't happen. You have a wife, two kids. You're a Congressman in the running to be Vice President. It cannot happen. You get that, right?"
He does. It's a nice moment. But the lies still irk, and connect up in the most understandable, ugly, personal way:
Jessica: "Does she know? That CIA woman. Does she know you're Muslim?"
Brody: "Why are you even asking me that?"
Two reasons. First of all, duh. I was just getting used to you being Dead. Then you came back New. Then I had three Brodys: Dead Brody, Old Brody, New Brody. Then you cheated: Second New Brody. And now you're telling me somebody else could have held all those pieces at once, when I failed. But also:
Jessica: "She stood on our lawn and said ... a bunch of things, that I'm remembering all of a sudden."
Brody: "I'll remind you that Carrie Mathison is additionally crazy as hell, she got fired from the CIA and locked up in a mental institution. Factor that in also, please."
Jessica: "That is not an answer, but whatever."
There is absolutely nothing scarier to me on this planet than when the worlds don't line up. I don't identify with Carrie's craziness particularly, but that feeling of the world conspiring against you to make you feel crazy -- that you're being watched and judged by the culture at large, and the intuition that makes you good at your job because it's how you learned to survive is suddenly fallible -- that, I feel strongly. I think most people do.
So if the first season was about pitting Carrie's inner knowledge and intuition up against the cold hard "facts" of a world that preserves itself by shutting you up, what this scene is about is Brody talking Jessica out of going the same way. When all your instincts are telling you it's true, this thing you can barely even imagine being true, and there's Nick's beautiful face telling you that's crazy, be quiet, go back to sleep. That is the worst part.
LANGLEY
While Mendez is waking Carrie up for her flight into Beirut, several things are going on back at HQ: Brody's walking in with a safe code in his pocket, while Estes is taking a call from Saul before meeting with him.
Estes: "...She seemed okay when I saw her. Prickly, but I mean, that's our Carrie."
Saul: "Yeah, she was okay. In Virginia, in the bosom of her family where her mental state is coddled and cared for. Now she's 6,000 miles away... Mendez isn't entirely sure she's up to it."
Estes: "Mendez doesn't? Or you don't?"
Saul: "Both. I know Carrie's our best shot, but if she fucks up this operation we have nothing else. Can't we, I don't know, push back 24 hours? I'm still waiting on some other contacts."
Estes: "Oh, like your professor couple at the American University? You don't even think they're worthwhile assets, Saul. Don't kid a kidder. I know you're worried about her, so am I. But we got the wife of a Hezbollah commander who says she has intel about an attack against America. I mean... You have an hour. When the door opens, I need you to walk Carrie through it."
Oh my God stop talking about it and just cut to the part where Saul gives Carrie a hug. Jesus. You know that's literally all we want. Nobody is safe until that happens.
Estes: "The VP thing seems really likely to me, if you're wondering what other people think."
Brody: "You are buds, correct? Tell the people at home, it's important."
Estes: "Yes. He used to run the Agency, and got me this job. Pulled me off a Division desk to help him run the drone program [needless to say, a little twitch here from Nick] back when we only had eight Predators over Baghdad..."
Brody: "How many now?"
Estes: "I don't know, like eight or nine thousand."
Brody: "You mean you don't know?"
Estes: "Chill, bro. Al-Qaeda's been gutted because of those drones. Bottom line."
Brody: "Truer words."
Estes's assistant pulls him out before they can start. Seems a reporter's there for a story she's filing live, tonight, and needs Estes immediately. Just him, see. And not in his office, either.
PRESS
Roya: "Deputy Director, can you confirm or deny reports that only four of the targeted Iranian nuclear facilities were actually destroyed, and that the fifth is still operational?"
Estes: "No, and what? Who says this?"
Roya: "Multiple sources inside the government."
Estes: "Ours or theirs?"
So yeah. Meanwhile, Brody fidgets and the tension mounts like unbearably and finally he gets the codes. Thrilling to watch, not so much to read about. It's nerve-wracking, though.
Roya: "Well, we're breaking the story tonight on World News with or without a statement from the Agency, so..."
Estes: "Or you could sit on this story, because that's not even true. It's almost like you came up with a dummy hot-button revelation to keep me here in this conference room."
Roya: "Or it's close to true, maybe. You could at least help me get it right."
Estes, bouncing: "Not a chance."
Roya, nervous: "-- Uhhh, how about dinner then? Saturday night? Café Milano, I've got a standing reservation for two, at eight o'clock..."
Estes pulls, man. I guess that's what being Deputy Director of the CIA is like. I don't know, my obsessive love of David Petraeus started back when he was just a General, so the CIA thing is like no big deal to me.
On the way back into the office, Estes tells somebody to give her something else so she'll stop fishing, because apparently it's true and there is a real leak. After the usual last-minute heist "oh, I forgot my gum" moment has passed and Nick's back in his chair, Estes returns and they start the brief.
BEIRUT
Kate Morrissey is a space cadet, of course, as she's going through Beirut customs in full paranoia, and the whole trip from the airport to the hotel is rife with shaky-cam, whirling fear. But she gets there, just in time for a minor breakdown.
Later, she heads out into the town, chatting with Saul as she walks through the rioting streets to meet him. He talks her down with small-talk, and then when he spots that same tail car it's with a specific air of regret that he realizes things are about to get shitty again. No hugs for Carrie right now.
Carrie: "It's just like old times..."
Saul, softly: "Carrie, listen to me carefully. You need to walk past the café. Do not stop. I've got company. You hear me? There's a safe house on El Ghadin, 2218. I'll meet you there when I lose them. Repeat the address."
She gets it wrong, then right. Walking faster, heart racing, trying to look normal which is like when she looks the least normal. The guys seem agitated, and he thinks maybe they've made her.
Saul: "There's a man with a gray jacket, yellow stripes, crossing El Barghout. His partner's still on me, so I'm pinned here, but you'll be okay. Dump your radio phone, let him take you into custody. Your cover will hold until we get the Ambassador."
It is two things. Saul's voice is always the one that called her home, and when you don't know what to do, you shut down and let your handler drive. This is a comfort. But it is also something calling her away. Carrie Mathison is always going rogue. In her best years it was a badge of pride, the Girl Who Gets Away, who Gets Her Man. And every time she did it, she got back a little of what she lost that day. Everything in her is terrified, of losing and of winning, of giving chase and giving in. Both options are terrible, and both of them are seductive. But what wins out, at this moment, is a pride in her work and a need to get everybody's respect again.
Carrie: "I can lose him, Saul."
Saul: "If you run, you'll only make it worse."
Carrie: "If they arrest me, this mission is blown."
It's not the mission he's worried about, now. He can hear it in her voice. She dumps the phone -- unceremoniously, you might say -- and heads out into the market. Colors and smells and sounds, and the sweat and fear, and something waking up she'd put to sleep.
BRODY HM
After the briefing, Nick Brody went home. He wrapped the book carefully in a towel; it's been desecrated and he can't use it anymore. Not even this show is going to show somebody burning a Koran, though, so he must commit it to the earth. His family knows, now, but it still must be buried. Dana joins him, in the dark. Digging down. Listening to him pray.
"Your mom threw my Koran on the floor, tore some pages. It's desecrated. So I'm burying it out of respect."
His daughter kneels to help.
THE SMILE
Half a world away, Carrie runs. Her brain is clicking, faster and faster, seeking out targets and places to hide, places of weakness. Colors and smells and the zapping brain. She ducks down an alley that's a makeshift boutique, trading out the blue shayla he's been following for a lovely green hijab; she admires herself in a mirror pointed backwards, so she can see him coming. And when he does, she's ready. She drops him with a swift kick, screaming in Arabic that her husband has fallen, so the women crowd around.
Heading back out into the world is like being born. Her face twitches with pleasure, unhinged and focused at the same time, mouth moving of its own accord. It's an interstellar burst of power, thrumming through her, so strong that for a moment she burns the camera itself, shaking: It's not about spy stuff, it's not even about Saul's respect anymore. The thing that was asleep wakes up and bursts into flame:
Somebody has to save the world. If I'm as gifted as I think I am, then I can save the world. So I will. So I am.
WEEK
Carrie stays rogue, meeting up with her asset without thought to whether either of them might be compromised; Jessica tries to understand the new alliances in the house and get a handle on her husband's brain and her entire daughter. Politics interfere with poor Nick Brody's terroristic goals, Roya Hammad continues to be a wonder of a girl, and Estes continues to get chicks.
JACOB CLIFTON is a freelance writer and critic based in Austin, Texas. He currently recaps Gossip Girl, The Good Wife and Homeland for TWoP. Jacob can be found online at jacobclifton.com, on Twitter, and on Facebook. IRL work appears in BenBella's SmartPop series of anthologies, his novel The Urges, and a novelette, "The Commonplace Book," appeared this month on Tor.com.