Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: A+ | 88 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT Shiva
By Jacob Clifton | Season 3 | Episode 1 | Aired on 09.29.2013
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.We return 58 days after the Langley bombing that left 219 people dead, including a bunch of former cast members of this show. Senate hearings -- which could legitimately lead to the dissolution of the CIA altogether -- are chaired by an Andrew Lockhart (Tracy Letts), backed up by David Portillo (the always-wonderful Pedro Pascal!). In reviewing the broad strokes of the past two seasons, we learn that Carrie's story is that she was knocked out by the blast and not rescued for 14 hours, and that she won't be revealing the truth about the suicide vest, but otherwise she's not interested in lying or selling Brody out.
Back at home, Dad notes Carrie's Wall of Brody nonsense and quickly determines that she is self-medicating with tequila and crazy behavior, because of course this "Second 9/11" has knocked loose exactly the same "I should have seen it coming, this is why I don't take my meds" parts of her brain that we started the show with. So once more, out of guilt for not being a superhero, Carrie has decided to drop her lithium and go back to being super once again -- while also carrying on a secret investigation of her own into the whereabouts of her soulmate (who won't show up for at least one more hour, FYI). And then, of course, there's a mole in the Agency leaking documents and details (to both the committee and the press) throughout the episode, complicating matters further.
More importantly, what is Quinn doing? Just sitting around naked and sweaty, making an IED in some basement somewhere. How come? Who the fuck cares? Reread that sentence and tell me why any more information is required than that. Naked Quinn, building bombs and sweatin' up a storm. Done.
The operation in retaliation for Langley goes into effect, putting Quinn in Caracas to assassinate one entire compound while teams all over the Middle East are taking down related cells. Dar Adal and Scott Ryan (F. Murray Abraham and Tim Guinee) are there to help Saul, having come in from the cold I guess permanently. Anyway, Adal wants Saul to throw Carrie under the bus, and back home Saul's dealing with Mira, who has moved back but for some reason he can't seem to touch her.
Quinn rides a motorcycle around, which is excellent, and then has a momentary lapse of not being able to kill a kid, which endangers the entire globe-spanning mission. Eventually he blows up the house and then goes from room to room shooting people, eventually -- and ironically, and also here-we-go-ishly -- killing the kid anyway. So the operation is a success, but now Quinn is going to be weird about killing this kid.
For being the scariest assassin of all time, to where like ghosts and draculas get scared when you say his name, Quinn sure does fuckin' hate doing his job.
Uh, Dana has spent two months institutionalized for a suicide attempt that the professionals call "effing hardcore," a medical term that means she was not effing around. She comes home today, leaving behind a hot new boyfriend -- Leo Carras, played by Dexter's recent protégé Sam Underwood, who I think is just great -- with whom she is able to still connect by snapchatting each other pix of their fancy-and-staples.
Otherwise the Brody house is a huge fucking mess as usual: Now that Brody is a confessed terrorist and traitor, they have no income, no insurance and no friends whatsoever. Jessica's mother is in town to "help out," but so far displays none of the nightmarish parenting skills one imagines would result in a Jessica. I think it's probably a matter of time.
Anyway, Dana's even more awesome this year. The previous lack of a fuck she's ever seemed interested in giving is nothing compared to this year. She's like, borrowing other people's fucks just to stay afloat. Just to have walkin'-around fucks in her pocket. Meanwhile, Chris…is.
Carrie meets a hot ginger at the grocery store and then fucks him on her carpeted stairs, because hot ginger + tequila + anonymous sex + no meds = The 7 Habits Of Highly Successful CIA Analysts. That moment when you go, "Hot Ginger, nice! ...Oh. Hot Ginger. Oh, girl. Oh, Carrie. That is so many things at once and I can see them alllll from heeeere."
Next AM, Dad calls with an interesting story from the newspaper about how some CIA slut off her meds was fucking Nick Brody and got him out of the country after he blew up the entire government with his car, and he's like, "Do you know this girl? She seems troubled." This sends Carrie to the brunch where Saul, Adal, Scott Ryan and everybody else are celebrating the wonderful success of Operation Quinn, and she melts right the fuck down in front of the entire restaurant.
Dar Adal admits to Saul that yes, he would totally do this to a person, but he isn't doing it to Carrie, especially now that things are going so well, etc. (They are both stressed about this because oversight is sending a message by not cleaning up or rebuilding the rubble that used to be Langley, as a punishment/threat, so Team Quinn needed a big win this time.) Mostly I don't like talking about the Mole because I always forget about the Mole until they talk about the Mole and then I think what would happen if Quinn was the Mole and then I want to bite through my hand.
Saul's up next, giving testimony about the operation, which apparently had to do with bombing civilians in part, so that's classy of us. And while he's eager to tout the success of the mission and therefore of the CIA as an entity, Senator Lockhart's more interested in talking about this crazy CIA slut from the newspaper, who remains "anonymous" except for how she is not at all anonymous. Saul, while defending Agent X to a certain extent, makes sure to mention how she's unstable, erratic, bipolar and hid all of this for over ten years... As well as her relationship with Nick. It's the soundbite, it's the nail in her coffin, it puts the Chin on like an Orange Level, and we out.
Next Week: Quinn gets all Issa about the dead kid, presumably resulting in some shirtless baby-cradling for about ten minutes of every episode and that's his storyline for the remainder of the season. Just cradling babies, rocking in a chair or standing quietly in an afternoon sunbeam, tears rolling silently down his face. Oh yeah, that's good. That's the stuff. Uh, Carrie gets all paranoid but she's also right about everything; Saul is the only person on the show remotely interested in doing his actual job; Jessica and Dana are a fucking trainwreck being attacked by a shark that is on fire. So, pretty much status quo, all things considered.
Did you miss Nick? I didn't miss Nick. I think it would suck if he never came back, at least until his inevitable death, but I think it's pretty awesome to be like, "Yeah, that guy? He'll be around, don't worry about it. Let's talk about all this other shit" and have that pay off. OTOH I guess he didn't actually need to be on the show because the entire show is still about him, so it was like he was there onstage, but just dressed as an armoire or magnolia tree or something. A magnolia tree with a notably diminutive mouth.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!PREVIOUSLY
Two months ago, the entire CIA and lots of government bigwigs got blown right up! Who did it? Bad guys. Who's it pinned on? Nick Brody, whose confession video for his derailed suicide-vest adventure was released. 14 hours later, Carrie was back with Saul surveying the 219 victims of the blast, having helped Nick disappear.
We rejoin Carrie at the ongoing Senate hearings about the catastrophe, Saul and Dar Adal are prepping a retaliatory mission, and the Brody household sitting at the center of a whole globe's worth of revulsion.
BUT FIRST
Oh, Peter Quinn is so sweaty down in this creepy basement bunker! What's he doing with all that sweat on his naked self? Oh, building an IED. Of course. Probably it is just for practice. Probably it is not because he is secretly a terrorist. Although if he is, today is Carrie's lucky day because for sure she will be sleeping with him.
HEARING
The main players here are Chairman Andrew Lockhart and Majority Counsel David Portillo, who are scary and awesome respectively, and the lawyer representing (Carrie? The CIA?), Erin Kimball. The hearings are closed-door, because everybody's got contacts in the field.
Lockhart: "So lots of witnesses so far have characterized the follow-up as the CIA covering its own ass for negligence and possibly employing crazy people. All of management got blown up, so Saul Berenson is basically in charge, and almost everybody seems to think it would be easier if we got rid of the CIA itself."
Carrie: "That would be a bummer because the CIA is literally the only thing I can do right."
Portillo: "Okay so you worked at the CIA for how long?"
Carrie: "14 years, as a case officer in the National Clandestine Service."
Portillo: "Your resume shows a short break in there, last year?"
Carrie: "That's because I was fired for being super-duper crazy, creeping on a guy's entire family, and nailing secret documents to the wall of my condo. I then scribbled on all of them in different colored markers, after I accidentally got blown up a little bit. Quite a ride, Counselor."
Portillo: "Okay and then in season two you got your job back? For real that happened?"
Carrie: "Yeah, I got reinstated to Team Quinn for an off-book taskforce to catch Abu Nazir."
Portillo: "Why would that, like, ever happen?"