Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: A+ | 83 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT What Was Broken
By Jacob Clifton | Season 3 | Episode 8 | Aired on 11.17.2013
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.With Senator Lockhart free of the conference room and looking for payback, it's a very stressed-out Chief of Staff (William Sadler) that has to run interference. Eventually Saul wins them over with Phase II of the Big Plan, which involves helping Majid Javadi all the way up the leadership ladder in Tehran with an eye toward eventual regime change in Iran.
Which is a nice idea, but does little for Fara, who's still thrown a bit by the whole honor killing massacre from a couple weeks back. She sits in the CIA parking lot for like an hour unable to go in, then calls in sick two days in a row. This earns her a visit from the Inspector General (Chance Kelly, always mesmerizing) and blows her spot with her ill father, whom she never told about her secret spy job. Not just because he'd be scared for her, but also because now he's terrified for their family back in Iran.
In trying to connect Martin Donovan to the Langley bomber, the team sets up a multi-part sting where Dar Adal threatens Martin Donovan, he calls the other lawyer Franklin that got Carrie out of the hospital, and then Franklin calls Carrie in for more double-agent work. She plants the idea that they've ID'd the bomber as a way to flush him out, and set up a team to take him in and clear Brody's name.
However, for some reason Franklin turns out to be an assassin, and murders the bomber before the team can scoop him up. Right before this happens, Quinn has to shoot Carrie a little bit so she will calm down and stop trying to ruin everything all the time. Her intuition that something is off seems fairly correct, but she's also at a low point in her own credibility: Turns out her first prenatal appointment was today, at thirteen weeks, and she spent the early part of that period drinking pretty much nonstop. (Between taking pregnancy tests every five or ten minutes, of course.)
Of all the Carrie Mathisons, Carrie Mathison, you are the Carrie Mathisonest. Even the OB is like, "Far be it from me, but can we possibly discuss terminating this pregnancy you just noticed yourself having? No offense but you seem nuts as hell."
After about 24 hours of domestic bliss, including breakfast in bed, Mira breaks things off with Aidan, her Mumbai fling. He takes this not so well, in that he replaces their household's desktop mouse with a listening device; perhaps he is just clingy, but considering her husband it's a fair assumption he was working her the entire time. Mira's not exactly surprised when, at the end of the day, Saul leaves town on spy business, but what is very surprising is where he's heading -- and only Dar Adal knows about this part -- which is to the Tower of David, to pay off a bounty and collect one very heroin-addicted Nicholas Brody.
So now we've got Saul in Caracas with Brody, Mira's house invaded by dudes she doesn't even know about, Carrie's headed straight for some nightmare miscarriage scenario, the bomber is dead -- and gone, melted down in his motel room by Mr. Franklin -- and Quinn has just shot Carrie with a sniper rifle. About which he feels bad, in a very Quinn way, but Carrie's more understanding about that than she is about Saul's disappearance, or the weirdness of the bomber getting randomly killed instead of moved out of the country like Martin Donovan wanted.
Thoughts? I think Mr. Franklin is also double agents and this is about the Mole, because I never saw this bomber guy in my life as far as I remember. And I think it would be hilarious if Mira's boyfriend is not actually a spy and just super weird. Mostly I'm tired of Carrie being pregnant, because I am so sure that's going to actually happen, like she will actually spend next season being totally chill, just solving terrorism at a desk somewhere with a monster baby strapped onto her. On the other hand, it's fascinating to contemplate what Team Saul will do with this broken shell of a former Nicholas Brody, considering he was barely a person when this shit started and it's been pretty much downhill the whole time since then. I wonder what Jessica will think of all this!? Just a hunch, but I bet she will somehow find a way to bitch about it.
Next Week: Is apparently about that. Saul brings the pieces of Nick back to the US and assembles them into a bald-headed Frankenstein on heroin and then puts a gun in his hand, because guess what, that is how we roll on this show.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!PREVIOUSLY
Saul sent Majid Javadi back home on a plane, leaving Senator Lockhart in a funk and Carrie on the hunt for her babydaddy, who is still on heroin in Caracas as far as we know. Everybody was happy at the close of the second act; Saul's marriage was even back on track. But installing a ringer in the Iranian government is a multi-step plan, and Carrie's always got some more crazy up her sleeve, so we'll see how long that lasts.
BREAKFAST
Saul brings Mira breakfast in bed, to celebrate her not cheating on him anymore. He even uses special mugs, which are notable not only for sentimental reasons, but also for the hugeness of them; he makes romantic future wishes.
Mira: "You don't actually have to pretend that we're going to have trips together and whatever. Like, I know the deal. I came home from Mumbai knowing the deal."
Saul: "First of all, I like my fantasies of being a person. Secondly, for reasons I cannot tell you, my job may be irrelevant soon."
Mira: "How long until you go to work? Because you're always, always about to go to work."
Saul: "Time enough to have some more sex in our marital bed if we stick to the basics."
CIA
Quinn: "There was a Jordanian professor in the auditorium at Langley?"
Carrie: "If Fara was here she would call you a racist profiler and it would be adorable."
Quinn: "No, he's in Intelligence -- Office of Transnational Issues -- and actually did coverage on Leland Bennett's firm. Hip-pocket clients, in Syria, Azerbaijan... And Iran."
Carrie: "Any munitions training? Or explosives?"
Quinn: "This nerd? I'm so sure... Oh, I see what you're saying. Hey, are we meant to be focusing on the minutiae of whether the bomber and the car-mover are the same guy? Because who cares who made the bomb, right? So munitions and explosives... Maybe we should be looking more for people who have experience moving cars around. Valets and the like."
Quinn: "Also, it's the most high-profile spy massacre of modern history. I'm pretty sure the FBI has looked at these files a time or two."
Carrie: "You know who doesn't work for the FBI?"
Quinn: "Carrie Mathison?"
Carrie: "Ya damn right."
Quinn: "And Peter Quinn too!"
Carrie: "Sure thing, li'l buddy. Also, where the fuck is Fara?"