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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 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.
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?"
Sitting in the parking lot for almost an hour before driving away, it would seem. I guess Javadi's punishment wasn't... I was going to say "harsh" enough, but it's that it isn't visceral enough. Every moment is another chance for him to be betrayed and tortured and murdered, sure: But his bad feelings are not the same thing as being half-beheaded by a jagged bottle, or made an orphan at a year old, or the millions of horrors perpetrated by his regime. His bad feelings will be felt, in all their intensity, on private jets and in limousines, and will have nothing to do with his lacking regret for the monstrosities he'll be perpetrating in his day job, until Saul's miracle plan comes true.
WH CHIEF OF STAFF
Saul: "Mike! Nice to... Oh fuck."
Lockhart: "There's the motherfucker!"
Mike: "Okay, did you in fact lock Andrew Lockhart in a conference room for an hour?"
Saul: "Yeah, is that okay?"
Mike: "It's fine with me, but he's shitting the floor about it."
Lockhart: "More importantly had Colonel Javadi on American soil and let him go!"
Saul: "You're too dumb to even know how dumb you are. Grow up."
The Senator refuses, and throws more fits. Finally the Chief has to throw him out so he can talk to Saul alone, and of course Lockhart acts like a brat about everything, but then Saul talks Mike right into his whole plan, with fewer misgivings than you might think:
"You tell me. Javadi's the highest placed CIA asset in the history of the Agency. He ordered and financed the attack on Langley, true; that brings him accolades and puts him higher above suspicion. Who cares about swinging dick around the Middle East by arresting him when we can be quiet and win. You want to know where Iran's at with nukes? Wanna know what those crazy Hezbollah kids are up to, all around the world?"
Mike's deal is that he honestly thought Lockhart and Saul would be able to work together, because Mike still doesn't grasp the shittiness of Lockhart, because he deals with whiny old white guys all day long and can't see a Joffrey even standing right in front of him. So in a way, this is a waste of his six weeks of trying to protect Saul by making them be in love. But that was already wasted time and anyway it doesn't matter, because Saul has a whole file on what happens , once they work Javadi up into a senior position in the military, and what it means is regime change in the end.
I mean, a regime change with a happy ending is like a well-adjusted sex worker or a unicorn: Just because nobody's ever seen one before doesn't mean they necessarily can't exist. But on the other hand, they happen all the time. It's only called regime change when it blows up in your face; otherwise it looks like life.
COFFEE WITH ALAIN
Is a short but messy affair, as Mira explains that he's not allowed to act like she's cheating on him if she's just going back to her husband that she's already married to. He is very dramatic, but Mira keeps it cool and says her piece, kindly and with love but firmly, and then gets the hell out of there. By far the best thing about Mira has always been her ability to have a goddamn conversation without acting like the world is ending, but the tragedy is that nobody else is capable of doing that, so she's constantly being deluged by these torrents of feelings that are so loud the person can't hear the things she's actually saying. It's tragic how often her well-considered, compassionate words are mistaken for human rights violations, but that's dating guys for ya.
INTO CIA
Dar Adal: "For real? The guy just okayed the whole thing?"
Saul: "Uh, he sees the merits of the operation and he's taking it to the President."
Dar Adal: "You are the best! Oh, and when are you leaving, in the morning? Cool, cool. Does Carrie know you're going?"
Saul: "She cannot suspect it for a single second."
Which, what could they be talking about? If we're making a list of things that would cause Carrie to act nuts, that is a very long list, because it contains everything that has ever existed.
Carrie: "Hey guys, what's up? Saul, my understanding is that the guy who moved that SUV is still in the US. Does that jibe with the conversation Javadi said you had with him?"
Saul: "He didn't mention the Bennett connection to me, just that Brody didn’t move the car. As far as he knows."
Carrie: "He was a lot more definitive about it in our conversation. And not just because I want to remember it that way. Why would he tell us two different things?"
Saul: "They're not actually two different things, and also why are you being so intense? I feel like you're accusing me of something. I know not what."
Carrie: "No, I'm just being obnoxious! Why didn't you press him for more clues?"
Saul: "Oh, so you really are just being a dick. That's fine too."
Carrie: "It's just because I want to catch the actual bomber! Not like you. Now who's the dick?"
Saul: "Carrie, you are going to feel so stupid about being such an asshole when you find out where I'm going tomorrow. Can't we just skip this shit?"
Quinn: "Fine, Dar Adal, please make the approach to your friend Martin Donovan."
Dar Adal: "All right. Let's make a secret plan about it and not tell the audience."
In this case, of course, it works.
SHERAZI
When Fara gets home she turns off the radio, sends home the day nurse, and goes in to check on her father. It's hard to say on paper what this sequence was like but the way it's filmed, as a constant reveal of details -- the music, the respectable size and age of the house, the Persian air in the room; the nurse and the person who could be young or old in the room you can't see into; the reveal that she cares for her father... It's nice, it just continually opens up, but slowly enough that you're allowed to think any number of things might be true about Fara.
Reluctant, almost, to tell you the actual truth: She and her father got out with the Ayatollah, leaving family behind. So now he thinks she still works at an investment bank, because she never told him about accepting the CIA job, which he'd advised against. He's old enough to be scared, so there's this adjunct thing operating having to do with first-generation/second-generation America stuff, like, there are monsters under the bed, he's not wrong about that, but he feels it the wrong way, so it looks kind of crazy and/or is a hassle. Or when she says she's taking a sickday, his old-person brain jumps to her getting fired and them losing the house and him being homeless and old and dying in the street.
It all rings very true. Old people grouse in a certain way that transcends nationality and is obnoxious across every language, because what are you going to do? Tell them everything's okay? They know everything's not okay. They were there. Not living in a permanent state of alert is a privilege you, I, literally cannot imagine lacking.
LELAND BENNETT
Martin Donovan's interviewing a hot new associate when Dar appears, like the angel of death as usual, and gestures him from their table to the bar. You think it's going to be some kind of acting thing where he knows that you know that he knows that we know, but it's refreshing how blatant, and simultaneously subtle in retrospect, the meeting really is.
Dar Adal: "This won't take long, so stop bitching at me for interrupting your lunch meeting. Are you aware I've moved departments? I do Terror now."
Martin: "Congratulations?"
Dar Adal: "Yeah and we've been talking about you a lot lately. Your firm."
Martin: "In fucking what context?"
Dar Adal: "I want you to know the things I'm allowed to tell you. Tomorrow morning at exactly ten o'clock, I'm walking into a high-level, top-secret meeting whose agenda consists almost solely of you. Now, this part is purely just for show, but I'm offering you the chance to come clean, get in front of it..."
Martin: "What am I, stupid? That's some Tinker Tailor shit. Come at me, Bro. I admit nothing."
ORTHODOX
Carrie's handler that got her out of the hospital signals for a meeting -- "so much depends on"/"a red wheelbarrow" being the call and response, because who could ever break that unbreakable code -- so she goes to an Orthodox Church and lights a candle.
Franklin: "Who's the candle for?"
Carrie: "All the departed."
Franklin: "Are you actually Orthodox?"
Carrie: "Old boyfriend. The weddings go on forever."
Franklin: "Longer than the marriages, so goes the joke."
Carrie: "Yeah it's not actually a joke if you have to... Fuck it, never mind. What is the deal."
The deal is, Martin Donovan took the bait and needs Carrie to solve the mystery of how they figured he's maybe the worst person, despite being on the boards of several foundations. Carrie acts like she is pissed about being pulled back in, under other pretenses than those to which she originally agreed -- but the second he's gone, The Smile creeps in.
I mean, where you can see it. Of course it's actually there the whole time, hiding on her face, the way she's like, "I don't know how I would do that, it's going to be really hard, you're really fucking me on this," which is a bunch of things she wouldn't say even if she actually were being forced to commit treason on behalf of a terror-parasite, and is Carrie's idea of a hilarious joke.
SAUL
Saul: "What? Oh, hey. Good job. Let them simmer for 24 hours and then tell 'em we know who the bomber is."
Carrie: "Done. And can I be out of pocket for those 24 hours? I have to confront some unavoidable, horrible things."
Saul: "Sure, Peanut. Listen, I'm sorry I didn't tell you what Javadi said about Brody, even though he said it to me one second before he said it to you. Secretly, I have been working ever since on a plan you can't know about, but it doesn't really behoove my secret plans to dick you around. This one time."
Carrie: "Yeah okay, because I really care about finding that bomber!"
Saul: "Sure you do, kiddo. You are a true American."
Mira: "So that was clearly Carrie."
Saul: "Hmm?"
Mira: "Your voice completely changes when it's her."
Saul: "I'm going to pour you a glass of wine and then seemingly segue into another topic, but not really. I need to go somewhere for a couple of days."
Mira: "Somewhere awesome? Can I come?"
Saul: "That'd be a No, and a Hell No."
Mira: "See, this is the marriage I am used to."
OB/GYN
Lady: "Second trimester's just around the corner -- not that it's worth doing the math, although it works out fine if you do -- so you'll stop barfing soon. You wanna know if it's a boy or a girl?"
Carrie: "I do not. For reasons that remain my own."
Doc: "Your sister, my colleague, doesn't seem to know you're pregnant. Is that why your first prenatal exam is today, thirteen weeks in?"
Carrie: "No, they are both symptoms of the same cause, which is that I am nuts."
Doc: "What are you taking currently?"
Carrie: "Nothing but folic, baby!"
Doc: "Yikes."
Carrie: "Wait, I was on 1800mg of Lithium for a few weeks in the middle. For reasons. Oh, and the constant drinking."
Doc: "Drinking and... This is after you knew?"
Carrie: "Yeah, girl."
Doc: "So when should I schedule your abortion?"
Carrie: "Just tell me it doesn't have gills and I'll be fine."
The doctor thinks it might be a good idea for Carrie to stop drinking and maybe act like a normal person who can care for herself on a basic level, but Carrie explains -- lightly, but also crazily like this is a deciding factor -- that she is saving the world right now and thus cannot be arsed.
Doc: "Carrie? We can actually manage this. Your life. It's not magic, it's a process. But you can't put off acting like a person until it's convenient. You have to start immediately. Preferably thirteen weeks ago, you fucking wolverine."
SHERAZI
Chance Kelly, my favorite thing in all of Generation Kill besides Stark Sands's character, shows up at Fara's house on day two of her AWOLness.
Mitchell Clausen: "See, part of working for the FBI is when you vanish -- or hang around in the parking lot acting erratic with a headscarf on -- is that they send me, from the Inspector General's office."
Fara: "Seriously I have no idea what that is. My bad."
Clausen: "And then you went to the murder house?"
Fara: "Yeah, I was freaked by it. Not because I'm part of the team that let it happen, but just as a woman with roots in Iran who thought it couldn't happen here, and then it did."
Clausen: "That whole episode of Quinn going over there, now, is jeopardized. Director Berenson digs you, he trusts you. But your emotional state is like, a matter of national security now. So please act normal. Can you do that?"
Fara: "Compared to the other people on the team, disappearing with notice for days at a time still qualifies me for Most Normal. Have you met the fucking Addams Family we got over there? Even the hot one's a career sniper."
...And when Clausen's gone, her dad goes off about how she took the Agency job against his wishes, and his response is as valid as last time, but probably moreso: When the Secret Police find out she's with the Agency, their family will be hanged or shot. Which Saul is fine with, but dad not so much. Her reaction to this -- "I'm a fucking American" -- is all about defining herself as separate from what he's talking about, but it's still the same blood either way. I dunno, I guess he has a point.
She's the only boots-on-the-ground character we've got left who seems less about the reasons of America. Like, you know that Carrie loves America enough to go through all this, she's Lawful Neutral in a way that only becomes Total Chaos when you run it through her mad brain. And Quinn loves America so much he's willing to quit (which is, incidentally, exactly halfway to how you end up Nick Brody). But Fara, Fara's just kinda hangin' around, like Max or Virgil.
DEBRIEF
Tim Guinee's character that I like so much, with the impossible name "Scott Ryan," tells everybody the score: Carrie's going to tell Franklin she knows who positioned the bomb, which will send him or another Bennett operative running to scramble the guy. They'll place absolute surveillance on both parties and follow the meeting all the way through, only SWATting the guy once Franklin's gone, so Carrie won't get burned. Important.
Not just important because it sets up a situation where Carrie can and will go total fucking Carrie at the worst possible moment, so Quinn has to shoot her -- which is both hilarious, and shortly about to happen -- but also because if Bennett twigs to Carrie tipping off the CIA, she's dirty, so then Javadi is exposed, and then the whole thing is just abruptly over. He makes one call, and Javadi is dead, and Iran probably bombs a historical site. Everything that has happened in the first two acts of this season was for nothing: Also important.
Oh, and Saul is on his way out of the country for his secret errand, which is the third important thing. Being that it's not actually that important to what's going on right now, but when she goes haywire -- and she will -- having him there might salvage it, because he is the only person that can think her thoughts, know what she's gonna do, and swiftly talk her out of it.
Carrie: "So yeah, you were right. Your firm's connected to the bomber."
Franklin: "No way!"
Carrie: "I'm just telling you the information I have. They think he's in the US."
Franklin: "Hmm."
Carrie: "Well? Is he? I'm asking for a friend. I mean, for curiosity."
Franklin: "They haven't located him though? So what do they have?"
Carrie: "A pending warrant at a FISA judge naming Leland Bennett a co-conspirator."
Franklin: "They won't get anything. I do all the heavy lifting."
Carrie: "Oh, is that a fact? Huh. Anyway, go fuck your mom. Mathison out!"
Franklin warns Martin Donovan, who bitches him out like crazy and then tells him specifically to get him out of the country, with a new identity. Is that a code? Is Franklin a backup for Leland? I don't know, but I can tell you that the bomber does not get out of the country with a new identity. Unless by "country" you mean "His Body" and by "new identity" you mean "Dissolved Body Parts Guy."
Oh, and something about the details, which I'm preserving for later in case they mean something else when we have more facts: They were asked only "to provide material support to an American citizen with ties to the Regime," no mention of the bombing. But then at some point "later" it became clear that was what was going on, and Martin Donovan says, "We should've dealt with it then." Which makes it sound like at least at one point, the guy was expendable. And soon enough, two vans are heading for a motel in Lynchburg: Carrie with Max, Virgil and Dar Adal, and Scott's tactical team which includes Quinn and a spotter. Plus various SWAT vehicles, presumably.
MIRA
Somewhere around here, Alain breaks into Mira's house and replaces their downstairs desktop's mouse with a recording/transmitting device that works just like a regular mouse. She comes home while it's happening, and he goes ghost, but then outside he listens to the audio in his car, which means they're playing it both ways: Either he is a Bad Guy in some way, or he's just a very dedicated stalker ex-boyfriend. I prefer to think the latter, just because I don't want to live in a world where the Director of the CIA has these problems.
"Oh, the darn router got hacked and now somebody's downloading Game Of Thrones on our internet, and we should get a security system in our house so people don't replace objects in our house with identical objects when we're not home" are merely two things, a small sampling of things, that I don't ever want my Director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency to feel comfortable saying.
LYNCHBURG
I have recapped so many shows about military and ex-military personnel at this point that I think I could direct a SWAT team to do my bidding at any point with just four hand signals, which I have given unofficial designations as follows: The Breaker Breaker Honk Your Horn, The Front And Rear Of The Aircraft, The Construction Paper Turkey, and my favorite, The Hey We Both Have Eyeballs.
They spot Franklin driving up -- Carrie knows it's his car based on the queasy aura of him -- and then he calls up to the guy, who is... Not doing great.
Bomber: "My jaw is hanging open, I look like I got stoned and saw a ghost."
Franklin: "Well, pull it together. I'm bringing up your exfiltration package. PS, it is a bullet in your head, sorry in advance."
Carrie spots the gun and silencer, which Quinn confirms after some nerve-wracking treeline interference, and then she goes full Carrie so fast! If they don't pull in the bomber and give him the enhanced interrogation she wants to do on him, Brody can never come home. Therefore if Franklin has flipped the script, whether or not because it was always the plan or he's just feelin' whimsical and murderous, she needs to... Not entirely sure. Not really clear on what her plan is, but that's Carrie Mathison. She just gets out of the car and starts walking, so she can interrupt Franklin's murder of this guy.
Long, long stretch of nervous wreck while you're watching these four things happen -- the guy freaking out, Franklin getting ready to murder, Quinn and Dar Adal yelling at Carrie, and Carrie going for a nutcase stroll through Lynchburg -- and then Quinn takes her the fuck out. It's kind of beautiful, actually. I mean, sometimes you literally have to shoot her to stop her from doing whatever she feels like doing. I'm surprised it took two and a half seasons for somebody to realize this, frankly.
A short time later she's in an ambulance, Franklin is melting the body in the motel room, and Quinn is just sort of mind-blown about the whole thing. I love them because they don't even talk about how he just shot her in her body, because that part she understands. Like, that was the rational choice for Quinn to make, and it would be out of character for her to even be annoyed by it. She motions him very much closer, explaining that her psychic powers are telling her something has gone very wrong, and then instead of talking about the baby inside her, which is probably important right now for the medics to know about, she just keeps asking where the hell is Saul.
HELL (AKA CARACAS SLUMS)
Where Saul is, is, Saul is dropping off a $10M bounty at the Tower of David and picking up the most wanted man in the world. Or at least the shit-covered, heroin-crammed thing that used to be him. Squatting, bestial. But if you start thinking about Nick Brody as a young boy and then a soldier and then went so far up and through "heroic" that he came out the other side and became a terrorist, you really have to wonder how he kept his pieces together this long anyway. Or what he'll be when Saul puts him back together again.
Or to put it another way, I've always wondered what Carrie would have thought about Nick, say, ten years ago. Before 9/11 when they were -- when we were -- just kids. But the thing in him she loves, that binds him to her, the blinding brightness they share: Did Abu Nazir put it there, while he was tearing him apart? Or just crack him open and let it out?
Do they love what's broken in each other, or do they love what that breaking revealed? Because if it was always there, it's still there now, and they have a shot. But if it's gone, they're both dead meat and they don't even know it. One more thing Quinn was right about.
WEEK
Saul tries to put Humpty Dumpty back together again, while Carrie handles Brody's new status in what I'm sure is an exemplary fashion.
JACOB CLIFTON is a freelance writer and critic based in Austin, Texas. He currently recaps The Good Wife, Homeland, Hostages, Ravenswood, and Masters Of Sex for TWoP. Jacob can be found online at jacobclifton.com, Twitter, and Facebook, as well as a regular column for Tor.com, Geek Love.