Showtime’s Homeland, #302, “Um…Oh…Ah”

Going Mental

By Catherine Giordano

Morgan Saylor as Dana on "Homeland"

“Um..Oh.. Ah…” --I don’t know what to say about Showtime’s Homeland, #302, aired on 10/6/13, so I’ll just say  “zzzzz”, bah, boring.”  A lot of histrionics, but not much action.

Carrie is in a mental hospital, drugged into submission, looking alternately fierce and beaten.  Her family was supposed to get her sprung, but Saul convinced them that he was protecting Carrie and it was best for her that she stay in the hospital. Carrie asked her family not to be taken in by phony sympathy.

Saul is busy tracking down the bankers who may have fund the 12/12 bombing that ended season 2. The CIA has lost so many talented staffers that a young Muslim woman, Fara, is brought in as an analyst.  Saul brings her to ears when he attacks her for wearing a hajib, calling her an insult to the CIA dead. Maybe Saul should be in a mental hospital right alongside Carrie—he seems to be cracking under the stress.

Despite the insult, Fara works hard and discovers who the bankers are. (Her mental capacity must be at a genius level since no one else could find anything.) Learning their identities and bring them down are two different things.  They know how to protect themselves. Quinn is frustrated and goes all ninja on one of the bankers. He approaches him on the street and issues threats, then vanishes into the night. He is going a bit bonkers himself over his guilt about the death of the child, collateral damage when he took out a banker is episode 301. He told Saul that after this mission is over, he plans to leave the CIA.

And then we have daft Dana, Brody’s daughter. Her adolescent angst is so uninteresting to me.  She sneaks out of her house one night (despite all the agents watching the house 24/7 and somehow gets back to the rehab facility. She needs to see her boyfriend. He has a secret cell phone, so when she calls to say she is outside, he goes down to the laundry room and lets her in. They spend the night together making love amidst atop the dirty sheets. I think this is the “Dana-is-no-longer-a virgin” moment of the week.

Dana is the most boring character on the show, but her storyline was the most interesting o the show during this episode. Even when Dana is saying “I want to live” as she tries to convince her mother that there will be no more suicide attempts, she sounds lackluster.

Order the dvd of seasons 1-2

At the end of the episode, Dana finds her father’s prayer mat in the garage and lays it out on the floor. Dana believes that her father is a terrorist, and she has angrily proclaimed that she wants nothing to do with him. In this scene we see she is conflicted. She keels on the prayer mat and slowly bends to touch her head to the mat. This is a sentimental scene, but we had to wait the whole episode for it.

The show is moving at a very slow pace. Let’s hope that episode three of the season makes our loyalty to the show worth it.

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