Showtime Homeland “The Mother … With a Turban” #211 It’s Over?

by Catherine Giordano

I’m entitling this review “It’s Over?” because in episode 11 of season 2 of Showtime’s “Homeland,” named “The Mother … With a Turban” a lot of things are over for our main characters.  Or are they?

Nazir is dead. Nazir’s is over for sure. Carrie, even though she has had no sleep for 36 hours returns to the mill to search for Nazir. (This is the “Whatever-she-is-on,-I-want some-of that” moment of the week. I could use that kind of energy.) Carrie is back at the mill because she is sure that Nazir is still hiding somewhere in the mill.

A small army of tactical team guys had searched the mill and now they have mostly all left. Carrie stops the last truck as it is leaving and gets two guys to go back into the mill with her. Carrie finds conduits leading to a hidden room. One tactical team guy moves an obstruction and he and Carrie enter the room. They see that the room that was evidently Nazir’s hideout, but Nazir is gone.

The tac guy calls for back-up, but evidently no one can hear him. Carrie says she will go for help. She sees the other tac team guy dead in passage.  Nazir attacks her, but she escapes and hides. Nazir searches for her, come up behind her, and knocks her to the ground. Just then “the cavalry” arrives. Nazir runs off, but he is quickly found by the tac team. They find him calming sitting on the floor in an open area. He is sitting in the lotus position. The tac team forms a semi-circle around him, guns drawn. Nazir stares at them unblinking. Then he quickly slips his hand into his shirt as if he was reaching for a gun. The tac team shoots him dead. Nazir is over.

Saul’s career at the CIA may be over also. Saul has been forced to take a lie detector test. He is being blamed for providing the weapon (reading glasses) that the terrorist accomplice, Aileen, used to kill herself. He is accused of illegal surveillance of a Congressman (Brody). He is accused of insubordination. Estes says if he doesn’t resign, he will face criminal charges. Is Saul’s career over?

Estes also mentions that Saul went on a crazy rant about an assassination attempt of a congressman (Brody again), but he is going to leave that out.

Of course, it is true that Estes wants to assassinate Brody. In fact, at the end of the episode, we see that Quinn is following Brody waiting for his opportunity to shoot him. Estes says they will explain Brody’s death as blowback for the death of Nazir. Quinn can’t take his shot though because Brody is in Carrie’s apartment being embraced by Carrie. Is it all over for Brody?  Will he be assassinated? It seems like Quinn may be a little bit ambivalent about carrying out this assignment.

Brody is at Carrie’s apartment because things are over for Jess and Brody also. When they are released from the safe house where the family has been living, Brody and Jess have a heart-to-heart in the car and agree to end their marriage. Jess goes into the house, but Brody drives away. The marriage is definitely over.

And finally, is Carrie’s career with the CIA over, for good this time?  Quinn is asking some questions. “How did you escape from Nazir,” he asked. Carried replied, evading the question, “I was lucky.” How long will that answer satisfy her questioners?

Nazir is dead so he can’t tell anyone about the deal he made with Brody—he would release Carrie only if Brody obtained the serial number of Walden’s pacemaker so a hacker could cause it to mal-function thereby giving Walden a heart attack. However, Rona is alive and in custody. She is refusing to talk, but technicians are about to inject her with “truth serum.” Did she know about the deal?

The love affair between Carrie and Brody is definitely not over. Their bond is stronger than over. Brody tells Carrie, speaking about his decision to help kill Walden in exchange for Carrie’s life, “It was you or Walden, Carrie. It wasn’t even close.”

One more episode and season 2 is over.

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