Homeland: Episode 3-02 (Critiquing The Critiques)

***SPOILER ALERT***

If you have not seen Homeland this season, then do not read this post.  Instead, I suggest that you immediately go and catch up on what is turning into a very compelling season of Homeland.

From the looks of the recaps & reviews I have read, I'm in the minority when it comes to how much I have been loving the first couple of episodes of Season 3 of Homeland.  It seemed obvious to me that, with such a traumatic event occurring in last year's finale and so many characters getting killed off, this show was going to significantly pivot this season.  So I'm genuinely confused that the consensus around the internet seems to be disappointment that the remaining core characters have been acting oppositely from what we might have grown to expect from them.

Many of the complainers miss the presence of the conspicuously absent Brody, the glue binding the characters throughout seasons 1 & 2.  But while my face is twitching from the withdrawal I'm experiencing without Damien Lewis' awesome facial twitches, the car-bomb that ripped through the CIA in last season's finale was so damaging - both physically through the killing off of several major characters and emotionally for the characters that remain - that it has been completely necessary to let the characters left in the wake created by the Marine-turned-POW-turned-terrorist-turned-Congressman-turned-Vice-Presidential-Candidate-turned-Wrongly-Accused-Terorrist-On-The-Run deal with the trauma they endured and the come to terms with the pain their experiences will continue to inflict upon their lives moving forward. The damage done to the world we knew was so profound that it needs to be reconciled before a whole new one can be introduced - and wherever Brody is, it will take a host of new characters and tangential plot-lines to tell the story.

It looks like we will finally find out where Brody is hiding and what he is up to on next week's episode.
While not present, the destruction he left behind has been unavoidable for every other character.

The other major complaint - besides people being feeling Manic Carrie is a re-tread; only a semi-fair point since she's a bi-polar character and this is obviously a VERY stressful situation - seems to be the change that has overcome Saul as he grows into his new role as Acting Director of the CIA.  Obviously for Saul fans, his actions over the past two weeks have been disheartening.  However, his actions and the compromising of the moral authority from which he used to operate should be the clearest sign of just how damaging the so-called "12/12" bombing was.  Remember what things were like in the aftermath of 9/11? It was an obvious turning point in our society on so many levels; if Homeland is meant to mirror real life, it's only accurate that such a catastrophic event would turn everything on it's head, including this show's north star. This version of Saul might not jive with the one we have all come to know so well over the past two seasons, but that is the point! 

Saul deserved that "Fuck You"  from Carrie.  I hope the faith he 
asked Quinn (and us) for this week will be repaid this season

In the new and even-more-complicated version of the Homeland universe, even Saul's quasi-racist rant about new-hire Fara's muslim headdress has its place. It addresses an incredibly complicated and interesting storyline about the post-9/11 relationship between American-muslims and their neighbors. It's not a particularly PC storyline, but it is an accurate mirroring of what is was really like following 9/11 (abundant anger towards overtly practicing muslims in the immediate aftermath). The dynamic sets up Fara's story, representative of the plight of American muslims who have to deal with the stain that extremist-terrorism leaves on their faith.  From her swift recovery after Saul's dressing down and her first impression as an incredibly talented forensic financial analyst, it seems clear the writers have every intention to allow Fara (and the American-muslim community she represents) to demonstrate her value and loyalty to the world around her.

Collateral damage  - such as Fara's reputation - is really the underlying theme of the first two episodes. The explosion at the CIA in last season's finale might have killed 219 people in the show, but it is a bomb that is not done exploding in the faces of all of the characters on Homeland. The writers even give Quinn something to regret after he accidentally killed the son of his target during last week's "12/12" revenge mission.  For me, the first two episodes represent VERY fertile ground on which the rest of the season can grow.  Every character seems to have either burned every bridge around them or has had them burned down around them. I cannot wait to see how things get reconciled.