Review: HOMELAND 1.9 - Crossfire

Homeland enjoyed probably it's best episode last week with the impressive "Achilles Heel", this week's "Crossfire" was no different.  Homeland has not let up once with every episode being equally impressive in tense drama and lately plenty of action.  Right at the beginning this week we saw Brody (Damien Lewis) get kidnapped, we didn't know who by but we could guess it had something to do with the Saudi Arabian diplomat he roughed up last week.  You pretty much knew something was going to happen when he's in the underground car park and the creepy music comes on, right?

In the mean time the FBI and CIA are busy dealing with the shooting at the Mosque, two innocent members of the community had been shot dead whilst the FBI chased Tom Walker (Chris Chalk) through the Mosque, something is not quite adding up for Carrie (Claire Danes), the Imam seems to know something but won't tell Carrie the information he knows about Walker unless she can convince the FBI to come clean and say that they have made a mistake and shot two innocent people when no fire was opened on them.

What was really great this week were Brody's flashbacks to Iraq three years earlier, we have head Brody say that terrorist suspect Abu Nazir (Navid Negahban) was the only person who showed him any compassion during his eight year ordeal, it would seem that he spent the last three years of it living with Nazir, who instructed Brody to teach his son Isa fluent English.  Brody made a massive connection with Isa during this time, not speaking to Nazir that much, but he clearly trusted Brody with his son.  That brought about the whole plot really, we saw Isa killed when an American bombing campaign hit their village, this made Brody say that he would do something in the name of Isa which is now clear.  Brody is going to make it his business to become a political figure, but it's yet to be seen weather he knows what Tom Walker is really up to on behalf of Nazir.

Carrie is clearly very respectful of the local Imam and the religion that they follow, due to her time spent in the field she speaks their language and respects certain things, the FBI are not so respectful in that way which clearly upsets the Imam, understandably.  Carrie even made the FBI agent remove his shoes when he entered the Mosque.  Carrie clearly wanted the FBI to come clean about their mistake hoping that the Imam would provide her with valuable information on Walker, luckily for her the Imam's wife agreed to meet with her in secret telling her that Walker has been to the Mosque on eight or nine occasions meeting with a man she doesn't know but he drives a car with Saudi Arabian diplomatic plates on.

We heard Walker speak for the first time this week, he sounds like the all American hero you would expect, only he's playing for the other team.  Walkers character has got so much room to grow as yet and I'm really looking forward to seeing how he came to be involved, we saw that Brody is clearly involved and why this week.  I'm hoping we get the same with Walker heading into the second season, has he changed religion like Brody, has he saw something that's made him change his mind on what he believes?  It will all be revealed I'm sure and I for one can't wait.

Following his ordeal Brody returned home to his wife Jessica (Morena Baccarin) giving her the story that he was mugged in the car park of the supermarket.  He has told her that he wants to spend more time with her and the kids as a proper family, this is no doubt to put on a show and gain public confidence before he is put into office by aids of the vice President, the plot will then no doubt thicken.

This show was no doubt helped in the beginning by the fact it follows Showtime's biggest hit Dexter but for me it's way above what Dexter is achieving this year, and show runners for Showtime are saying that they see Dexter and Homeland being their big Sunday night shows running together for the next few years.  If Homeland can keep up the pace it has set this season then the second will be a thrill ride from start to finish.

Homeland continues on Showtime Sunday 4th December 2011 at 10pm, don't miss it!