Review: HOMELAND 1.11 - The Vest

Homeland was good in so many ways this week, but it’s one that I’m not finding to easy to write about.  It was brilliant but as always with Homeland more empathises was placed on the characters rather than the action itself, the show is coming to the critical point with the season 1 finale following Dexter’s next week, we already know that there will be a second season which should also prove to be as much of a powerhouse as this has due to the amount of loose ends to tie up and the fact the CIA are no closer to catching radicalised US Marine Tom Walker.

Little do the CIA know of course that Walker is not their only problem, it was revealed to us about two weeks ago now that Nick Brody is very much a part of Abu Nazir’s plans for an attack on US soil, up to now he has passed everything thrown at him with flying colours and this weeks show focused on the two main characters we have come to know through ten episodes of the show.  Carrie and Nick himself, the pair who were romantically linked mid-season are now heading down very different paths.

It was touched upon at the very beginning of the show that Carrie had bipolar disorder a problem which she self medicated for, that was brought back with a vengeance this week following Carrie being involved in the Blast the week before.  Her long time mentor Saul is amazed to find a very erratic Carrie who is making no sense whilst at the same time working tirelessly on a theory she has developed regarding Abu Nazir’s plans.  Carrie’s weakness became her strength as she came very close to finding out exactly what Nazir’s plans are she also noticed a very long period of inactivity from Nazir, this was the period that he had Brody captive, or at least that’s what they think we know he was living with Nazir teaching his son English.  Carrie has one problem now, the only person who believes her theory during her erratic state of mind is Saul and she has made the mistake of telling Brody, who in turn thinks she is getting far to close for comfort and reports her previous misgivings to CIA Director Estes bringing an end to her little plan.  Her only hope to stop it now would be Virgil, the former CIA agent who does covert non CIA approved ops on her behalf. But we still don’t know weather he can be trusted, remember we are still looking out for a mole.

In the mean time Brody has taken a road trip to Gettysburg giving himself a reminder of what it’s like to be the all American family, it’s all a ploy on his part of course as he was visiting a shop where he was handed a suicide vest by the owner.  His family are non the wiser at this point but his daughter Dana has started to notice that her father is acting a little strange, firstly she captured him on video when they visited Gettysburg, he was just staring into space but then she noticed the parcel he had picked up from the store.  To say that she is not satisfied with the excuse he has given would be an understatement.  What Brody’s mission is with the vest is still unclear, weather it’s a suicide mission for him or weather he has to give it to someone else, Tom Walker maybe.  What ever it is I’m sure we will find out in this Sundays finale.

Other than that there really was not to much going on this week, Brody was treated like a national hero in the diner when people recognised him shook his hand and said that they would vote should he run for office, such is the respect he has earned being a US prisoner of war for 8 years.  That is a story that will surely run into season 2 as I can’t really see them killing off the main character after the first season, can you?  Anyway this was a brilliant character episode with very little action, this weeks finale should prove to be action packed leaving us wanting more from the second season.