Never say Homeland doesn't consider its viewers. Each week, it seems to offer up a Greek-chorus-style character who voices what much of the audience is thinking. This time, the honor goes to Senator Lockhart, who, while locked in a conference room and apparently the only D.C. powerbroker without at least two smart phones stuck to the hip, speaks on our behalf: “What the fuck?”
Moments earlier, he’d deliver a line that more specifically sums up the particular WTFness of this week’s installment—“You sound like you’re fucking high.”
That’s not to say it was a terrible episode. No Dana, no Jessica, no zombie Brody, lots of CIA people doing CIA things—this is Homeland sticking to what Homeland should be, a psychologically fascinating helping of national-security related mystery.
If only “psychologically fascinating” didn’t, in this case, mean trying to puzzle out why these characters act how they act. (As the police detective, an uncharacteristically magnetic screen presence for a bit player, puts it, “This shit that you people do. … This shit.”)
I’m mainly referring to the treatment of Javadi. Viewers and Lockhart know that sending him back as a double agent can only turn out poorly, but fine, ok, the show has explained why Saul would want to do it. But what’s with the disinterest in the Iranian state secrets Javadi offered to spill? Why treat the intel on who really bombed Langley and how they did it as a mere piece of gossip? This is, after all, the central question we’ve been waiting for the show to tackle all season: If not Brody, who’s the traitor?