Homeland – “Shalwar Kameez”

Season Four, Episode Three

Grade: B

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I feel like this was a very polarizing episode, for good reasons, so let me start out with why this was a very solid episode of Homeland. First off, Homeland was always at its best when it dealt with the trauma of being in the CIA and the military and how it can affect your personal life. We’ve seen how it affected Carrie, Brody, Saul, etc. and now we’re seeing it affect Quinn. Plain and simple, Quinn has had enough. Everyone has a breaking point and he’s no different, but it’s not so easy to quit the CIA. And while the show obviously couldn’t allow Quinn to walk away from all the action, his story-line is what gives Homeland its depth and a character audiences can really support (because Carrie is too much of an asshole).

But then there’s the bad, which involves the writers of the show penning in some kind of Quinn/Carrie romance. I don’t know if this was a call from the producers, the writers, or some high executive at Showtime, but how could anyone think a Quinn/Carrie romance would be good for the show? Was there any person in the world who tuned into Homeland week-after-week for the Carrie/Brody romance? I was actually enjoying the way Carrie was looking at younger, handsome guys for a fix to keep her mind off of the job for at least a portion of her night. But Quinn? Is that really a story-line we want to see for the whole season?

Now I’m not saying that it’s completely unimaginable that Quinn could have a crush on Carrie, but it could’ve been done more subtlety and not so soon in this new reboot of a season. But back to the action, Carrie is in Islamabad because she hates her child and needs to boss people around. Her team doesn’t particularly like her yet (and they probably never will), especially the man who was supposed to replace Sandy until Carrie stole it. But there’s good news: Max and Fara are back! They use Fara to try and get to Aayan and even though the set-up fails, she immediately recognizes that something has spooked Aayan. The big guns come in (Carrie) and she gives him an offer: Tell them his story for a safe passage to America to continue medical school. It’s quite the offer, but I’m pretty sure he’ll need a bit more convincing.

Since the first episode, Homeland has certainly toned down its action and suspense. Saul comes back to make sure the transition between Carrie and her new boss runs smoothly (and so they have something to talk about: Saul and Boyd used to be engaged), and if Saul does indeed leave Islamabad I’ll be a bit sad because the chemistry between Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin is spectacular. But we have two things happening thus far. First, the romantic link between Carrie and Quinn, which I assume won’t end well for Quinn (just saying). Then there’s the result from the drone strike and the repercussions within the country and the involvement from the CIA. Tensions are still high and a lot of people are trying to save their asses.

I can’t imagine Homeland toning down the story-line between Carrie and Quinn. If the past was any indication, they kept on pursuing terrible story-lines no matter how loudly I yelled at my television screen (I’m looking at you Dana Brody)! But for what it’s worth, it’ll be great to have Carrie and Quinn working together again, even if that means we won’t see Quinn and his building manager hanging out by the pool anymore. So long building manager. You were too good for Quinn, even though he did defend you by breaking a guy’s cheekbone at the diner.