‘Homeland’ season 2, episode 5 reivew: Little more conversation, little more action

Just when you think that “Homeland” had reached its point last week, it returns with one of the richest, finest examples of writing and acting that we have ever seen in a series to date. “Q&A” is quite possibly the best episode of the series to date, and also has to rank up there with “Mad Men” episode “Commission and Fees” and the Battle of Blackwater from “Game of Thrones” as the strongest work produced on television this year.

We like it when a show surprises us, and to an extent it did; we were right about our suspicion that Brody would re-enter the world, but little did we imagine he would do so in the way that he has. The interrogation scenes between Damian Lewis and Claire Danes were almost sublime as slowly and surely, Carrie broke Brody down until he made a few key admissions, including that there is a terrorist attack planned on the United States, and that he has worked with many people in the Abu Nazir camp.

The structure of his future plans are equally fascinating: Brody is back with his family, and he has been able to give Jess a scant bit of information about what he is up to. Is it enough to ultimately please her? Probably not, but the excuse of working for the CIA is a major step forward in their relationship lasting in the long-term. Granted, we’re not so clear she would be happy to learn that his cover with the Nazir camp is that he is getting close to Carrie, just as they requested. He’s also set to go about his business at the moment, though the CIA also made it very clear that they would have no issue with him disappearing off the face of the earth.

With all of this being gripping television, the strange thing here is that Dana’s incident in the passenger seat is almost an afterthought. Her boyfriend Finn is naive to think that he can escape from this without any scars, though, since the woman he hit will at least be able to identify some detail that could be traced back to him, and the same can be said for all of the witnesses that saw his car driving recklessly to get away from the black SUV behind it.

This episode ultimately is an enormous leap forward and an enormous risk, but we love it: now Carrie is really going to have to put her trust in Brody and believe that he has the agency’s best interest at heart. This is not going to be an easy thing to do, just as it will not be an easy thing for Brody to sway from the people who he has worked with since the beginning of this series.

Regardless of what happens, we’re just thrilled that “Homeland” has us more hooked than ever.