‘Homeland’ season 3, episode 9 review: How Damian Lewis is back in play

We get the majority of the complaints that are out there about “Homeland” season 3 being slowly-paced, or not having Damian Lewis involved for long enough. There were some that wanted to see the show move on with Nicholas Brody, but we assume that many of these same people wanted to see the show return in a way that did not have him or his family associated with him. Nobody really asked for a story with him gone for a good half of the season.

But with tonight’s episode, we saw him back in a very strange capacity: A soldier. There were some parts of this story that made some sense, as we learned a little bit more about Saul’s plan to use Brody in order to murder a high-ranking Iranian official in an effort to get Javadi even further up on the ladder. We also learned, of course, that Brody was not exactly enthused about helping out.

It took convincing from Carrie for Brody to even start to be on board with this plan, and there was another priority that suddenly started to surface: Dana. Specifically, Brody saw her at a hotel (which was the most convenient thing ever), and demanded to see her. In the midst of all the madness that included Brody having a drug freakout and Saul learning who his wife’s recent “love interest” was, the most powerful scene was between Brody and his daughter, as he learned that she really had nothing to do with his declaration of innocence.

We don’t quite know why Brody ever thought that Dana would suddenly be okay with what her father has been up to, given that she never was before and has gone through a lot since. He knows that; yet, he still decided to torment her with his presence. This was such a selfish act that it makes Brody easy to detest. But at the same time, this is almost verbatim what we would expect Brody to do in this situation. He’s the most selfish character out there. We don’t always understand his motivations, but he is almost more compelling to watch because of it. He got nothing from Dana, and now must go on his way.

Overall, this was an episode that was at times confusing, but also at times fantastic. It did quite a bit like in reminding us of Brody’s humanity, even if not much happened in actually making sure that Saul’s plan overseas goes off without a hitch. Grade: B.

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Photo: Showtime