Yessssss. It’s not love. It could be rebellion, but it’s not love. We have always been of the opinion that neither Will nor Peter are good enough for Alicia. A third player could show up at the end of the season who is a little more worthy. Alicia may change her mind and grow to love Will. We’re pretty sure she’ll never make the mistake of going back to Peter. Either way, we like where this is heading and her answer to her brother’s question.
We liked the mediation plot. It’s cool to see a mediation rather than just usual court scenes with an uncooperative judge. Dr. Cuddy guests on this episode, and she will be on it for at least three episodes. She is an ex-girlfriend of Will’s, and Lisa Edelstein does a good job. It was a smart move to ditch House and move to this as a transition show. Eli Gold gets burned managing a cheese crisis when a listeria outbreak strikes school kids. We really doubt that in real life, the news would show so many children barfing up cheese, but it was pretty funny.
Cary calls Kalinda out for using her sensuality and general awesomeness to make guys go for her in order to get information. Cary looks really sad when he says this, and we feel bad for him. Mostly because he is cute. But he’s much more sympathetic on this show than he was in Gilmore Girls (and the Tucker Max movie, but that’s a given).
Homeland - “Grace”
We don’t know about those credits. On the one hand, they are creative, they give the viewer a good idea about the show, they are unsettling, and they remind us of something David Fincher would do. On the other hand, inserting some of the more dramatic dialogue from the pilot seemed heavy-handed. We loved the pictures of a young Claire Danes.
For his first day home alone, Brody crouches in the corner of his bedroom. Carrie watches him, disturbed by this. As her boss points out, this seems perfectly natural for a POW of eight years. Why isn’t this man in immediate psychiatric counseling? Seriously, even if there were no chance that he had been turned, it would be a good call, we think. We anticipate the wife bringing it up, Brody getting angry, and us agreeing. Mrs. Brody is pretty much the most sympathetic character here.
How boring does it have to be for Carrie to sit and watch some guy putter around the house all day. And she can’t see in the garage!? Unacceptable!!!!!! Where else would a guy build a bomb or do secret guy things? Carrie has decided that everything Brody does is definite proof that he’s a terrorist. He stays home? Terrorist. He has nightmares? Terrorist. He goes to a hardware store? Obviously a terrorist. He punches a reporter in the throat? Rude. And a terrorist. Lots of her evidence is unconvincing, but she still may be right.
We got a little “real” terrorist evidence. First, Brody is angry that he had to fight what he sees as a pointless war. This isn’t really proof, because plenty of decent people feel that way about the war, but it goes to motive for turning to the other side. Anger is a good motive. Second, Brody goes into his garage at dawn and starts praying to Allah and bowing, like Muslims do. This isn’t really proof, because plenty of decent people are Muslims. But, once again, motive. And it shows that the enemy influenced Brody.
However, this makes us think that Brody is going to turn out to be innocent. At least partly innocent, because the best thing this show can do is somehow find a way to make both Carrie and Brody right, or at least understandable. He can’t be all wrong, because that might be a PR nightmare for Showtime. If he is a terrorist, then this episode strongly suggested that Islam = terrorist. Anyone who is facing Mecca and chanting a prayer is about two seconds from making a crappy video and sawing someone’s head off.
Finally, Brody goes outside, talks to the reporters, and “plays the hero card,” just like Saul said a terrorist would. This is the only real piece of evidence that Carrie gets to see, because she has no visual access to the garage. Saul blackmails a judge to get Carrie legal surveillance rights.
A new character is introduced: Lynne Reed. She’s undercover as a Saudi prince’s assistant. Carrie recruited her and deals with her. The interviewing of potential harem girls was horrible, funny, and professional at the same time. That was a very interesting scene. Lynne saw and videotaped Abu Nazir, which really gets Carrie excited. Carrie tells Lynne that she is being watched and protected, even though Carrie’s boss turned the protection request down. We bet Lynne is the first death in this show.
We see the source of Carrie’s antipsychotic meds: her sister, Maggie. Maggie has two cute little girls who love Carrie. We find out that Carrie and Maggie’s father suffers from the same mental condition that Carrie has. The show still has us hooked. Suspense fans who like smart shows should jump on this bandwagon before it takes off.
Episode grade: A-
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