'Homeland' Recap: "New Car Smell"

Last week’s Homeland ended with Saul making his way over to Carrie’s apartment, fresh from his flight from Beirut, to show her Brody’s pre-terrorist attack video. He went to her even before he showed it to the CIA, to let her know she was right. Carrie was relieved, but I’m interested in finding out what they will do with that information.

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After Carrie’s, Saul goes over to Estes’ house. Because even CIA agents have breaks, who knew? His son, Kenny is there. Probably around 7 or 8, he’s visiting for the week. He starts by telling him there was a suicide bomber at the attempt at the VP. He hands Estes the memory card. He watches the video and facepalms. Yep, Carrie was right! In your face! *ahem*

He and Saul are sitting in awkward silence. They could arrest him, or Saul suggests leaving him right where he is. Nothing changes. They watch Brody closely, don’t tell anyone and stop him when he tries another attack. Saul wants an off campus base for surveillance, with outsiders in complete secrecy. Carrie? Please tell me Carrie… And Carrie! But Estes is still sending Saul a guy to run it. He admits that she called this.

At Brody’s, Jess is still pissed at him. She takes the coffee he brought her but not his apology. She wants an explanation instead. He wants to tell her, but he can’t. She doesn’t trust him anymore. If he doesn’t have something real to tell her, he needs to pack a bag. And so he does. Dana is outside with Xander, her boyfriend from her old school, they are talking about how her dad is in trouble. He asks her if she wants to get stoned, she doesn’t seem interested and anyway, she has to go to school.

Brody drops her off and she sees his bag. She can’t blame Jess for kicking him out, he embarrassed her, but Brody didn’t mean to. The car smells like smoke and he says he gave someone a ride. She just says “yeah” and walks away. I like Dana. She meets up with Finn on the way into school, they make a joke about how their families suck and everything is okay again. Teenagers.

Out at the secret location, Carrie is with the same guys that were helping her spy on Brody before: Virgil and Max. She’s pretty excited about this. Until she makes her way inside and finds out she’s not the one running things. Peter Quinn is the name of the guy Estes sent. He has a plan and a secret team he’s not telling Carrie about. Brody has a CIA meeting, he wants Carrie to run into him and scare him into thinking she’s back and she knows about him so he will run back to his handlers.

Brody drops his car off at the carwash to get rid of the smoke smell and Carrie is already waiting for him at the CIA. She walks past him and he freezes, calls out for her and she casually says hi. He walks closer to her and she says she was supposed to stay away from him, he says it’s okay. She says she’s doing well, thanks to him. He was the one who suggested she’d get help, he saved her. She congratulates him on becoming a congressman, he asks if she’s back at the CIA, and she says in a way. But she can’t tell him, she has good boundaries now. But she’s glad she saw him. She holds out her hand and says “peace?” He shakes it “peace.” And she’s off, looking damn proud of herself. While Brody looks scared, as he should be.

Back home, Jess gets an unexpected visit from Lauder. He wants to see Brody, he seems drunk. She can’t get ahold of Brody and Lauder is babbling about how he will get to the bottom of whatever Brody is doing. So she calls Mike instead. He’s on his way.

Carrie is back at the surveillance place, Peter tells her she did a good job. They are watching Brody as he greets people, and Roya is there, she wants to have a few words. He tells her Carrie is back. Roya tells him to find out why, renew his relationship with her. But Carrie and the others can’t hear any of it. Just see it. Peter says to Carrie she was fucking Brody. And if he had done to him what he did to Carrie, he’d rip his skin off. She says that’s the plan.

Mike gets over to Jessica’s, Lauder passed out on the kitchen table. Brody finally calls her back, she says she doesn’t need him anymore. Tells him Mike is there. He says he will come home tonight, she tells him he’s going back to his hotel, or wherever it is he goes when he disappears. Mike takes Lauder outside, Lauder is babbling again. He’s on to Brody. He tells Mike he and Walker were a team.

Dana and Finn are at his place, studying for a test. The VP stops by and he’s trying to put Finn down in front of Dana, but she tells him Finn got an A on his quiz the previous day and shuts him up instead. Finn is annoyed by his dad so they ditch studying. He wants to go ‘somewhere’.

Peter, Carrie and the others are gathering information on everyone Brody spoke to. She pulls Virgil aside and asks him to check up on Peter, she’s never met him before. Estes is there too, he awkwardly (and badly) apologizes to Carrie. Brody met with 43 people while there, they need to prioritize. Saul suggests the dark-skinned ones. Max calls racial profiling, but he says most al-Qaeda members will be middle-eastern. That’s a start. Most people are done for the night, except Carrie and Peter who are taking the night shift.

Dana and Finn are out alone, except for the two secret service agents following them around. They go to the Washington Monument, take the elevator to the top floor and now they are alone. Finn tells Dana he likes her attitude. She tells him she likes him. They kiss, but she has a boyfriend. He wants to be her boyfriend. She wants that too. But she needs to talk to Xander first.

Mike is over at Lauder’s. He finally wakes up and apologizes. But Mike wants to talk about Brody and Walker. Because Brody has been acting weird. Mike suggests Brody is working for the CIA instead. But they don’t know what that could mean.

Brody checks into his hotel, Carrie and Peter are watching it. Peter asks if it was work or love for her with him. She doesn’t answer, but she wants him to answer some of her questions instead. He does. He’s from Philadelphia, went to Harvard, a requirement in his family. Why does Ester like him so much? He is reliable. Virgil calls, Brody is at the bar, hotel security let them in on their cameras. Brody is getting drunk, he keeps picking up his phone and setting it down. He finally calls Carrie.

He wants to know if they could bury the hatchet for real. She thought they had done that today. He wants to seal it with a drink. She says yes. They hang up and she tell Peter she’s nervous. He smiles at her and says he’s not, that she’s good. I can’t decide if I like him or not, but he gets points for that.

As soon as she arrives, he has a drink waiting for her. He says up front it’s not a booty call. It didn’t even cross her mind. He tells her his wife is fed up, that’s why he’s there. He follows up with asking her about how she’s doing again. She tells him she’s doing well. He says she’s working again and she says yes. Then gets excited about it, tells him she’s getting pretty close to her goal. She can’t name names, but she’s circling a certain terrorist. He jokes and says as long as it’s not him. She laughs and says no, her focus is back on the right guy. The head of the snake guy. And then she whispers: who stole eight years of your life. But anyway, she shouldn’t talk about it.

There’s an awkward silence then Brody talks about how she said sorry to him a hundred times. And he feels crappy about what happened, calling Estes. He says he was worried about her. He knows about her treatment, and how terrible it must have been. She’s uncomfortable, but she says no, she didn’t feel a thing. He dismisses her, glad they did this.

Brody leaves and Carrie is freaking out that he knows. She saw it in his eyes, when she was talking about ECT. She calls Saul and Peter and they tell her she did great and her work is done. She needs to get back. But she doesn’t, instead she goes up to his room, he nods her in. She tells him that when he mentioned his room number, if maybe it was more than just to pay the bill. But then she tells Brody they only have a few more minutes alone, she’s blowing her cover.

Carrie tells him she knows about the vest, that he sent her to the nuthouse because she knew the truth. Brody is getting angry and moving closer. She asks if he’s gonna kill her, blame it on rough sex. He says he’s good at it, at least something he’s good at. He tells her he liked her. She tells him she loved him. The agents break into the room, take Brody down. It’s her turn to get in his face. “If only the circumstances had been wildly different. You’re a disgrace to your nation Sergeant Nicholas Brody. You’re a traitor, and a terrorist. And now it’s time you pay for that.”

Holy crap Carrie, why did you do it? Now I have no clue how they are going to deal with Brody being in prison for the rest of the season. I guess wait until next week.