'Homeland' always throws up weird combinations, such as Estes and Roya flirting in Episode 1, something that seems to have been forgotten. This week's found Dana Brody finding solace with her father's best friend/mother's former lover Mike, a man her mother I'm not sure should ever have left.
Meanwhile, Brody was getting it from all sides - his wife unhelpfully wanting their daughter to seek justice, Carrie wanting him to see his CIA deal through, and his conspirator Roya squirming with terrorist impatience. The only solution - to curl up in the foetal position and decide it was all too much.
Brody is a man in a shrinking world
Except it seemed Carrie was able to match him bridge for burned bridge - as Estes told Saul it, "Your protogee, she's really outdone herself this time." Her antics involved removing Brody's CIA tracking, carting him off to the forest, seducing him back into the fold with tales of true heroism, oh, and having an almighty cabin bonk while she was about it. Except it was a safe place where she knew Saul could find her - could it be that Carrie holds her patriotism even closer to her (naked) chest than her feelings for her loose cannon love?
Brody - asset or liability?
Brody's confusion is thoroughly contagious, with the viewing experience disjointed and perhaps less involved as a result, despite some highly dramatic moments along the way. With more than a couple of deja vu from the first series - Carrie and Brody confusing despair with desire in a log cabin, Jessica realising that Mike is the only man on whom she can truly rely, Saul's paternal concern, Estes' impatience for results, Carrie's inability to obey orders - I'm starting to worry that this second series of television's most challenging show is running out of ideas. I'm crossing everything that 'Homeland' still has a few rabbits in the hat, to be produced with spine-tingling aplomb over the four remaining episodes.