Just one more episode remains of Homeland‘s 3rd season. It has surely been an up and down season for the show. Last night’s episode called Big Man in Tehran, was the culmination of Saul’s big plan – which in his own words – has always been a long-shot.
Nicholas Brody, now the most wanted man in the world, has successfully gained entry into Iran. With Saul’s help, and the help of the Israeli intelligence service, the Mossad, and some other aid provided by Farah’s uncle, and Mira’s ex boy friend Alain, Brody is poised to kill the head of the IRGC, the one called General Akbari.
By the way, Carrie is in town, Tehran, as well. Her job was to develop the extraction plan.
But Akbari is very careful. At Javadi’s suggestion, Akbari decides that he will meet Brody face to face. With a lot of cloak and dagger stuff, like neutral ground, armed escorts, diversions at the ready, Brody is finally on the street face to face with Akbari.
Only – Akbari immediately leaves once Brody is with in six feet of him.
I didn’t expect that. neither did Brody, nor Saul, nor any one else in the CIA who was involved in the plan.
Of course it was just a plotting device. Brody had to be placed in harm’s way – not while executing the mission, but because the window of opportunity has just closed with Akbari’s hasty departure. Brody might never be that close again.
So the plan was scrapped. Brody was told to stand down and prepare for extraction.
Only Brody was a no show at the extraction. He’s not going anywhere. Where can he go anyway, as he has become a propaganda tool for Iran. Washington begins to worry that Brody could jeopardize the whole plan by rolling over on Javadi.
So a decision is made – with pressure from the White House, and from Senator Lockhart – Brody has been deemed too dangerous to stay in play. So he must be taken out.
Saul has plenty to worry about
While Saul doesn’t tell this explicitly to Carrie, she figures it out, and Carrie doesn’t tell this explicitly to Brody – but the wheels have already been set in motion. People are on the move. Is this the end of Brody? Not quite. Carrie is right there to tip Brody about what’s coming. Of course there’s no valid reason for Carrie to know where to be, but hey – this is tv. Brody avoids capture by the Mossad agents, who were formerly there to help him, but now they’ve been told via the mojowire (sorry that’s old school these days the mojo is simply a disposable cell phone) from Washington/Langley to Tel Aviv, to their ears. that Brody must be taken out.
Brody cuts off his communication with Carrie and decides to go it alone. He’ll need help and he will get it from Naserin, who is Abu Nazir’s widow. He asks her to contact Akbari and tell him that he, Brody, has some important information to pass along about Javadi.
Is Brody going to blow the entire operation sky-high? Is he going to give up Saul’s plan about Javadi to Akbari?
At this point – I’ll shut it down, and ask you to watch the show, or re watch the episode. The title of the episode is Big Man in Tehran. That would be Brody, who is now, the very tip of the sharp end of the stick. He certainly is a big man in Tehran what with admitting he is the Langley Bomber, and bad-mouthing the USA every chance he gets whenever he is in front of a microphone.
I think the episode was the best of the season in terms of the dramatic tension based on the geopolitics and the assassination machinations and plans that we watched and waited to see happen.
Another blogger that I have been following – Polar Bears Watch TV discusses how this episode might just as easily have been called Brody’s redemption.
I have another title in mind for this episode, and that would be “It’s What We Do…”
After discussing their hardships and travails -Naserin has lost her husband and her son, Issa, and Brody has lost his country, and his family (meaning his daughter), they summarize.
Naserin: I got to the same place your daughter did [suicidal]. Life is unlivable. But I survived. It’s what we do.
Brody: Yes. We crawl out of the rubble and gather up the bodies.
Which is basically what Showtime, and the Homeland’s show runner, producers,, and the writers have done. They’ve found not only redemption for themselves, but have crawled out of the huge hole they had dug (written) for themselves over the course of what was the first nine weeks of the season. It’s what we do — indeed.
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