Homeland - Season 2 [Showtime - US] **Spoilers!**

Wobbly episode alright - but I'll stick with it for the next two. Good to see the great Salieri from Amadeus (F.Murray Abrams) turn up as a kind of rouge handler. Hope we get to see a lot more of him.

i dont think she was after nazir when she went back, any CIA agents with half a brain knows that nazir left 3 minutes after she was released, she went back to check out the area, and grabbed the pipe in the off chance nazir was dumb enough to still be hanging around,

while i do agree the brody carrie love angle is being pushed to near front and center of the show, i dont think it detracts from what lets be fair a very good show,

i dont understand what it is exactly that has swung this thread from praising the show in the first 6 or 7 episodes, to what seems like fierce hatred now,

also i noticed some people complaining about remote accessing a pacemaker, im by no means an expert but if i had one i would be slightly paranoid, if they can be remotely monitored they can be remotely controlled,

Wikipedia wrote: »

Security and privacy concerns have been raised with pacemakers that allow wireless communication. Unauthorized third parties may be able to read patient records contained in the pacemaker, or reprogram the devices, as has been demonstrated by a team of researchers. The demonstration worked at short range; they did not attempt to develop a long range antenna. The proof of concept exploit helps demonstrate the need for better security and patient alerting measures in remotely accessible medical implants. In response to this threat, Purdue University and Princeton University researchers have developed a prototype firewall device, called MedMon, which is designed to protect wireless medical devices such as pacemakers and insulin pumps from hackers.

gnfnrhead wrote: »

Really dont get why people bitch and moan and proclaim it the worst thing ever, but continue to watch. If you dont like it, dont watch it. Simple.

I've enjoyed every episode thus far for what its worth. But Carrie really is getting on my nerves. She deserves to die for her continued stupidity. "Dont go after Nazir" ten seconds later, she brings a pipe to a gunfight with Nazir! Maybe tell her to go after Nazir and she might hold back?

So you tell people to stop watching if they're going to bitch and moan and then proceed to .......bitch and moan about the show.

With regards the show,let's be honest the show was never going to be able to keep Brody as a main character for more than one season in any way that would maintain the credibility of season 1. The show runners had a choice, (a) Kil Brody and start again with some new antagonists and hope that they take or (b)revamp the show into 24 2.0 while keeping the two main characters.

It seems like they have chosen option B ( I still think they have an out if they kill off Brody by season end) and I'm ok with that but I won't be as invested. It is becoming fluff, ejoyable fluff, but fluff nonethless

When you think about the whole Abu Nazir kidnapping Carrie scenario it's absolutely ridiculous. Abu Nazir was a more menacing character by not being shown on screen. Now they have the big bad terrorist taking care of business personally. Him shown mercy by releasing Carrie shows a weaker side to him. He kidnaps her in broad daylight in a residential area not knowing if she has a security escort or not. He then rings his fellow terrorist Brody, who's cellphone is tapped (except it isn't for this particular episode) and when Brody answers it its on FaceTime or whatever it's called on BlackBerry and Abu Nazir starts making demands. Anyone close to Brody could have seen Abu Nazir on the cellphone. Brody freaks out, leaves the apartment and then tells his female minder he wants a meeting with the VP. Brody is visibly distressed in the car (did I mention Brody is a known terrorist) but the minder just brushes it off. He then is left on his own at the VPs house where he spends an eternity in the VPs office. Nobody notices he is missing, a known terrorist.

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

When you think about the whole Abu Nazir kidnapping Carrie scenario it's absolutely ridiculous. Abu Nazir was a more menacing character by not being shown on screen. Now they have the big bad terrorist taking care of business personally. Him shown mercy by releasing Carrie shows a weaker side to him.

That's true but I think he only did it because it was Brody (he admitted to Carrie that he loved him).

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

He kidnaps her in broad daylight in a residential area not knowing if she has a security escort or not. He then rings his fellow terrorist Brody, who's cellphone is tapped (except it isn't for this particular episode)

Massive plot hole there I agree. The viewer wasn't told that the tap on his phone had been lifted.

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

Nobody notices he is missing, a known terrorist.

A lot of people have said this but it's only the CIA (Estes, Saul and a few others) that know Brody was working for Nazir before. Nobody in the government knows; that was part of the deal to get Brody to inform on Nazir.

That was a really strange episode. The tone of it jarred with the rest of the series, it's like it was written by someone who had never actually seen the show before but got a brief synopsis of what it was about and then got to work.

As mentioned above, there are so many apparent plot holes it's hard to know where to start. What did the VP's security team think Brody was doing in the toilet all that time?! It must have been close to 15 minutes.

Don't get me started on Dana....she is the most irritating screen presence on television these days... they should get Nazir to kill her off.

Brody's cartoon-like expressions when he was hamming it up on the phone to Nazir were utterly bizarre. Was it meant to show us just how much he's actually losing it, how much he cares for Carrie? It was almost comical at times, especially when he saw Carrie getting away and started nodding his head vigorously.

Having said that, the return of 'bad' Brody as he was metaphorically twisting the knife into the VP was class. Loved it when he said through gritted teeth: "I'm killing you".:D

The good thing is that there are two episodes left to get this show out of the bit of a mess that it's in right now. I still have faith in it especially as there should be a major twist before the end of the season :cool:

yeah i dont get how people can pick out the small fact that brodys phone is tapped, but they dont know that literally 5 people know that brody is a terrorist, sure estes went nuts when he found out and couldnt tell his best friend the VP that hes running partner was a terrorist, and even when walden found brody in his office he didnt care, why the hell would he, this guy was gonna be his right hand man for at least the next 5 years,

it was never gonna be announced that he was a terrorist, he was gonna leave politics for family reason and be placed in a nice monitored location with his family, theyre hardly gonna scream it around that a US senator is a terrorist,

also why does everyone assume nazir hopped in a truck and grabbed carrie, he still has a vast network of contacts, and also still has a mole in the CIA, a mole who probably could have disabled brodys tracker, also if blackberries cant do video calls then why the hell do they have forward facing cameras on them,

bigslice wrote: »

He passed a few people who seemed to be workers, not security personel and said he was on way to toilet[/I], again it would be likely he knows these people and was passing comment as a co-worker as such.

Walden was meeting with the Israeli ambassador, some of those guys would have been Israeli intelligence/security and they'd be watching out for their own guy rather than following Walden's visitors around.

The congressman was already in the VPs house - not a randomer in College Green. All security checks would have been passed on the way in. Who's to say Brody doesn't have a second untapped phone ?

As a previous poster said, Brody's behaviour was comical when he was on the phone to Nazir; his facial expressions almost outdid Carrie. That frantic nodding of the head was bizarre.

lukin wrote: »

As a previous poster said, Brody's behaviour was comical when he was on the phone to Nazir; his facial expressions almost outdid Carrie. That frantic nodding of the head was bizarre.

I have to agree there,I like Damien Lewis as an actor but the scene in theoffice and the dialouge between Nazir and Brody was a bit childish,and I dont think Nazir looks the part now on American soil than when he stepped out of the Jeep in Palistine,it looks and sounds better when he is delegating from afar,to hands on for my type of baddie.

Part of the problem with Homeland is that it "rewards" the viewers too much. I mean we watch these shows 'cause we want a pay-off at some stage. We want answers to be revealed and storylines to have an ending, not be dragged on for ages (eg Lost).
The CIA found out Brody was a terrorist at the end of season one when from a ratings point of view it would have made more sense to drag it out for another season. Likewise the Nazir storyline is coming to fruition sooner than the audience expected. I think this is a good thing but the trouble with it is that the writers have cashed in their chips too early and there's not much left to create a story with.
Unless they have something else up their sleeves of course.

I enjoyed the last episode on the whole. The thing that doesn't play right with me is that Nazir is willing to die for the cause. He is way more powerful alive and pulling strings than as a martyr.

Also it wasn't very jihadist to have Nazir assasinate the VP in such a covert manner. I mean nobody will even know that he was assasinated as the White House will put out a story about a faulty pacemaker or something.
The whole point of terrorism is to terrrorise people (beheadings on the internet, flying plans into buildings etc.). A big "spectacular" that everyone will see.
It didn't make sense for Nazir to do it in this way.