Homeland Season 7 Episode 3: Standoff Review

If you would like to read my review of the last episode, click here.

Synopsis: Carrie has a distressing realization. Saul negotiates. Keane and Wellington disagree. (IMDB)

Writers: Anya Leta and Ron Nyswaner

Director: Michael Klick

Rating: TV-MA

Running Time: 59mins

One step forward, two steps back as a worried Carrie started off the episode by visiting her therapist and asking for new medication, believing her lithium was no longer working for her. She had been gone for a long time, worrying her sister who had called the police looking for her. Carrie was scared of what may happen to her which could include a medically induced coma to break her lithium tolerance or even worse.

Dante decided to help Carrie after all and identified the mystery woman as Simone Martin, a woman who worked for an NGO whom Wellington has had an off and on relationship with. He wanted to continue what they had started but Carrie wasn’t in the mood. She admitted to him that she had bipolar disorder and that she needed medical treatment. She began to doubt their mission because of her disorder. Dante discovered that Martin got a parking ticket near the prison where McLendon died the day before.

Carrie and Dante surveilled Martin. He empathized with her as he had experience with her disorder. After Martin left, Carrie searched her home and found the parking ticket a and a series of pictures of her and Wellington and downloaded her hard drive. After leaving, she was stopped by the police who got a tip about her entering Martin’s home from a window. Carrie’s non-cooperation got her top the police station. She was emotional because she didn’t want an arrest on her record as it would jeopardize her relationship with Frannie.

Saul encountered opposition while looking for O’Keefe and wasn’t willing to back down and neither was O’Keefe. Saul wanted a more diplomatic solution and got permission to negotiate terms for O’Keefe’s surrender. Wellington suggested Keane drop it but she didn’t want to back down either.

Meanwhile, there were some new developments in Syria for which the military pressured Keane to act upon but she refused as she did previously. She would not allow herself to be leveraged into changing her stance since her candidacy.

O’Keefe was sorry for attracting Saul and the FBI and wondered about the potential standoff that could ensue, being in a position of weakness, so he was open to talking to Saul. O’Keefe insisted that the only thing he was guilty of was exercising his first amendment rights. He was filling a void that the country was lacking. Saul respected his beliefs and urged him to negotiate. O’Keefe wanted amnesty for Sharon and the people harboring him and a televised trial which Keane opposed.

Sharron wasn’t worried that O’Keefe would go to prison because he would get a trial but he didn’t seem to help his case with his denial of knowing about Keane’s assassination attempt. It appeared that O’Keefe may have had a backup plan. Sharron escaped and tipped off the FBI about reinforcements coming to aid O’Keefe. After a quick standoff, they went their separate ways.

Wellington pushed the Syria option to Keane to deflect the O’Keefe story but she wanted to stand by her own principles. Meanwhile, Saul was getting reinforcements of his own. Wellington tried to go over Keane’s head and order a strike in Syria.

Carrie was bailed out of jail by Dante who let her sit and decompress after her traumatic experience.

Overall, this was a good episode that saw Carrie come down from her high face the reality associated with her condition, leading her to reevaluate her life and her recent decisions. This was compelling to watch but it’s still Homeland so she still couldn’t resist snooping and got reminded of the consequences once again. Though this was the best part of the episode, Saul’s standoff was tense although expected considering where he was. Keane and Wellington appear to be drifting apart so it will be exciting to see how long it will take until it blows up. There wasn’t much headway conspiracy wise so it will be interesting to see where it goes because we don’t know much yet.

Score: 8.5/10

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.