Homeland (8×01) Deception Indicated Review

For our review of the last episode of Homeland, click here.

Synopsis: Carrie recovers in Germany. Saul negotiates. Max has a new mission. (IMDB)

I’m so happy Homeland is back but I’m sad that it’s coming to an end though 8 seasons is a good run for any series.

Deception Indicated starts with Carrie in a hospital in Germany, still recovering from her nearly year-long captivity by the Russians. She looks better but she’s not there yet. There were still questions about her time in captivity as many wondered if she was compromised. She wanted to be reinstated but there was still 180 days of her captivity unaccounted for and she also failed a polygraph test. Carrie was adamant that she never gave anything up while in captivity and was frustrated with how she was being treated.

In Qatar, Saul was working on a peace deal between the Afghans and the Taliban. Things were not looking good. The United States wanted to get out. Things got worse when the Vice President of Afghanistan held a press conference announcing that they will not release Taliban POWs. Saul offered to facilitate the release of Taliban soldiers in U.S. custody which saved some time. Tasneem Qureshi (Nimrat Kaur) and the Pakistani delegation proved to be unhelpful.

Saul checked in on Carrie as he needed her help in Afghanistan with the Vice President (he vouched for her despite her condition). Once she arrived, Kabul was different than she remembered as was the structure at the station (however she was being watched as other forced didn’t quite trust her yet). Carrie snuck out alone to meet one of her old contacts (station chief Mike Dunne (Cliff Chamberlain) wasn’t thrilled). His wife wasn’t necessarily happy to see her because he was killed for working with the Americans but his last contact came when she was in prison (implying he was working with another American but Carrie thought it may have been her that gave him up). As she left, she was pursued by the Taliban.

Max touched down near the Pakistan border and found himself part of a batallion on a classified mission to install a listening device (they didn’t quite trust or even think much of him). However, it wasn’t going as quickly as he predicted. The soldiers were growing restless but Max was committed to finishing the job. The tension was eased once he told the soldiers the truth about why he was there. Max’s mission was successful as he installed the device and survived while out in the open (and an intense shoot-out).

Carrie learned that the Russians were working with the Afghans against the United States which became very evident when she saw Gromov (her captor) exit the Vice President’s office and give her a sinister wink.

Now that was expectedly unexpected. It’s nice to see some carryover from last season. It will certainly be intriguing as we inevitably learned what happened during all those unaccounted days of Carrie’s captivity.

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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.