Homeland (8×02) Catch and Release Review

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

Synopsis: Carrie reconnects with an old ally. Tasneem seeks counsel. Saul finds hope. (IMDB)

Things aren’t as clear-cut as they seem and Saul, despite his good intentions, finds himself in danger once again. Sounds pretty much like another episode of Homeland.

Catch and Release started with Carrie still shook up from seeing Gromov leaving Vice President G’ulom’s (Mohammad Bakri) office (Saul didn’t know about the Russians and she couldn’t touch them in exchange for her release). They had a history (which was why Saul plucked her out in the first place). G’ulom claimed to not know that the Russians were intelligence officers. He remained adamantly against the release of the Taliban POWs and taking back his words that undermined the peace talks. Meanwhile, Max continued monitoring chatter from Pakistan. He heard Haissam Haqqani (Numan Acar), the leader of the Taliban (and also a callback to Season 4), talking about being open to peace.

Carrie got an anonymous tip about a woman named Samira Noori (Sitara Attaie) who worked an anti-corruption probe of G’ulom whose husband was killed by a car bomb. She wanted to run an operation that would see her leave her house for a job interview while she and others search her home. The latter part of the operation was successful, garnering dirt on G’ulam but a rookie agent named Jenna (Andrea Deck) who was running the interview made Noori nervous and caused her to take a picture of her before leaving. This was a bad thing so she had to be detained. Upon learning of this, Carrie put her at ease and got her to agree to cooperate despite her feelings against G’ulam (trading peace for her revenge). Meanwhile, one of the released Guantanamo Bay prisoners was Haqqani’s second cousins. Saul’s plan was to run an (illegal) operation in Pakistan use him to get a message to Haqqani to meet in exchange for his freedom.

When confronted with the dirt Carrie had on him. G’ulom spoke a big game though eventually gave in to her demand to walk back his comments. Qureshi talked to an ally about what to do about Saul and his attempts to broker a deal with Hawwani. Pakistan wanted to take control of whatever was going to happen and that’s what they did as they came for Saul and Haqqani, who was also coming in a convoy of his own. As Haqqani’s convoy arrived, Saul tried to warn them but were hit by a rocket. Amongst all the craziness, Saul was abducted by Haqqani’s people and taken to where they were held up.

The episode ended with Gromov surprising Carrie at a bar, telling her that he gave her the anonymous tip followed by a quick reunion between Saul and Haqqani as the latter knocked him out.

So what are the Russians really doing in Afghanistan? Gromov obviously can’t be trusted but can Carrie be trusted? Will there be peace? It’s the last season so something good should happen out of it. It will be exciting to see how it all unfolds. We’ll probably be wrong a few times before we learn the truth. I can watch Carrie and Saul do anything at this point.

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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.