“Homeland,” Season 1, Episode 7, “The Weekend,” concerns two road trips. The first has Carrie and Brody headed for a cabin in the woods for sex and intrigue. The second has Saul taking Aileen back to justice from Mexico.
Spoilers surely follow.
Carrie and Brody’s relationship is one of the oddest ones ever to show up on television. Brody’s motives are clear. Carrie is an attractive woman and Brody has had a falling out with his wife. Carrie’s motives are less clear. Is it just business that drives her to use sex to get close to Brody? Or is there an attraction, heightened no doubt by the danger involved?
How many of Carrie’s actions during the road trip, including the bar fight with the neo-Nazis and the trip to the waterfall, were brought about by spontaneous human feeling and how much was calculated to bond with Brody and to keep him close to her is a matter of debate. But the breakthrough came when Carrie made a mistake concerning what kind of tea Brody liked.
Brody, now knowing that he is under suspicion, decides on honesty – or does he? No, he is not a traitor. However he has converted to Islam, albeit only casually, as he still drinks. And he professes love for Nazir, the terrorist mastermind who held him captive. Partly that is due to Stockholm Syndrome and partly due to head games Nazir played with him. He was both good cop and bad cop during Brody’s captivity. He also admits to killing Walker.
This all may be a lie, of course. Brody has proven how well he can lie.
Saul’s trip with Aileen back from Mexico to prison in Virginia was even more illuminating. Aileen is a spoiled rich girl who hates her father, hates her country and is resentful of the fact that Westerners live the high life in their oil company compounds in Saudi Arabia while the common people, like Faisal, live in squalor.
But she finally opens up. The turned American is not Brody, but his fellow captive Walker, presumed to be dead. He is the key to the terrorist operation Nazir is plotting.