#hyh ask

[hellyeahomeland]

S1's best episode?; S2's best episode?; S3's best episode?; S4's best episode?; S5's best episode?; S6's best episode?; S7's best episode?; S8's best episode?

S1's worst episode?; S2's worst episode?; S3's worst episode?; S4's worst episode?; S5's worst episode?; S6's worst episode?; S7's worst episode?; S8's worst episode?

Season 1: best "Marine One," worst "Crossfire"

Season 2: best "Q&A," worst I'm just gonna say it "A Gettysburg Address" is bad. "Broken Hearts" may be the most meme-able but just about every time I go through a 4-way intersection I think of Carrie's car getting slammed as she's turning up the jazz on the radio and that alone makes it ok.

Season 3: best "The Star," worst "Gerontion" too many old men

Season 4: best "There's Something Else Going On" for the tarmac scene alone though honorable mentions to "Halfway to a Donut" for "Saul, you're in a courtyard, you need to exit it now" and "From A to B and Back Again" for Carrie channeling get if off your chest, get it off my desk at the end. Worst is probably "Iron in the Fire" with an honorable mention to "Long Time Coming" for the botching of Ellen Mathison, which still annoys me.

Season 5: best "Super Powers" very chef's kiss, worst "Better Call Saul" for the title alone.

Season 6: um jesus no episode in this season stands out as best, it's just a collection of scenes I'm likely to call iconic. On the one hand "Sock Puppets" had the scene with Carrie at the therapist and "maybe you shouldn't have been fucking a Russian mole," on the other hand "R Is For Romeo" had Quinn literally walking into the light!!!! and Carrie hat. The worst is "Casus Belli" which is a disgusting and manipulative episode of television and its only redeeming quality is Carrie shutting the door at the end. Maybe season six is actually quite bad???

Season 7: best "Species Jump" is that girl, worst is actually I quite like every episode that season, maybe "Standoff" but it has a pseudo-Marine One jacket and the score from "The Star" at the end so it can't be that bad.

Season 8: best "Prisoners of War" thank you life, thank you love, and it is true, there is some angels in this city. Worst is "Catch and Release."

[hyhpodcast]

Hello there! I just wanted to say a big thank you for the podcast and blog. After rewatching the show in March this year I was lucky to find the hellyeahhomeland podcast and my god! So many episodes to listen to! So obsessed and passionate! I feel so related to you all listening from Sweden, especially this very sad and strange spring. Keep up the good work! And thanks again ❤️

Wow, thanks for listening! 

[hellyeahomeland]

At the end of S2, a bomb goes off in Brody's SUV while it's parked in front of Langley. How is it that in 2012, when every square inch of Wal-Mart parking lots was under camera surveillance. the parking lot of the CIA's headquarters didn't have cameras watching it? Seems pretty glaring that in S3, no one ever mentions who moved Nick's SUV from the parking lot to where the bomb detonated. Everyone just seems to assume it was Brody who committed the crime. But no one ever even LOOKED at the video?

(In honor of 12/12/12 being 10 years ago I'm moving this to the front of the line.)

Wasn't there a line about CCTV footage or something or other later in the episode? Anyway, yes, it's highly implausible but suspension of disbelief is the price of admission you pay for a TV show like this sometimes.

Let's refresh our memories and break it down ...

Carrie and Brody sneak out of a funeral and start making out in SAUL'S OFFICE and he says "I'm not sad, the opposite" (LOLOLOL). Their making out is interspersed with David Estes's last words, and then Brody sees.... y'know, out of the corner of his eye, his car, of course his car, my car. Never mind that it's the most generic-ass white SUV to exist in America. He knows it's his car but for some reason has no idea that that means, while it takes Carrie approximately 0.6 seconds to realize they're fucked! And then Carrie pulls a gun on Brody--again, all in Saul's office!!!--and Claire Danes' delivery of "I can't see into your fucking soul, Brody" is simply life-affirming. EXQUISITE. I have no notes. It's Homeland season two at its season two-iest. And, yes, THAT IS WORTH THE PRICE OF ADMISSION for the whole damn thing.

[hellyeahomeland]

Nicholas Brody is the screen's most realistic anti-villain? The Anti-Villain is the opposite of an Anti-Hero in the sense that he enters into the villain's plan, but for a noble cause - at least in his eyes. They may be more noble or heroic than an antihero, but the means to their ends are often considered immoral, unfair, or evil. They are also sometimes considered gray characters due to their constant moral ambiguity. It is possible, and in fact very common, to be both an anti-villain and

antihero, but the means to their ends are often considered immoral, unfair, or evil. They are also sometimes considered gray characters due to their constant moral ambiguity. It is possible, and in fact very common, to be both an anti-villain and an anti-hero, depending on the character's goal and their methods for achieving it. While their goals are obviously harmful, their feelings are often noble and even heroic, and they can wriggle out of the negative consequences of their goals. It is not greed, lust for power, or sadism that motivates his campaign against the heroes, but rather a well-meaning motive or one more complex than typical villainy. Or he's been brainwashed (like Nicholas Brody) and doesn't know what he's doing while serving villains (an example is Captain America: The Winter Soldier).

I think Taylor Swift has made us obsessed with labels. What makes Brody such a compelling character is you can actually make a pretty compelling argument for him being a hero, villain, anti-hero, or anti-villain (and, come to think of it, Carrie too).

Perhaps it's time, or nostalgia, but I view the majority of Brody's behavior with more sympathetic eyes. I look at him with pity more than disdain. Carrie's ability to make him a victim in "Q&A" is such a master class of manipulation because it fits with exactly how the man sees himself (the line delivery on "someone else" is... ahhhh chef's kiss):

I know that you think that he was kind to you, that he saved you, but the truth is... he systematically pulled you apart, Brody. Piece by piece, until there was nothing left but pain. And then he relieved the pain and he put you back together again as someone else.

Or, in the words of Jacob Clifton:

I’ve always wondered what Carrie would have thought about Nick, say, ten years ago. Before 9/11 when they were – when we were – just kids. But the thing in him she loves, that binds him to her, the blinding brightness they share: Did Abu Nazir put it there, while he was tearing him apart? Or just crack him open and let it out? Do they love what’s broken in each other, or do they love what that breaking revealed?

[hellyeahomeland]

Season 8: Why was Carrie Mathison shown to be so incompetent in the last season of Homeland? Was it just to make her more human, or was there something else going on?

I'm laughin' at this one, I gotta hand it to you.

[hellyeahomeland]

Have you seen The Americans? If so can I get your thoughts on it in a sentence

Elizabeth and Philip Jennings really did that (and there are so many hats and turtlenecks).

[hellyeahomeland]

I… just wanna talk about Homeland still. 😭😭😭 You know?

[hellyeahomeland]

Ngl I get hella excited when I see you’ve answered a bunch of questions just because I still have a mighty need for Homeland. Thank you for putting up with this.

So there is still one of you out there.