“Go ahead, say it. I sent him to his death.”
“We all did.”
When Quinn and Carrie clashed earlier in the season about the necessities of the job and about whether the end justifies the means, the former was the one who began to go off the deep end. Now, however, it has all circled back around to Carrie Mathison, and the abrupt crumbling of her earlier plan brings with it a world of confusion and pain and desperation.
The last time we saw Carrie so unsure of herself, it was back in the second episode of the season, in which she nearly drowned her baby and did everything she could possibly do to get out of the U.S. That bathroom in episode two was almost like a prison for her, a claustrophobic environment that constantly broke her down as she remained there, and in “Redux”, she ends up in an actual prison; she’s huddled in the corner, looking fearfully around her at a fly on the floor, and this is a Carrie Mathison who’s losing it quickly. This is a Carrie Mathison who let her emotions get the best of her with Aayan, and this is a Carrie Mathison who shoots her finger guns at Pakistani policemen.
Of course, what separates this from her other breakdowns is the fact that others are purposely manipulating her through her medication. They’re using her history of mental illness and switching out her pills, and with this development, the show begins to draw lines connecting what we see in the present to what we’ve seen of her in the past. This is personal and professional clashing in the middle, and when she rushes through the streets of Islamabad and hallucinates Quinn and confronts Kiran and shoots those finger guns, we get the sense that she’s not so much running from others as she is running from herself. Claire Danes is, as expected, excellent at conveying Carrie’s state of mind here, and the directing and sound design are impeccable; the build up of those dissonant sounds throughout lends to a very unnerving mood, one that nicely represents Carrie’s mental state.
And, of course, when past and present collide, here enters Brody. Carrie is at her absolute nadir here, and she ends up hallucinating the man who started it all, the man who she despises and who haunts her and who she can’t stop loving. When the camera pulls back, we see that she’s literally in the arms of the enemy.
GRADE: B
OTHER THOUGHTS:
– “I’m a Jew.” “Yeah…well.” Nice comeback, Haqqani.
-Haqqani’s fairly interesting so far. He’s obviously a family man–he greets his wife, then makes his son apologize for throwing a shoe–and he’s not a cartoonish villain or anything like that. The conversation between him and Saul at the dinner table is not very subtle, announcing itself as *Very Important Political Discussion* right from the start, but I look forward to more interactions between the two.
-You guys may have missed it, but Brody isn’t the only one Carrie hallucinates in this episode. That bug on the floor of her jail cell is Chris.
-I thought this show was maybe crazy enough to actually bring Brody back. I’m glad they didn’t go that route, but I must say, I wouldn’t have been surprised.
-You go, Lockhart. This man is just so fun to watch, especially during that scene with the Pakistani delegation.
-Aasar Khan should know who Brody is, let’s be honest.
-Oh hi, Damian Lewis. I look forward to whatever you’re doing next, because you’re a fantastic actor.
Photo credit: Homeland, Showtime
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I cannot understand why they have her on amitriptyline – it is used for bipolar disorder, but you would never take it during the day, it makes you very sleepy. Patients always take it at bedtime. And, WHAT is in her capsules now?
It’s was my fav. eps. so far this season.. even tho it had the least of Rupert Friend in it,,,I knew they would bring Brody back somehow..I loved how it was done.