Good news, everyone! For the first time in 16 years (has it really been that long?) Mandy Patinkin has recorded and released new music. But blink and you might miss the soul-searching in this album about the current state of the Jewish State.

Diary: January 27, 2018 is a bit of an experimental project for Patinkin (he calls it a “music making journey”). The album (no showtunes to be heard!) is plaintive, and bare-bones (Thomas Bartlett, also known as Doveman, was his producer and collaborator), and he covers the sort of songwriters you listen to when you need to get in touch with your own feelings— the Magnetic Fields, Teitur, and Randy Newman’s less caustic work.

But it’s when he covers Rufus Wainwright’s “Going to a Town” that he tweaks the lyrics. Specifically, he turns the song’s exhaustion with the United States into exhaustion with Israel.

“I’m so tired of America,” the original refrain goes. Now, it’s “Jerusalem” instead of America. As for the lyric about “soaking the body of Jesus Christ in blood,” it becomes, “After soaking the bodies in blood, I’m so tired of Jerusalem.”

It’s a bold choice; Patinkin doesn’t opine on any specific policies (he already messed with the syllable count enough), but he sounds as tired as he feels. (Though he still sounds great, of course.) He may be speaking as much to his identity as a committed Jew in the Diaspora as he is to anything Israel is doing; being emotionally involved the the quagmire of the Middle East can take a toll. Diary is clearly a highly personal work, not an agenda-laden one.

Patinkin has not publicly spoken about this cover, but he has long been a leftist activist in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. For example, he sits on the Board of Directors for Americans for Peace Now, and has received their Yitzhak Rabin Peace Award, and has worked with Breaking the Silence. (His other advocacy work includes being ambassador for the International Rescue Committee.)

There is another “Diary” album incoming for some time in 2018. We’ll see what’s weighing on Patinkin’s spirit then.

Image via Twitter

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We live in a world where Donald Trump, Jeff Dunham, and Bill Maher all got stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame before Mandel Bruce Patinkin. Such an injustice can never be undone, but at least Mandy now has his own star, in front of 6243 Hollywood Blvd.

The lame-stream media has often had the chutzpah to sum up Patinkin as “Homeland star,” and he was technically a Walk of Fame inductee for television. It’s also annoying when people call him Inigo Montoya, or express surprise that he can sing. But he’s so much more than that! Can acting, singing, and philanthropy count as the new triple-threat?

Patinkin was serving “Hot Jewish grandpa” looks at the ceremony, with his beard appearing particularly luxurious, and wearing New Balance sneakers— because comfort is important. The ceremony was peppered with Jewish references, as is only fitting for the man who released the album Mamaloshen.

First of all, theatrical legend Patti LuPone was also there to speak for her platonic life partner, and while we are obligated to point out (for the fiftieth time) that she’s not Jewish herself, she plays Rebecca’s rabbi on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and that should be enough for you.

“If he wasn’t a Broadway musical star he would have been a cantor,” LuPone announced to the adoring masses (told you she’s an honorary Member of the Tribe).

Other highlights of the ceremony included Mandy bragging that he has only had one spouse, announcing that the ceremony was “better than a Bar Mitzvah,” and delivering an anecdote about his parents having an argument with another member of their shul about their son’s career choice.

And so, a hearty mazel tov to Mr. Patinkin. We always knew you were deserving of any accolade out there, and may there be many more to come. (You’re halfway to an EGOT, and surely a Grammy and Oscar are still well within your reach.)

You can watch the whole ceremony below:

Image via YouTube.

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Zach Braff’s new film, ‘Wish I Was Here,’ is the viral media gift that keeps on giving: first there was the (controversially) crowd-sourced fundraiser on Kickstarter, then there was the much-hyped Sundance debut, then there was the teaser trailer, and now—finally!—the full-length trailer, featuring a dog called Kugel and a rabbi who thinks personal happiness is overrated.

Braff—who wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the film—appeared on the Today Show this morning with co-star Mandy Patinkin to promote the trailer (which features a new song from Garden State darlings The Shins, written specifically for the movie).

The casting of the Homeland star, it seems, was bashert: the two actors bumped into each other on the streets of New York, and Braff had to work up the courage to approach his childhood idol. “I’m so shy around famous people,” he explained. “But with Mandy I’m a lifelong fan… I was like, ‘C’mon, get your courage. You have to go talk to Mandy Patinkin.'”

A few months after the initial encounter, they ran into each other again. “We were at Fairway having breakfast,” said Patinkin, “and he said ‘I got this movie.’ I read it, I wept like a baby when I read it, it was about family, it was about my sons and the connection to my sons, everything I wish for in a story; if you love somebody, tell them… you only get so many [days], don’t waste it. He asked me and I went, ‘What, are you kidding?!’ He took one of those little selfies and we were off and running.”

Patinkin plays Gabe Bloom, the ailing father of Aidan Bloom (Braff), a thirty-something actor who is flailing spiritually and professionally. Highlights from the trailer include: a dog named kugel! A very old, mean rabbi who doesn’t care about happiness! An adorable child who thinks “hairy balls” is cursing! Jim Parsons holding a mask! The release date is July 18.

Image: Today.com

Related: Network Jews: Saul Berenson from Showtime’s Homeland
Zach Braff On His New Role In “Bullets Over Broadway” And Being An Emo Kid

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The teaser trailer for Zach Braff’s new Kickstarter-funded film, Wish I Was Here, has just been released. It contains very little dialogue (there is one notably twee line at the beginning—Braff’s character tells his daughter she can buy any costume wig she likes as long as it’s “unique and amazing, like you”*), and it doesn’t reveal much about the plot of the film, but the sound and aesthetics are pretty much Garden State redux—which is either the most amazing or worst thing on earth, depending on your feelings about Garden State.

Kate Hudson is cast as Braff’s wife, Mandy Patinkin as his ailing (possibly dying) father, and there are lots of lovely, sun-dappled shots of Los Angeles/California. At one point, we see Braff looking uber-serious as he follows a kippah-wearing man (rabbi?) down a hallway. And it’s all scored by The Shins’ “Simple Song,” from their 2011 album Port of Morrow.

The movie will be released on July 18.

Compare and share, guys:

WISH I WAS HERE

GARDEN STATE

*Does anyone actually talk like that?

Related: Zach Braff On His New Role In “Bullets Over Broadway” And Being An Emo Kid

(Image: Youtube)

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Variety reports that Zach Braff’s Kickstarter-funded movie “Wish I Was Here” will be in movie theaters in New York and Los Angeles on July 18. (If you’re perturbed by the idea of a rich movie star soliciting squillions of dollars for a major film project via the internet poor, you’re not alone.)

Here’s the unofficial IMDB synopsis of the movie, which stars Kate Hudson and marriage-officiant extraordinaire, Mandy Patinkin(!):

Aidan Bloom, a struggling actor, father and husband, who at 35 is still trying to find his identity; a purpose for his life. He winds up trying to home school his two children when his father can no longer afford to pay for private education and the only available public school is on its last legs. Through teaching them about life his way, Aidan gradually discovers some of the parts of himself he couldn’t find.

Do we detect lightly Jewy undertones from the “conservative/Orthodox”-raised filmmaker? Let’s hope so!

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All moments of uncertainty and romantically naïve implausibility that Homeland fans have endured throughout this season paid off in last night’s episode, “Big Man in Tehran.” There were still inconsistencies in the episode, but the last few minutes could have redeemed even the grossest of poor writing decisions (like, even if the first 40 minutes included only a dramatic reading of Dana Brody’s (Morgan Saylor) diary, it STILL would have been an amazing episode).

To catch up: Brody (Damian Lewis) and Javadi (Shaun Toub) are in Tehran to execute the CIA’s plan to put Javadi into high power in Iran. Brody is to use his status as an international figure of infamy to claim that he wants asylum in Iran, which is reasonable, as everyone else in the world wants to kill him. Still, Iranian officials won’t be sure of him, so Brody, who will be subject to extensive questioning, is to get close enough to Javadi’s boss, Akbari (Houshang Touzie), to kill him, which would promote Javadi to Akbari’s position. Since the CIA found incriminating stuff on Javadi that, if publicized, would ruin his standing in Iran, Javadi is America’s pawn to play however it wants. So, once Javadi is in power, the United States would be relatively safe from its former enemy. The problem with this plan is all the moving parts that Saul (Mandy Patinkin), the brains behind the far-fetched operation, acknowledges. But Saul doesn’t care—his time as Interim CIA Director is dwindling, and he only has his starry-eyed optimism and selfish ruthlessness to rely upon, not only to restore his professional reputation, but his sense of self as well.

Carrie (Claire Danes) is needlessly in Tehran, sporting a comically unconvincing disguise of a hijab and brown hair (the only convincing disguise for Crazy Carrie would be enough Botox to keep that brow un-furrowed and chin un-quivered). While she’s acting like the reason for her presence is to keep tabs on the status of the operation, it’s obvious that she’s just drawn to her baby daddy even in the most illogically dangerous scenarios. But she’s not conscious of her motivations—while on the phone with Saul, Carrie’s rendered speechless at the sight of her baby bump in a window reflection.

When Saul’s crazy plan unsurprisingly didn’t pan out, it appeared that Brody gave up and truly did just want to seek asylum in Iran. After Javadi suggests that Akbari meet Brody in person so the Iranian official could decide if Brody should be granted asylum in Iran, Akbari and Brody meet in a public arena, at opposite sides of an open square, like an old Western film. Brody, armed with a syringe of poison, moves close to Akbari, who flees the scene when Brody gets close. Iranian officials bring Brody to a house to meet with Abu Nazir’s widow, who was probably instructed by Akbari to feel out whether Brody is genuine about seeking asylum. The two have a heart to heart about how since life has been so hard for both of them, staying faithful has been challenging.

After his chat with Ms. Nazir, everyone believes that Brody just wants peaceful refuge in Iran—and his shtick worked too well. Back in America, the president ordered Brody to be killed, identifying him as a severe liability that could publicize Javadi as a double agent, which would ruin everything. Saul doesn’t tell Carrie that America is going to kill Brody, but he begs her to get out of Tehran. Naturally, she reads between the lines and disobeys orders. She calls Brody and begs him to run away with her (to preserve her future family), and he refuses. Quickly, the American agents are on Brody’s tail, so he throws the burner phone into the bushes and he runs straight to Akbari’s office to spill the beans about Javadi and the whole mission before America gets the chance to kill him. Right when it appears that the CIA was right to try and kill Brody, as he’s acting like the liability they feared he would become, he hits Akbari over the head with an ashtray and suffocates him with a pillow.

Brody did it! He’s a hero—it’s just like Rudy or Miracle! And Saul’s plan worked! It’s unclear how Brody will get out of Akbari’s office alive (with Akbari’s dead body at his feet, and having just called Carrie from the office phone—also, how did he memorize Carrie’s Iranian burner cell number? I can’t remember my sister’s cell). But Carrie will undoubtedly do something crazy and dangerous, putting herself and Brody and national security in danger, but, hey, she’s in love!

Previous: Season Three ‘Homeland’ Recap: ‘Good Night’

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While last night’s episode of Homeland packed in a lot of momentum and suspense, most of it felt like the Cold War of watching and waiting. Brody (Damian Lewis) and the special ops team, which quickly transformed him from junkie to G.I. Joe, are now trying to move past the Iranian border so that Brody can carry out phase two of Saul’s (Mandy Patinkin) plan to save his own ass bring America justice.

But it’s not that simple— the nighttime blackness of the field that the special ops team must navigate to gain Iranian entry is full of land mines. Plus, Iranian forces patrol the border area. What ensues feels like one of those violent video games that upper-middle class mom’s fear will turn their sheltered sons into felons.

Back at mission control headquarters, Carrie (Claire Danes), Quinn (Rupert Friend), Saul, and other nameless important people track the whereabouts of Brody and Co. on a radar map that looks like a cross between an ‘80s video game and a sonogram. Speaking of which, Quinn approaches Carrie to chat about when he casually shot her and no one thought it was a huge deal, and admits that he looked at her medical records when she was in the hospital. When he suggests that maybe she take it easy on the work front given her second trimester cervical status, she’s immediately pissed (That he looked at her records? That he knows she’s pregnant? That he thinks Brody is the father? That he shot her? Who knows). She dismisses him and says that Brody is not the father. But, given her notable past in deception compounded by her constant furrowed brow and near-tears stress for the rest of the episode, it’s still obvious to us that she’s carrying little baby Brody.

Soon, Senator Lockhart (Tracy Letts) joins the party. Though he wasn’t originally down with Saul’s plan, it’s happening anyway, and he decides to jump on board. Saul lets Lockhart, who pushed back the start date of his directorship (because Saul blackmailed him after discovering that Lockhart was illegally tracking his personal affairs), sit around and watch the operation play out, but it’s clear that he is hopeful for redemption so large that he will heroically retain the job for himself. But when things start going awry with Brody and the special ops team, Saul quickly loses his confidence.

While the ops team is driving around in the dark trying to navigate the field, they catch the attention of the border police. A member of the ops team shoots the border officer, splattering blood in Brody’s face, and Brody flips out, dashing from the car. The operative chases Brody and convinces him to continue their mission. But quickly, they drive over a mine and the car explodes. There’s silence back at the CIA while everyone, most notably Carrie, waits to learn the status of the men.

Upon learning that they’re both alive, Carrie tears up with relief, but the operative lost a leg in the explosion. With his inner-Marine ignited, Brody carries the wounded man to quasi-safety, calls for reinforcements, and prepares to move forward. But, given the disturbance that the land mine caused, it becomes clear to Saul that the mission is over and the Brody won’t be able to gain entry to Iran alive. He tells the general in the CIA room to get the men out alive and leaves the room, defeated.

Brody disobeys the general’s orders to move back from the border and presses forward. A fellow disobedient operative joins him and within seconds the two find themselves surrounded by Iranian forces. Surrendered and vulnerable, Brody tells the forces that he and the operative are members of Al Qaeda seeking protection in the country. They take the two men and Brody finds himself as a prisoner, yet again.

Some time later, Javadi (Shaun Toub) enters the cell and tells Brody to get ready to go before shooting the operative in the head. It’s unclear if Javadi does this as a small act of rebellion against the American forces that are puppeteering his life, or if he does it to uphold the appearance of being the Iranian national that he once was. Regardless, Brody and Javadi are now together, and just as before, the stakes couldn’t be higher for Saul.

Previous: Season Three ‘Homeland’ Recap: ‘One Last Time’

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Last night’s episode of Homeland, “One Last Time,” accomplished the impossible: it weaved together many of the show’s new plotlines, which were far less compelling when they stood alone.

Most satisfyingly, Dana Brody (Morgan Saylor) earned reprieve from her awful, season-long pity trip that made her universally unlikable. But more importantly, Saul (Mandy Patinkin) fetched a now drug-addicted Brody (Damian Lewis) from the Caracas slum in which he was being held to bring him stateside for rehab. In an exorcism-esque performance, we watch Brody go cold turkey in a timeframe so short, it could have killed him—or so says the CIA doctor. In light of his current pain, past demons, and bleak future, Brody wants to die. He tries to kill himself multiple times throughout the episode. After attempts at stabbing, drowning, and starving himself, Carrie (Claire Danes) talks some sense into him, getting him to listen to Saul.

What Saul wants is for Brody to reinstate in the Marines and kill Javadi’s (Shaun Toub) boss, making Javadi one of the top three most powerful people in Iran. Obviously, the plan in a long shot— Brody would need to be healthy and agreeable in a short enough time for Saul to still have reigns on the agency. He still has to get to Iran and complete the mission before he himself gets killed, while Javadi still has to honor his agreement with Saul to remain aligned with America. And, Carrie, who was recently shot in the arm by a fellow agent, is, ahem, 13 weeks pregnant with Brody’s baby so she’s obviously trepidatious to accept Saul’s orders, but she does anyway.

While transporting an ashy Brody through secret locations, their car randomly passes a slummy motel where Dana is walking between rooms as a housekeeper. In the tone of an evil Rocky Balboa, Brody screams for Dana from the backseat of the car. Suddenly, Brody remembers that he has a family—or at least a daughter (no one in the show has ever seemed to care at about little Chris Brody (Jackson Pace), the most annoying Boy Scout weenie to ever hit the screen). His contorted vision of Dana as “daddy’s little girl” motivates Brody to cooperate with the CIA with a delusional hope that afterward he’d return to a normal life. After Brody transforms from Requiem for a Dream to Saving Private Ryan in just over two weeks (!), he convinces Carrie to let him visit Dana before he travels to Iran to, in all likelihood, die. Because of her steep deficit of maternal instinct and general emotional warmth, Carrie agrees— maybe she hopes that he’ll be a “too little, too late” kind of parent to her secret bun in the oven as well. And, before Brody goes into the motel to see Dana, Carrie tells him about her hospitalization, suicide attempt, emancipation, and name change following the Langley bombing.

While Brody has to know that he was the force that drove Dana to attempt suicide, it apparently doesn’t occur to him that his pop-in visit may have adverse effects on her stability. So in he goes and she very rightfully freaks out. Broken down to tears, but maintaining her ground, she offers to give him whatever he needs to leave her alone forever. She tells him that she forgives him and hands him a notepad to write down whatever he wants her to say that will make him feel vindicated. Brody leaves feeling no absolution from Dana, but he probably feels that he’s leaving nothing behind no matter what happens in Iran. And, since Carrie doesn’t tell him about the baby, it seems that Brody’s only present purpose is to bring pain unto others. Plus, our future mother of the year is smoking a cigarette in the last scene, even though she doesn’t smoke cigarettes. C’mon, Carrie!

Since Brody is more or less helpless and his only options are not choices of his own, Saul has absorbed a lot of Brody’s first season anti-hero shtick. Are we rooting for him? It’s unclear—especially when Brody tries to stab himself with the chair and Saul runs into the room to stop him. Brody flashes back to when Abu Nazir (Navid Negahban) saved him from a similar breaking point many years ago, when he was a prisoner of war. The overlay of the similar situations that unite Saul and the terrorist explain Saul’s jarring shift in character, and growing theme of the show. Everyone has a personal agenda, and when the stakes get high, methods become ruthless and people remain selfish. Saul is tied to his goal—to put Javadi into Iranian power as an American force, which at this point, has become so much more than an exercise in national security. It’s security to his personal identity and sense of self, and no one is too sacred to be safe from his master plan.

Previous: Season Three ‘Homeland’ Recap: ‘A Red Wheelbarrow’

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Homeland, you’ve done it again. But, just as it would be silly to defend an SAT score as a measurement of real intellect, simply using a literary reference in an episode’s name is not enough to qualify a show as highbrow. Sunday night’s episode, “A Red Wheelbarrow,” is named for a poem by William Carlos Williams, “The Red Wheelbarrow”:

“so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens”

The significance of this poem rests within its structure rather than the meaning of its words. Each piece of the simple sentence is necessary for the whole piece to work. The first phrase, “so much depends upon,” applies to the other three phrases, which relates to what’s happening in Homeland. It’s been frustrating that a lot of the developing storylines in the show have seemed implausible, futile, and illogical, but with every seemingly silly motivation that each character has, the circuslike CIA operation is compromised. With the delicate nature of Operation Javadi, so much depends on everyone involved.

While Majid Javadi (Shaun Toub) was smuggled out of the country last week to return to Iran as an American spy, Saul (Mandy Patinkin) has to explain to the chief of staff why he let this happen, rather than, predictably and appropriately, arresting Javadi.

Flabbergasted by the crazy, irresponsible extent of the mission, Senator Lockhart (Tracy Letts) tattles on Saul. The chief of staff isn’t impressed, but he doesn’t have many choices outside of allowing Saul to continue the plan. With the truly disconcerting magnitude to which Saul is pleased with himself, it’s a wonder that he hasn’t transformed into a God complexed, Don Draper-type. But, he’ll probably fall from grace soon enough.

Angered, Carrie (Claire Danes) confronts Saul about why he didn’t disclose everything he knew from Javadi about Brody’s [lack of] involvement in the bombing. Eventually, Saul admits that he should have been forthright with her, but that he doesn’t completely understand why Carrie cares SO much—we do though. Drumroll… Brody is Carrie’s baby daddy, and she’s 13 weeks pregnant, and she admitted to drinking heavily after knowing about the pregnancy, AND she’s not considering an abortion.

Before he left for Iran, Javadi told Carrie that Brody was not the Langley bomber and that she could find the real bomber through Javadi’s lawyer (the one who put her and Javadi in touch). She meets with the lawyer, taps his phone, and follows him to the bomber. When she sees that the lawyer has a gun, she is intent on stopping him from killing the bomber, because without the bomber alive, it becomes impossible to clear Brody’s name. When Carrie disobeys orders to stop following the lawyer and to let him kill the bomber if need be (it’s more important for the agency to keep the lawyer than the bomber alive, as the lawyer has more knowledge about the enemy), Quinn is ordered to shoot her, so he does. She’s that in love! She willingly gets shot to try and absolve her sperm donor—Romance!

Speaking of romance, Mira Berenson (Sarita Choudhury) breaks up with her lover to give life with Saul another go. The lover isn’t happy about it, and later breaks into the Berenson home to either swipe information from their computer or install some kind of camera. Whatever he did, it was weird, but we don’t know yet if he’s a spy. So, either this is turning into The Truman Show: Terrorist Edition, where everyone’s involved, or Mira’s a serious heartbreaker. Whatever the case, it’s strange that the lover escalated from his super-minor role in the show so jarringly quickly.

While the pacing in the show’s development feels weird, this week’s literary reference makes sense—it explains why we need to take Carrie’s bizarre pregnancy seriously rather than dismiss it as a low-hanging-fruit soap opera-esque plot addendum. The pregnancy (well, mainly Brody being the father) affects Carrie’s motivations and actions, and could compromise the state of the operation. The same goes for Saul’s new confident invincibility kick, which could blow up in his—and everyone else’s—face if he becomes too sure of himself. The far-fetched premise of the mission (let’s put Carrie in a mental institution, because obviously, it will draw the attention of a particular Iranian spy) invokes the order of the universe. In the operation, no task is too small, no motivation is too feeble, and no action is too trivial to disrupt the master plan—like the structure of “The Red Wheelbarrow.”

Previous: Season Three ‘Homeland’ Recap: ‘Geronation’

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Note to Homeland writers: upon pretentiously naming an episode after a T.S. Eliot poem, not only will the ears of English majors everywhere perk with excitement that their serially uncool literary prowess finally came in quasi-handy, but the expectation of quality for the show will likely multiply. So when the seventh episode of the season, “Geronation,” under-delivered in both plot and character, it was extra disappointing. In fact, the single unquestionable positive of last night’s show was the absence of Dana Brody.

Eliot’s poem, Geronation, is about an old man reflecting on a changed world he cannot control. This highbrow reference is—wait for it— a metaphor to our elder CIA bigwig, Saul (Mandy Patinkin). In an epic long con, Saul compromised the mental stability of his mentee, Carrie (Claire Danes), by portraying her as a bipolar reject of the agency on the national stage. When his secret mission successfully lured his Iranian counterpart, Majid Javadi (Shaun Toub), to seek out Carrie as an American intelligence source for Iran, Saul involved other agents, including Quinn (Rupert Friend) into the mix. All of this comes with Saul’s knowledge that his days as CIA director are numbered, Senator Lockhart, is set to replace him. So when he repeatedly compromises the safety of his colleagues, it’s unclear whether Saul’s incentive is a completely self-serving attempt to heroically save face professionally in the eleventh hour or it’s a completely self-serving internal struggle to prove himself to… himself.

Saul’s manipulations have proven reckless, as his efforts to get Javadi into the country allowed the Iranian official to find and brutally murder his daughter in-law and ex-wife, whom Saul helped to escape Iran many years ago. Since Quinn was photographed going into Javadi’s ex-wife’s house before her murder, he must admit to the crime to protect the secrecy of the CIA’s mission. By calling the murder a CIA operation, Quinn is safe-ish from repercussions, but attention is obviously negative for the agency and for himself. Despite his bravery and absolute innocence, when the FBI chastises Quinn about all the damage the CIA does, he agrees. He tells Carrie that he feels done with the job and all the harm that trails behind its actions. Quinn makes some good, honest points, but mostly it feels like he took a hit of whatever Dana Brody’s been smoking.

After we learn that Saul and Javadi were friends in a previous life, before Javadi took to mass murders—including the Langley bombing—we understand the personal connection Saul has to Javadi’s fate. When interrogating a bloody Javadi, fresh from his ex-wife’s murder scene, Saul attempts to level with him. He graciously commends Javadi for catalyzing his ascent to the directorship—without the Langley bombing, Saul would not be in power—and vows to return the favor. He tells Javadi to return to Iran, but as an agent under Saul’s own operation. The plan is to push Javadi to the height of power, so that the CIA can exert control over the enemy rather than the obvious move to kill Javadi with a patriotic hurrah, which would only put a new, and potentially more harmful, Iranian in power. If this concept seems novel or brilliant, please refer to the entire first two seasons to watch Abu Nazir (Navid Negahban) play out the identical story with Brody.

Nevertheless, Javadi agrees to the plan, despite the nearly definite probability that he will not act in accordance once on the ground in Iran. Carrie escorts Javadi to the plane, and while on the way, discovers that he knows about Brody’s involvement (or lack thereof) in the Langley bombing, and that Saul asked him what he knew about the topic. Javadi says that Brody did not put the bomb in his trunk, confirming Carrie’s wishful thinking that the potential father of her baby (!) is not a monster. It also confirms that Saul didn’t trust Carrie’s word—that he needed Javadi’s confirmation. And then her chin quivers.

Senator Lockhart learns about the entire secret mission as Javadi is taking off, and Saul is practically beaming. We watch, needlessly, as Saul catches up Lockhart about the entire operation and Lockhart reacts about as badly as expected, threatening to tattle to the president immediately—so naturally, Saul locks him in a conference room and turns the light off. “What the fuck” was the response of both Lockhart and the audience. Saul has a celebratory drink in his office before going home to reclaim his estranged wife.

With this uncharacteristic kick of confidence, Saul obviously believes that he is an old man who has changed the world, but something tells me that his troubles are far from over. The unfortunate growing theme of this season is that nice guys finish last. But, with every developing storyline and confusing addendums to existing plotlines, it’s increasingly unclear who exactly the “good guys” are.

Previous: Season Three ‘Homeland’ Recap: ‘Still Positive’

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