Sunday, September 29, 2013

Semper I - Homeland Episode Summary 1.4

Semper I Homeland episode summary
Synopsis: The public’s approval rating on Sergeant Nicholas Brody has caught the eye of the vice president that he sends one of his closest advisers to determine if there is a political future for the American hero.  Meanwhile, Saul Berenson and Carrie Mathison find some information that made them believe that Prince Farid’s majordomo is the one working for Abu Nazir.  They suspect that he had stolen Lynne Reed’s expensive necklace, and used the proceeds to fund Abu Nazir’s next attack.

Episode Summary: Sergeant Nicholas Brody continues his role as American hero as he addresses the troops who are about to be deployed at Fort Eustis.  His address, that was well received, was broadcast in television.  Elizabeth Gaines, the vice president’s chief political operative, having learned of the public’s high regard towards Sergeant Brody meets with C.I.A Deputy Director David Estes to ascertain if there is any truth in the public’s perception.  David sees right through Elizabeth’s motives; she and the vice president have political plans for Sergeant Brody.  They intend to have him run for national office.  However, they are uncertain as to his mental health given the ordeal he has gone through.  Knowing of David’s ambition for directorship, Elizabeth uses it as a motivation for his cooperation.Continue reading...

Saul Berenson interrupts David’s meeting with news on the method by which Abu Nazir finances his attack.  Carrie Mathison addresses her colleagues of their discovery.  She shows them a photograph of Prince Farid’s majordomo, Latif bin Walid, entering a Laundromat doubling as a hawala.  He is seen carrying a package they believe is the expensive necklace that was stolen from Lynne Reed.  The agency has tracked the customers that have visited the Laundromat since Latif made the drop, and are looking to find approval from David to allow them to do background checks and spy on them.  With David’s approval, the agency is now tasked with determining who among the Laundromat’s customers has the means to purchase the necklace.  Soon after, Carrie speaks to Saul seeking for an extension on the FISA warrant.  Unable to produce a single lead from her unsanctioned spying on the Brody family, Saul turns down her request.  Carrie is still convinced that the money will lead back to Brody despite not having any evidence to prove it.  Saul orders Carrie to remove the surveillance equipment she and her team have installed in Brody’s house.

Captain Mike Faber has been escorting Brody to and from his public appearances, and has been a source of support for the American hero.  Brody, however, has noticed that Mike appears to be avoiding spending time with his family.  Mike uses his desire for Brody to spend more time with his family without him interfering as an excuse, but Brody hints of knowing the real reason for his avoidance.  Brody finds his wife and son in the backyard admiring an eight-point buck.  He puts a damper on their admiration, pointing out that the beautiful creature is a nuisance.  He makes his way to the garage, and washes his hands as if preparing for prayer.  He is struck with vivid memories of his wife including the day of his deployment where Jessica would not let go of him, and Mike teases them for their public display of affection.  Brody then takes out a tin box that contains a disassembled gun, and begins to clean it.

The following day, the Brodys dress for Sunday service.  As he predicted, Brody notices the trampled tulips; the work of the buck they saw in the woods very close to their backyard.  Jessica suggests options to keep the deer from entering their backyard, but receives derision from her husband.  Moreover, when Jessica suggested building a fence around their backyard to keep the deer away, Brody contemptuously recommends Mike for the job.  Carrie was witness to this family drama as she spies on them one last time.  Virgil arrives at Carrie’s house anxious to get the surveillance equipment out of Brody’s house, but Carrie remains reluctant to the task.  Carrie was hoping that Virgil shares the same belief as hers, but after spending weeks monitoring their suspect, Virgil is not convinced of Carrie’s suspicions.  Carrie, Virgil, and Max begin the sweep of the bugs they implanted in Brody’s house.  While the two men are busy removing the surveillance equipment, Carrie makes one last attempt to find proof that will support her theory.  She checks the garage, the one place in the house they did not have cameras installed, but her search came up empty.  She did notice a rug, and a silver basin, but made nothing of it.

Brody with his family attends the post-service gathering.  He is surprised to learn that Major Foster had attended it as well, and that he brought with him Elizabeth Gaines, one of the vice president’s closest advisers.  Elizabeth invites Brody to lunch the following week to discuss with him what she and the vice president have in mind.  Meanwhile, Mike relays to Jessica the conversation he had with Brody the previous day.  Both of them suspect that Brody already knows of their affair.  Mike proposes to come clean with Brody, something Jessica believes they should have done the moment Brody returned.  Having kept the lie far too long, both agree that it is too late to come clean.  Mike suggests that they must find a way to deter Brody’s suspicions starting with his reemergence in their lives.  Jessica invites Mike to a get together at their house the following evening.  Mike clearly still has feelings for Jessica, and he expresses his concern for her.  Jessica begins to confide in Mike, but changes her mind about it.  Later that night, Jessica informs Brody of having invited Mike to tomorrow night’s get together expecting the man to become upset.  His reaction, however, was hard to read.  Uncertain of what her husband knows Jessica turns to her daughter to determine if she had mentioned the affair to Brody.  Dana assures her mother that she has not informed her father of her infidelity.  Jessica’s odd behavior prompted the young woman to ask if their marriage is in trouble.  Moreover, she informs her mother that she has no qualms about them getting a divorce especially if it is for the best.  Chris, on the other hand, may not be receptive of this.  Jessica assures her daughter that she and Brody are not getting a divorce.

David and Agent Danny Galvez spend their Sunday going over the list of Laundromat customers.  With Carrie not in sight, David takes the opportunity to get to know more about Galvez.  The Middle Eastern looking analyst bearing a Hispanic surname informs his superior of his ancestry.  Galvez is the son of a Lebanese woman and a Guatemalan man who met each other at D.M.V. where his mother refused to remove her headscarf for the photo.  The man who was taking the photo was his father.  His lineage allowed him to be fluent in both Arabic and Spanish. David, knowing of Galvez’ ambition to become an operative, hints of being able to get Galvez a position in the Cairo station if he is successful with the task he assigns on him.  David is suspicious of how Carrie led the agency to reinvestigate Abu Nazir.  He would like Galvez to see if Carrie is running something on the side, one the agency has not sanctioned.

With the surveillance equipment taken out of Brody’s house, Carrie resorts to staking out of the house.  She receives a call from an annoyed Galvez whom she left alone to deal with the background checks on the Laundromat customers.  He had investigated Raquim Faisel, an assistant professor at Bryden University, and found his three trips to Lahore in the past eighteen months a red flag.  The uncertainty around the purpose of his trips made both agents suspicious of Faisel.  Carrie instructs Galvez to make some appointments at the university to allow them to speak with the professor.  The following day, the two decide to follow Raquim, and strangely finds him driving in the opposite direction of his apartment in Truxton Circle.  Aileen Morgan, Raquim’s wife, receives a call informing her to tell Raquim to use an alternate route.  Aileen rushes to the bedroom, and installs an American flag on their bedroom window.  Raquim notices the flag just as he was about to pull over in their driveway.  He drives past his house, and Aileen spots Carrie’s SUV that was right behind her husband’s car.  Carrie and Galvez continue to tail Raquim only to find him driving to a Moroccan restaurant near the airport where he dined alone after which he returned to his apartment at Truxton Circle.  After some more digging, the agents find Raquim less and less of a suspect.  Raquim is a respected and tenured professor of mechanical engineering.  Although he does attend Muslim prayer services, he has not displayed religious fanaticism.  Moreover, he was lecturing at the University of Lahore, which explains his three trips to Pakistan.  David instructs Carrie and Galvez to move on to the next candidate if the stake out on Raquim’s apartment comes up empty.

Carrie becomes suspicious of David with his uncharacteristic amicable behavior towards her, and with Galvez having brought up the rumors of her affair with David.  David confesses that he has been holding on to the idea of being angry with Carrie for what happened before and after Baghdad.  Carrie apologizes for having run away from him, and for whatever happened in Baghdad.  The two had a serious relationship, so much so, that David ran after Carrie when she left for New York.  Carrie apologizes for wrecking David’s marriage, but David believes that his marriage was long over even before their affair.  In fact, his wife, Victoria, has already remarried.  She and their children even converted to Judaism after she married a Jewish doctor from Fort Lauderdale.

Mike arrives to the party at the Brodys with a date to dispel any notion of his affair with Jessica.  Brody stations himself in the garage, and watches his wife converse with Mike.  He becomes uneasy as he watches his wife touch Mike’s shoulder as the man takes his leave to look for Brody.  The sound of gunshots terrifies everyone causing some of the guests and Jessica to rush to where they heard the shots.  They find Brody in the backyard holding a gun, and the lifeless carcass of the beautiful eight-point buck.  Brody’s odd behavior alarms Mike who asks Brody to hand him the gun, but the man is hostile to him.  Chris runs to the backyard to see that the magnificent deer he once admired is now lying dead in their backyard.  Jessica pleads Mike to apologize to the guests, and ask them to leave.  Moreover, she begs the reluctant lover to leave as well.  Jessica boldly confronts her armed husband about his strange behavior.  Brody, as expected, believes that he is psychologically intact.  Jessica lays down the various ways Brody has exhibited mental instability from his firing a weapon in front of their friends and family to his inability to perform in bed.  Jessica gives his husband an ultimatum.  Brody is to go see a psychiatrist or she is going to ask for divorce.  This seemed to have put some sense on Brody.

After the alarming incident a few days ago, Raquim becomes concerned, and tells his wife that they should pack up and leave.  Aileen, however, appeases her frightened husband, and reminds him that their instructions were to sit tight.  Moreover, she points out that the lack of authorities barging into their house proves that any suspicion placed on them must have been dispelled.  True enough, Carrie adds Raquim to the cleared candidates.  She and Galvez move on to Sheikh Eyad Hassoun, a grounds man for the Islamic House on Constitution Avenue.  The sheikh was arrested years before for refusing to leave a rally protesting the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia.  With no other leads, Carrie once again brings up the idea of putting a tail on Brody.  Saul, however, rejects this request as well.  He has gotten wind of the political interest on Brody.  He sees it best that they stay away.  Moreover, he observes that Carrie has become obsessed with Brody having spent every single day of the past few weeks spying on him.  He tells her to move on, and follow another trail.

Jessica has gotten through to Brody with her ultimatum, and learns that her husband has decided to join a veterans’ support group meeting at the church.  Brody, however, would not want Jessica to get her hopes up for he is still hesitant with the whole idea of seeking psychiatric help.  Carrie, once again, disobeys Saul’s orders and stakes out of Brody’s house.  She follows Brody to the church.  Moreover, she does the most unexpected and riskiest act; Carrie joins the support group.  Brody recognizes her from the debriefing, but Carrie leaves before she can explain her presence there.  Brody, however, follows her out, and Carrie makes an excuse of not being able to continue sitting through the meeting for no one must know what her actual profession is.  In fact, she has been hopping from one support group to another in order to avoid getting her cover blown.  Brody appears to have believed this lie, and offers to forego the meeting so Carrie could attend.  Carrie refuses this offer, but accepts Brody’s invitation to hold their own private meeting.  They seem to have found a confidant in each other.  The pouring rain disrupts their conversation, and Carrie decides to leave.


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