TV Review: HOMELAND: Season 2, Episode 8: I’ll Fly Away

Homeland Season 2 Episode 8 I’ll Fly Away Review. Homeland: Season 2, Episode 8: I’ll Fly Away was an episode where mental exhaustion makes Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) have a minor breakdown. He is literally being pulled apart by three masters: CIA, the terrorists, and his home life. The strength of this crisis is that the viewer sees the players behind the scenes reacting to his new mental state and adjusting to it on the fly. When I say the people behind the scenes, I mean Ex-CIA Officer Carrie Anderson (Claire Danes).

Anderson is gun-ho about keeping Brody “in play’ and keeping him safe. This is because: a.) she is trying to prove herself to the CIA, that even-though she has a condition, she is an asset, b.) because of what happened in season one and not wanting to lose another asset, c.) she wants to stop the terrorist’s plot, and d.) she cares for Brody, though she can better compartmentalize those feelings now.

Anderson showed her commitment to the cause when she slept with Brody. This is something Sidney Bristow in Alias always magically got herself out of. Anderson wanted to mellow Brody out, calm him down and through coitus, she accomplished that. By the sounds of it, she wasn’t exactly repulsed by the exercise.

The looks on many people’s faces when Anderson walked back into the operation center after all of them heard her getting, getting…um…serving her country was amusing, the viewer could feel Anderson’s mortification.

Regarding Brody, the very thing he is trying to protect is falling apart because he is a double agent. First his wife, now his daughter are defecating to Mike Faber (Diego Klattenhoff) for the attention and guidance they are not receiving from him. What happened when Brody was a captive is now happening when he is at home. He is losing their respect, becoming invisible, not there. He wants to escape that fate and is failing.

Like him, his daughter wants to escape as well. She wants to escape her guilt and the people she turned to for assistance in that endeavor failed her. Now she is trapped with it, mirroring Brody being trapped by his situation.

Homeland‘s strength is that it has multiple layers working on top of each other like Boss, its not formalistic like Dexter and True Blood.

With Abu Nazir (Navid Negahban) in America, his plan, whatever that is, most be huge to take such a risk. He wants to see his plan through personally. The viewer knew who it was before he revealed himself from the shadows. Who else could it have been?

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