Homeland: "The Vest" Review

Full spoilers follow.

"The important thing now is the green pen!"

The penultimate episode of Homeland Season 1 begins with a mysterious man constructing a bomb vest. Who could this garment of death be meant for, we wonder, if not our Sgt. Brody? His is a suicide mission, we realize. Yes, deep down, we always knew that to be the case, we guess, but now it's all becoming so real. Not just for us, but for Brody too.

This episode, "The Vest," is an excellent study of our two main characters, contrasting Carrie, who has gone off the deep end and is in perpetual motion, with Brody, calm, cool and perfectly collected. Compare the final images we see of the two in the segment: Carrie wailing and falling to pieces while Estes dismantles her Wall of Truth; and Brody, still and motionless while the world speeds past him, all oblivious to what he is about to do.

Carrie really has hit bottom, derailing as we've always known she could. What I found most interesting about this, however, was Saul's quiet observation of the off-the-wall Carrie, his realization that his pupil is deeply troubled. And that he may be part of the reason why she has wound up where she is now. When Saul tells her, "I can't follow you, you're talking very fast, I can't understand," and the tears well up in her eyes as she realizes what's happened to her… It's as if Claire Danes just won every acting award she'll soon be nominated for.

And you know, the funny thing about Carrie's mania is that we immediately realize she's no doubt correct in her assertion that Abu Nazir has more planned than just assassinating the VP. Of course, we learn this is exactly what's going on by the end of "The Vest," as her mania turns out to help her do her best work (in this case anyway). It's like she's the CIA equivalent of Van Gogh. (And, in fact, is that a VVG painting hanging in her kitchen? Perhaps not, but it caught my eye…)

All the "Estes is the mole" conspiracy theorists have more reason than ever now to keep on believing, what with Brody using him to short-circuit Carrie's discovery. At the very least, Estes' obliviousness and/or bullheadedness is making him an unwitting accessory to Brody's soon-to-be crimes. But if I had to pick a familiar face as the mole, it would be Agent Galvez. His name and face were thrown around a bit too conspicuously this episode.

Meanwhile, I couldn't help but notice how Carrie's topsy-turvy state is punctuated by a cutaway to the camera spinning around as it focuses on Brody (courtesy of his daughter's mini spy-cam). Is Brody, so tightly in control on the outside, also losing it on some level? His family trip to Gettysburg is certainly more than just a little vacation, as he's basically saying goodbye to his wife and kids; his conversations with Dana and Chris make this clear. (Though it's just Dana who senses something is wrong.) But poor Jess, who showed some insight last week, is obviously completely in the dark about Brody's big plan. And as she tells her husband that she's finally "happy," we can see that it breaks Brody's heart that he is about to shatter that happiness, surely forever.

It's also painful for us, the audience, when Brody tries to paint himself as being similar to the Gettysburg hero Joshua Chamberlain. The device works, and we understand that Brody really, truly believes that what he is about to do is for the greater good. But it bears remembering at this juncture that Brody is, for all intents and purposes, a terrorist. No, he hasn't done anything yet, but he's ready to suicide-bomb his way into the history books. And we the viewers are on his side, in a way.


Scott Collura is a Movies Editor at IGN. Sometimes he watches stuff. You can follow him on Twitter at @ScottIGN.

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