HOMELAND: Season 2 Episodes 10 & 11

LUCY 

Honestly - how can you NOT be Team Quinn???  The guy is an ONION of emotion and Carrie is gradually working her way (unbeknownst to her) through his layers. Even if he does sleep in a shrivelled sleeping bag on a naked bed. (Does he send that to the cleaners, I'm worried it smells of feet. I'm hoping he just burns it after a week's use).

See - cute couple. The perfect way to spend a Saturday.

Really, really good.  Was SO surprised that they killed Nazir.  Such a good lead up.   BUT - do not celebrate yet for Carrie and Brody. I think that their getting together is some kind of mutual squeeze - I'm till struggling with them have genuine feelings for each other and convinced there is some ulterior motive for both of them. Apart from a mutual appreciation for highly mobile sex I'm just not buying it. I don't know why. Maybe because I can't imagine any evening with Carrie being anything other than intense (imagine going to the cinema with her and the film you wanted to see is sold out ...) and Brody is really looking for the quiet life.  I think that Nazir has sacrificed himself for a higher cause. Brody may be carrying out a bigger mission and Carrie is his pawn.  Or Carrie may realise the plot against him and be protecting him as her CI.  This is not a programme with happy endings. There is more to their coupling than meets the eye ...

Remember Brody has been utterly neutered by everything.  He is not a particularly brave man anyway - remember how someone said he was running away from the fighting when he was captured? - and everything that's happened to him since he's been back has been given to him.  When Waldon had his heartattack, he told him that that it was him, Brody, who was killing him when actually it was Nazir.  Yes, he gave the serial number over but he was so frightened to do that too. Again: he was simply in the right place at the right time.  To take that and tell Waldon it was him is a little riding on the coat-tails but rather typical of his personality. He is not a strong man with a clear sense of right and wrong. He's looking for something to have power over. Or someone. Careful Carrie ... 

1. UGGGHHH - Jess was wearing the same night dress she seduced Dull Mike in when she was talking to Brody. I know she wasn't wearing it when they got down to it, but still ... something might have got on it and that apartment doesn't look like it has a washing machine. It is also NOT very flattering - makes her look very shouldery.

2. Poor old Chris: they wheel him in for family scenes and then wheel him out again.  That bit where he was having breakfast with Brody and Brody was just staring at him. Do you think it was because he was thinking 'and you are?'.  It was less poignant, more a little disturbing to be honest. If anyone watched me like that while I ate my breakfast, I'd probably leave the table.

A relaxing breakfast in the Brody household

3. CIA/FBI types can get away really well without sleep.  They stay up for days and are not a)confused ; b)shitty; c) crying at every.little.thing. Their training must be amazing. I couldn't even fathom traffic lights after being up for 24 hours. Throw in being kidnapped and nearly shot and I'd probably just sleep in the car-park.

4. Carrie's face genuinely looked a bit skinned - maybe she was methoding.  I was so worried about her - I kept saying to Rob, but she hasn't taken her drugs. But then she produced them in the car and I felt better.  

5. 'Are you also called The Bear?' 'I fucking hope not'. YOU ARE BY US!  That line was so written with all of us Bear-lovers in mind. You know that, tonight, somewhere someplace Saul will be getting nicely drunk on gin and tonics (or Campari and Soda? What is his drink do you suppose? I think he's a long-drink man rather than shorts) at a party with mince-pie crumbs in his beard while he talks deeply to other intellectuals. He will be a lone wolf and sad his beautiful wife is not there. His real name is Mandy. Even that doesn't stop me loving him.  But back to his story-line. I HATE ESTES.  He totally broke our Bear. I don't know how he'll come back from that - maybe he'll go rogue and be the centre of Homelands 3???

EVIL

6. The scene with Roya was immense.  She played that beautifully.

7. Am over Dana. 

Finale: Hunt for Brody. Carrie hides him. Saul will do something dynamic because he's amazing. Estes will get hurt (dead, please? I find his ears disturbing).  Quinn will ultimately save the day and surprise everyone.  Maybe over-drunk limping Vet will have something to do with any kind of face-off that happens, what with his obsession with Brody's involvement in Tom Walker's death.  And Mike will make some eggs.

BECKY

I just don’t know what Quinn really thinks. I did feel a bit warm and fuzzy when he put his arm around Carrie when she exited from the tunnels. I think he just does what he is told though, he needs to show me that he is more than just a man with a gun and a sleeping bag. There must be more to him though, that copy of Great Expectations wasn’t placed in his flat for nothing.

I was surprised they killed Nazir. I felt quite emotional when Carrie was looking down on him, her life’s work laid out before her. She may as well leave the CIA now and go back to gardening.

Carrie and Brody are the real deal. I know it. I think Carrie will find out about the plot against Brody and do everything in her power to stop it. I think Saul will tell her or maybe even Quinn.

Being with Carrie would be really intense....do you think she does all her shopping online? Imagine her in Primark on a Saturday afternoon? It would be carnage! Good job they don’t have one in America.

Brody needs a holiday...where would he go? He couldn’t go anywhere too hot with his skin tone.

The breakfast scene with the son was really funny. I suppose it was meant to be him thinking about leaving him but instead it looked like he was about to kill him. The son didn’t even notice though! If I was Brody I would have said ‘have you not noticed me staring really intensely at you for the last 5 minutes? What the hell is wrong with you?’

Dana’s tantrum over the milk was really annoying. We should definitely play the Dana eye roll drinking game sometime.

THE BEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I loved that so much! Estes should not underestimate the power of The Bear. If Carrie and Saul form a rogue group they could bring Estes down. They are the brains behind the CIA. Without them Estes is nothing. They should try and get Quinn on board too.

The Bear is definitely a G&T drinker. I also think he is probably a fan of a single malt at the end of a hard day, on the rocks, of course.

I think Brody is going to die in the finale. I will cry.