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‘Homeland’ recap: Season 3, Episode 7: ‘Gerontion’ – Metro US

‘Homeland’ recap: Season 3, Episode 7: ‘Gerontion’

Homeland Rupert Friend Rupert Friend as Peter Quinn in Homeland (Season 3, Episode 7). Spoiler alert: You do get to see Shirtless Quinn in this episode. (Credit: Kent Smith/Showtime)

We open with police investigators examining the murder of Javadi’s family, and learn that Quinn was photographed at the scene of the crime via a neighbor’s surveillance camera. D’oh!

Fara questions Javadi, and rattles off a laundry list of offenses that translates to “We have you where we want you.”

He won’t respond directly to Fara though, and he talks above her, saying, “What’s your point Saul? That I’ve been brought down by a girl? That I’ve been brought down by two girls?”

Javadi’s sitting there like he isn’t as screwed as he is. He’s all, “I want a place in Florida, I want guards and I want money,” and Saul is like, “Nope. THIS is how it’s gonna be!”

Of course, I’m paraphrasing.

Saul wants to play Javadi back into Iran, and Javadi is terrified. He’s all “I won’t do it!” This time I’m not paraphrasing.

But Saul says they’re definitely going to send him back to Iran. “Either as my asset or as a traitor to the revolution,” he tells him.

And then woah, out of nowhere: Shirtless Quinn alert! He’s showering and he’s obviously still bent out of shape about the double-murder. I guess we’re supposed to get from this that he’s washing his hands like Pilot or something, but a large contingent of the “Homeland” audience has got to be psyched that they’re showing him in the buff for so long.

Dar Adal shows up at Shirtless Quinn’s place and is pissed that Shirtless Quinn won’t tell him what he’s working on. Then he reveals that the cops have the photo of him from the neighbor’s surveillance cameras. He even thrusts the photo onto Shirtless Quinn’s shirtless chest.

There’s something very middle school about the way Dar Adal gets pissed when he’s not in the loop.

Back at base we see Saul continuing to question Javadi, and when Javadi talks about killing his wife and he jokes, “I should have stoned her to death, but you didn’t give me enough time.”

Saul and Javadi have a talk about being old men now, which is presumably where the “Gerontion” title of the episode comes from.

When Javadi dangles it in Saul’s face that he was behind the Langley bombing, Saul says that his first reaction was not one of how to get revenge, but one of how to find a way to stop all of the tit-for-tat, eye-for-an-eye methods of warfare going on. One of the themes of this episode seems to be, “Why does the CIA do so many horrible things?” and that’s coupled with Saul excited to possibly do something good, to internally (and secretly) change this and internally (and secretly) bring about world peace. They never say that explicitly in the show, using the phrase “world peace,” but that’s basically what Saul is getting at.

Saul asks Javadi who was really responsible for the bombing at Langley. He asks plainly: “Was it Brody?”

After much pestering, Javadi admits, “It wasn’t him. It was one of Abu Nazir’s guys. Who exactly, I don’t know.”

Meanwhile, the team has to clean up the fact that Quinn’s photo is out there. Carrie knows a cop with the Bethesda force who owes her a favor. Maybe she can get him to take Quinn’s photo off the wire (and replace it with a photo of Shirtless Quinn?). But when she goes to the crime scene, her friend isn’t very helpful, and the scene is so gory that it brings on a heavy bout of morning sickness. Carrie’s friend says the cops want to talk to Quinn (and he should be ready to take off his shirt). Sorry. They don’t imply that he should be ready to take off his shirt.

Fara is pissed that the CIA wants to send Javadi back to Iran, saying that what he did to the U.S. with the Langley bombing is nothing compared to what he did to Iran. And as Carrie is escorting him out she contemplates stabbing him with a pair of scissors. That’s what we’re supposed to interpret from that, right?

Saul is basking in glory of his plan, and he calls Mira, ready to reconcile. But then we see she’s clearly slept with that dude that she met in Mumbai. They’re in a hotel room and he’s shirtless and basking in glory of another sort. Then Saul is telling her that he wants to work things out. The dude from Mumbai can sense that she likes her actual husband better than she likes him, and seems sufficiently bummed.

Quinn shows up at the murder site (note that it’s just Quinn, not Shirtless Quinn) for questioning and really gets the third degree from the cops; the whole “how can you live with yourself?” treatment, and we can see that Quinn is thinking to himself, “Ugh, I’m having difficulty with that myself, bro.” But he just sits there stone-faced.

The cop asks: “Have you ever done anything but make things worse?”

When Saul returns to headquarters Dar Adal is all “wah wah wah” about not being in the loop for Saul’s plan, so Saul tells him and he tells Senator Lockhart too.

Senator Lockhart is pissed that Javadi was in the U.S. and that Saul is working with Carrie. When he learns that Javadi is still in the country, he demands to ground the plane and says he’ll call the President. Saul tells him not to, saying his plan is “a once in a lifetime operation that can transform everything.” But Lockhart isn’t having any of it, so Saul reluctantly shows him to a phone in the conference room.

Then Saul and Dar Adal lock Lockhart in.

“Open the door,” demands the senator.

“Make me,” rebuffs Saul.

It’s a hilarious middle school moment. Of course it is; Dar Adal is involved.

Javadi plays mind games with Carrie on the ride back to his people. He dangles in front of her that he knows whether or not Brody set off the bomb at Langley, or if her ex-lover even had any idea or even handed the keys off.

He tells her that the man who built the bomb and moved the SUV is still alive and in this country. He lets her know that Leland Bennett might be able to help.

Back in Saul’s office, he and Dar Adal are toasting to an audacious operation as they receive word that Javadi’s plane has taken off. Now they can let Lockhart out of the conference room.

Quinn comes out of the house where the murders took place. Carrie is waiting for him.

“I realized just how through I am with this,” he tells Carrie. “I just do not believe it anymore … that anything justifies the damage that we do.”

Carrie asks for Quinn’s help in proving that Brody wasn’t the bomber. He reluctantly agrees. (Reluctant agreement a callback to last week’s recap, eh?)

The episode ends with Saul and Mira reconnecting, although she still doesn’t confess that she definitely banged the “friend from Mumbai.”

Oh Saul, you poor cuckold.

Grade: B