In this week’s episode of Homeland, many events have taken place that kept me on the edge of my seat. Carrie has been in a mental institution for quite some time now. It’s easy to relate to her after you see how the how hospital changes people after being iinstitutionalized for too long.  |SPOILERS|The episode begins with Carrie being kept awake by another patient refusing medication and being forcefully sedated in her bed by a group of orderlies. Later on in the episode, the importance of this scene is brought to life when Carrie walks by that patient in the hall. The patient is in a wheelchair now and his heavily medicated to the point of comatose.

Her frustrations become more real after being denied discharge in front of the board committee despite being cleared by the staff as being mentally ready to leave the facility. You can feel the desperation  in her character when she realized that the agency is going to find ways to keep her there because they have classified her as a risk. After the hearing, she goes to her room and robotically takes the medication from the orderly and swallows it in frustration. This scene makes me wonder just how much can she take? How much longer can she be on lithium until she turns into that patient she saw in the hallway? Claire Danes continues to impress me with her acting ability.

Fortunately, in a change of events Carrie finds that she has been released by a court order. Her freedom is short lived when she finds who let her out . It’s the same guy who approached her before, who she suspects of working for a foreign country. She agrees with him on a sit down because the terms of her release turn out to be temporary unless she agrees on a meeting with this client. It turns out as she expected that the client did represent Iran and in order to stay out of the hospital she would have to divulge information on how their people were targeted. She refused at first to agree to being a traitor but In Carrie’s state of vulnerability, she changes her mind. It’s easy to sympathize with her change of mind. Why should she protect the same people that don’t care whether she rots in a hospital or not? The episode ended in plot twist that rattled my mind.

When she gets to Saul, It is revealed that everything is she has done up to this point has been to get a meeting with this client from Iran. Carrie endured so much to serve her country from character defamation to being institutionalized. The episode concludes with Carrie crying in Saul’s arms. This show reaches all new levels of espionage and solidifies my review score.

10/10

P.S- I need some Brody in my life. Looking forward to the next episode.