review of Homeland 4.1-2 

Homeland could sustain the energy and tension it had for the first three seasons, given the killing of Brody at the end of season 3, and given that he was at least half responsible for the energy and tension.  Not just the initiating character - an American war hero under a terrorist\'s spell - but his subsequent relationship, against all odds, with Carrie.

The answer, based on the first two episodes, is yes - though we are being treated to a very different, somewhat more conventional, CIA story.   But Carrie is the same character, just this side of sanity on the insanity border, and she once against plays a pivotal, wild, unpredictable role (brilliantly performed by Claire Danes, as always).

I mean, she maybe almost drowns her baby girl - who is Brody\'s baby girl - and the possible reasons for that are as complex as they can be.  Part of her doesn\'t want to be a mother.  Part of her wants to get back to Islamabad - though maybe part of why she wants so badly to get back to Islamabad is that she doesn\'t trust herself with her baby.   And part of what must be driving her is that the baby looks just like Brody.   The hair color is exactly right, and even the expression.   In this triumph of casting, we as well as Carrie feel she\'s looking right down at Brody when she looks at her baby.  So, if she hates that part of herself - or, a part of herself hates that she slept with Brody, and came to love him - he was, after all, the enemy, at least part of the time - then that gives her another motive for almost drowning her baby.

That scene in the bathtub was the most disturbing scene in the first two episodes.  Which is saying a lot, since the killing of the Islamabad CIA chief Sandy, pulled right out of the car with Quinn and Claire doing their best to stop it, was pretty brutal, too.   And the aftermath is a simmering can of worms, with Claire sure she and Quinn could have done more to save Sandy, and Quinn sure they did all that they could.

Quinn certainly did.   Claire didn\'t do much, because she couldn\'t find the weapon that Quinn said was in the car.  Assuming it wasn\'t really there, what more could Claire have done?  Does she feel guilty because she thinks Quinn was diverting at least a little of his attention to save her?  Maybe, but I don\'t even know if that\'s the case.

Homeland is off to a great, harrowing start, and it all revolves around Carrie\'s states of mind, as it alway has, even though this a very different situation indeed, without Brody.

See also Homeland 3.1: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 3.2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 3.3: Two Prisons ... Homeland 3.4: Twist! ...Homeland 3.6: Further Down the Rabbit Hole ... Homeland 3.7: Revealing What We Already Knew ... Homeland 3.8: Signs of Life ...Homeland 3.9: Perfect Timing ... Homeland 3.10: Someone Has to Die ... Homeland 3.11: The Loyalist ... Homeland Season 3 Finale: Redemption and Betrayal

And see Homeland 2.1-2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.3-5: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.6: What Brody Knows ... Homeland 2.7: Love Me Tinder ... Homeland 2.8: The Personal and the Professional ...Homeland Season 2 Finale: The Shocker and the Reality

And see also  Homeland on Showtime ... Homeland 1.8: Surprises ... Homeland Concludes First Season: Exceptional

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Paul Levinson, PhD, is Professor of Communication & Media Studies at Fordham University in New York City.  His 8 nonfiction books, including The Soft Edge (1997), Digital McLuhan (1999), Realspace (2003),  Cellphone (2004), and New New Media (2009, 2nd edition 2012), have been the subject of major articles in the New York Times, Wired, the Christian Science Monitor, and have been translated into 12 languages. His science fiction novels include The Silk Code (1999, ebook 2012), Borrowed Tides (2001), TheConsciousness Plague (2002, 2013), The Pixel Eye (2003), The Plot To SaveSocrates (2006, ebook 2012), and Unburning Alexandria (2013).  His short stories have been nominated for Nebula, Hugo, Edgar, and Sturgeon Awards.  Paul Levinson appears on "The O'Reilly Factor" (Fox News), "The CBS Evening News,"  “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” (PBS),  “Nightline” (ABC), NPR, and numerous national and international TV and radio programs. His 1972 album, Twice Upon a Rhyme, was re-issued in 2009 (CD) and 2010 (remastered vinyl). He reviews the best of television in his InfiniteRegress.tv blog, and was listed in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Top 10 Academic Twitterers” in 2009.

Chronicle of Higher Education puts Paul Levinson in Top 10 (#7) of Academic "High Flyers" on Twitter ... Online University Data puts PL in "Top 50 Online University Professors on Twitter Worth Following"...

Dear Paul, I just dreamed of airships flying between raindrops. I just returned from 2042 CE, where I sold my hardcover copy of The Plot to Save Socrates for seventy million Neo-Euros, because it had your response to this e-mail from way back in 2007 scotch-taped onto the inside of the cover. A Paul Levinson collector paid top Neo-Euro, because of the authentic archaic e-mail printout from you. It turns out that not many of your e-mails from before your tenure as CEO of HBO/Cinemax and terms as United Nations Secretary General will survive that far into the future. So, please respond to this e-mail, to help found my great-grandchildren\'s fortune. My Will will stipulate that they must share with your great grandchidren. Thanks! Tom

President, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, 1998-2001

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Paul Levinson appears on "The O\'Reilly Factor" (Fox News), "The CBS Evening News," "Nightline" (ABC), the "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" (PBS), "The Dylan Ratigan Show" (MSNBC) and frequently on NPR and all-news radio...