Game On

Game On
Written by:	James Yoshimura & Alex Gansa
Directed by:	David Nutter
Production number:	3WAH04
Running time:	49 minutes
Original airdate:	October 20, 2013
Viewers (millions):	1.77

Game On is the fourth episode of Season 3 of Homeland. It aired on October 20, 2013.

Synopsis

Carrie learns that even in its crippled state, the CIA can still exercise power when needed. Dana goes AWOL, forcing Jessica to call the police. Saul and Fara follow the money trail to an unexpected location and Carrie has a meeting.

Episode guide

Dana helps Leo escape from the hospital, and they go on the run together in Jessica's car. They go to Leo's brother's grave, and their conversation reveals that his brother committed suicide. Dana then takes him to the base where Brody was stationed, and says that the day he said goodbye to her before being deployed to Iraq was the last time he was honest with her. Jessica and Mike, whom she is now dating, meet with Leo's parents, who call Dana "a bad influence"; their accusatory attitude toward Jessica implies that they think Dana is just like her father. Mike starts investigating Leo, and finds out that he was sent to the hospital as part of a plea agreement — the police believe that he was responsible for his brother's death.

Fara traces the money behind the Langley bombings to an Iranian professional soccer player who died years before. Saul theorizes that the true culprit is using a fake identity.

Carrie attends a competency hearing, with apparently good chances of being released from the psychiatric hospital. Her release is denied, however, due to a directive from the U.S. Department of Justice labeling her a security risk. She calls her father and tells him to tell Saul that she will do anything he asks if he has her released. Carrie's lawyer gets an appeals court judge to grant her release, which prompts Saul to freeze her bank account and put her under surveillance. When Carrie returns home, Franklin is there waiting for her, and asks her one more time to meet with his client. She refuses at first, but agrees after Franklin promises to keep her out of the hospital permanently. She meets with the client, Bennett, a lawyer for a bank with ties to Iranian terrorists, including the masterminds of the Langley bombing. Bennett asks her to give them information about the CIA in return for their protection against the agency's reprisals against her; he says that the agency will destroy her, one way or another, unless she accepts the deal. Carrie does so, but refuses to name any agents in the field. That night, she goes to Saul's house, and he tells that she has done well; she has been taking part in an elaborate secret operation to infiltrate and bring down the terrorist organization behind the bombings.

Trivia

Carrie and Saul had a really fucking brilliant long con wherein Carrie’s behavior so far throughout the season was made to have her seem on edge and out of control and generally like a threat to the agency, including her behavior leading up to her committal and after it
Carrie and Saul did this so that she would be attractive to a foreign government as an asset – and then the law firm, which represents Javadi (the person who funded and orchestrated the attack), approaches Carrie
Carrie is now essentially a double agent – she will be able to get to Javadi – that’s why she requested a face-to-face meeting

There is a tricky line between what Carrie probably agreed to (“Okay, I’ll go to the hospital and make everyone think I’m crazy so they’ll think I’m the perfect candidate to be an asset for them”) and what probably went down, which is that her isolation and emotional/psychological pain was real and worse than she ever would have imagined.

That’s why she tells Saul he shouldn’t have kept her in there that long. That’s why he tells her she is so brave.

Leland Bennett is played by Martin Donovan, who I recognised as Peter in Weeds.

Quotes

'It worked, Saul' - Carrie

"Say hi to your mom" - Virgil

"The agency's still weak, Saul. It could die of a common cold. And she's a full-blown contagion" – Dar Adal

Notes and observations

Dana says the last true thing Brody said to her was goodbye is so cringe.

Bennett tells Carrie that it was an Iranian action carried out in retaliation for Israeli airstrikes against Iran's nuclear (or, as he pronounced it, nuke-ular) facilities.

Cast

Main Cast

Guest Starring

Co-Starring

Jennifer Christa Palmer as Bailiff Cynthia Touhy
Daniel Newman as Jeff
Jim R. Coleman as Officer Mills
Joseph Midyett as Aurelio Diaz
J. Leon Pridgen II as Officer Simon
Josué Gutierrez as Carmelo Diaz
J. Lynn Talley as Helen
Sanjit De Silva as Anoush
Tracy Wiu as Anne Snider

Note

Although credited, Damian Lewis, Rupert Friend, Jackson Pace and Tracy Letts do not appear in this episode

Videos

Season 3

#301	"Tin Man Is Down"	#307	"Gerontion"
#302	"Uh... Oh... Ah..."	#308	"A Red Wheelbarrow"
#303	"Tower of David"	#309	"One Last Thing"
#304	"Game On"	#310	"Good Night"
#305	"The Yoga Play"	#311	"Big Man in Tehran"
#306	"Still Positive"	#312	"The Star"