Emmy Episodes: Homeland

It’s always my policy to watch every Emmy-nominated episode each year, which leads me to sample a handful of shows that I don’t tune in to on a regular basis. For the third year in a row, I’m making a special effort to spotlight each of those installments to offer my perspective on shows that I don’t review each week.

Homeland: Season 7, Episode 6 “Species Jump” (C)

It turns out that I gave up on this show just one episode before this one. I had expected that it wouldn’t be necessary to catch back up come Emmy time, but of course I was wrong, and so this is the first of two hours that I’ll be screening so that I can see what was submitted to voters. Mandy Patinkin has always been a consistent part of this show, and what’s great about him in this episode is that he’s cool as ice, not panicked and angry as he’s been in the past. First, he sat it on Catherine Curtin’s class, then calmly listened to Carrie’s latest antics before going to try to find his friend Ivan, who’s not long for this world. This episode felt a whole lot like the start of the show six seasons ago, though that means it’s getting repetitive rather than returning to its original quality. Carrie was smart to want to prevent Simone from being questioned before they really understood her behavior, and she sounded just as crazy as ever when she pitched her latest idea about what was going on to Dante. When Saul asked her how she knew what she did, I thought he was going to scold her for illegally surveilling someone – again – but instead he just subtly hinted at what he knew that she didn’t. Of course Carrie didn’t listen to what he said and nearly went straight into sleeping with her latest bad boy, but luckily she made a better choice this time to knock him out and scrub his place instead of getting into another inappropriate relationship. David has no idea what he’s in for, and let’s hope that Saul has the right access to the president to be able to tell her that she’s being set up before this all goes way too far.