Since the demise of Brody, little focus has been put on the relationship between Saul and Carrie, but this may well have been the desired effect as tensions reached an all time high in last nights episode of Homeland titled Halfway to a Donut.
While the Embassy attempt to facilitate his release with the Pakistani delegates, Saul takes matters into his own hands refusing to be a pawn for Haqqani, and escapes the clutches of the Taliban. In scenes that could put James Bond to shame, Saul picks the locks of his handcuffs and stages a fake suicide before strangling one of his captors to death.
Armed with a mobile phone, Saul places a call to Carrie where the CIA track his whereabouts, but it is Carrie who is left in a compromising position when Saul asks to speak to her in private. “You need to promise,” instructs Saul, “Something goes wrong, you drop a bomb on this whole mess.” Carrie’s track record leaves little to be desired when it comes to saving the lives of those closest to her, and having had her meds switched we can’t help but question her mental state as she promises, “Escape or Die.”
With Saul safely at the grocery store where he waits to be extracted, shifty eyes ensue in the board room as Carrie clocks a strangely stoic display by the Pakistani delegates; Saul’s location has been rumbled. Tense scenes follow as Saul holds a gun to his head, ready to pull the trigger whilst Carrie desperately tries to talk him out of it.
Reassured, Saul follows Carrie’s directions but not before an intense cat-and-mouse chase develops. The scene reaches a dramatic climax as Saul opens a door only to be surrounded and captured back into the hands of the Taliban.
But all may not be lost for Saul as Colonel Khan reveals to Carrie, “It was Dennis Boyd who switched your pills. The ambassador’s husband. He’s working against you.”
Tune in for the next episode of Homeland this Sunday, 9pm on Channel 4.
