'Homeland' Season 8 Episode 2 Review: A moral win for Carrie while Saul's fate hangs in balance
This review contains spoilers for 'Homeland' Season 8 Episode 2: 'Catch and Release'
Two missions, two agents and one goal. At the end of the day, it's a mixed success for Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) as she finally finds that leverage she needs to convince the Afghan General, Abdul Qadir G'ulom to retract his statement about not releasing the POWs. There isn't much for Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin) as he is kidnapped by Haisam Haqqani (Numan Acar) at the end of the episode. 'Catch and Release' is a slow-burner. The action is in the last few minutes giving it a riveting finish.
There is still a shroud of mystery around Costa Ronin's Yevgeny Gromov who tips Carrie off with a piece of intel. He makes it look like an anonymous tip while redirecting Carrie towards Samira Noori (Sitara Attaie), who formerly worked at the Anti-Corruption Probe and has files on Personnel files on the National Afghan Battalion that would give Carrie a chance to look into and gain some leverage over G'ulom.
Except, the mission goes haywire and Noori ends up being captured forcefully by the CIA. The still edgy Carrie manages to gain Noori's trust and finds out the General had created fake Army units in the region. Now in a more compromising position, G'ulom agrees to retract the statement and release the war prisoners. For Saul, it is an entirely different mission as he lands in Pakistan to convince Haqqani that there would be a peace settlement. However, the news of his arrival is being tipped off to the ISI and marking a target on his back.
Despite the warning from Max Piotrowski (Maury Sterling) to make a move, Saul decides to wait for Haqqani hoping he could extend his support, but the ISI intervenes and apparently blows up Haqqani's convoy that's en-route to intercept Saul. While his armed protection covers him, he's kidnapped from his place of stay and for a while, it looks like the ISI were behind the nab. However, it is revealed that Haqqani was the one who masterminded it and the episode ends with Saul's lights punched out.
'Catch and Release' gives the first glimpse of action after the season opener that encompassed backstories, aftermath and the way forward. Written by Patrick Harbinson & Chip Johannessen, the episode sees Carrie back on the field and managing to hold herself together while leaving Saul's fate hanging. There is still enough that needs to be explained, but for now, this episode is a moral victory for Carrie who is still clawing back to full recovery.
'Homeland' Season 8 airs Sundays 9 pm ET/PT on Showtime.
