Episode cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Claire Danes | ... | Carrie Mathison | |
Damian Lewis | ... | Nicholas Brody | |
Rupert Friend | ... | Peter Quinn | |
Morena Baccarin | ... | Jessica Brody (credit only) | |
Jackson Pace | ... | Chris Brody (credit only) | |
Morgan Saylor | ... | Dana Brody (credit only) | |
Sarita Choudhury | ... | Mira Berenson (credit only) | |
Tracy Letts | ... | Andrew Lockhart | |
F. Murray Abraham | ... | Dar Adal | |
Mandy Patinkin | ... | Saul Berenson | |
Nazanin Boniadi | ... | Fara Sherazi | |
Tim Guinee | ... | Scott Ryan | |
William Sadler | ... | Michael Higgins | |
Shaun Toub | ... | Majid Javadi | |
Donnie Keshawarz | ... | Hafez 'A-Z' Azizi |
Brody has undergone cold turkey and is now lead asset in a CIA mission at the Iraq-Iranian border. Saul is set under pressure by senator Lockhart, while the mission enforces main setbacks. Carrie stands up trying to diverge the mission back in control. Written by TS
This episode came as such a pleasant surprise even to die-hard fans (the many millions of them) that one has to pause and wonder aloud if the producers watched Zero Dark 30 two or three times and said, heck, we can do better And they did, producing one of the most compelling TV episodes of all time.
Clare Danes will always have this on her A-Reel. Not only is she listed as Producer (a Hollywood vanity that does not impress anyone actually in the business) but she gives a performance to die for.
For readers of the future: the 1991 war was the first one where the world had a chance to watch warfare in real time. Experts thought it might mean the end of warfare. They were wrong. Quite the opposite. Brought up on TV and film, people seemed to crave more. Within a decade Hollywood was sharing "secret" satellite coverage of missions and that also caught the public's attention.
That trope has never been done better than here.