Homeland Review: The Razor's Edge
![](https://tv-fanatic-res.cloudinary.com/iu/cs_srgb,d_tv-fanatic-placeholder-square.png,f_auto,fl_strip_profile.lossy,q_auto:420/v1379963810/user/danforcella)
"Blind Spot" proved to be a wonderful piece of Homeland's first season, importantly moving around a few of pieces of the story while delving deeper into the character of someone we knew so well already - Carrie - and one we didn't, Saul.
Because it spent so much time performing the aforementioned tasks, it lost the smallest bit of the giant ball of steam it had going from its first four episodes. But were there still a couple of fantastic scenes that had me itching for more? Absolutely.
As soon as Carrie asked Brody to come into the interrogation of the terrorist, I knew we were in for something good. The way they set up the question was just so interesting to watch. Couple that with the intermittent flashbacks to what actually happened between Brody and the terrorist, and we had one awesome scene on our hands.
Do you know this man? Brody was asked. After witnessing his memory of one of the days he was tortured, I'm surprised he didn't respond with Yeah, he pissed in my face.
The original interrogation led to another intriguing moment: Sergeant Brody practically begging Estes to get into the interrogation room to go face to face with his torturer. Could he have been making it any clearer to the audience that he needed to get in there to send the man a message? Of course Estes didn't pick up on it, but if he had made that same plea to Carrie or Saul, things would have been different... very different.
Thankfully, we got to witness him fake a fight so that he could hand off a razor blade to the terrorist, essentially saying Have a nice after life, pal. Sure, like Carrie and Saul, we can't prove that Brody handed him the blade or alerted the professor, but we know it happened.
Both before and after this short spurt of action packed drama, we watched as Homeland continued to develop its characters into extremely complex individuals. We finally met Carrie's crazy father, we saw her breakdown to tears, and we witnessed her softer side as she attempted to cuddle with her nieces. She's a hard-nosed agent that will stop at nothing to get the job done, but she needs to be loved just like anybody else.
The same goes for Saul Berenson, as we meet his wife for the first time after she returned from her month long trip in India with family. I'm not sure if it was mentioned before or not, but I assumed Saul was divorced. That's not the case, but it might be soon, as his work continues to drive a wedge in his marriage. It's not the most unique story we've seen on television, but at least it gives the man some depth.
Between some of the important character development and everything involving Brody's torturer leading to Carrie being even more certain about Brody's role in all this, "Blind Spot" was still a very interesting hour of television.
It might not have lived up to the sheer excitement of the first four episodes of Homeland, but those were some of the best starts to a television series I've seen in a while. I am still very much excited to see what happens next. What about you?
Dan Forcella is a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. Follow him on Twitter.