"Tin Man Is Down" is the first episode of the third season of the American
television drama series Homeland, and the 25th episode overall. It aired on
Showtime on September 29, 2013. Plot
Carrie is called to testify before the United States Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence 58 days after the attack on the CIA headquarters. Senator Lockhart
reveals a memo that offered Brody immunity for his help in killing or
capturing Nazir. Carrie indicates that she doesn't believe Brody is guilty or
knew the bomb was in his car. The next day Lockhart questions where Carrie was
the 14 hours after the attack when her statement claimed she was unconscious.
Carrie invokes the Fifth Amendment. Dana concludes a month-long stay in the
hospital after having slit her wrists in the bathtub. Jessica Brody struggles
financially and begins interviewing for jobs. Carrie's father Frank finds out
that she has stopped taking lithium. Mira returns from Mumbai, but she and
Saul sleep in separate bedrooms, and the status of their relationship remains
unclear. The attack on Langley left a crater, and
the death toll is revealed to be 219. The Iranian mastermind of the attack,
Majid Javadi, hasn't been seen in public since 1994. Six other members of the
network that planned and carried out the attack on Langley have been identified
and located by the CIA. After weighing his options, Saul eventually orders
their simultaneous assassination. Peter Quinn is in Caracas, Venezuela, where he
decides not to place a bomb on his target's car upon seeing a boy in the
back seat. He is given the order to attempt to kill his target by
infiltrating his compound. Quinn shoots and kills his target but accidentally
kills the boy as well. Elsewhere in the world, the other five targets are also
taken out. Carrie meets a man while buying alcohol
at a convenience store, and she sleeps with him that night. The next day, she
sees the newspaper headline that an unnamed CIA officer slept with Brody.
Carrie confronts Saul and accuses him of leaking the story. Saul is later called
before the Intelligence Committee and asked to comment on the article. Saul
doesn't give a name but says that the agent is bipolar and concealed it from
her employers. Carrie watches Saul's testimony on live television and is
distraught. Production
The episode was written by co-creator Alex Gansa and co-executive producer
Barbara Hall, which was Hall's first writing credit after joining the writing
staff this season. It was directed by co-executive producer Lesli Linka
Glatter. An unfinished version of the episode was
leaked to BitTorrent on September 1, 2013, receiving over 100,000 downloads
in the first few hours. Damian Lewis later blamed the leak on "hackers".
References to the work of John le Carre feature, one in a scripted line spoken
by Dar Adal in a restaurant scene, saying, to Saul Berenson, "We are
pragmatists. We adapt. We are not the keepers of some sacred flame", a direct
interpolation of a line originally spoken by the character of Oliver Lacon,
in Smiley's People. In another scene, Dana, refers to federal agents stationed
outside the Brody residence as "Babysitters", another Le Carre-coined
term used in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy to refer to intelligence service
bodyguards tasked with protecting colleagues.
The final death toll of 219 differs from the 250+ bodies, laid out in rows in a
large hall, in the final minutes of "The Choice".
This is the first episode of the series not to feature Damian Lewis as Nicholas
Brody or David Harewood as David Estes due to the former character now being a
fugitive from justice and the latter's death in the previous season's finale.
Reception = Ratings =
Scheduled head-to-head against the Breaking Bad series finale, the original
broadcast of "Tin Man Is Down" had 1.88 million viewers, showing an increase
over the previous season's premiere episode.
References External links
"Tin Man Is Down" at Showtime "Tin Man Is Down" at the Internet Movie
Database "Tin Man Is Down" at TV.com