Wow, and I mean wow. After last week's episode I was wondering where the show was going. Would they be successful in getting Brody to talk, or would he stay silent, and if so, just how much leverage would the CIA manage to get from a lone videotape and a prisoner that is a U.S. congressman rather than the typical terrorist? But more than such specific questions, was the more general question of where is this show going? Because for so long it has been about the conflict between Carrie and Brody, sometimes unbeknownst even to them, that bringing it out into the open presented a major paradigm shift for the show.

This week brought us the second half of that shift, with Carrie finally managing to crack Brody and get him to talk. The question remains though, is Brody now a mole in Abu Nazir's organization, really on the side of the CIA and Carrie? Or is he a mole in the CIA, really still on the side of Abu Nazir? And whichever side he's on, how much of it is due to him actually believing in it, and how much is necessity? To protect his family from the shame of a traitor husband and father, or to protect them from the wrath of a terrorist leader seeking reprisal? Carrie, or Abu Nazir? With choices like that, Brody is truly between a rock and a hard place, but the promo for the next episode hints that he isn't wholly on the CIA's side, at least not yet.

But questions like that can only be asked after the final shots of the episode end and the credits roll, because before that the episode is dominated by the present, and the interactions between Carrie and Brody. I'm far from the best at identifying what qualifies as "good" acting, or actors performing at their best, but if I understand anything, it's that Claire Danes and Damian Lewis may have just earned themselves another pair of Emmy's. We watched them talk for about fifteen minutes, and not one second of that time felt wasted or dull, or anything less than stellar.

On the negative side, Chris is still annoying, and stabbing Brody in the hand felt a little forced, what with it being illegal and also a highly visible wound on someone that can't arouse any suspicion in the enemy. But as though the intensity of Carrie and Brody's interaction wasn't enough to make it impossible to pay attention to such details, there's also the surprisingly explosive Dana subplot in the episode. Was the woman they ran over just an ordinary pedestrian, or is her role greater than that? I can't help feeling its the latter, although I have no evidence to back it up. But either way, I have no doubt that incident will prove important to more than just Dana and her boyfriend. Between that and Brody's new alliance, we are treading new and unfamiliar territory. But considering how well the writers of Homeland have managed to do so far this season, I think they're more than up to the challenge.