Homeland “The Yoga Play” Review: How does Romeo and Juliet end?

Saul trying to be political on Homeland

Photo Credit: Showtime

A quick review of “The Yoga Play” as soon as I shoot some ducks…

As I mentioned numerous times throughout my review of last week’s episode I, to put it lightly, did not like the twist involving Carrie and Saul. What made it even worse was (as I actually assumed) that Alex Gansa said in an interview that their plan was hatched right after the bombing from the CIA, and thus all of the things that had happened up to that point in the season was all a part of a trick to keep the audience in a dark.

What makes it worse, at least for the first half of “The Yoga Play,” was that it felt like the episode would have worked with or without the twist that came at the end of “Game On.” The majority of “The Yoga Play” involved Carrie doing a divergent mission involving everyone’s favorite character Dana. For the most part Carrie’s attempted mission was satisfying enough and tied into the suspense of the final ten minutes, it just didn’t feel like until near the end of the episode that last week’s twist had any sort of payoff that it needed for it to maybe play slightly better than it did before.

When it did finally tie in though, one could say that while the twist last week didn’t work at least the direction we’re going with it is somewhat interesting, and allowed the twist, if only briefly, to sort of pay off. The question of Carrie’s cover was well executed suspense especially as “The Yoga Play” drew closer to its end, and the cliffhanger of Carrie being welcomed into the room with the Iranian’s, either to go along with the deal, or be tortured/interrogated, worked well as a closing bit of suspense.

What also worked was Saul not being made CIA director. Saul has never been good at the political side of his job and him not being made director makes sense as his icy efficiency at times doesn’t make the politicians too happy. It will also be interesting to see if the senator set to run the CIA will gain more of a character instead of just being a direct foil to Saul and his old-fashioned ways (which by the way feels like a plot line that is ripped directly from Skyfall).

What didn’t work in “The Yoga Play” was everything that involved Dana. At this point (and luckily I think that this may be the case) I just wish Dana would just cease to exist on this show. At least Leo is gone, and Dana got to emulated the Claire Danes cry, but still everything with Dana so far this season has been pretty terrible and getting rid of her, if only for a while (and potentially permanently) seems like the smart move.

That’s all for this week… What’s everyone’s thoughts on the Saul and Carrie plot line at this point? Did it 

pay off or continue to pay off, or is it still a festering frustration in the back of the mind?

And as usual that’s just me. What did everyone else think?