Questions and Answers (Homeland)

Brody ( Damien Lewis ) was brought to an unknown place and he was alone, handcuffed in a room with cameras watching him. Quinn ( Rupert Friend ) enters and begins interrogation, while Sol ( Mandy Patinkin ) and Carrie ( Claire Danes ) are watching from another room. He begins with a series of questions designed to make Brody speak a lot of lies. Brody denies the knowledge of Abu Nazir’s son and claims that he did not wear a suicide belt and was not involved in any conspiracy with Tom Walker. Quinn then shows a video of Brody's confession they acquired, and leaves him alone to think about it. When Quinn returns, Brody readily admits that he knew and loved Issa, and that he was angry with Vice President Walden, but denies that he wore a suicide belt. Brody boasts that nothing happened in that bunker, and that they have no real evidence against him. When he cannot extract more information, Quinn explodes in anger and stabs Brody's hand with a knife. Quinn later explains his actions to Sol as saying that “a good cop needs a bad cop.”

Carrie takes over the interrogation and starts it, turning off all the cameras in the room, although Sol and Quinn still hear them. She removes Brody's handcuffs and gives him some water. Carrie then sits down and recalls how Brody ruined her career and her life, and asks if he felt at least some guilt in doing so, and if he had feelings for her, which Brody does not answer. She catches Brody lying about a confession video and asks him when he was last telling the truth. Carrie says it can be fun to tell the truth, and disarms Brody, blabbering that she would like him to abandon his family and leave with her. She describes how Abu Nazir systematically broke Brody and rebuilt it, and recounts in detail some of the previous attacks by Abu Nazir that caused massive civilian casualties, citing civilians as “Chris, Dana and Jessica.” Carrie correctly assumes that a phone call from Dana caused Brody not to explode the belt. She emphasizes that behind all of Brody's lies, he is a good person, and that he is the very Brody she fell in love with. Carrie characterizes Abu Nazir and Walden as “monsters” who will kill innocent people, but that Brody is not such a monster because he was put in such a position to do so, but he did not detonate the belt.

Carrie asks Brody what kind of plan Abu Nazir has. Brody finally breaks, admitting that Abu Nazir is planning an attack on the United States, although he does not know its nature. He gives the names of Roya Hammad, his handler, and Bassel, the tailor who built the suicide belt. When Brody talks about the various al-Qaeda associates with whom he had a connection, he realizes that they are all dead now. Later, Carrie tells Brody his options. He can be exposed publicly, go to court and get a prison sentence, or he can use his position to help the CIA anticipate the planned attack by Abu Nazir, and no one will know the truth about him.

Finn ( Timothy Chalamet ) takes Dana (Morgan Sailor) on a date. Finn drives a red light to lose sight of the protection of the Secret Service following him. Teenagers laugh when they drive through the streets. Turning into an alley, Finn accidentally knocks down a pedestrian, seriously injuring her. Finn wants to escape from the scene, fearing the consequences if anyone finds out what he did, while Dana frantically protests. They leave when they see another passerby helping an injured pedestrian.

Brody returns home. Jessica ( Morena Baccarin ) again demands the truth about what Brody did if he wants to be accepted at their house. Brody tells her that he works with the CIA, "helping with national security issues."

The script for the episode was written by Henry Bromell , and Leslie Link Glatter became the director.

Ratings

During the original show, the episode was watched by 2.07 million viewers, making it the most watched episode to this point. ^[2]

Critical Reaction

Central to the episode was the scene of Carrie's interrogation with Brody, which was highly praised by critics. Todd Wenderwerff of The AV Club called the interrogation “a masterpiece of both acting and screenwriting,” while giving the entire episode a rating of “A”. ^[3] Andy Greenwald of Grantland.com said the scene was “the best I've ever seen on television this year,” noting the acting, as well as Bromell’s screenplay and Glatter’s work with the camera. ^[4] Alan Sepinwall of HitFix praised him as a “masterfully built sequence” with “two incredible performances from Lewis and Danes.” ^[5] Sean T. Collins of Rolling Stone said “Questions and Answers” ​​was “one of the most tense and exciting episodes of the show - perhaps the very episode to which the whole series went, "but I felt that the episode was then crashed by the accident of Dana and Finn, criticizing him for being a turn in which a lot of soapy style operas. ^[6] James Ponywozick of TIME called the episode “an impudent and grueling hour of television,” and was most impressed with “wonderful physical performances” from Claire Danes and Damien Lewis. ^[7]

Rewards

Questions and Answers has been nominated for several awards. At the 65th Emmy Awards ceremony , Henry Bromell received a posthumous nomination and won an award for his television script, in the category of Best Screenplay for a Drama Series . Leslie Linka Glatter was nominated for Best Director of a Drama Series . Both Claire Danes and Damien Lewis put forward this episode for consideration, in the appropriate categories the best actress in a drama series and the best actor in a drama series . Danes won in her category, but Lewis did not. Rupert Friend was nominated as the best guest actor in a drama series for his performance in this episode. ^{[8] [9]} At the 65th United States Directors Guild Awards Ceremony, Glatter was nominated for Best Director of a Drama Series . ^[10]

At the end of the year, several publications immediately mentioned Questions and Answers as one of the best episodes of television in 2012, including TIME , TV Guide , GQ and IndiWire. ^{[11] [12] [13] [14]}

• Questions and Answers on Showtime
• " Frequently Asked Questions ” on the Internet Movie Database
• Questions and Answers on TV.com