The fourth episode of hit CIA drama, Homeland, aired last night in the UK and showed many fans that the series still had the intelligence and ability to surprise us. The season so far has been criticised for being boring, annoying and displaying none of the plotline flair that brought the show to Emmy-winning prominence but Game On let the real Homeland wink from behind a mask.

Homeland
Is It All Coming Together Now?

The explosive end of the second season left us with burning questions that we wanted immediately answered but the third season has shown us we're just going to have to be patient, as other characters, such as Brody's daughter Jess, are padded out.

Though many feel that the scenes with the once-suicidal teen and her new, potentially odious killer of a boyfriend are just distracting us from the true drama of the plot, her story does well to show us that the effects of war and terrorism run deeper than just within the authorised parties directly involved.

In this episode we see Carrie at the end of her weeks of legal proceedings, psychosis, psychological assessments and public break-downs as she is finally released back into society. The season so far has done its best to convince us Carrie has lost her mind after the emotional and psychological torture of the bombing which was turned on its head by the revelation in the final minutes of the episode.

Carrie enters Saul's house and says "It worked Saul, it worked" in an emotional reunion and we realised the two had been in cahoots for the whole time, with Carrie's mental evaluation just a ruse to show those around her that she was unstable in a bid to infiltrate the group that organised the CIA bombing. Phew.

Though said revelation may have been too large a pill to swallow for many viewers after we'd grown accustomed to a Carrie unrecognisable from her former self, the move was the kick the show needed and a hint at bigger secrets still to come.

Carrie's role as double agent harked back to memories of Brody posing as a soldier whilst working for Abu Nazir: could Brody also be involved in this elaborate network of masquerade? Bear in mind, we still have no real answer as to why he's in Caracas despite an hour of heavy-handed scenes of violence and Venezuelan lawlessness last week. Though scenes of Saul and Fara working together to unwind the trail of money laundering was more than a little unconvincing, at least Brody's location is beginning to be woven into the events in D.C.

A 90% dull episode left us with 10% of glittering promise: Homeland's back in the game.