Homeland Season 2, Episode 6

Season 2, Episode 6

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“Homeland” has been moving at such a clip that it’s hard to believe that the latest installment, “A Gettysburg Address,” marks half-time for the 12-episode second season. I’ve season several other recaps describe Season Two as being superior to the first, which seems at once accurate and unfair. The new season’s enormously suspenseful, satisfying twists rely so much on the groundwork done last year, it seems wrong to measure the one against the other. It’s not so much comparing apples to oranges as young apples to riper apples.

The show’s events have moved so fast that it makes sense for “A Gettysburg Address” to slow things down a little, and it feels more like a transitional episode after last week’s game-changer. The episode delivers plenty of spy-jinks, of course, beginning with Team Quinn keeping Roya Hammad under surveillance, with Carrie micromanaging the guys from back at the office. She meets an ominous stranger I’ll call The New Guy, but the CIA team can’t hear their conversation over the nearby fountain. After the meeting, Virgil follows The New Guy, but loses him in the subway. “Dammit!” yells Carrie, pulling her hair into an angry ponytail.