“The funniest moment in the Homeland season premiere,” says Rob Sheffield in a recent Rolling Stone review of the Showtime hit’s third season debut, “comes when an hysterical Carrie freaks out over the phone, and Saul says, ‘Calm down.' Now you tell her dude?”
For fans of Homeland (which returns tonight), CIA agent Carrie Mathison’s (Claire Danes) frequent emotional outbursts are as much a part of the politically-charged show's fabric as thwarted terror plots, philandering spouses and bratty teenagers. In fact, Carrie’s legendary freakouts (some of them set to a jazz soundtrack) have taken on a pop culture life of their own; in late 2012, Anne Hathaway memorably channeled her inner-hysteric in a spot-on SNL skit.
But hey, it’s not like the girl doesn’t have her reasons for becoming unhinged on a seemingly daily basis. As if hiding a bipolar disorder from her colleagues wasn’t hard enough, she’s also having trouble getting anyone to believe her that POW-turned-American Hero Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) is in fact a terrorist. Oh, and then there’s that tiny matter of Carrie being in love with Brody.
As viewers hold out hope that the multiple Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning show can pick up the pieces of a rather disastrous second season and return to its season one glory, we’re paying tribute to Carrie Mathison’s Most Hysterical Homeland Moments.
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10. Pilot Prison Panic
Episode: Season 1, Episode 1
Ladies and gentlemen, meet Carrie Mathison—whose hysterical tendencies are on full display just minutes into Homeland's pilot episode, when the two minutes she has brokered with a terrorist-turned-prisoner are cut short. She only has seconds to get a single piece of intelligence out of the guy, and she's not above inflicting a little bit of physical shoving to make it happen. Fortunately, she's able to extract the one piece of info that is the crux of the entire series: an American prisoner of war has been turned!
9. Fuck This Shit!
Episode: Season 1, Episode 5
Carrie Mathison has got a way with four-letter words—and she's not afraid to use them. When Hamid, the last survivor of the al-Quaeda group that held Brody captive is captured, the CIA enlists the former POW to help interrogate him. But all hell breaks loose when things get physical between the two men.
Hours later, Hamid is found dead, having slashed his wrists with a razor blade. Carrie knows how he got it: from Brody. And she's got the video footage to (sort of) prove it. She's also really, really pissed.
Saul's not happy about it either, but doesn't deem the evidence strong enough to kick it up to the next level. Say "no" to Carrie? Now she's really, really, really pissed. She thinks that Saul is a pussy and tells him so.
8. Rooftop Ranting
Episode: Season 2, Episode 2
Following some seriously crazy antics that landed her in the hospital undergoing electroshock therapy at the end of season one, Carrie's CIA career is a thing of the past. But she has been called back at the request of a potential witness to help with an extraction in Beirut. And Saul has been tasked with keeping a very close eye on her.
Carrie's fully aware that her reputation has been soiled, and hates the fact that people don't trust her judgment. But she gets it, because she still can't wrap her head around the fact that she was wrong about Brody being a terrorist (he is). And if there's one thing that can trigger a good Carrie freakout, it's being wrong.
7. An Averted Suicide
Episode: Season 2, Episode 3
After kicking ass in Beirut, Carrie kinda sorta thinks that the CIA might be willing to overlook her whole bipolar disorder and electroshock treatments and let her back into the gang. But her boss/former lover David isn't buying it. And Carrie doesn't like that.
Her depressive tendencies turn suicidal, as Carrie fixes herself a dinner of too much alcohol and way too many pills. But she changes her mind at the last minute... and just in time, too. Saul arrives later that evening with a special delivery: the videotape Brody made in which he declares his war on America. Carrie finally hears her favorite three little words: You were right!
6. It's Complicated
Episode: Season 2, Episode 12
Carrie is back in the CIA's good graces, but she's not sure that's where she wants to be. She's still riding a high after being right about Brody all along, but she's also still in love with the guy. And though she knows that he's a guy who once strapped a suicide vest to his chest, she can't help thinking that Brody may be part of her happily ever after.
After very calmly trying to get her to see the reality of the situation, Saul—who spends most of his time on the receiving end of Carrie's tongue lashings—gets to return the favor, telling her: "You're the smartest and dumbest fucking person I've ever known." Cut!
5. Meet the Family
4. Brody's Booyah!
Episode: Season 2, Episode 4
With the discovery of Brody's confession tape, Carrie is enlisted as part of a tiny team to track his movements and figure out what he knows. But Carrie just can't wait to rub it in Brody's face that she was right all along, and that his secret is out. Procedures be damned.
Carrie sees her chance to get her revenge when she shows up at Brody's hotel room door all flirty fun, only to be invited in so that she can let him know the truth: he is a terrorist and everyone knows it. “Do I want be friends with a demented ex-soldier who hates America?" she asks.
3. Better Call Saul
Episode: Season 1, Episode 11
With all the time he spends chasing Carrie's wild mood swings around, it's amazing that Saul gets any of his own work done. And toward the end of season one, he sees Carrie at what is perhaps her most color-coded incoherent. When she gets all gung-ho about getting to work and convincing Langley of her theories.
2. The Green Pen Incident
Episode: Season 1, Episode 11
Carrie's green pen has run dry and the nurses at the hospital only have blue and black pens to offer as a replacement. Which is no good. Because things don't make sense if they're not green. "Is green so hard? Is green elusive?" Carrie wants to know. She's got a point.
1. The Corkboard Catastrophe
Episode: Season 1, Episode 11
Genius comes in all sorts of colors, shapes, and sizes. In the case of Carrie, she works out her theories in the form of a color-coded corkboard that really only make sense to as addled a mind as hers'. There's just one rule: don't mess with her corkboard. Because she is about to solve this fucking thing!
