After “Gettysburg Address” flopped last week, Homeland returned with “The Clearing” with Carrie and Brody turning up the heat.

Yesterday evening, Showtime managed to bounce back from a very disappointing episode last week and delivered a much more substantial episode. “The Clearing” made a distinctive move on direction with the current series with Carrie and Brody, but dropping the pace from the opening five episodes of season 2.

“Things are going to move quickly now,” announced by Roya Hammad in last night’s episode. That seemed to give the episode the momentum Homeland desperately needs, but the episode felt rushed and disproportionate. It would be unfair to demand the pace of the start of the season, but Homeland needs to stick to its plot and develop it further. The episode jumped quickly between Carrie, Brody, Jess, Quinn, Saul, Mike and Vice President Walden and just seems filled with sub plots rather than a defining plot leaving us with little, but demanding more.

Let’s focus on Carrie and Brody though, as Brody is the central man to every character. What has happened with Brody this week? Roya anxiously tells Brody that his role after Gettysburg has increased significantly, but leaving no trace of what it would be and that Brody needs to meet someone, most likely Swarthy Boreanez. Jess, also confronts Brody about the accusations Mike made about Brody killing Tom Walker. Brody’s response? Well, he just lied, again to Jess. He said he was ‘involved’ and in his anger, phones Carrie for a heart-to-heart conversation, sparking, you guessed it…

Carrie meets Brody in the woods outside of the fundraising event and lets Brody get everything off his mind and then, it happened. Carrie kissed Brody. Passionately. “Is this for real?” Brody questions with the realisation of what just happened, but passionately kisses Carrie again. He leaves by saying, ‘that felt so good’ and no lip quivering from Carrie. Will this sustain and when will Jessica find out?

Homeland premieres on Showtime at 10PM ET/PT, be sure to check out the next installment, “I’ll Fly Away”. Check out the trailer below.