Showtime

Season 4, Episode 8

When Homeland Season 4 began, I was excited. The Carrie (Claire Danes)/Brody (Damien Lewis) romance that had dominated the show for far too long was over. I thought, Perhaps Homeland could return to its roots and reboot, offering viewers the truly insane, shocking, endless strategic twists and turns that made them fall in love with the show in the first place.

But the beginning of Season 4 was a total turnoff, with Carrie jumping into bed with yet another asset. And just as I was about to give up on the show for good, Haissam Haqqani (Numan Acar) pulled Saul (Mandy Patinkin) out of his car, showing Carrie and co. — via a drone camera — that the third most hunted man in the world has mysteriously kidnapped their dear friend. Things started to get exciting (read: Carrie was drugged and hallucinated that Brody was alive and holding her), but it was "Halfway to a Donut" that really solidified the fact that Homeland was back.

It was thrilling to watch Saul's midnight escape from his holding cell and Carrie's lies that convince him to drop the gun he had at his throat, leading him right into a trap that would force him to be recaptured. Also in this episode, Pakistani official Aasar Khan (Raza Jaffrey) flips sides and shows his loyalty to Carrie by warning her that Dennis Boyd (Mark Moses) is a leak in the embassy. Yes, it's crazy, but also completely addictive. —Emily Orley