Reviewed by Rich Jepson.

Seriously? 16 days is all it takes to go from a dirty dose to The Dirty Dozen? I guess that’s the power of a montage these days, at least we finally got the Brody fix we’ve been craving since the third episode. Aside from this, “One Last Time” was a decent episode and although it was a quick fix for Brody and a few other sides stories, like Mira’s boyfriend, it’s at least given the latter half of this season a roadmap to follow.

Taking Brody’s story first, I’m glad that they’ve finally had reason to bring him back into the grand scheme of things and get him back onboard with what’s going to unfold in Iran. Pulling this off was executed quite poorly by all accounts though, to bring a drug addict that far gone, riddled with allsorts of infections and problems back from the brink and into near tip top Marine conditions in less than 3 weeks was way too unbelievable.

For me, surely the better approach would have been to cut out some of the wasteful episodes, like Carrie searching for Dana, and bring Brody back in earlier. This could have left him for some time to transform back into the soldier he once was and would have made us think less about when we were next going to see him.

The only real highlight here from Brody’s miracle cure drug from Africa was the use of Nazir and Tom Walker, a few more scenes like this could have made his recovery feel a little more prolonged. I’m also curious to know what the other marines know about Brody – do they know he’s innocent? If so how come nobody questioned him about the tape? If this was the wake of 9/11 do you really think that US marines would be training with Bin Laden and sharing jokes?

What’s more the ‘bonding’ scenes with the other marines just felt so cringing it was untrue. Also, why did every other marine look almost identical? Is that the standard issue haircut and beard in the US forces these days? There were so many annoyances here it’s hard to look past them.

Looking back at Saul’s ploy, we now have some real structure too, it’s again difficult to think this has been some huge operation with Javadi and Brody involved as the key components from the start. Even so, you have to applaud Saul’s ambition for wanting this to happen, his vision of peace between Tehran and Washington is a noble one and it’s baring a real connection to current events between the two powers. It must have felt satisfying for Saul using Mira’s boyfriend as blackmail to Senator Lockhart, the definition of killing two birds with one stone.

Carrie giving Brody something (or somethings if you include her) to live for after Iran was a smart move to really tug at the heartstrings. Dana’s at her best when she’s interacting with Brody and this is the best we’ve seen of her all season. It’s interesting that Brody didn’t even ask about his other child, Chris, probably because he’s about as memorable as Joey (the Friends spinoff).

7.5/10

Scene of the Episode: Dana ­– The only time anyone wants to see Dana on TV is when she’s alongside her father so we can watch scenes that are powerful and entertaining.