Homeland – “Civil War” (07×08) – Part 6 of 7 (Bangkok)
The seventh episode of Homeland’s second season opens with an interrogator (played by the excellent Michael K. Williams) asking Khalid (Rupert Friend) what he will say to get out of the predicament that he is in. Khalid notes that he had hoped to have been a model citizen and an American citizen as well. “For that,” he tells them, “you know what you do?”
He gives a brief description of his life story and how he wound up living and working in Iraq in the middle of the war zone. He had served as a captain in the army, at first as a contract soldier and then for two years as an assistant to the commander of all contractors in the area.
When the American forces were suddenly withdrawn, he went back to Iraq and soon found himself caught in the vicious and seemingly never-ending war between Iraq and the United States. Khalid tells the interrogator that he wants to live in America. He believes that as long as he is here he has a chance to make something out of his life, to be a citizen and to be a family man. However, he had no idea that he would be in this situation.
The interrogator is shocked and apparently pleased that Khalid is prepared to be honest about his life story and his intention to stay in America. Then the interrogator says to Khalid, “OK. Here is what I am going to ask you.” They move on to questions about what it was like to be in Iraq, and Khalid answers them truthfully and honestly.
The interrogator says, “Good,” and then gets ready to ask Khalid about some of the Iraqi officials he had met. The interrogator keeps going, and Khalid tells him about the time that he had met one of those officials. “Well,” the interrogator says, “that’s certainly nothing to worry about, I suppose. “The interrogator then says,” Really, Mr. Khalid? You don’t want me to go through every single one of your contacts in the Middle East?”
Khalid stares at him blankly, and the interrogator says, “Let me be as clear as I can, Mr. Khalid. You are never going to talk to me again.”
The interrogator walks away from the table and Khalid sits down alone. “I knew I shouldn’t have gotten involved in politics,” he says. He tells us how he came to be in Iraq and where he’s been and what he plans to do there.
