The worst part of any monster movie is the moment when you finally see the creature itself. Not the first glimpse, but the first real good look at the thing. After an hour or so of imagining it in all its unfathomable horridity, you're suddenly presented with an actual entity -- the best the special-effects team could come up with. How could it possibly live up to your expectations?

That's kind of how I feel about the back story presented, via flashback, in this episode of 'Homeland' on Showtime. Last episode, after weeks of hinting one way and then the other, the writers let us know, once and for all, that Sergeant Brody has some kind of connection with Abu Nazir, the most wanted terrorist in the world. This week, we found out why. And while the story wasn't horrible, I had some major issues with it.