From the pilot in 2011 onwards, “Homeland” sought to encourage viewers to think hard about some central questions: What did the United States learn from 9/11? Do we overreact on our domestic agenda to fight the war on terror? Season 7 and 8 at its best highlighted how the deepest institutions in Washington DC work in real life and how diplomacy can easily be hindered by political issues. Taking a lot of dramatic leave, "Homeland" has always put a spotlight on how decisions, feints and instinctive calls made by anonymous agents in the field can prevent disasters and change the course of history. Carrie does all this while establishing her legacy for the one thing she has been fighting for since her first scene - the security of America. It's been a swan song worthy of a character that will be missed - a character who, until his final hour, has been one of the greatest names of all time on television. While it is great to see the playing field open to the Danes once again, it is difficult to see it encompassing someone as wealthy as this one. Only an actor of the Danish caliber could have made Carrie's failures, mental health struggles and crazy romantic choices real - Saul, Brody, Quinn and Max - enough to worry us for 96 episodes. Ultimately, Carrie ended her eight-season run on "Homeland" as she started on the pilot: working in the spy business, more disguised than ever and guided only by her internal radar to what was right and wrong. Because in the end, all that matters is who you trust (because you sincerely love that person). That is, she will never really trust guys like Dante or Yevgeny.
This show is probably one of the best overall shows in the past decade. Definitely one that actually had a great ending, unlike other great shows, that ended poorly (Game of Thrones, Dexter)
Wasn't it refreshing to have a series with an ending that made sense? Dexter should've sacrificed himself to the storm or just vanished in it. The lumberjack scene was unnecessary, I think. I don't even want to talk about that other show.
7:57 I loved the finale. It was imperfectly perfect. The best part for me was when Carrie is emotional about betraying Saul and burning his asset. Yevgeny Gromov is telling her that she will get over it. She looks at him in disgust and says that it must “be a really lonely life!” She walks off to let those words take maximum effect in his head and his heart. It was at that moment I realized that Carrie was working him. I’ve come to know her too well. It was brilliant! ... Omg! Just the best writing and acting ever! Come to think of it. She was working him the entire time. She saw the value of building and maintaining a relationship with him. Wow! … Carrie always played the long game. It made me happy to see Saul happy to hear from Carrie: “Everything She does is because she never loses sight of what’s important.” NOW... While Yevgeny did lose the long game, I also don’t completely agree that Carrie was working him the entire time. Carrie’s comment that it must be really lonely on his side stings and has such great effect because she means it fully. It’s not part of some larger play. I don’t think she’s manipulating him other than the sort of baseline level of manipulation that happens when you get the last word and then storm out. like… that happens in daily life. I also think that Carrie is someone who didn’t really play the long game, at least not that well. She is an improviser, she thinks on her toes. Actually, Carrie becoming the new asset, writing a book as a cover, and hiding from Yevgeny in this way is the longest, most elaborate game she ever played.
In an earlier episode in season 8, Carrie talks her minder back at the CIA station in Kabul to reveal the safe house where the CIA special ops team is staying in the town where she and Yevgeny have come to search for the flight recorder. After Carrie completes the call, Yevgeny expresses amazement that Carrie can come up with a solution to their immediate problem, to buy time for them to obtain the flight recorder that night, even if it means she has to betray her minder and the special ops team searching for her. Yevgeny expresses amazement and admiration for Carrie 's skill at improvisation, admitting that he is more of a planner. This brief scene pays off in the finale.
Season 8 Carrie. I don’t really have any evidence to support this, now I can't shake the idea that Carrie's behaviour throughout S8 is partly driven by an underlying, and largely unconscious urge to find a way out of her former life. It's almost as if she's shaped the events to fit this plan, as if the mission was an excuse to leave everything behind. Like she says “I dug this gigantic hole and I can’t see a way out”. She put herself in that hole, when she could have made very different... ... different choices to accomplish her mission. I mean, the relative ease with which she burns all her bridges, her willingness to turn to Yevgeny rather than her own side… at every pivotal moment, she goes headfirst for the “wrong” decision, the one that takes her further away from the prospect of returning home. You’re not overthinking it or seeing things that aren’t there. I think you’re largely correct and said as much in a post: "Carrie is not a compulsive liar and I don’t think she was lying to Franny in “Clarity.” I really do believe she thought she’d be back eventually. There is no way, sitting at Maggie’s kitchen counter, that she thought she was saying goodbye to Franny forever. The transition to her being “all in” is interesting and to be honest I’ve never considered what might have changed except that Carrie is a woman who believes she could have personally prevented 9/11 and she is trying to atone for being the “useful idiot” and she’s also impulsive and doesn’t think through the consequences of her decisions before making them. And, if I’m being honest, it’s also probably this: Carrie was able to maintain a semblance of dignity with that custody agreement and Saul more or less gives her an easy way out, too. She’s not “giving up Franny, her child,” she’s “going to go save American democracy.” This is why “Clarity” is such an effective ending for the Carrie/Franny saga. At the same time, Carrie feels shame in her failure to be an adequate mother to Franny, even though it was never something she wanted to be adequate at to begin with. Might she have offered herself up as a sacrificial lamb in order to say that she couldn’t be there because she was doing something truly heroic? If she couldn’t be a mother, at least she could be a hero. Might she have meandered along later in Afghanistan because to return to America, to the vicinity of her child, whom she could not be near, would be too great a pain for Carrie to bear (in all conceivable ways)? Carrie’s decision to abandon Franny is both selfish and selfless and that paradox is the reason it was so maddening to watch that relationship over the years. " That said, I think it’s a mistake to say that it was all a long con or premeditated plan - at least consciously. It was, as you say, her own proclivity to make the choice that would lead her further from her past life and the possibility of returning home, and when you add up all those choices it amounts to her having burned down her old life.
7:59 Two things: Great ending and true to an essential Carrie Mathison characteristic: Bravery. Carrie always made the brave choices. In Season 2 Brody (by killing the VP), when Abu Nazir and freed her from Nazir's captivity in the warehouse, any normal person would run away and stay away. Not Carrie. She went back INTO the tunnels to find Nazir. And kept going back in when everyone had given up. Typical brilliant Carrie. In Germany, when everyone was fleeing the train station and there were only minutes to a dirty bomb exploding, any normal person would have run as fast and as far away as they could. Not Carrie. She ran into the train tunnel to see what she could do to stop the explosion, risking her very probable death. Brave. So the series finale-with Carrie thoroughly burning her USA bridges, irrevocably leaving her daughter, and becoming the new Russian CIA spy, was both a brave choice and integrous. She'd blown the former agent's cover, causing her death, and took up her place. One hopes Saul stays in the game and ''runs'' her, instead of taking his well-deserved retirement. The second thing is this: Claire Danes' portrayal of a bi-polar person was flawless. Absolutely stellar. Especially the last two episodes of Season 1. People is bi-polar and I've never seen an actor depict mania so perfectly. Over the years, in the comments, people would write, "I can't stand crazy Carrie." Well, that's exactly how it feels when a bi-polar person is in a manic phase. You can't stand it. I bid farewell to this excellent series with enormous respect for Claire Danes, Mandy Patinkin, Damian Lewis and Rupert Friend especially, for superb, unforgettable performances, and to all the marvelous actors, designers, writers, etc. Well done. Bravo. Can't wait to see your next projects.
I know, right! People complaining about how annoying her manic episodes were was so frustrating to me because I felt they were missing an entire portion of her character. Carrie knew she was bi-polar AND still went to extreme lengths to see a mission through, which ironically, painted her as being someone with a one-track mind. The fact that her character remained with that laser-focus to accomplish a task, from season 1 all the way through betraying EVERYONE she cared about in season 8, is a testament to spectacular writing I think. I honestly thought she had been turned until the very last few scenes of the series finale, mainly when Saul found the message. And then my mind went... boom.
@@RobertProsciutto Thank you for being an open-minded and common sense person. Homeland always had three goals in mind: 1. The human cost of the spy; 2. The fundamental impossibility of the state of intelligence to realize its ends due to subterfuge, politics and human fragility; 3. The need for espionage - there are real monsters out there;
“The Secret Agent “ and “ The English Teacher “ both are actual novels. Costa posted one of them on Instagram. And he posted the "Red Book" months ago! “It recounts and comments upon the author’s psychological experiments” [x]. Those books referred to are about spies and their stories. This could be another wink to the Carrie/Saul story and maybe what he as a spy has to live through. Any hints ? I find it interesting and admire Costa reading those books in preparation for his role. To get into the mindset of his character, understand why a spy is who he is. And why he does what he does. Looks pretty professional to me. I love passionate people who dive into the material to get closer to the core! This reminds me of Carrie’s psychological state and what Yevgeny might have done to her during her time in Russia.
0:13 This photo reminds me of the incredible, too incredible to be coincidental in fact, symmetry of Homeland’s first two seasons . In season one, Carrie is on the verge of a severe mental breakdown. In season two, it’s Brody. At the end of season one, Carrie is the only one who believes Brody is guilty. At the end of season two, she’s the only who believes he’s innocent. At the end of season one, Carrie is on the outs at the CIA; in season two, Brody is excommunicated and Carrie returns to the agency. Season one’s “big attack” was mostly thwarted but season two’s was effective. In the first season, the powers that be question Brody’s mental and psychological state as he returns from a tortured captivity. In the second season, Saul, Estes, and Quinn question Carrie’s mental and psychological state as she returns to the operation after her own tortured absence, complete with ECT, from the agency. In the first season, we learn that Brody was turned after Walden and the US lied about their role in a drone strike. In the second season, we learn that the US has turned on Brody after Al Qaeda lies (presumably) about Brody’s role in the CIA attack. Episode to episode, there are also great parallels. In the fourth episode (“Semper I”/“New Car Smell”) Carrie and Brody cross paths in a major way. In episode five (“Blind Spot”/“Q&A”) a gutting interrogation takes place (with the 13th guard and Brody, respectively). After Brody’s interrogation, Carrie becomes a Nazir-like figure to Brody, disassembling him and putting him back into something she wants him to be. In season one, we are shown flashbacks of Nazir offering Brody water; Carrie does the same in her interrogation, and Brody declares in his interrogation that he is “off the grid” just as he was in captivity. In episode seven (“The Weekend”/“The Clearing”) Saul seeks help from Aileen in uncovering the plans for the next terrorist attack. In “The Weekend” her information leads to the realization that Tom Walker is still alive; this season she gives false information. And Brody again finds himself running away with/to Carrie, into the woods, for some manipulation and “is this real or not?” mind games. And in both instances, Brody walks away and leaves Carrie alone in the woods. To a lesser extent, in season one you have Dana giving Mike the lay of the land (“stay away from us, there’s no room for my dad when you’re here”); in season two, Carrie gives Mike the lay of the land (“stop talking to Jessica about Brody”, etc.). In episode eight (“Achilles Heel”/“I’ll Fly Away”) Brody doubts his mission and claims he’s out to his respective “handlers.” (I also like the parallel that both these episodes have sequences of Carrie helplessly and crazily barking orders/play-by-play into a telephone, in the Tom Walker manhunt and the “THEY’RE JUST GONE!” helicopter fiasco.) In episode nine (“Crossfire”/“Two Hats”) Nazir reaches out to Brody personally to reaffirm him to the cause. In season one his loyalty to the cause is reaffirmed, and in season two it seems to have been broken. Both episodes also feature flashbacks from Brody about time spent with Nazir. In episode ten (“Representative Brody”/“Broken Hearts”), Brody makes a major decision about his position in Congress. In season one he decides to run for Congress; in season two he decides to resign from Congress. Both episodes also feature events that rattle Carrie’s mind and put her in grave danger (suitcase bomb/abduction by Nazir). In the eleventh episode (“The Vest”/“In Memoriam”) Brody says goodbye to his family. In “The Vest” he takes them on a final family trip and says his goodbyes subtly, trying to assure they’ll be fine when he’s gone. In season two he accepts that his marriage is over. In season one, Brody tells Carrie he’ll come to her home to discuss Nazir with her personally. He doesn’t show up, but in “In Memoriam” he finally comes to her door once Nazir is dead. Carrie’s mental state in the first season is manic and out-of-control and she is frenzied at the activity of Nazir. In the second season, her mental state is subdued and rather dejected after Nazir dies. Both episodes also feature great tirades over seemingly nothing: Carrie’s green pen in “The Vest” and Dana’s spilled milk in “In Memoriam.” In the finales (“Marine One”/“The Choice”) Brody and Dana have a loaded conversation in the bedroom as Brody dresses. In season one Dana doubts her father’s innocence and calls him to talk him back from the ledge; in season one Dana doubts her father’s guilt in his role in the CIA explosion. And of course in “Marine One” you have the introduction of Brody’s tape, and in “The Choice,” its resurface after many weeks of not hearing about it. Carrie and Brody also part indefinitely at the end of both seasons.
Carrie and her addiction to danger remain in evidence. ''Saul: Why? You like bad boys? Carrie: That sounds funny coming from you. You know why girls like bad boys, Saul? Because it gives us an excuse to be bad all the while convincing ourselves we’re saving them.” - Saul's Game: A Homeland Novel (2014) by Andrew Kaplan(Author); page 228. We have already had several beginnings of the season that showed her before the real possibility of leading a more peaceful life, getting a new job, focusing on raising her daughter. When circumstances don't pull her back into the abyss, she throws herself. Perhaps one of the most important questions about Homeland is the controversial nature of its protagonist. Carrie has won many awards for Claire Danes not only because she is a woman who suffers from a mental disorder, and because this disorder does not directly affect one of the greatest truths about her personality: Carrie likes to be in danger. Tension, fear, despair are her real comfort zone; and little by little, it sabotages any alternative of ordinary life. Actress Claire Danes saw the parallels between Brody and Mathison in the first and last season. "It's kind of poetic for her to be in this position," she said. “And both are pushed to the limit of their moral integrity and patriotism, and both, in the end, do the right thing, in the same way that Brody doesn't explode himself and everyone else, and gets very close. Now Carrie and Brody are driven by the same motivating principle: they are patriots. Brody has become a twisted version of this, and the same goes for Carrie. "
I’ve just rewatched season 8, and I think that there are some similarities between Carrie/Brody and Carrie/Yevgeny relationships, at least in the beginning. The only difference is that this time Carrie is Brody. Yevgeny stages a number of events to get Carrie to trust him, just so he can later benefit from this trust; Carrie did the same to Brody. Eventually, though, somewhere along the way, this interaction between them turns into genuine feelings, but far from those that developed between Carrie and Brody. Also, even tough Carrie and Yevgeny care about each other to a certain degree, there always seem to be some ulterior motives at play with them. For instance, Yevgeny helps Carrie track Max, despite not knowing anything about the flight recorder, so his reasons for helping her seem genuine at the time. On the other hand, while he may not specifically know about the flight recorder, he probably already knows that helping Carrie and having her ‘owe him’ and warm up to him would come handy later on. Carrie does exactly the same; after all she uses her relationship with Yevgeny as a cover for her spying activities. Their relationship seems quite parasitic; in the beginning Yevgeny preys on Carrie, but later this shifts. So, while they are a couple, it will probably all come crushing down once the secrets are out. Finally, I think that Carrie resents Yevgeny for what he made her do to Saul. No, I don’t think their relationship is real. of course Carrie x Yevgeny "relationship" is problematic now do you think that he's toxic? In my humble opinion, Compared to the other relationships (Brody, Quinn and Jonas), platonic or otherwise, Carrie had, YES.
In reality, Marine One's redemption is spiritual. He sacrificed himself for what he believed: Dana, Carrie and the USA. Except that Javadi with an impressive insight (even because he barely knew Brody and Carrie), takes her motivation out of the hat. She had gotten what she wanted, "everyone" saw Brody with her eyes. And that motivation was true from the beginning when she saw him as a terrorist, and then when she started to see him as a hero. Carrie’s eyes, in addition to the love of his life. She contributed to his redemption (and death) in equal proportion to what he himself contributed to it. Do you think the book “Tyranny of Secrets” by Drone Queen will help efficiently in this? My head canon is Carrie attempted to set the record straight in her book, to a limit. I don’t think she revealed that he is Franny’s father and I also don’t think she revealed too much that would damage her credibility. I do think she used the CIA’s treatment of him and complete mishandling of ~the Brody situation~ in S1-3 as ammunition in her (presumed) indictment of the organization. We can say that Carrie was one of the best-built characters in history - alongside Brody, Saul, Dar Adal, Quinn (and Max, Astrid, Fara, Virgil, Maggie)... It would be possible to clarify the following doubts: - Would you like to see Homeland reveal how the CIA explained Brody in Iran and his death to the American press? - Clearly, Javadi's ability to receive credit for Brody's capture helped his cause in Iran, but did the US government reveal Brody's role in Akbari's murder? - Was your name cleared for the CIA attack? I'd love to know what you think. - Another loose thread: Paul Franklin and the murder of the "real" CIA bomber. He ended up doing that scene ... why ?? Carrie was publicly humiliated, beaten, doped, shot and put her life on the line countless times without hesitation, just to make others see Brody as she saw him ... and she succeeded. Abu Nazir, the CIA, Jessica and the show's own audience, no one came close to seeing Brody with the clarity Carrie has always seen. Carrie has always read Brody like no one else. Ah, Carrie's dialogue with Javadi was incredible, it will be one of the most memorable moments in the series, without a doubt! “And what you wanted, which was for everyone to see what you see in him. That happened. Everyone sees it through your eyes now ... ” - How did Carrie see Brody? and how did the US come to see this? It's the world?
Much of the appeal of Homeland, at least to me, was in the way every single question wasn't answered forthright. With that, I don't think the U.S. gov't would ever acknowledge Brody's role in anything after he was considered an enemy of the state, even if he did something that ultimately benefited the U.S.
@@RobertProsciutto Javadi puts the CIA in a position where it has to choose between the life of an agent or the success of the mission - Homeland puts his finger on the wound by showing the rest of the agency's crowd making the second option happen with the collusion of the US president, showing the failed values of the institutions with respect to the "war on terror". The authors should at least show that Brody had nothing to do with the CIA bombing (what was the use of killing the person responsible for the bomb in the plot? Just making sausage! How was Dana's bland history), after being executed in Terah, mainly after he completed a mission that is the government equivalent of winning the Super Bowl.
A comment by Linka Glatter on Carrie's End (S8E12): "She may be the happiest we've ever seen, even though she's living a lie - that's the irony of it." What does that mean? The lie is Carrie still spying for America (or Saul, whatever). I think most people would imagine a person “living a lie” is not that happy, now Carrie is. For example, compare how life horribel Brody was in seasons one and two living a life that was a lie. “Homeland” ends with Carrie working as a secret spy -- shades of Sgt. Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) in the first season -- and taking the place of Saul’s Russian asset, whose death Carrie helped cause. This ending raises all sorts of questions. We know Carrie has resigned herself to not seeing her daughter, who’s in the U.S. But how will affect both Carrie, and her daughter? How much does Yevgeny know? How long can Carrie get away with her spying? Will Saul forgive Carrie -- yet again -- because of her attempt to make amends by taking the place of the asset she helped expose?
Those are really great questions that could be explored in a limited future spinoff/extra season. Perhaps years into her deep cover, Carrie yearns to contract an older Franny and slips up during their communique. Yevgeny starts to suspect things and Carrie has to be extracted from Moscow. Sounds thrilling to me :D
Hi, Bobby Hams, I’ve been waiting on your review for days!!! Another expert rundown. My jaw dropped when I saw Saul on the floor. I love Saul so much. I’m glad he told Carrie off, she deserved it. Upon thinking of this finale, I’m glad it ended showing Carrie was going to continue with her life’s work with espionage. She isn’t one to go quietly into the night. You made me laugh when you said some quip about smooth jazz playing in the background. 😂 Thanks for your time and this video.
Danielle, thank you for watching and enjoying these Homeland reviews, and for your kind words :D Yes, I was in that same boat when Saul hit the ground and he was as stubborn as Carrie in protecting Anna. Immovable object, meet unstoppable force. I thought it was a smart choice that the writers had her keep doing what she was great at, on her own, with the memory of Franny and Brody as her motivation. Yeah, the smooth jazz thing just seemed to work well hahaha, glad you liked it :-)
Danielle R, also I'm still putting the Smallville material together, but in the meantime I'm going to do reviews for La Casa de Papel, so come on back for those :-)
11:12 “The big idea for when we were filming [the final scenes] both for Carrie and Saul was that there were these amazing flares of light in the background of Saul’s shot and in the background of Carrie’s shot. It’s another chapter opening up. It came out of incredible discussions since it is the last image. I love that there’s just something about the incredible, ecstatic look on both of their faces for very different reasons.” -Lesli Linka Glatter S7E6: Ivan Krupin requests a meeting with Yevgeny Gromov, where he orders Gromov to cease the operations that led to the death of American citizens on US soil, a violation of his protocol. Gromov dismisses Krupin's concerns as an outdated regime. What do you think of Gromov's behavior?
Carrie and Brody were always working each other. Carefully parsed words, never able to truly trust each other. Their love was born out of intensity of their life and death situations. It's easy to mistake that for passion. Just before he was arrested, they still wondered if they could make it together. Yevgeny, he only knew how to work people to his advantage. Just like Simone in S7.E11, who thought Gromov loved her and would always protect her. He was willing to write her off to accomplish his mission. He thinks he has worked Carrie for the last two years, to get the book out of her and thus prove where her loyalties lie. Yet, she has worked him, convincing him of her trustworthiness so she can access intel like Anna did. It's all a game. One she is willing to play to give Saul back his valuable ear to the Russian elite.
Fantastic overview. You always give me a few extra things to think about with homeland. Just finished the last episode yesterday and I've got to say it was brilliant. I'll miss it.
Also, there was no reason to take this series off television 📺 . You could easily Google and find / locate like I did the popularity of HOMELAND was still at an all-time high. And as we all know, at the end of the show we see that Carrie is now starting to be an agent inside Russia for good-old-Sol. They could’ve easily got to three more seasons right there of her smuggling information out to Sol and they could’ve easily portrayed it from Langleys side, wanting Carrie to turn her new Russian lover against Russia and defect to America!!
"No one person is worth the lives of tens of thousands." Carrie proves it by having Anna killed and taking her place. After watching the 8th season, I consider Adal and Saul the biggest jackasses of the show. Should Carrie ever want a normal life, Saul can't be in it... and perhaps that's the point. I can see Carrie's entire relationship with Brody in her relationship with Yevgeny, and consider her loyalty to him open to interpretation. It's not confirmed one way or the other if she was meeting the woman privately because of Yevgeny, or simply because they were in a packed theater. Same with the intel she sent to Saul. It's not confirmed one way or the other if he gave her that intel or if she stole it from him. Even though it's a Russian missile defense system, it was sold to Iran and Turkey. I think their relationship is capable of ending or continuing just as her relationship with Brody did. Both relationships are unhealthy, but from what I've seen, Yevgeny refuses to let her die. He wouldn't even let her get arrested and put on the helicopter, so I don't expect a public execution to match Brody's. After all, it was Saul who prepped him and sent him to die, which is essentially what he did to Carrie in the 8th season. She would've been executed had she went to trial and they found her guilty. What she did to Saul was no different than what she and Saul did to Dante. A very deserving taste of Russian poison. imo, Carrie should've remained in the hospital due to her sleep and memory issues. Instead of leaving her there to fully recuperate, Saul was all about the mission. He involved her, knowing full-well she'd go against doctor's orders for the sake of that mission. No different than Adal with Peter, and just as sad to see what happened to him. Saul then put her in an environment where she couldn't be trusted because she failed her polygraph. Her own team couldn't trust her because they were told not to. They were so much as having her followed, recording her conversations, and using them to build a case against her. Saul essentially pulled her out of the hospital just to drop her in Yevgeny's arms because the mission came first. Best his student leave the classroom, lest she end up like Anna's. Lest she end up like Quinn and Brody and Max and everyone else who died because they're expendable. Who knows, maybe one day she'll Skype with Franny... unless Homeland's gonna pretend the internet stopped existing.
I have so many warm feelings about this show, but I also have many questions. Your video helped a great deal with most of them. However, I am still confused about so many things. One thing I still do not get (and that is my fault I am sure) is the scene when Carrie went to Saul's sister's house and lied about him dying. I get that she wanted the note or package he had left for her but if she knew this, why didn't she go there much earlier? Why did she go through the whole rigmarole of pretending and threatening to kill Saul? And most of all, if the Russians wanted Saul dead so badly, why didn't they just do it themselves? Why insist that Carrie be the one to kill him? She is no stranger to elaborate deception and lying so it would be expected not to trust her to go through with it, even in those dire circumstances. I get the reasons the writers made that the case - it is excellent dramatic tension - to have these two best friends who would literally die for one another come to this tragic end. But, in that same vein, it doesn't make sense to me that they (the Russians) would insist she be the one to do it. Especially knowing how close they are, they had to suspect she would find a way to either fake it (like she did) or warn him. The reach and power of the Russians, as is our intelligence in many cases was frequently exhibited in the show. Nothing was ever a mystery. Discussions that were not meant to be heard were always brought up- almost immediately. So, isn't it likely to assume that the intelligence and insider plants of the Russian spies in the CIA and elsewhere would know right away if Carrie did not in fact kill Saul? Especially when you consider the long and close relationship the two of them had. They must have known Saul would never give up the name of his asset - not even to Carrie. To me, they would have already made concessions to confirm his death if it was so important. Not only could they have gotten to Saul themselves, but they would have most certainly killed Carrie the moment they knew Saul was still alive and her "double life" in Russia never would be possible. It is difficult for me to believe she was able to turn or bribe the two GRU killers to not go through with it since they were, as that assistant to Yevgeny said, "handpicked." Nope. The Russians would have found out and Carrie would be dead. And Saul. I loved this show and I understand the need for dramatic tension, but this still does not hit right for me. Overall, I thought the ending was fantastic and well produced and satisfying. I loved the fact it was a woman who chose her job over her kid - something you do not see on television. Not that I applaud it, but it is certainly plausible. Before I saw the last few episodes, I had written down a couple of my own predictions for the ending. The first one is my own fantasy and wishful thinking. It was that somehow Brody’s death was faked or he survived it somehow and he came back for Carrie. The other was that Saul was turned during his time in Russia in the 1980’s and that it is revealed that he was a double agent. Anyway - any light you can share on my question is greatly appreciated! Great video - new sub!
Hi Heidi, you're right about the inconsistency with the Russians hit men. I think they would've off'ed Carrie and Saul, but I don't think that ending would've tested well with audiences. It would've been too abrupt and anti-climactic, like GoT. I agree that you don't see too many women in movies and TV shows prioritize their work over home life and kids. I liked that Carrie was gung-ho about her job, helped her to really stand out as a character. I think your Saul theory could've worked if the writers had sprinkled little clues about Saul's loyalties during the show's run. And at the finale, it's Carrie who realizes who he is-- after a swift release from Yevgeny's clutches-- and he has to take him down without tipping her hand, a task which would prove all the more difficult because Saul had accumulated a lot powerful friends in D.C. over his career. And Carrie was known to have mental issues, so such an accusation against such a senior agent would either ring as a mental breakdown or Russian brainwashing. It'd be nice to see how Carrie would've played those cards. Apologies for the late reply, been away from YT for almost a year! Thanks for the sub! 😀
It isn't made clear who the other woman is and what they exchanged. We're meant to assume she may be one of Carrie's links to the U.S. and Saul. Carrie was probably passing along more info that she'd gathered.
The ending absolutely sucked. No way, no way in hell would Carrie give serious contemplation to killing Sol. And then when the couple near the end of the show lock themselves in that room and Sol’s Russian mole was gonna kill herself, you can’t tell me that they couldn’t have barricaded the door to the point the Russian agents couldn’t have got in. No way in hell. There was loads of stuff, various things in that room. And he was playing weak as all get out on that desk pushing on it!!
I think Carrie and Yevgeny really did love each other? And they had great chemistry? Homeland will be greatly missed. As for the closing scene, there are so many thoughts and questions.... Is she really so hooked on this lifestyle and spying that she would give up everything else? Her daughter? her sister? And love from Saul? There I look at the big picture! Back to season 7, Carrie is broke, has debts, and very complicated relationship with her family. She has no friends left... she was barely talking to Saul anymore the past years and now with Max dead... she was left alone in a world she doesn’t know or doesn’t fit her. She tried to have a normal life (Berlin, New York) but couldn’t. In my opinion, despite the sacrifices, it’s where she’s best. Serving her country, and not in the most common sense as serving during war for example as she’s exposing the US from Moscow, but for the good of the planet apparently. I don’t know about you, but for public the chemistry is just not there 100% with Yevgeny as it was with Brody and Quinn. They tried to force the chemistry and even though Yevgeny is a good actor, he was miscast as Carrie’s love interest IMHO. She had so much more chemistry with Brody a few seasons prior (apart from Quinn). Interesting things to think about. I think she found some measure of contentment and safety with Yevgney - NOT love real. Yet she still lives on the edge by spying while in Russia. I think Carrie realizes she isn’t good for Frannie and that her daughter, who she loves, is better off with her sister. I’d love to see what her future looks like, even what ends up happening with her daughter. The series left in such an interesting place. I’ve never seen another show that wrapped things up and yet opened the door to so many more possibilities. It was a wonderful close to the cycle of this series. congratulations to everyone involved. On season seven, it might have been something of an unconscious self-fulfilling prophecy. Carrie never wanted to live a normal life so she sabotaged that normal life in spectacular Carrie Mathison fashion, which we saw play out in seasons five and six. That doesn’t make her separation from Franny any less painful, though. So if you look at the finale and think, well, this is better for her than what we saw in the prior two seasons when she was back in the US, I think that’s the point. In other words: Carrie never wanted a normal life, so she didn’t practice or ultimately care about being good at it. When she had the chance to live a normal life, she was, as expected, bad at it. And so she made choices that made it literally impossible to ever have that again. That said, I do love the irony of Carrie and Yevgeny going on this date night together, which is absurdly normal, but it’s couched in her play and slow hand out back to Saul, which is decidedly not. PS: In S4, Carrie/Khan will be lulzy!
From the pilot in 2011 onwards, “Homeland” sought to encourage viewers to think hard about some central questions: What did the United States learn from 9/11? Do we overreact on our domestic agenda to fight the war on terror?
Season 7 and 8 at its best highlighted how the deepest institutions in Washington DC work in real life and how diplomacy can easily be hindered by political issues. Taking a lot of dramatic leave, "Homeland" has always put a spotlight on how decisions, feints and instinctive calls made by anonymous agents in the field can prevent disasters and change the course of history.
Carrie does all this while establishing her legacy for the one thing she has been fighting for since her first scene - the security of America. It's been a swan song worthy of a character that will be missed - a character who, until his final hour, has been one of the greatest names of all time on television. While it is great to see the playing field open to the Danes once again, it is difficult to see it encompassing someone as wealthy as this one.
Only an actor of the Danish caliber could have made Carrie's failures, mental health struggles and crazy romantic choices real - Saul, Brody, Quinn and Max - enough to worry us for 96 episodes.
Ultimately, Carrie ended her eight-season run on "Homeland" as she started on the pilot: working in the spy business, more disguised than ever and guided only by her internal radar to what was right and wrong. Because in the end, all that matters is who you trust (because you sincerely love that person).
That is, she will never really trust guys like Dante or Yevgeny.
This show is probably one of the best overall shows in the past decade. Definitely one that actually had a great ending, unlike other great shows, that ended poorly (Game of Thrones, Dexter)
Wasn't it refreshing to have a series with an ending that made sense? Dexter should've sacrificed himself to the storm or just vanished in it. The lumberjack scene was unnecessary, I think.
I don't even want to talk about that other show.
7:57 I loved the finale. It was imperfectly perfect. The best part for me was when Carrie is emotional about betraying Saul and burning his asset. Yevgeny Gromov is telling her that she will get over it. She looks at him in disgust and says that it must “be a really lonely life!” She walks off to let those words take maximum effect in his head and his heart. It was at that moment I realized that Carrie was working him. I’ve come to know her too well. It was brilliant! ...
Omg! Just the best writing and acting ever! Come to think of it. She was working him the entire time. She saw the value of building and maintaining a relationship with him. Wow! … Carrie always played the long game. It made me happy to see Saul happy to hear from Carrie: “Everything She does is because she never loses sight of what’s important.”
NOW... While Yevgeny did lose the long game, I also don’t completely agree that Carrie was working him the entire time. Carrie’s comment that it must be really lonely on his side stings and has such great effect because she means it fully. It’s not part of some larger play. I don’t think she’s manipulating him other than the sort of baseline level of manipulation that happens when you get the last word and then storm out. like… that happens in daily life.
I also think that Carrie is someone who didn’t really play the long game, at least not that well. She is an improviser, she thinks on her toes. Actually, Carrie becoming the new asset, writing a book as a cover, and hiding from Yevgeny in this way is the longest, most elaborate game she ever played.
In an earlier episode in season 8, Carrie talks her minder back at the CIA station in Kabul to reveal the safe house where the CIA special ops team is staying in the town where she and Yevgeny have come to search for the flight recorder. After Carrie completes the call, Yevgeny expresses amazement that Carrie can come up with a solution to their immediate problem, to buy time for them to obtain the flight recorder that night, even if it means she has to betray her minder and the special ops team searching for her. Yevgeny expresses amazement and admiration for Carrie 's skill at improvisation, admitting that he is more of a planner. This brief scene pays off in the finale.
@@ronforeman2556 Carrie could play the long game, too, if she wanted.
Season 8 Carrie. I don’t really have any evidence to support this, now I can't shake the idea that Carrie's behaviour throughout S8 is partly driven by an underlying, and largely unconscious urge to find a way out of her former life. It's almost as if she's shaped the events to fit this plan, as if the mission was an excuse to leave everything behind. Like she says “I dug this gigantic hole and I can’t see a way out”. She put herself in that hole, when she could have made very different...
... different choices to accomplish her mission. I mean, the relative ease with which she burns all her bridges, her willingness to turn to Yevgeny rather than her own side… at every pivotal moment, she goes headfirst for the “wrong” decision, the one that takes her further away from the prospect of returning home.
You’re not overthinking it or seeing things that aren’t there. I think you’re largely correct and said as much in a post:
"Carrie is not a compulsive liar and I don’t think she was lying to Franny in “Clarity.” I really do believe she thought she’d be back eventually. There is no way, sitting at Maggie’s kitchen counter, that she thought she was saying goodbye to Franny forever.
The transition to her being “all in” is interesting and to be honest I’ve never considered what might have changed except that Carrie is a woman who believes she could have personally prevented 9/11 and she is trying to atone for being the “useful idiot” and she’s also impulsive and doesn’t think through the consequences of her decisions before making them.
And, if I’m being honest, it’s also probably this: Carrie was able to maintain a semblance of dignity with that custody agreement and Saul more or less gives her an easy way out, too. She’s not “giving up Franny, her child,” she’s “going to go save American democracy.” This is why “Clarity” is such an effective ending for the Carrie/Franny saga. At the same time, Carrie feels shame in her failure to be an adequate mother to Franny, even though it was never something she wanted to be adequate at to begin with. Might she have offered herself up as a sacrificial lamb in order to say that she couldn’t be there because she was doing something truly heroic? If she couldn’t be a mother, at least she could be a hero.
Might she have meandered along later in Afghanistan because to return to America, to the vicinity of her child, whom she could not be near, would be too great a pain for Carrie to bear (in all conceivable ways)? Carrie’s decision to abandon Franny is both selfish and selfless and that paradox is the reason it was so maddening to watch that relationship over the years. "
That said, I think it’s a mistake to say that it was all a long con or premeditated plan - at least consciously. It was, as you say, her own proclivity to make the choice that would lead her further from her past life and the possibility of returning home, and when you add up all those choices it amounts to her having burned down her old life.
7:59 Two things: Great ending and true to an essential Carrie Mathison characteristic: Bravery. Carrie always made the brave choices. In Season 2 Brody (by killing the VP), when Abu Nazir and freed her from Nazir's captivity in the warehouse, any normal person would run away and stay away. Not Carrie. She went back INTO the tunnels to find Nazir. And kept going back in when everyone had given up. Typical brilliant Carrie.
In Germany, when everyone was fleeing the train station and there were only minutes to a dirty bomb exploding, any normal person would have run as fast and as far away as they could. Not Carrie. She ran into the train tunnel to see what she could do to stop the explosion, risking her very probable death. Brave.
So the series finale-with Carrie thoroughly burning her USA bridges, irrevocably leaving her daughter, and becoming the new Russian CIA spy, was both a brave choice and integrous. She'd blown the former agent's cover, causing her death, and took up her place. One hopes Saul stays in the game and ''runs'' her, instead of taking his well-deserved retirement.
The second thing is this: Claire Danes' portrayal of a bi-polar person was flawless. Absolutely stellar. Especially the last two episodes of Season 1. People is bi-polar and I've never seen an actor depict mania so perfectly. Over the years, in the comments, people would write, "I can't stand crazy Carrie." Well, that's exactly how it feels when a bi-polar person is in a manic phase. You can't stand it.
I bid farewell to this excellent series with enormous respect for Claire Danes, Mandy Patinkin, Damian Lewis and Rupert Friend especially, for superb, unforgettable performances, and to all the marvelous actors, designers, writers, etc. Well done. Bravo. Can't wait to see your next projects.
I know, right! People complaining about how annoying her manic episodes were was so frustrating to me because I felt they were missing an entire portion of her character. Carrie knew she was bi-polar AND still went to extreme lengths to see a mission through, which ironically, painted her as being someone with a one-track mind.
The fact that her character remained with that laser-focus to accomplish a task, from season 1 all the way through betraying EVERYONE she cared about in season 8, is a testament to spectacular writing I think. I honestly thought she had been turned until the very last few scenes of the series finale, mainly when Saul found the message.
And then my mind went... boom.
@@RobertProsciutto
Thank you for being an open-minded and common sense person.
Homeland always had three goals in mind:
1. The human cost of the spy;
2. The fundamental impossibility of the state of intelligence to realize its ends due to subterfuge, politics and human fragility;
3. The need for espionage - there are real monsters out there;
Hey, that just the cost of doing business.
Greatest Finally Ever.
“The Secret Agent “ and “ The English Teacher “ both are actual novels. Costa posted one of them on Instagram. And he posted the "Red Book" months ago! “It recounts and comments upon the author’s psychological experiments” [x]. Those books referred to are about spies and their stories. This could be another wink to the Carrie/Saul story and maybe what he as a spy has to live through. Any hints ?
I find it interesting and admire Costa reading those books in preparation for his role. To get into the mindset of his character, understand why a spy is who he is. And why he does what he does. Looks pretty professional to me. I love passionate people who dive into the material to get closer to the core!
This reminds me of Carrie’s psychological state and what Yevgeny might have done to her during her time in Russia.
0:13 This photo reminds me of the incredible, too incredible to be coincidental in fact, symmetry of Homeland’s first two seasons .
In season one, Carrie is on the verge of a severe mental breakdown. In season two, it’s Brody. At the end of season one, Carrie is the only one who believes Brody is guilty. At the end of season two, she’s the only who believes he’s innocent. At the end of season one, Carrie is on the outs at the CIA; in season two, Brody is excommunicated and Carrie returns to the agency. Season one’s “big attack” was mostly thwarted but season two’s was effective.
In the first season, the powers that be question Brody’s mental and psychological state as he returns from a tortured captivity. In the second season, Saul, Estes, and Quinn question Carrie’s mental and psychological state as she returns to the operation after her own tortured absence, complete with ECT, from the agency.
In the first season, we learn that Brody was turned after Walden and the US lied about their role in a drone strike. In the second season, we learn that the US has turned on Brody after Al Qaeda lies (presumably) about Brody’s role in the CIA attack.
Episode to episode, there are also great parallels.
In the fourth episode (“Semper I”/“New Car Smell”) Carrie and Brody cross paths in a major way.
In episode five (“Blind Spot”/“Q&A”) a gutting interrogation takes place (with the 13th guard and Brody, respectively). After Brody’s interrogation, Carrie becomes a Nazir-like figure to Brody, disassembling him and putting him back into something she wants him to be. In season one, we are shown flashbacks of Nazir offering Brody water; Carrie does the same in her interrogation, and Brody declares in his interrogation that he is “off the grid” just as he was in captivity.
In episode seven (“The Weekend”/“The Clearing”) Saul seeks help from Aileen in uncovering the plans for the next terrorist attack. In “The Weekend” her information leads to the realization that Tom Walker is still alive; this season she gives false information. And Brody again finds himself running away with/to Carrie, into the woods, for some manipulation and “is this real or not?” mind games. And in both instances, Brody walks away and leaves Carrie alone in the woods. To a lesser extent, in season one you have Dana giving Mike the lay of the land (“stay away from us, there’s no room for my dad when you’re here”); in season two, Carrie gives Mike the lay of the land (“stop talking to Jessica about Brody”, etc.).
In episode eight (“Achilles Heel”/“I’ll Fly Away”) Brody doubts his mission and claims he’s out to his respective “handlers.” (I also like the parallel that both these episodes have sequences of Carrie helplessly and crazily barking orders/play-by-play into a telephone, in the Tom Walker manhunt and the “THEY’RE JUST GONE!” helicopter fiasco.)
In episode nine (“Crossfire”/“Two Hats”) Nazir reaches out to Brody personally to reaffirm him to the cause. In season one his loyalty to the cause is reaffirmed, and in season two it seems to have been broken. Both episodes also feature flashbacks from Brody about time spent with Nazir.
In episode ten (“Representative Brody”/“Broken Hearts”), Brody makes a major decision about his position in Congress. In season one he decides to run for Congress; in season two he decides to resign from Congress. Both episodes also feature events that rattle Carrie’s mind and put her in grave danger (suitcase bomb/abduction by Nazir).
In the eleventh episode (“The Vest”/“In Memoriam”) Brody says goodbye to his family. In “The Vest” he takes them on a final family trip and says his goodbyes subtly, trying to assure they’ll be fine when he’s gone. In season two he accepts that his marriage is over. In season one, Brody tells Carrie he’ll come to her home to discuss Nazir with her personally. He doesn’t show up, but in “In Memoriam” he finally comes to her door once Nazir is dead. Carrie’s mental state in the first season is manic and out-of-control and she is frenzied at the activity of Nazir. In the second season, her mental state is subdued and rather dejected after Nazir dies. Both episodes also feature great tirades over seemingly nothing: Carrie’s green pen in “The Vest” and Dana’s spilled milk in “In Memoriam.”
In the finales (“Marine One”/“The Choice”) Brody and Dana have a loaded conversation in the bedroom as Brody dresses. In season one Dana doubts her father’s innocence and calls him to talk him back from the ledge; in season one Dana doubts her father’s guilt in his role in the CIA explosion. And of course in “Marine One” you have the introduction of Brody’s tape, and in “The Choice,” its resurface after many weeks of not hearing about it. Carrie and Brody also part indefinitely at the end of both seasons.
Carrie and her addiction to danger remain in evidence.
''Saul: Why? You like bad boys?
Carrie: That sounds funny coming from you. You know why girls like bad boys, Saul? Because it gives us an excuse to be bad all the while convincing ourselves we’re saving them.” - Saul's Game: A Homeland Novel (2014) by Andrew Kaplan(Author); page 228.
We have already had several beginnings of the season that showed her before the real possibility of leading a more peaceful life, getting a new job, focusing on raising her daughter. When circumstances don't pull her back into the abyss, she throws herself.
Perhaps one of the most important questions about Homeland is the controversial nature of its protagonist. Carrie has won many awards for Claire Danes not only because she is a woman who suffers from a mental disorder, and because this disorder does not directly affect one of the greatest truths about her personality: Carrie likes to be in danger. Tension, fear, despair are her real comfort zone; and little by little, it sabotages any alternative of ordinary life.
Actress Claire Danes saw the parallels between Brody and Mathison in the first and last season. "It's kind of poetic for her to be in this position," she said. “And both are pushed to the limit of their moral integrity and patriotism, and both, in the end, do the right thing, in the same way that Brody doesn't explode himself and everyone else, and gets very close. Now Carrie and Brody are driven by the same motivating principle: they are patriots. Brody has become a twisted version of this, and the same goes for Carrie. "
I’ve just rewatched season 8, and I think that there are some similarities between Carrie/Brody and Carrie/Yevgeny relationships, at least in the beginning. The only difference is that this time Carrie is Brody. Yevgeny stages a number of events to get Carrie to trust him, just so he can later benefit from this trust; Carrie did the same to Brody. Eventually, though, somewhere along the way, this interaction between them turns into genuine feelings, but far from those that developed between Carrie and Brody. Also, even tough Carrie and Yevgeny care about each other to a certain degree, there always seem to be some ulterior motives at play with them.
For instance, Yevgeny helps Carrie track Max, despite not knowing anything about the flight recorder, so his reasons for helping her seem genuine at the time. On the other hand, while he may not specifically know about the flight recorder, he probably already knows that helping Carrie and having her ‘owe him’ and warm up to him would come handy later on. Carrie does exactly the same; after all she uses her relationship with Yevgeny as a cover for her spying activities. Their relationship seems quite parasitic; in the beginning Yevgeny preys on Carrie, but later this shifts. So, while they are a couple, it will probably all come crushing down once the secrets are out. Finally, I think that Carrie resents Yevgeny for what he made her do to Saul. No, I don’t think their relationship is real.
of course Carrie x Yevgeny "relationship" is problematic now do you think that he's toxic?
In my humble opinion, Compared to the other relationships (Brody, Quinn and Jonas), platonic or otherwise, Carrie had, YES.
In reality, Marine One's redemption is spiritual. He sacrificed himself for what he believed: Dana, Carrie and the USA. Except that Javadi with an impressive insight (even because he barely knew Brody and Carrie), takes her motivation out of the hat. She had gotten what she wanted, "everyone" saw Brody with her eyes. And that motivation was true from the beginning when she saw him as a terrorist, and then when she started to see him as a hero.
Carrie’s eyes, in addition to the love of his life. She contributed to his redemption (and death) in equal proportion to what he himself contributed to it. Do you think the book “Tyranny of Secrets” by Drone Queen will help efficiently in this?
My head canon is Carrie attempted to set the record straight in her book, to a limit. I don’t think she revealed that he is Franny’s father and I also don’t think she revealed too much that would damage her credibility. I do think she used the CIA’s treatment of him and complete mishandling of ~the Brody situation~ in S1-3 as ammunition in her (presumed) indictment of the organization.
We can say that Carrie was one of the best-built characters in history - alongside Brody, Saul, Dar Adal, Quinn (and Max, Astrid, Fara, Virgil, Maggie)... It would be possible to clarify the following doubts:
- Would you like to see Homeland reveal how the CIA explained Brody in Iran and his death to the American press?
- Clearly, Javadi's ability to receive credit for Brody's capture helped his cause in Iran, but did the US government reveal Brody's role in Akbari's murder?
- Was your name cleared for the CIA attack? I'd love to know what you think.
- Another loose thread: Paul Franklin and the murder of the "real" CIA bomber. He ended up doing that scene ... why ??
Carrie was publicly humiliated, beaten, doped, shot and put her life on the line countless times without hesitation, just to make others see Brody as she saw him ... and she succeeded. Abu Nazir, the CIA, Jessica and the show's own audience, no one came close to seeing Brody with the clarity Carrie has always seen. Carrie has always read Brody like no one else.
Ah, Carrie's dialogue with Javadi was incredible, it will be one of the most memorable moments in the series, without a doubt!
“And what you wanted, which was for everyone to see what you see in him. That happened. Everyone sees it through your eyes now ... ”
- How did Carrie see Brody? and how did the US come to see this? It's the world?
Much of the appeal of Homeland, at least to me, was in the way every single question wasn't answered forthright. With that, I don't think the U.S. gov't would ever acknowledge Brody's role in anything after he was considered an enemy of the state, even if he did something that ultimately benefited the U.S.
@@RobertProsciutto Javadi puts the CIA in a position where it has to choose between the life of an agent or the success of the mission -
Homeland puts his finger on the wound by showing the rest of the agency's crowd making the second option happen with the collusion of the US president, showing the failed values of the institutions with respect to the "war on terror".
The authors should at least show that Brody had nothing to do with the CIA bombing (what was the use of killing the person responsible for the bomb in the plot? Just making sausage! How was Dana's bland history), after being executed in Terah, mainly after he completed a mission that is the government equivalent of winning the Super Bowl.
A comment by Linka Glatter on Carrie's End (S8E12): "She may be the happiest we've ever seen, even though she's living a lie - that's the irony of it." What does that mean?
The lie is Carrie still spying for America (or Saul, whatever). I think most people would imagine a person “living a lie” is not that happy, now Carrie is.
For example, compare how life horribel Brody was in seasons one and two living a life that was a lie.
“Homeland” ends with Carrie working as a secret spy -- shades of Sgt. Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) in the first season -- and taking the place of Saul’s Russian asset, whose death Carrie helped cause.
This ending raises all sorts of questions. We know Carrie has resigned herself to not seeing her daughter, who’s in the U.S. But how will affect both Carrie, and her daughter? How much does Yevgeny know? How long can Carrie get away with her spying? Will Saul forgive Carrie -- yet again -- because of her attempt to make amends by taking the place of the asset she helped expose?
Those are really great questions that could be explored in a limited future spinoff/extra season. Perhaps years into her deep cover, Carrie yearns to contract an older Franny and slips up during their communique. Yevgeny starts to suspect things and Carrie has to be extracted from Moscow. Sounds thrilling to me :D
Hi, Bobby Hams, I’ve been waiting on your review for days!!! Another expert rundown. My jaw dropped when I saw Saul on the floor. I love Saul so much. I’m glad he told Carrie off, she deserved it. Upon thinking of this finale, I’m glad it ended showing Carrie was going to continue with her life’s work with espionage. She isn’t one to go quietly into the night. You made me laugh when you said some quip about smooth jazz playing in the background. 😂 Thanks for your time and this video.
Danielle, thank you for watching and enjoying these Homeland reviews, and for your kind words :D Yes, I was in that same boat when Saul hit the ground and he was as stubborn as Carrie in protecting Anna. Immovable object, meet unstoppable force. I thought it was a smart choice that the writers had her keep doing what she was great at, on her own, with the memory of Franny and Brody as her motivation. Yeah, the smooth jazz thing just seemed to work well hahaha, glad you liked it :-)
Danielle R, also I'm still putting the Smallville material together, but in the meantime I'm going to do reviews for La Casa de Papel, so come on back for those :-)
My favourite series EVER....brilliant x
11:12 “The big idea for when we were filming [the final scenes] both for Carrie and Saul was that there were these amazing flares of light in the background of Saul’s shot and in the background of Carrie’s shot. It’s another chapter opening up. It came out of incredible discussions since it is the last image. I love that there’s just something about the incredible, ecstatic look on both of their faces for very different reasons.” -Lesli Linka Glatter
S7E6: Ivan Krupin requests a meeting with Yevgeny Gromov, where he orders Gromov to cease the operations that led to the death of American citizens on US soil, a violation of his protocol. Gromov dismisses Krupin's concerns as an outdated regime. What do you think of Gromov's behavior?
Carrie and Brody were always working each other. Carefully parsed words, never able to truly trust each other. Their love was born out of intensity of their life and death situations. It's easy to mistake that for passion. Just before he was arrested, they still wondered if they could make it together.
Yevgeny, he only knew how to work people to his advantage. Just like Simone in S7.E11, who thought Gromov loved her and would always protect her. He was willing to write her off to accomplish his mission. He thinks he has worked Carrie for the last two years, to get the book out of her and thus prove where her loyalties lie. Yet, she has worked him, convincing him of her trustworthiness so she
can access intel like Anna did. It's all a game. One she is willing to play to give Saul back his valuable ear to the Russian elite.
Claire Danes' portrayal of Carrie Mathison over the whole show is easily among the best acting I have ever fucking seen.
I totally agree. After Homeland, I became a fan of hers, even enjoyed Terminator 3 a little bit more on re-watch.
Fantastic overview. You always give me a few extra things to think about with homeland. Just finished the last episode yesterday and I've got to say it was brilliant. I'll miss it.
Your feedback is much appreciated. I miss Homeland as well; Sundays aren't the same without it.
Excellent recap sir. "Stuck the landing"; indeed!
Thanks, John! Glad you liked it!
Wish they’d have cut to Jenna just to see her face after the Russians broadcast.
Also, there was no reason to take this series off television 📺 . You could easily Google and find / locate like I did the popularity of HOMELAND was still at an all-time high. And as we all know, at the end of the show we see that Carrie is now starting to be an agent inside Russia for good-old-Sol. They could’ve easily got to three more seasons right there of her smuggling information out to Sol and they could’ve easily portrayed it from Langleys side, wanting Carrie to turn her new Russian lover against Russia and defect to America!!
Awesome as usual. Your homeland series can replace the show lol
Hahaha, that's some high praise but it's much appreciated. Thanks, Joseph!
"No one person is worth the lives of tens of thousands." Carrie proves it by having Anna killed and taking her place. After watching the 8th season, I consider Adal and Saul the biggest jackasses of the show. Should Carrie ever want a normal life, Saul can't be in it... and perhaps that's the point.
I can see Carrie's entire relationship with Brody in her relationship with Yevgeny, and consider her loyalty to him open to interpretation. It's not confirmed one way or the other if she was meeting the woman privately because of Yevgeny, or simply because they were in a packed theater. Same with the intel she sent to Saul. It's not confirmed one way or the other if he gave her that intel or if she stole it from him. Even though it's a Russian missile defense system, it was sold to Iran and Turkey. I think their relationship is capable of ending or continuing just as her relationship with Brody did. Both relationships are unhealthy, but from what I've seen, Yevgeny refuses to let her die. He wouldn't even let her get arrested and put on the helicopter, so I don't expect a public execution to match Brody's. After all, it was Saul who prepped him and sent him to die, which is essentially what he did to Carrie in the 8th season. She would've been executed had she went to trial and they found her guilty. What she did to Saul was no different than what she and Saul did to Dante. A very deserving taste of Russian poison.
imo, Carrie should've remained in the hospital due to her sleep and memory issues. Instead of leaving her there to fully recuperate, Saul was all about the mission. He involved her, knowing full-well she'd go against doctor's orders for the sake of that mission. No different than Adal with Peter, and just as sad to see what happened to him. Saul then put her in an environment where she couldn't be trusted because she failed her polygraph. Her own team couldn't trust her because they were told not to. They were so much as having her followed, recording her conversations, and using them to build a case against her. Saul essentially pulled her out of the hospital just to drop her in Yevgeny's arms because the mission came first. Best his student leave the classroom, lest she end up like Anna's. Lest she end up like Quinn and Brody and Max and everyone else who died because they're expendable. Who knows, maybe one day she'll Skype with Franny... unless Homeland's gonna pretend the internet stopped existing.
I have so many warm feelings about this show, but I also have many questions. Your video helped a great deal with most of them. However, I am still confused about so many things. One thing I still do not get (and that is my fault I am sure) is the scene when Carrie went to Saul's sister's house and lied about him dying. I get that she wanted the note or package he had left for her but if she knew this, why didn't she go there much earlier? Why did she go through the whole rigmarole of pretending and threatening to kill Saul? And most of all, if the Russians wanted Saul dead so badly, why didn't they just do it themselves? Why insist that Carrie be the one to kill him? She is no stranger to elaborate deception and lying so it would be expected not to trust her to go through with it, even in those dire circumstances. I get the reasons the writers made that the case - it is excellent dramatic tension - to have these two best friends who would literally die for one another come to this tragic end. But, in that same vein, it doesn't make sense to me that they (the Russians) would insist she be the one to do it. Especially knowing how close they are, they had to suspect she would find a way to either fake it (like she did) or warn him. The reach and power of the Russians, as is our intelligence in many cases was frequently exhibited in the show. Nothing was ever a mystery. Discussions that were not meant to be heard were always brought up- almost immediately. So, isn't it likely to assume that the intelligence and insider plants of the Russian spies in the CIA and elsewhere would know right away if Carrie did not in fact kill Saul? Especially when you consider the long and close relationship the two of them had. They must have known Saul would never give up the name of his asset - not even to Carrie. To me, they would have already made concessions to confirm his death if it was so important. Not only could they have gotten to Saul themselves, but they would have most certainly killed Carrie the moment they knew Saul was still alive and her "double life" in Russia never would be possible. It is difficult for me to believe she was able to turn or bribe the two GRU killers to not go through with it since they were, as that assistant to Yevgeny said, "handpicked." Nope. The Russians would have found out and Carrie would be dead. And Saul. I loved this show and I understand the need for dramatic tension, but this still does not hit right for me. Overall, I thought the ending was fantastic and well produced and satisfying. I loved the fact it was a woman who chose her job over her kid - something you do not see on television. Not that I applaud it, but it is certainly plausible. Before I saw the last few episodes, I had written down a couple of my own predictions for the ending. The first one is my own fantasy and wishful thinking. It was that somehow Brody’s death was faked or he survived it somehow and he came back for Carrie. The other was that Saul was turned during his time in Russia in the 1980’s and that it is revealed that he was a double agent. Anyway - any light you can share on my question is greatly appreciated! Great video - new sub!
Hi Heidi, you're right about the inconsistency with the Russians hit men. I think they would've off'ed Carrie and Saul, but I don't think that ending would've tested well with audiences. It would've been too abrupt and anti-climactic, like GoT. I agree that you don't see too many women in movies and TV shows prioritize their work over home life and kids. I liked that Carrie was gung-ho about her job, helped her to really stand out as a character. I think your Saul theory could've worked if the writers had sprinkled little clues about Saul's loyalties during the show's run. And at the finale, it's Carrie who realizes who he is-- after a swift release from Yevgeny's clutches-- and he has to take him down without tipping her hand, a task which would prove all the more difficult because Saul had accumulated a lot powerful friends in D.C. over his career. And Carrie was known to have mental issues, so such an accusation against such a senior agent would either ring as a mental breakdown or Russian brainwashing. It'd be nice to see how Carrie would've played those cards. Apologies for the late reply, been away from YT for almost a year! Thanks for the sub! 😀
Who was that girl in make up room ? What did they exchange?
It isn't made clear who the other woman is and what they exchanged. We're meant to assume she may be one of Carrie's links to the U.S. and Saul. Carrie was probably passing along more info that she'd gathered.
*Wack Ending to one of my top 5 favorite shows of all time!*
The ending absolutely sucked. No way, no way in hell would Carrie give serious contemplation to killing Sol. And then when the couple near the end of the show lock themselves in that room and Sol’s Russian mole was gonna kill herself, you can’t tell me that they couldn’t have barricaded the door to the point the Russian agents couldn’t have got in. No way in hell. There was loads of stuff, various things in that room. And he was playing weak as all get out on that desk pushing on it!!
Well done
Thank you :-) Glad you enjoyed it.
Great review
Thanks! Glad you liked it :-)
Good job. Thanks.
Thanks! Glad you liked it.
Why halfway through do u stop talking and play music for like 2 mins straight. wtf is that
Copyright bots have altered the original audio because of copyrighted music that was in the episode.
Unfulfilling. A lot of loose ends and good early season performances wasted.
How so?
friend, your confusing this with an other show.
@@Dhez1588 Don't be silly, how can I possibly confuse it with another show?? It's just an opinion.
I think Carrie and Yevgeny really did love each other? And they had great chemistry?
Homeland will be greatly missed. As for the closing scene, there are so many thoughts and questions.... Is she really so hooked on this lifestyle and spying that she would give up everything else? Her daughter? her sister? And love from Saul? There I look at the big picture! Back to season 7, Carrie is broke, has debts, and very complicated relationship with her family. She has no friends left... she was barely talking to Saul anymore the past years and now with Max dead...
she was left alone in a world she doesn’t know or doesn’t fit her. She tried to have a normal life (Berlin, New York) but couldn’t. In my opinion, despite the sacrifices, it’s where she’s best. Serving her country, and not in the most common sense as serving during war for example as she’s exposing the US from Moscow, but for the good of the planet apparently. I don’t know about you, but for public the chemistry is just not there 100% with Yevgeny as it was with Brody and Quinn. They tried to force the chemistry and even though Yevgeny is a good actor, he was miscast as Carrie’s love interest IMHO.
She had so much more chemistry with Brody a few seasons prior (apart from Quinn). Interesting things to think about. I think she found some measure of contentment and safety with Yevgney - NOT love real. Yet she still lives on the edge by spying while in Russia. I think Carrie realizes she isn’t good for Frannie and that her daughter, who she loves, is better off with her sister. I’d love to see what her future looks like, even what ends up happening with her daughter. The series left in such an interesting place. I’ve never seen another show that wrapped things up and yet opened the door to so many more possibilities. It was a wonderful close to the cycle of this series. congratulations to everyone involved.
On season seven, it might have been something of an unconscious self-fulfilling prophecy. Carrie never wanted to live a normal life so she sabotaged that normal life in spectacular Carrie Mathison fashion, which we saw play out in seasons five and six. That doesn’t make her separation from Franny any less painful, though. So if you look at the finale and think, well, this is better for her than what we saw in the prior two seasons when she was back in the US, I think that’s the point.
In other words: Carrie never wanted a normal life, so she didn’t practice or ultimately care about being good at it. When she had the chance to live a normal life, she was, as expected, bad at it. And so she made choices that made it literally impossible to ever have that again.
That said, I do love the irony of Carrie and Yevgeny going on this date night together, which is absurdly normal, but it’s couched in her play and slow hand out back to Saul, which is decidedly not.
PS: In S4, Carrie/Khan will be lulzy!