‘Homeland’ Final Season “Fuses Carrie With Brody”; Mandy Patinkin Slams Trump Administration’s Intelligence Policy – TCA

Anthony D'Alessandro

Homeland‘s final season sort of goes back to the beginning –and also season 4– in regards to wrapping up the story of CIA operative Carrie Mathison.

“Carrie steps into Brody’s shoes,” said EP Alex Gansa today in how that character was a suspect in season one when Carrie couldn’t figure if he was on her side or not revealed. “She is the one who is being questioned, not only by those in the intelligence community but by Carrie Mathison herself because of her memory is so fragmented by her time in captivity.” Captivity, meaning that season 8 picks up months after her release by the Russians.

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“There’s that symmetry. It psychically fuses Carrie with Brody in a way that felt right,” said Danes, “She is so clear about her patriotism. She can be challenged in every way, but if her patriotism is question it’s the most profound insult she could imagine.”

There were also a lot of loose ends from season 4 that Gansa felt was a right place to tie up heading into the final lap of the show.

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“In our trip to DC, we heard a lot about the Trump administration. We hard there was a lot going on in Afghanistan that it felt like a great opportunity to take Carrie back in season 4. There were a lot of loose ends to that story that we never tied up and to (it was prime) to put Saul at the middle of that peace negotiation,” said the EP.

“What the counter-terrorism industry has done since 9/11 — she was 100% gung-ho about keeping American safe and then became disillusioned about how America was using its power overseas. We were vested in telling both sides of that story,” said Gansa.

In talking about the series and role preparation today at TCA, and the respect that the show has for the nation’s intelligence community, Mandy Patinkin’s conversing about such swelled into a big bash against the Donald Trump administration.

“The irony of these past three years, to watch this current administration and the contagion and cancer that effects the world globally, of going to war with the intelligence community which our team has illustrated through the years and the cost that war — is just a stunner. And you can’t have it both ways. When you wake up in the morning and you say on your Tweet that we had imminent knowledge of an event that was going to take place and that’s why we did this and in the same breath 5 minutes earlier or later says ‘And that’s from the intelligence community but we choose to ignore the intelligence of about interfering with the elections of 2016 — that doesn’t work,” yelled the actor.

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He further added, “And my passion about this and understanding about this and my desire through us, our show, our storytellers, you as storytellers, is a plea to people who watch Homeland all over the world, to use not just their imaginations or their escape mechanism in watching it, but to use their minds in seeking what they believe is the truth as opposed to false information, so that when they go to the polls to elect their officials, they are voting for people who they believe will stop the killing, the hatred and the violence and change the course of humanity which is profoundly broken right now.”

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