Homeland finale, review: Carrie wouldn't really kill Saul – would she?

Anita Singh
·2 min read
Claires Danes has starred as the erratic CIA operative Carrie Mathison for eight series - Showtime
Claires Danes has starred as the erratic CIA operative Carrie Mathison for eight series - Showtime

So Homeland (Channel 4) bowed out with a happy ending. That is, a happy ending by Homeland standards, which means Carrie Mathison was living in Moscow as a traitor to her country after betraying her only true friend, but was secretly passing Russian secrets back home.

The finale brought us full circle, kicking off with the video made by Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) before he launched his failed suicide bombing. Remember Brody? The show left that storyline behind long ago, but here was a reminder of where it all began, in an episode called Prisoners of War – the name of the original lsraeli series on which Homeland was based. Just as we tuned in then to see whether Brody would carry out his terrible plan in the name of what he thought was the greater good, this time we watched in horror as Carrie paralysed Saul Berenson with a fast-acting poison then called in a Russian kill team. Is this what it had come to: Carrie murdering her mentor to save the world?

Danes is the star, but Mandy Patinkin, right, as Saul Berenson was the show's heart - Showtime
Danes is the star, but Mandy Patinkin, right, as Saul Berenson was the show's heart - Showtime

Well, no. She called off the team after a desperate scene in which Mandy Patinkin as Saul managed to convey fear, fury and sadness while barely saying a word – save for the “go f--- yourself” after Carrie begged him to give up the name of his Russian asset. Claire Danes may be the star of Homeland, creating a conflicted heroine quite unlike any other on television, but Patinkin has been the show’s heart, and Saul its moral centre.

Danes deployed all of her lip-wobbling, brow-furrowing, cry-faced armoury, showing that Carrie at least had the decency to feel bad about deceiving Saul’s sister. The episode had one of those nail-biting set pieces that it has always done so well, a doomed bid by CIA man Scott Ryan to get Saul’s asset, Anna, out of the UN, which ended in her shooting herself dead as the Russians battered down the door. (Although I had a few questions here: is there no security in the UN building? Couldn’t Ryan have called for back-up?) Finally, Carrie stepped into Anna’s role, becoming Saul’s eyes and ears in Moscow under the guise of becoming America’s new Edward Snowden.

The ending felt too neat – world war averted by the big reveal of the black box recorder that showed President Warner’s helicopter crash was a simple accident. And I’m in two minds about whether the coda, with undercover Carrie living in luxury with Yevgeny but still working to protect the US, was satisfactory; it felt oddly upbeat and a little out of step. But they had to end it somehow, and finally Carrie got to crack a smile.