Fans of Showtime’s “Homeland” long wondered what kind of future Carrie and Brody could ever share.
She's an obsessive bipolar CIA analyst; he's a U.S. Marine-turned-traitor-turned-U.S.-assassin. In what world could they ever be together?
The show definitively answered that question last night in the third-season finale.
The mission in Tehran went to hell, as it only could. Carrie (and Saul in the States) tried to extract Brody.
In a safe house, Brody and Carrie unwittingly spend their last hours together.
Brody is a lost man: “In what universe can you redeem one murder by committing another?”
Carrie drops her own bomb, that she’s four months pregnant.
“There will be a life,” she tells him, trying to give him something to hang onto.
It is not to be.
Forces working for their own inside man, Javadi, capture Brody.
Carrie is frantic. Javadi reminds her of the sad truth – for the mission to be successful, for him to assume power in Iran, Brody must be executed.
“Who Brody is, that’s for Allah to know. What he did, there can be no debate.”
Javadi seems to know Carrie better than Saul does, reminding her that with his execution as an assassin, Carrie will finally get what she's been fighting for: Brody will now be seen by the rest of the world as she seems him – a hero.
In his cell, Brody seems at peace. “I want it to be over,” he says to her on the phone. He has one request of her – for her not to attend the hanging.
Of course, Carrie cannot follow his wish.
At 4 a.m., before morning prayers, a noose is slipped over Brody’s head. As a crowd jeers, a crane lifts him off his feet and high into the ground.
Does he see Carrie calling out for him? Is there any comfort for him in his final seconds?
Four months later:
Carrie is eight months pregnant and panicking about the child, convinced she cannot be a mother. Her father even offers to take the girl once she is born. New director Lockhart offers Carrie a promotion, to the station chief position in Istanbul.
In a clever nod to current events, Saul and his wife bask in the knowledge that relations with Iran have improved. Saul’s legacy revealed – and it only cost him his career.
Long after everyone has seemingly left CIA headquarters, Carrie sketches a star on the CIA memorial wall for Brody.
“Homeland” has been renewed for a fourth season, and it will be interesting to see where the show goes from here without Brody, without Carrie’s obsession for Brody.
This season frustrated many because of its refusal to follow procedural formula. (Brody was AWOL for much of the run.) Last night the show even avoided its trademark cliffhanger ending, opting for a more poignant close. But can the show find another obsession for Carrie? Will it have to be another man? Is there enough intrigue left in the world to drive both her and the show? If “Homeland” had ended right now, this would have served as a fitting series finale.
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