‘Homeland’ Ends On A High Note With Carrie And Saul In Cahoots

Fans may not have been ready to say goodbye to one of the best dramas on television but Homeland has come to an end and surprisingly, Claire Danes’ bipolar CIA operative got a happy ending.

Developed for American television by Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon, Homeland was based on the original Israeli series Prisoners of War by Gideon Raff. There was an almost clairvoyant feel to the show that tackled the complicated question: What keeps you up at night? 

Executive producer and director Lesli Linka Glatter spoke about why the team decided season eight would be the show’s last. “We didn’t want to stay at the dance too long and we wanted to end it on our terms.”

There were many discussions as to how the series would culminate but she feels Gansa nailed it. “It was a very intense process for everyone involved. It’s really hard to end an iconic series but the ending is absolutely true to the story and to Carrie Mathison.”

The final season, shot in Morocco and Los Angeles, saw Carrie and her mentor Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin) attempting to end the “forever war” in Afghanistan.

Loyal fans saw Carrie face numerous obstacles over the course of the show’s eight-season run (96 episodes) but it was in the penultimate episode that we witnessed her as she almost cracked under the pressure of being backed into the darkest corner yet by Russian operative Yevgeny Gromov (Costa Ronin).

The key to this season was the black box from the helicopter crash that took the American and Afghan presidents down. It was the sole piece of evidence that the crash was an accident due to mechanical failure and not a terrorist attack.

In exchange for its return, she must expose Saul’s rumored asset in the Kremlin. If she can’t find or neutralize the asset, she must kill him.

She met her match with Yevgeny; they do the same job but for opposing sides and each have an equal sense of dedication to mission that’s incredibly powerful.

But could Carrie kill Saul? “Carrie pushed Saul to the brink, tried everything but couldn’t ever kill him,” explains Glatter. “Though you needed to believe that she could. And, the whole sequence with Dorit where she is lying about Saul’s death is so painful. But at the end of the day, and with a big price to pay, Saul and Carrie are together as they should be.” 

As for Yevgeny, it made sense that she’d end up with him in Moscow. After all, says Glatter, there is a deep understanding between them. “Being a spy is a very lonely job. Carrie has very few people that really understand her life but he does.”

Glatter describes the character of Carrie (who was based on a real person that has since retired) as layered, complicated and ambiguous. “Her actions were sometimes reprehensible but you still loved her. There was something so compelling about her and you were just with her every step of the way.”

The final 12-episode season brought things full-circle. This season was similar to the first when Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) returned from years as a POW and Carrie suspected he’d turned against the U.S. This season, as Carrie healed from months in a Russian prison, she found herself put in the same position in many ways.

Did she turn on her country? Like every question the show asked, it’s a layered answer. As we see in the final scene, the answer is yes and no. We watch as Saul receives an advance copy of her memoir, which was dedicated to her daughter, and he finds a message from her. Carrie’s sense of mission is to follow justice, whichever side that may fall.

Homeland lived in a world of ambiguity and shades of gray. Viewers had to look at varying points of view and the show didn’t simplify complicated issues by labeling any side as good or bad. “We explored how people can be so entrenched in their own beliefs that they can’t even hear the other side,” Glatter says. “And, we asked a lot of questions but didn’t promise answers.”

The formula worked; the series received four Emmy nominations for Outstanding Drama Series (with one win) and remained Showtime’s No. 1 drama with an average of five million viewers across platforms tuning in per episode.

Homeland was always ahead of its time with topics including fake versus real news and the Russian infiltration of America’s political system. The storylines would often play out in real life following the airing of episodes.

The team behind the show went to D.C. for spy camp prior to each season to meet with various members of the intelligence community and what they learned would become the seeds of the following season’s plot points.

This season’s theme centered around the question: What has America learned since 9/11? “If there was a repeat attack, would we behave differently?,” questions Glatter. “Would we take our time and look and really see what happened, rather than have the need to avenge? I think this season really looks at how America projects its power overseas.”

The show didn’t shy away from killing off major characters such as Brody and Peter Quinn (Rupert Friend), which Glatter said in a past interview was never easy. “It’s always hard to say goodbye to great characters and amazing actors. But, once you’ve taken the story as far as you can go with it, you have to.”

This season a beloved character, Max, was killed and Maury Sterling talked to me about his death. “Max dodged many bullets over the years,” Sterling says, laughing. “I was on the chopping block in season four. I had an almost-die when they planned to kill me in the embassy in Pakistan. In six I think they almost killed me. I got the breakup phone call in season seven from Alex Gansa. Max’s death was scripted and I was told it was a great death! A week later he called again and said Max wouldn’t be killed. Homeland is a very dangerous show! I was in jeopardy for years. I was thrilled Max made it as far as he did.” 

Carrie had many significant relationships with men in her life and Glatter summed them up: Max was the best friend-slash brother she could always depend on and he always came through for her (though she took him for granted), Quinn knew her better than anyone else and in many ways they were the same person, Brody was the love of her life and Saul was her father figure and mentor.

“Her relationship with Saul was the most important in her life,” explains Glatter. Writing about Homeland in the past tense isn’t easy but the way in which it ended was a gift to the fans with Carrie and Saul forever in cahoots.

Up next for Glatter is the female-centric geopolitical thriller The Banker’s Wife for Amazon Studios. The eight-episode drama, set in the world of global finance, is based on Christina Alger’s bestselling novel of the same name. Glatter will executive produce and direct all episodes.