It has been eight years since Homeland premiered, and as a lot has modified in the actual world because it has inside the Claire Danes-led spy drama. When the present first debuted, 10 years after 9/11, the specter of suicide bombers and concern of the Center East was the prevalent fear in America. Now, we’re way more involved with Russian hackers and election fraud.
Homeland will sort out each fronts in its last season as Carrie, who we final noticed being held captive by the Russians with out her remedy, returns to the sector to assist Saul (Mandy Patinkin) salvage a U.S. treaty with the Taliban earlier than all hell breaks unfastened. What occurred to Carrie throughout her time with the Russians will likely be an “important query” of the ultimate season, although, because the present finds itself in eerily acquainted territory in Season 8.
“I feel we performed a bit bit with the angle that echoes the primary season, when Nicholas Brody’s (Damian Lewis) personal loyalty — even the definition of loyalty — was examined,” government producer Howard Gordon advised TV Information on the Tv Critics Affiliation winter press tour. “This [season] is actually about being off stability with Carrie. … She checks the sides of her conscience, of her habits, of her loyalty, of her relationships, and of herself.”
“Merely put, she really turns into Brody within the last season,” added fellow EP Alex Gansa.
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As Carrie finds herself relating a bit too onerous to her useless ex-boyfriend — with whom she first turned entangled as a result of she was certain he was a terrorist working for his Afghan captors (he was) — her relationship with Saul will likely be examined. Saul wants her to be on her A-game, however she will not be prepared, as doubts are raised about what the Russians had been capable of torture out of her. That rigidity pervades the upcoming episodes because the present performs out true-to-life present diplomatic occasions.
“The largest impediment that they are overcoming is Carrie’s readiness to get again within the area. Saul actually wants her in Afghanistan,” Gansa defined. “He is the one who’s really shepherding the peace course of there, which is a mirrored image of what is going on on proper now. The Taliban are in talks with the Afghan authorities, and with the US and Doha, and Saul is our fictional consultant at these peace talks. He actually wants Carrie, and she or he’s not fairly prepared to return again, however he wants her however. So, he take some dangers and brings her again to the sector. You’ve got received a shaky protégé and a needy mentor. That is actually the way in which that this story is about up.”
In relation to wrapping up Homeland, Gansa and Gordon need the present to characterize how the world feels 20 years after the deadliest terrorist assault ever to be dedicated on American soil. There are differing opinions on how America reacted to that risk, and that chaos is represented by Carrie’s journey over the previous eight years.
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“Hopefully [the legacy of the show] is a subversive and controversial dialog piece about America’s warfare on terror and the way we reacted to 9/11, and what the world appears to be like like 20 years later,” Gordon stated. “How did we do? How did we go about projecting our energy abroad? And have we made the world a greater place consequently? Should you have a look at Carrie Mathison, she is the embodiment of that doubt and questioning about what our strategies are and what we have achieved within the final 20 years.”
That is a sophisticated legacy to unpack, however the producers intend it to be that method. Whereas they need to finish Carrie and Saul’s story in a satisfying method, additionally they need followers to overlook the present as a substitute of being glad it is over.
“[Our goal] is to inform the story, and end the story, in a method that honored its beginnings and all of the issues that had come — to stay the touchdown, and to depart folks wanting extra and lacking it,” Gansa concluded.
Homeland‘s last season premieres Sunday, Feb. 9 at 9/8c on Showtime.