I don’t want to get into my own thoughts on last night’s season finale of Homeland too much, because this post is more of a discussion post for our readers: A jumping off point which you folks can use to talk about last night’s show (plus, one awesome Tweet from Jean-Ralphio). I will say that, I’ve been really down on the last half of season two of Homeland, but last night’s finale totally redeemed the show for me. Critics (as you’ll see below) have been mostly mixed to positive, with many agreeing that the bombshell (literally) saved the show, while others feel that it further eroded the viewers’ trust, while still others are taking issue with the fact that Homeland has become a show too focused on the Carrie and Brody love story.
Whatever. I loved it, especially after that disappointing Dexter finale.
Here’s what some other critics and Twitter personalities thought of the finale. Please feel free to share your own opinions on the comments.
The last few episodes had been such a mess that the finale arrived with the show already screwed up, and now the hope was something much harder to achieve: we wanted “The Choice” to retroactively make the stupid parts of recent weeks somehow much less stupid. And amazingly, it did accomplish that. — Alan Sepinwall, Hitfix
Say what you will, but y’all have to admit –That was a clinic in bullet dodging. #SlowClap #Homeland — Damon Lindelof
“I have to give “The Choice” credit for chutzpah and tactical smarts. It flipped the show upside down and may have given it a new lease on life.” — Matt Zoller Seitz, Vulture
“Was beginning to think tonight’s #Homeland season finale was oddly uneventful and then boom, I lost control of my bowels.” — Alex Goldschmidt
“Like an overload of love, money or fine dining, more of a great show sometimes can be a little too much. The only thing worse is less. — Alessandra Stanley, NYTimes (is that a dig at Dexter?)
“To remain a brilliant, top-tier show, Homeland needed a miracle in the season two finale. It didn’t get it.” — Tim Goodman, THR
“Instead they concocted a terrorist attack that, were it to happen in real life, would fundamentally rewrite America’s source code, and used it just to uncross their star-crossed lovers so that they could live to fight and fuck and flee another day. In every way it’s a grievous misreading of what made this show matter: pushing the examination of the War on Terror, and the audience’s ability to continue to like its fundamentally good-hearted protagonists in the face of their morally and emotionally disastrous actions, as far as they can go. They chickened out.” — Sean T. Collins, Rolling Stone
““The Choice” cannot erase “Homeland’s” flaws, but it does cement its standing as a great show.” — Cindy Davis, Pajiba
“The tension of this finale was deftly achieved; it really worked: every time Carrie and Brody went into a clinch, I expected one of them to shoot the other in the back.” — Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly
“I liked the episode, and I think it mostly works as a finale, hence the high grade. But it’s also the kind of episode that ultimately erodes trust. ” — Todd VanDerWerff, The AV Club
“What the finale did do, very cannily, was to reëstablish the bond of trust and secrecy between Carrie and Brody (the engine of the show) and to create a new one between Brody and his daughter Dana. But don’t ask me what Carrie is going to tell Saul: another manic breakdown? Got swept up in a “Battlestar Galactica” marathon? I kid, but the joke is on me, because I will be front and center for the première of Season 3. So farewell for now, “Homeland,” the best bad show on television.” — Michael Agger, The New Yorker
At moments of exasperation, I think, to borrow a phrase from Saul, this is “the smartest and the dumbest” show I’ve ever known. Brilliant for tackling national fears of the day, silly in its depiction of the starry-eyed CIA agent losing herself to a triple agent. Smart for weaving domestic family tensions with global action/adventure in a Hollywood way that captivates an audience, dumb for manipulating the cat-and-mouse game too far beyond reason. Exasperating, but addicting. — Joanna Ostrow, Denver Post
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Folks, Galvez is the leak. Roya told Brody in the first episode that someone would run interference for Estes to leave Brody alone in his office to find the CIA target list. Galvez appeared at Estes’ office to create the distraction. Hello!
While the bombing was shocking. It was so unbelievable that Brody’s car would get moved and parked so close to the CIA entrance.
One last thing. Brody prayed with Nazir at the end of his last meeting, but he conveniently left out that detail to the CIA. Brody is still a terrorist. Cary is always right instinctively (about Brody, about Galvez, then about Brody again).
Another last thing: Quinn knew that Saul was onto him when his baby’s mama called him and Quinn asked her what the guy looked like. Yet, Estes didn’t know that Saul knew until Saul told him who then told Quinn.
There are just way too many holes in the show. In Saul’s words it is the smartest and dumbest show.
I hate Dana because she has what I called “face cramps” on every scene. If that’s good acting, well, Meryl Streep is a very crappy actress. The plot involving her was sufferable because of her and that boy (he was even worse than her, with his forever constipated look).
The Brody Family has the worse actors on the series and that’s a fact. The actress playing Jess is not able to make me empathize with the character: even with her Bambi look, every time she appears moaning or bitching, it is torture.
Totally agree with one of the commenters about Quinn: he will appear on season three and try to f*** Carrie, obviously. I could see it coming since day 1 of Rupert’s appearance: he’s f***ble material and piece of a possible love triangle.
Sal is not a traitor but he did freak me out with that Hannibal Lecter smile. In the end, I couldn’t avoid the thought: Run Carrie, he will eat you!
I only watched the episode tonight, but I agree with many of the comments here. This show have lost a lot of it’s quality over the last season, but the finale really saved the show. I’m really interested to see what they’re going to do in the next season. I hope to see a lot more of Saul, and a lot less of that retarded Brody-family. I too thought, for a long time, that Saul might be the inside man, but that idea kinda disappeared gradualy. I’m really hoping that Carrie will stay away from anything that can make her cry in the next season, because the face she makes when she cries is one of the most ridiculously annoying things in television to date. And yeah, what was up with that serialkiller-Saul smile at the end?
I know I’m a little late to this as I just caught up tonight but, what the hell could Carrie possibly say to Saul that would get him to believe she isn’t helping Brody? And how the hell do they cover that up?
Danes wins the Globe. But Saul makes the show.
Now that essentially the entire CIA has been killed – glad to see Saul run the show!
Jean-Ralphio and Abu Nazir, together at last!
Also, I’m totally done believing in Carry and Brody’s romance, they creep me out, the actor’s don’t act it well, and they don’t really make sense. I hope the writers are done with it too.
Saul was perfection though.
always baffled when people state ‘well if they kill more people, or blow something up, or kill more zombies, that redeems the whole episode, the whole season, the whole show!’ Like that’s all u need to do, and I will be stupid enough to enjoy it
Just putting this out there, I don’t necessarily believe this, but does anyone have a feeling that Saul could be the leak? At the end of Season 1 when he was preventing Carrie (for good reason) from getting close to him/Brody when Brody was going to blow up Walden, I thought they might be painting him as the inside man. Turns out it wasn’t the case, but he wasn’t present at the CIA ground zero, this just put a little thought in the back of my mind and wanted to see if anyone else had this inkling?
I have been thinking that for a long time. But there are holes in the theory.
I thought that earlier in the show, but not now. He’s american but he’s also jewish, and he seems to take the job to seriously and at heart, including in solo scenes, to be a mole for muslim terrorists. If he is, fuck this show.
That would kind of be like if they revealed Carrie/Brody were playing each other at this point. Would totally be a middle finger to the audience.
Wait is season 3 of Homeland going to be season 12 of NCIS?
I liked the ending, because it upped the ante for next year. The cat-mouse game is going to get flipped on its head because Brody will be out of the country. He may yet again have to save Carrie, but being an alleged terrorist, Brody would have to endanger himself. Or he could have been playing Carrie all along, which means she’d have to admit that she released him in order to catch him again.
People can poke holes in the plot of show or movies all day. To me, they don’t lessen the impact of the overall story.
Quinn didn’t kill Brody because he’s in love with Carrie. She’s vulnerable, he’s cold, she’s the good he lost within himself from being a black ops hitman. Next season will be the CIA chasing Brody, chasing the terrorist cell, Carrie trying to exonerate Brody/convince Saul, and Quinn trying to bone Carrie while she circles the crazy drain. Carrie’s digging will hint at Brody actually being the mole, meanwhile shell get more cordial with Quinn as they work leads against the terrorist cell. There will be a stoic Quinn professing love in a stilted, awkward way, then a big blow up when he tells Carrie her love for Brody blinds her to the truth, and then they’ll hate-fuck one another.
They’ll keep Brody’s family around as CIA leverage, or some cumbersome kidnapping plot, probably with fucking Dana since every episode needs three minutes of her making her pissy wandering-eyes face while she twiddles her fingers (every scene people, literally), and maybe a Mike/Jessica subplot for family conflict (Dana – “YOURE NOT MY DAD!”) and also so we can see more of Morena Baccams ladybits.
And it’ll still be less stupid than Dexter.
THIS. EVERY goddam word of this!!!
Seems legit. (but like, really.)
I would watch this (but it could include Dana’s death,please, because that girl has face cramps)
so tired of the carrie-brodie stuff…looks like they are moving away from it with brodie leaving on his own; or at least i hope so.
Was Quinn a mole? Is that why he wouldn’t/didn’t kill Brody? Had to be someone that had access to the CIA so they could move the car. He basically disappeared after telling Estes he wouldn’t kill him. Maybe it’s something Salieri and he were running.
could see quinn being the mole, but so could it be saul. was he happy that all the people are dead or for seeing carrie? that smile at the end was creeptastic.
I don’t think he was a mole. But he became my favorite Homeland character last night with that speech to Estes.
I don’t think mole, just a soldier who was fine with the job but not dirty work.
The “I’m the guy who kills bad guys” line made up for a whole season of missing a button.
I felt like last night saved the season. They had lost me the moment Dana and Finn hit a lady with their car. Things got silly and everything felt less compelling but then last night did a remarkable job of hitting the reset button and making me feel bought in again. Show gets a lot of credit for recognizing its mistakes and doing everything they could to rectify going into S3.
This may be the easiest show on television to nitpick though. So many ways to poke holes.
nitpick, eh?
like the feds spending a lot of money on terrorists funeral?
also, why wouldn’t the president show up at his VEEP’s memorial service?
I loved how they flipped things last night but Brody’s truck suddenly parked right next to a high security facility was, um, questionable.
Also, everything involving Blackberry video service and pacemaker serial numbers ruined a couple of episodes for me.
@crowder commando: this was a special CIA memorial, not the primary memorial at which the president would’ve been. And I believe that Nazir funeral was very closely modeled after the funeral that was given to Osama Bin Laden.
Pacemakers started having wifi capabilities as early as 2009.
[www.reuters.com]
In fact the ability to hack into one was demonstrated prior to that on pacemakers that had radio signals.
[www.wired.com]
the one big thing i feel they didnt shed enough light on was the fact that someone had to have parked Brody’s vehicle where it ended up. being the CIA HQ, there has got to be a camera (or 10) somewhere btwn the lot where Brody (supposedly?) parked his vehicle and where it was positioned for the blast.
im guessing this is what they will open next season with, i just thought they could have intensified the cliff hanger aspect had they shown someone reviewing security camera footage when Carrie showed up that showed the perpetrator parking the vehicle where it was.
@KingEdward > you’re probably right about cameras, but the footage could have been conveniently blow up with most of the headquarters.
@KE & JR: I envision the first episode or two deeply digging into the logistics of how the attack went down. Will not be happy if not.
I think BSG is actually a good comparison in terms of “is Starbuck really the angel of death/is Brody really a terrorist” but then again Homeland doesn’t have fucking spaceships shooting at cylon warships or Tricia Helfer in a tight dress, now does it?
I think what I’m really getting at is if Season 3 of Homleland doesn’t feature Edward James Olmos, as a Mexican drug-runner who works for Al-Qaida I’m out.
I agree with the last one and with Saul smartest and dumbest. Gripping but stupid. Why would CArrie even bother to get Brody a fake i.d, I mean he is a congressman nearly a VP candidate and american hero, dont think a fake passport woulda worked for him. Onlly way i watch season 3 is if we find out that Brody is responsible for the car bomb and he was fucking with Carrie and the CIA all season.
Y’know, he is fleeing to Canada and I live in Canada and honestly have no idea what any U.S. Congressman Vice Presidential hopefuls look like, so I will give this a pass. Granted I don’t work for the border patrol, so I guess maybe those guys would.
I agree with what wuggle said, and I live in the US. I mean, I do know what most vice-presidential hopefuls look like, usually, but I don’t think I know any war heroes’ faces, nor most congressmen’s faces.
There’s also a cognitive dissonance – “Why would the Vice President be here?” It would be like seeing Tom Cruise in my local grocery store. I’d just assume he was someone who looked like him, because why would Tom Cruise come here to buy milk?
Good points, but how about….
US Congressman and VP hopeful who is a celebrity because of returning after 8 years in terrorist hands and who oh yeah by the way is all over every form of media talking in a homemade video about how and why he committed an act of war against those he felt were traitors to the US government?
i thought the whole Fake id/passport deal was more so he could have viable identification in Canada once he got there. they werent worried about the border crossing since he went on foot, to avoid detection by border guards.
The terrorist video obviously blows up the passport/id plan, Cuando, but that only happened after they’d already showed up to the fake passport place. Might as well stay and get the documents since they’re already in the works. Who knows how well they’ll work.
I binge watched the second half of the season instead of going week to week. I’ve only been aware of the criticisms of the show in 140 character tweets, mostly dating back a month and a half. Haven’t read any reviews.
Can someone clue me in on what people hated so much? Watching them all yesterday, I couldn’t help but wonder what the big deal was. I expected a lot worse.
I believe binge-watching always makes certain things easier to just go along with. Though I was pretty inclined to forgive the show’s alleged problems anyway. But a ton of people hated Dana’s entire storyline for some reason, and a lot of people hated the Nazir-kidnaps-Carrie-and-Brody-kills-Walden story (which did certainly have its issues, but I didn’t mind them much). Then of course you had your run-of-the-mill nitpickers, who mostly aren’t worth listening to or caring about.
The issues were these..In no real order.
1. Brody is in the office with the VP when he dies and no one questions it, not even the people who knew he was a terrorist.
2. Dana crying for 6 episodes about not being able to turn herself in for vehicular homicide, and that ridiculous face she makes everytime she is on camera (semi shocked cry face while looking to the side)
3. No one watches this show for the love story between Carrie and Brody…Carrie is psycho and unattractive (I dont care what any of you girls who fell in love with Romeo and Juliet says..She just isnt attractive) and it just took up too much of the meat of the show for too long.
4. Really anything havening to do with Brody’s family was excruciating to watch. Other than Brody they are by far the worst actors on the show. No one cares if they got a divorce except the son who is the most annoying little pussy I’ve ever had the pleasure of hating for no real reason. The mother is not a redeemable character given what happened with Brody’s bestfriend (yes Brody was cheating on her, but the best friend thing is tough to come back from), and I already touched on how the daughter drove everyone nuts.
What happened to those codes and locations that Brody got for Nazir at the beginning of the season? I thought the plot for the season was to stop an attack on America, and I come to find out in episode 8 that it is really about getting the VPs pacemaker code and randomly finding Nazir in America for no discernable reason (why did he have to be in the US for any of that?)
Well stated, Rumple.
Rump: I never found Claire Danes very attractive before Homeland, but I do now. Dunno if it’s the blonde hair or if I dig crazy girls or what, but yeah, I find her pretty attractive and kinda sexy in this series. And I don’t know what you mean about Jess being unredeemable. Because she got together with Mike while Brody was in the terrorists’ custody? I think you’re being pretty hard on her if you’re holding that against her. And if you’re talking about when they fucked in season 2, that was long after Brody had cheated on her and emotionally neglected her for a year or so. I also like Morgan Saylor’s acting and I think she does a pretty good job of being a shitty teenager, but I can understand why people would feel differently. But I do agree that Chris is the worst, and I do understand the complaints about the Carrie-Brody relationship (not including her attractiveness), and the “did Brody kill Walden” possibility probably should’ve occurred to the CIA folks who knew about him (no one else, though).
@Rumple
Not sure if it was Brody connecting the dots or trying to string Carrie along (depending on his involvement) but he mentioned he thought Nazir planned on being killed the whole time to distract the CIA and plan the attack at the memorial. If America thought the threat was over with Nazir dead, they wouldn’t be looking for something else.
Seems reasonable to me.
“the son who is the most annoying little pussy I’ve ever had the pleasure of hating for no real reason”
Manny Delgado and AJ Soprano take issue with this.