| Prisoners of War | ||||
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| Written by: | Alex Gansa & Howard Gordon | |||
| Directed by: | Lesli Linka Glatter | |||
| Production number: | 8WAH12 | |||
| Running time: | 68 minutes | |||
| Original airdate: | April 26, 2020 | |||
| Viewers (millions): | 1.26 | |||
I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE ON YOUR SIDE BUT IT MUST BE VERY, VERY LONELY - Carrie
Prisoners of War is the series finale of Homeland. It aired on April 26, 2020.
Synopsis[]
Tensions rise and truths are revealed in this explosive series finale. Events surrounding Saul and Carrie's final mission come to a conclusion. Carrie sees no other way to avert the looming war with Pakistan than to fulfill Russia's demands and betray Saul. Together with Yevgeny's people, she wants to force her former mentor to reveal the identity of his spy. But Saul is willing to give his life to protect the informant. How far will Carrie go?
Episode guide[]
Prisoners of War began with a callback to Brody (the parallels to what he did and what Carrie is doing are pretty clear). Meanwhile, there is still war on the horizon with Russia entering the fray. Anna (Tatyana Mukha). the translator and Saul’s asset, was still around and continuing to do her other job. Zabel preempted Saul’s meeting with Hayes, not caring the least about going to war under false pretenses. His next step was to turn to the press.
Maggie Matheson showed up at Saul’s wondering where Carrie was (solid point). She hadn’t seen Frannie since coming back to the states (but she still went to their house to grab money and passports from her room). As soon as Carrie returned, Saul confronted her on that and everything else. Things got heated now that everything was in the open. Saul was still unwilling to give up his asset as she was still more valuable than whatever lives would be lost from the war. He wanted Carrie out of his house which signaled that it was time for her to strike (using a sedative she got from the Russians so their kill team could do the job). With Saul’s last chance, he told Carrie to go f*** herself. Even after that, Carrie gave the order to keep him alive (though the damage had already been done).
Wellington arranged for Saul to meet a few reporters and was getting worried with his disappearance (he knew something was up). Carrie visited Saul’s sister in Israel to tell her about his death as a ploy to get something that he had left for her (presumably the identity of his asset). With the sister gone, Gromov came over to get the name (confirmed by a video Saul left for Carrie). Now that Anna was outed, it was up for Saul to warn her but she never really had the chance. While on the phone with Saul, she said her goodbye and took her own life. Meanwhile, the Russians held a press conference at the UN where they played the contents of the flight recorder. Carrie was concerned about Anna but her death according to Gromov and the deaths of American soldiers according to Saul were just the cost of doing business. In the end, she was more concerned about the status of her relationship with Saul (which Gromov did not understand).
As far as Carrie was concerned, she was in danger so Gromov took her away. From there, the story jumped two years into the future in Moscow with Carrie and Gromov together. They were getting ready to go to a jazz concert. At one point during the concert, she left to freshen and up and appeared to be giving something off to another woman. Meanwhile, Saul was moving but still got a delivery to one of aliases. It was Carrie’s book about how she had to betray her country. There was a note within the spine of the book,
Carrie is Saul’s new asset in Russia. The series ended with Saul smiling and Carrie seemingly happy in Moscow.
Trivia[]
- The episode takes its name from the original Israeli TV series which this show was adapted from (Hebrew title 'Hatufim')
- Although most of the season was shot in Morocco, production had to be moved to Los Angeles for this episode due to logistical issues.
- The final scene at the concert was filmed in Los Angeles Theatre, with the featured musician being Kamasi Washington.
- Gansa described the internal tension when crafting the finale: “The conversations got intense about how far Carrie would go and how far she wouldn’t go.. everyone — cast members, directors, writers — was in a froth…. To say there was some free-floating anxiety would’ve been an understatement”.
- Some details of the finale were still in flux as filming approached. 24 hours before the finale was shot, Gansa, along with Claire Danes, settled on the idea of Carrie’s authoring of a book denouncing the United States.
- Details hidden in Homeland
- Moscow theatre hostage crisis of 2002, hostage taking by Chechen militants at the Dubrovka Theatre in Moscow, Russia, that lasted from October 23 to October 26, 2002. It ended when Russian forces filled the theatre with a gas (Moscow hostage crisis chemical agent). More than 150 people died, the vast majority of them as a result of the effects of the gas.
- KOLOKOL-1 (K-1) is an opiate-derived incapacitating agent. Although the exact nature of the active chemical has not been revealed, in all likelihood it is a derivative of the drug fentanyl, possibly the extraordinarily potent carfentanil. It takes effect very quickly, within one to three seconds, reportedly rendering its victims unconscious for two to six hours.
- Series finale intentional anagram? Can spell ‘Prisoners of War’ (the title of the final episode and the name of the Israeli tv series the series is based on) from the name ‘Professor Rabinow’. Thought that was a cool little detail.
Mistakes[]
Factual error: At the beginning of the last sequence a city centre is shown with the caption "Moscow." In fact, the city shown is Budapest, with the Danube, Castle, St Matthias Church, Fisherman's Bastion and Chain Bridge visible.
Quotes[]
- “My name is Nicholas Brody, and I'm a sergeant in the United States Marine Corps.I have a wife and two kids... who I love.♪♪♪[Brody] By the time you watch this, you'll have read a lot of things about me, about what I've done.That's why I wanted to explain myself so that you'll know the truth.People will say I was broken, I was brainwashed.People will say that I was turned into a terrorist, taught to hate my country.I love my country.What I am is a Marine, like my father before me and his father before him.And as a Marine, I swore an oath to defend the United States of America against enemies both foreign and domestic.” (Carrie remembering Nick Brody, the Marine One)
- “Yevgeny wanted you to have the best for your operation,” Benson creepily assured Carrie.
- Charlotte Benson: The resulting compound, Kolokol‐1 behaves a lot like ketamine.
- Carrie Mathison: The same K‐1 used by your security forces during the Moscow theater hostage crisis?
- Saul: Sometimes, that's the cost of doing business.
- Carrie: Did you‐‐did you really just say that?
- Yevgeny: You'll survive. And so will he.
- Mathison: I don't know what it's like on your side, but it must be very... very lonely.
- “Everything you have ever asked of me, I have done. And now I’m asking you. Just let me off the hook here. Do not make me do this.”- Carrie for Saul
- I had to try. - Carrie
- Gromov: I'm sorry. Okay, if you wanna blame me, go ahead.
- Mathison: No, I do blame you.
- Yevgeny: Do not say it was a game, because it's not. I did what I had to do. Cost of doing business.
- Mathison: ...
- Yevgeny: What?
- Mathison: You sound like Saul.
- Carrie Mathison, the Drone Queen, is in a snazzy penthouse and Yevgeny Gromov offers her a present: “You’ve done a very, very important thing, Carrie… let’s celebrate.”
- “In 2018, former CIA case officer and station chief Carrie A. Mathison made what was in her mind the most patriotic move she could make: she outed an American spy to the Russian government…" - Tyranny of Secrets: Why I Had to Betray My Country.
- [last lines]
- Carrie Mathison: [voiceover]
- [Saul is reading a secret message from Carrie]
- Carrie Mathison: Greetings from Moscow, Professor. The Russian S-400 nuclear missile system sold to Iran and Turkey last week has a backdoor. It can be defeated. Specs to follow. Stay tuned.
- The dedication of Carrie’s book reads: “For my daughter [Franny], in the hopes she’ll one day understand.”
Comments[]
As more time passes, events drive wedges between the show's central characters, though they remain loyal to each other as best as circumstances allow, provided their interest in national security remains the ultimate objective. Carrie's motivation remains pure throughout, with self-preservation rarely being her top priority. Her service to her country costs her everything: Brody is used as a chess piece, sacrificed for the greater good; she sacrifices Quinn's health for the sake of preventing a terror attack; she relinquishes custody of Frannie in order to continue her work in intelligence; and she betrays the one constant loving, relationship she's maintained with her mentor, Saul, to prevent the U.S. from entering a nuclear war. At the end of "Homeland," Carrie is able to mend that relationship and serve her country at the same time by embedding herself within Russian intelligence and passing secrets to the U.S., essentially devoting the rest of her natural life to service. - KEVIN TALL
"She dedicates herself entirely to the noble cause of protecting her country, but she doesn’t do it simply for noble reasons. She is terrified of forging intimate relationships with others—which is, basically, what constitutes a life—because she knows the kind of damage that her condition her wreak. Because she has such an anemic life, it is easier for her to risk losing it on behalf of her cause. While this is an advantage of sorts, she must live with the pain of her loneliness.” – Claire Dane
Why Carrie's Shocking Betrayal Was Actually The Perfect Ending To 'Homeland' - By Amanda Whiting
The tricky part, Gansa said, had been figuring out how to get the Russian officer Yevgeny (Costa Ronin) to trust Carrie enough to allow her to start spying in Moscow. After rejecting a number of possible solutions — such as having Carrie become pregnant with Yevgeny’s child — the writers were stumped. Then, on the day before the final shoot, Gansa woke up thinking about Edward Snowden’s book, “Permanent Record.” - By Jennifer Vineyard
Everybody on staff wanted to revisit something with that family. We talked about it and talked about it. We couldn’t find the right story to tell that felt organic. If all of us had one regret about the stories we told, I think we didn’t really honor the effect on a family like the Brodys of what (Nicholas) Brody was accused of at the end of season 2. That’s the one story that we all felt we dropped the ball on a little bit. It didn’t have the weight that it should have. - Alex Gansa
"She has just finished her first book and, to celebrate, he takes her to see the jazz star Kamasi Washington in concert. It’s the discordant avant-garde jazz that has opened every show since 2011. It’s the very essence of Carrie’s Dionysian energy – chaotic, intuitive, transgressive.” –James Donaghy
I’m so glad, knowing where we are and the times we live in, there’s something nice about Carrie smiling at the end of the show. It’s hopeful.” – Alex Gansa
For Carrie, it was nice to see her at the end of this run doing what she was meant to do.” –Alex Gansa
Cost of doing business... “The most powerful scenes book-ended the attempted poisoning, with Carrie and Saul having it out about the same thing they always have it out about: loyalty, duty, trust. Both can justify any decision through those prisms — whether they’re being loyal to one another, the CIA, or their country.” [x]
“The big idea for when we were filming [the final scenes] both for Carrie and Saul was that there were these amazing flares of light in the background of Saul’s shot and in the background of Carrie’s shot. It’s another chapter opening up. It came out of incredible discussions since it is the last image. I love that there’s just something about the incredible, ecstatic look on both of their faces for very different reasons.” – Lesli Linka Glatter
Homeland began in 2011 and, for the most part, the final season has been very intent on exploring the legacy which the war on terror has left behind; Carries own legacy has become synonymous with it. As she’s forced to confront the responsibilities of her actions, we’re urged to consider what we’ve learnt from Carrie’s past and America’s in general. - Christopher Weston
And the sequencing of the music was important, too. From EW:
Here’s my read of the sequence watching Kamasi Washington and his band at the end, and please correct if this is wrong: The first part of that scene shows how the discordant jazz of the opening credits that represents Carrie’s mental state has now smoothed into this melodic and enjoyable form that finally makes her happy. But after she comes back to her seat, in the last shot, the music takes on a harsher and more jagged quality now that we’ve realized Carrie is still in the game and will never be fully free of it. Alex Gansa: That is completely accurate. That’s exactly how we doled out the music. And wasn’t Kamasi Washington so great? We definitely curated those songs, so that shot of Carrie was a cacophonous mix of sounds and you sense that it’s in that chaos that she thrives.
DEADLINE: Certainly after Carrie playing Yevgeny’s pawn and going after Saul’s longtime Russian asset and then the man himself, seeing Carrie in Moscow at Yevgeny’s side living a life of luxury only to be sending info to Saul, that was a very long-game reveal right at the end…
This twist curiously brought to mind the ending of the ravishing French romance Portrait of a Lady on Fire, in which a coded message is discovered, with melancholy joy, after years of painful and irreducible distance. - BY RICHARD LAWSON
The show doesn't strive to convince us she's "right," just that she was motivated to do what she believed to be the right thing. This is the same character that had an affair with Sergeant Nicholas Brody, a U.S. soldier turned terrorist, and who deserted her own daughter. Homeland has always been more focused on how effective Carrie is than how virtuous.
Given that Brody died for his betrayal, a penthouse view of the Moskva River feels like a kinder ending than Carrie deserves.
She cost Saul his last asset; now she'll give her life to make it up. It's hard to imagine she'll escape suspicion for long, but in another scene we see that Carrie's already developing a network bigger than herself. Saul smiles when he reads the note. That he was able to climb the CIA ladder and survive in Washington, where Carrie never could, has always been attributable to his pragmatism. Betrayal doesn't necessarily demand death, and Carrie’s would be pointless now. Her penance, on the other hand, he can use. by Amanda Whiting
Timeline[]
- Season 1: late 2011
- Season 2: 2012-12-12 bombing of the CIA.
- Season 3: 2013-02-08 Congressional hearing (58 days after the bombing).
- Season 4: Early 2014, I suppose (Episode 1, the Carrie Mathison's birthday in April 5, 1979).
- Season 5: April...May 2016 (Passover Seder 04/22/2016 in episode 4).
- Season 6: 2016-12…2017-01.
- Season 7: Start: end of March 2017. Elizabeth Keane resign 2017-05-14 supposedly.
- Season 7: Carrie Mathison release "7 months later" early in 2018.
- Season 8: In 2018, Carrie has been few moths in the Medical Center in Germany.
- Season 8: There is an inconsistency in the announcements made for the timeline. In episode 12, putting it in the present time (early 2020) would mean.
Notes[]
Carrie’s playing an “end justify the means” game, which is classic Homeland. If she can prevent full-scale war and save hundreds if not thousands of lives, is it worth it? Carrie decided it was, and I buy that she came to that decision quickly.
While Carrie has shown more care for others than herself, she’s also shown more care for completing “the mission” than others. The mission here is to secure peace in the Middle East, and she is stopping at nothing to do that. (Also, the people you mentioned that Carrie cared more about than herself all died fulfilling some mission or task that Carrie asked them to do).
I’d argue that entertaining that type of human tradeoff is very in character for Carrie. She did it in season three when she convinced Brody to go to Iran. She knew he would die then, but decided that installing Javadi as head of the Revolutionary Guard was more important. She also did this at the end of season five when she agreed to wake Quinn up if he had some valuable info to provide . And she does it to herself in season seven when she gets herself imprisoned in Moscow.
The natural conclusion of this steady escalation over the years is the destruction of her relationship with Saul, and I think that’s pretty fucking perfect. !<
If Carrie tells the Russians what she knows right now, odds are she would never get the black box (Yevgeny is an opportunist and would rather win on all fronts if he could) and both Saul and the asset would be killed.
I was an unwavering fan of Carrie Mathison until the last few episodes when she betrayed Saul, leaving him helplessly at the whims of assassins while lying to his sister in the cruelest way. After that, she could never be trusted again. Her attempt to redeem herself years later, all safe & snug with the enemy, could never absolve her of her treachery towards Saul & the asset she doomed to death, against Saul's most resolute objections. Saul's loyalty was unwavering; Carrie a confused traitor.
Pretending like she might kill Saul if he didn’t give up the identity of an asset was pretty original. Writing a memoir partly as a deep cover as she became Saul’s new asset in Moscow was inspired. Safe to say I never saw that coming.
Yes, she "got involved" as Yevgeny's lover/girlfriend, now she is even more determined to do her job as Saul's asset. The show hurt Yevgeny a lot. He's as good a spy as Carrie and I don't think the "romance" would blind him to a level that he didn't suspect anything about Carrie and what she might be doing. I think this is as real as Brody/Quinn/Astrid/Fara/Max's return after season 8!
He’s as good a spy as Carrie and I don’t think the “romance” would blind him to a level that he didn’t suspect anything about Carrie and what she might be doing.
Yes, and that’s the point… it’s the entire reason why Carrie had to do the deepest cover in the form of writing the book. The writers went back and forth on how they could possibly create a reason for Yevgeny to trust her (including Carrie being pregnant with his kid). Carrie writing a book trashing the CIA and the US was what they came up with because it lowers his guard.
I also think that Carrie is someone who didn’t really play the long game, at least not that well. She is an improviser, she thinks on her toes. Actually, Carrie becoming the new asset, writing a book as a cover, and hiding from Yevgeny in this way is the longest, most elaborate game she ever played.
A comment by Linka Glatter: "She [Carrie] may be the happiest we've ever seen, even though she's living a lie - that's the irony of it." Glatter think most people would imagine a person “living a lie” is not that happy, but Carrie is. For example, compare how miserable Brody was in seasons one and two living a life that was a lie.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison
- Mandy Patinkin as Saul Berenson
- Linus Roache as David Wellington
- Costa Ronin as Yevgeny Gromov
- Nimrat Kaur as Tasneem Qureshi
Guest Cast[]
- Amy Hargreaves as Maggie Mathison
- Tim Guinee as Scott Ryan
- Sam Trammell as Benjamin Hayes
- Jacqueline Antaramian as Dorit
- Robin McLeavy as Charlotte Benson
- Merab Ninidze as Sergei Mirov
- Tatyana Mukha as Anna Pomerantseva
- Johnny Kostrey as Valeri
- Anton Narinskiy as Tolya
- Andrew Borba as Berkle
- Jon Lindstrom as Claude Geroux
- Joanna Fyllidou as Operative in Moscow
- Hugh Dancy as John Zabel
Co-Starring[]
- Patrice Quinn as Vocalist
- Dwight Trible as Vocalist
- Brandon Coleman as Vocalist
Special Guest Appearance[]
- Kamasi Washington as Himself
Videos[]
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