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Homeland: What is coming for the show’s dramatic finale?

By Christopher Dodson

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Homeland is down to its last episode and will end after next season.

So far, the Homeland writers have done well to wrap up some of the looser and more trivial storylines — like Frannie’s well being. What of the bigger issues though?

Homeland is concluding one of it’s best seasons ever, and finally back to the fast-paced and intelligent spy capers that hooked that initial season.

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While Maggie taking Frannie has not yet completely ended that storyline, it seems inevitable, especially with next season’s time jump. In that time, how does the home life settle itself?

Carrie is too young to retire, but her condition may worsen. She accepted Saul’s proposal, and this mission seems a year-long endeavor, not a week-long jaunt. Everyone except Carrie knew this whole time she was always going to chose the job over everything.

Will she ever be let back into the CIA fold or is Carrie resigned to always being outside counsel with limited protections? If that is the case, will Carrie leave on a mission one day to just never come back? I imagine that is how Quinn felt all those years under Dar Adal. He left his family one day on a mission, and never went back to his homeland.

In the intelligence community, loyalty and trust is paramount. For so long, it seemed each side respected the other side’s spy because of some shared brotherhood. Now though, Yevgeny has changed the game. Through last season and now with his breadcrumbs of information to Paley, it is obvious Dar Adal has forgotten what sport he played.

Max has caught on quick to the new Russian playbook and flipped it when he pushed those reports of “fake news” about a Russia civil war. Max took their tactics and even used their network to undermine Russia.

In the intelligence community, no longer does information only need to be gathered. The right looking information can be spread to cause anarchy and riots. We can lose control of the situation on the ground based on false information in the ether clouds. How can we control that? We must first control ourselves.

Will Simone and Yevgeny be captured or coerced back to the USA? Yevgeny made promises, but Carrie convinced Simone to escape out of that window. Fans were led to believe that Simone and Carrie were in that fleeing car.

If Simone does get on a plane back to America after placing her trust in Carrie, how will she handle the déjà vu? How will Simone react when she is again told by the person she trusts that it will be a lonely flight. Carrie is staying in Russia.

How long can Carrie operate as an independent contractor? She has already been caught with illegal surveillance. Saul thought it better to use the information and the team that gathered it, rather than to arrest her for a few pages worth of felonies. No one would want the news to get out, as it harms every party.

How will Saul and Carrie coexist; how will they filter the information? Will she want more control over her team than Saul is willing to give? Who will the team report to first? Will it depend on the information?

Saul and Carrie may find themselves on a different trail leading to the same place. Carrie might have a loyal team but Saul has the power of the law to tilt the scales. Without him, everyone goes to prison and that’s the best case. With Saul, perhaps that is the worst case.

Though Saul’s authority might be restricted soon, how long would he take to tell Carrie to shut down operations? Probably just long enough that he gets the information he thinks the country needs, and if it saves his job all the better. Just like Paley’s Chief of Staff.

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How long can Saul’s mission continue with Keane out of office and Paley begging Warner to shut it down? How long does Paley seem more a suspicious Russian mole and not just the run of the mill American politician serving as a useful idiot only wanting to get re-elected? Will any politician watching Homeland become more of a patriot, or just worry about re-election?

Will Paley and his Chief of Staff face any charges for their actions? In real life, probably not. Homeland sticks to that script, and Paley winds up sacrificing a staffer and doing some horse trading in chambers to avoid massive damage. Either way, Paley and company are still playing the role of the fool. Any actions they take to gain an advantage will likely be foiled or trumped.

If Paley’s office told the Russian delegate something that directly led to American deaths in an operation that was authorized at the time, that’s a death penalty. The info that Simone has is more valuable than one Senator’s election campaign. Valuing your own hide more than soldiers in the field, and having that cause their deaths, never plays well to the constituency.

Keane has to put up a fight to play to her base. She has made all the loyalty and ‘for country’ decisions so far, and though they turned out horribly, she has chosen her hill to die on. Her emotions and intentions are based on patriotism, but her opponents are not playing this dirty game on her terms. She must find a way to bend the narrative towards her intentions, and then go for the results.

Doing it her way lets everyone else take the credit for the positives and her holding all the bags of negative press. Wellington bombing the middle east convey did not help matters at all, but then Keane should have accepted his resignations. Everyone who loses focus and tries to help individuals more than their country winds up losing both. Keane needs to decide to get dirty, for the country. She is already losing the people and power of the Presidency rapidly.

Will Paley find some leverage to blackmail someone with, just to cover himself? Would he try to save his Chief of Staff in yet another love angle? Is this lady another Simone, in place through Russian long-term planning? If that play worked so well against Wellington, why would it not work against the Useful Idiot?

Talking to the Russians is not the best first plan of action for any elected official in America. Letting the staff deliver the dirty messages is just asking for a scandal. That she was so adamant that the Senator communicate something to the Russian ambassador is suspicious. If the Homeland writers try to install another emotional layer, it would be a step too far.

Vice President Warner has not forced any issue and has not signed any documents. Unlike Paley, he is a patient patriot. If Paley is able to sit tight, Keane may do all of the heavy lifting to oust herself. She has proven that several times over.

However, Paley has too much dirt to sweep under the rug. Will Keane keep her cool until then, or will any efforts to expose the Russians to legitimize her administration be all for naught?

With now-POTUS Warner watching the television reports on Russian unrest, Paley is already playing towards his impatient nature. Seeing the two Russian divisions in a small arms battle reminded Warner that this is why he fights to protect this country as a true patriot.

The government cannot be in open war with itself. Branch Davidians or some nuts at the Elkins’ compound, maybe — but never FBI versus CIA or Army versus Navy in a firing war. Their wars are more covert and happen in the halls of Congress. The winners are determined in the annual federal budget increase for each branch.

The Season 7 finale cannot possibly answer all of these questions. Coming next season, with the jump in time and overseas location, some of the bureaucratic plotlines will fade away. Nothing a few election results cannot fix right?

So back overseas Homeland shall go. The final season will be more focused on all the spy aspects of the first that hooked the most loyal fans.

Next: 6 must-watch Netflix originals coming in May

Yevgeny vs Carrie in the final season. Saul vs the bureaucracies. Foreign-based spy ops for everyone. What more could any fan want? Homeland is set up for a rewarding and action-packed finish. Tune in Sunday to see what is resolved and what questions fans must stew on until next season.

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