‘Homeland’ season 3 finale review: Did Damian Lewis’ Nicholas Brody live or die in ‘The Star’?

For most of the season, “Homeland” has tried to tell a story that is about redemption, and trying to sell the notion that Nicholas Brody can somehow find his way back to being a hero. But what does it really mean to be that? A hero is only in the eye of the beholder, and this is why he never felt like one after killing Akbari.

But, in a sense Brody ends his time on the show, and his life, doing something that was for the good of both himself and the Iranian people. In killing Akbari and letting Javadi seize control, we learned four months after his emotional hanging (cue Carrie shouting for him, so much for being undercover) that Saul’s plan had been a success, and Iran had opened up its clenched fist ever so slightly. But the carnage that came with this included seeing the end of one Emmy-winning character.

But did the show really handle Brody’s death the right way? From the Brody point of view, it was brilliant; but, in the process we feel like the show did a pretty horrible job at actually giving us the full spectrum of what his death meant. Where were Dana and Jess in all of this? After spending all of this time trying to show us what was going on with them, now is the time you don’t feature them? Since Morena Baccarin and Morgan Saylor are no longer regulars, who knows when we will see them next?

This is not the only part of this episode that we feel like Showtime messed up, given that they could have played out this situation with Quinn so much better as well. It’s almost like four episodes before the end of the season, the producers hated what they did earlier and just forgot all about it. The finale was great for establishing the death of Brody, Carrie getting an offer to move to Istanbul (and give her kid to her father), and Saul thinking about his own future after starting up some business in New York City, but it was not a capable finale for actually taking a real look at what the season was overall. It was the ending the writers felt like telling rather than the one that we really needed.

This is why the ending of “The Star,” in which Carrie drew onto the wall of the CIA with a memorial star for Brody, was just not as poignant as it could have otherwise been. It at least got the Brody obstacle off the show where it can start fresh, but that’s really about it.

This is all emblematic of “Homeland” season 3: A show that is much better than most others on TV, but not one that can be considered one of the greats anymore. It’s simply just “pretty good,” and a step above where “Dexter” ended this season. It’s actually somewhat similar, since that show didn’t bother to address most of what happened prior, either. Grade: C+.

Click here if you want to read some more “Homeland” news, this time in the form of what we want to see during season 4.

Photo: Showtime