‘Homeland’ season 4: How Carrie has evolved, and will continue to
Now, it’s not often that we get a chance to talk about “Homeland” in January, and for a good reason: It’s going to be a long time before this show comes back on the air. The writers are going to be hard at work when it comes to getting scripts ready, but the show itself probably will not start back up until May. That is at least the way that it has gone in past year.
But what we have to talk about today is something that is both a valuable conversation point for the season 3 finale, and also a template of sorts as to how we are to perceive Carrie Mathison moving forward. This is a woman who truly did love and lose when it comes to Nicholas Brody, and she has to find a way to move forward from that. She seemed at times like she was completely deluded about Brody, and at times recklessly make decisions without regards to logic, just because she though it would help him. This was at times beyond frustrating, but it at least now looks like we are going to be moving beyond that.
For more evidence, see what Alex Gansa had to say to TVLine about how when it came to Andrew Lockhart following the time jump in the finale, how she was able to put most of her personal feelings aside.
“Carrie had to make a choice. Is she going to continue to do what she loves to do, which is be an intelligence officer, or is she going to hold her anger and feelings of betrayal against the man who is now sitting in the chair that is going to determine where her career goes. That’s one of the reasons for the four-monthy time break. And that was, frankly, one of the things that we were trying to go with was, ‘OMG, Carrie is OK with all of this. How is that possible?’ Well, Carrie is a pragmatist. This is job a calling to her. And although [Brody’s death] was incredibly painful, she… was able to move on from that and decide that her career was more important than holding a grudge.”
Carrie presumably could start off season 4 in Turkey, and the opportunity that comes with that is a chance to start fresh, and really forget about much of what held her life in place and bound her to America. She can form her own team, and find a new place in the world. While her child basically will prohibit Brody from ever being forgotten, she will at least have a chance to fully move forward personally and professionally.