TV Review: HOMELAND: Season 3, Episode 12: The Star

Showtime‘s Homeland The Star TV Show Review. Homeland: Season 3, Episode 12: The Star ended a storyline that had survived in spite of itself since the end of season two, along with the characters associated with it. Death has always followed certain characters on Homeland and it finally caught up with one of them.

Because of the threat of this happening in the last episode, the fact that it finally happened in this episode was no grand revelation. If was fitting that it was saved for the season finale. This decision made this season and episode like a book: a major chapter closed. Audience members will have time to process the events of the finale before next season begins in 2014.

Leading up to Majid Javadi (Shaun Toub) and CIA case officer Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes)’s final meeting during the season, two logic questions popped up during The Star: a.) why did Mathison go back to her hotel room and b.) why did she walk out the front door of the hotel instead of out the back or through a servants’ entrance like she had numerous times previously? These two events made no sense, especially for someone like Carrie (and upon reflection of her past actions).

Javadi‘s lecture/speech to Mathison was wonderful to hear and watch. It might have been the most effective character speech the viewer has heard this television season. The viewer saw the waves of it crashing against Mathison as she struggled against their impacts.

“‘Everyone sees him through your eyes now. Saul, Lockhart, the President of the United States. Even me.’ –Javadi #Homeland”

This was the first time the viewer had seen Mathison “handled” and “managed” so effectively. Such manipulation took the cold, hard truth about herself, the mission, the situation, and Congressman and retired U.S. Marine Gunnery Sergeant Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis). Carrie did not want to admit that Javadi was correct because she loved Brody but she knew he was. That only made the situation and the reality of what was going to happen worse.

Carrie’s decision not to keep the baby was a necessary, narrative evil. Her being an on-screen mother would disrupt the flow of Homeland. Her father (James Rebhorn) taking Carrie’s child means the baby will sporadically be in the next season of Homeland. It will not hamper Carrie’s globe-trotting or her going on missions (if she is allowed to as Station Chief). Carrie will essentially be re-set in season 4 (think Starbuck during the last season of Battlestar Galactica).

When Brody asked Carrie for one thing before he died, I thought he would ask her to explain everything to his daughter (Morgan Saylor) so that she would finally understand that he really did not bomb CIA. What he did ask for was standard-fare. No one can control Carrie, not even Brody during his end.

Former CIA Middle-East Division Chief and acting Director Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin) choosing Brody over securing Javavdi’s ascension was a mistake that everyone but Carrie could see. Choosing “the man over the mission” was an error in judgement that Berenson would have been allowed to perpetrate if it weren’t for the presence of Senator Andrew Lockhart (Tracy Letts). It seems the fictionalized CIA and its personnel only keep their word up to a point.

Brody’s death was not only necessary for phase 2 of CIA’s Javadi scheme, it was necessary for the next phase Homeland. Killing off Brody has opened up the TV show to all new plotlines unbeholden to Brody. His storyline had run its course and it was time for the show to move on.

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