Homeland “Long Time Coming” Review: Terror Takes A Nap

All right, so that was season 4 of Homeland, the soft reboot to a series that started off so well, then had two seasons that made us change the channel. This season there was a very obvious sense that the writers were trying very hard to not only tell a new and interesting story, but to launch a comeback of sorts. While I certainly wouldn’t say we’ve returned to the good ol’ days of the first season where every episode was near excellent and offered a gripping, jarring storyline, this was a definite step in the right direction.

This season had a Cassandra-like quality. It focused on the ethical and social consequences of the drone program, and eventually dealt with the Benghazi embassy attack in a way that was startling in its simplicity; it felt true. The explorations of morality were the high point of the season though it got lost in the shuffle as time went on which is unfortunate. It was important television. It was truthful and made both our side and the “bad guys” look both righteous and villainous. It helped to further set the show away from 24 which after a while was just a membrane of reactive violence.

As a finale, however, “Long Time Coming” is a strange case. It isn’t the explosive Jack Bauer 24 finale we thought we were getting, with Quinn (Rupert Friend) as our Bauer stand-in, having gone rogue because, well, plot. Instead, this episode served as an epilogue to what we saw, and seeded only a few stories for the future. It’s not a choice everyone will like, but it worked for me, and I dare say it was necessary to a point. The back half of the season was intense, not only with Saul’s (Mandy Patinkin) capture but also with the embassy attack. This episode was a space to breathe. Carrie (Claire Daines) returned to deal with her father’s sudden death (due to the unfortunate real life passing of actors James Rebhorn) and work out Dar Adal (F. Murray Abraham). Instead what we got was a close reading of Carrie’s character which has always been in a state of flux not only due to her bipolar disorder but because of inconsistent writing over the years. Meredith Steihm returned to the Homeland writer’s room this year, and we should be thankful for it. She has a knack for Carrie that the rest of the room generally doesn’t. Here, Carrie came off vulnerable but strong; stubborn yet questioning.

In the wake of her father’s death, Carrie’s long-missing mother (Victoria Clark) returned. This was revelatory for both Maggie (Amy Hargreaves) but particularly for Carrie who learned quite a bit about her family. Her father had long said that their mother had left because she couldn’t handle his bipolar disorder. In truth, he was covering for her. Sure, he wasn’t easy to deal with, but mom was a serial cheater who wasn’t cut out for motherhood. This hit Carrie hard. Despite her father’s intention to save his wife from blame, he had made Carrie believe that those dealing with their shared disorder were doomed to a lonely life. Moreover, she began to see not only was she her father’s daughter, but her mother’s as well. Where her mother once left her, now Carrie was an absentee mother as well (and let’s not even try to figure out what the attempted baby drowning was earlier this season). This episode was wonderfully reflected and hopefully is meant to reset Carrie’s character. God knows Daines can act whatever she’s given, but it would help if the quality of the writing could keep up with her talent more often.

With Haqqani (Numan Acar) and Qureshi (Nimrat Kaur) mentioned as still being active players, there’s a hope that we’ll see more of them in the future. As antagonists, they are both great especially considering that they operate under shades of gray, and though they are technically “the bad guys” their motives are understandable and they never come off arch.

While I’m not certain if Homeland necessarily deserves the fifth season that has already been ordered, we can go into the next season with a sense that it should be at least good, which is better than the show has been since season 2.