Homeland Finale Recap: Born to Run

Find out what happened in the Showtime hit's Dec. 16 episode "The Choice"

By Tierney Bricker Dec 17, 2012 4:41 AMTags
Mandy Patinkin, Claire Danes, HomelandKent Smith/SHOWTIME

Spoiler Alert: If you haven't watched last night's episode of Homeland, then get off the Internet...stat! The following article contains lots of spoilers, so run away if you haven't fired up your DVR yet!

Excuse us while we catch our breaths after Homeland's season two finale "The Choice" delivered one epic sucker punch to our emotional guts. The Showtime hit series had a lot of loose ends to tie up heading into the highly anticipated finale, thanks to the breakneck pacing and all-out storytelling of this season. 

So did the finale live up to our expectations? Um, hell yes! We had a death, a terrorist attack and yet another game-changing moment that has us wondering if the show will ever be the same!

TV's Most Twisted Romance Gets More Twisted: The hour kicks off with Brody (Damian Lewis) and Carrie (Claire Danes) happy (?!) at the infamous cabin, getting firewood and bringing in groceries. (Watching these two all domesticated is like seeing a dog walk on its hind legs: weird, but oddly adorable?) When Brody say he wants to be Carrie's "full-time cabin boy," it brings up the serious discussion of what's next for the couple. "My only plan for right now is to be a good person again," Brody says. "I really have a second chance…and I have you, at least at this moment I have you." If they are together, Carrie says she can't go back to the CIA. So yes, the episode's title is referring to Carrie's choice between her two loves: Brody and her job. 

"It's up to you, I'm in," Brody says the morning after. "I wish I would have both, you and the job," Carrie admits. Though he says he'll respect her decision either way, Brody urges her to choose them. "We could be happy."  Cue Saul (Mandy Patinkin) informing Carrie that the CIA is ready to make her the youngest station chief ever. And then he comes down on her hard when she hesitates to accept because of her feelings for Brody. "You cannot be with him," Saul says. "You're choosing him over us. You're throwing your life away." The two keep exchanging choice words and insults before Saul ends the conversation with this stunner: "You're the smartest and the dumbest f--cking person I've ever known." Boom, best line of the season. 

Up in Smoke: At Walden's memorial service, Carrie pulls Brody away and tells him she's made up her mind: "I've chosen you." Alas, their celebratory make-out session is ruined when Brody looks out the window and sees his car has been moved. Ruh-roh. The missing C-4 from Gettysburg? It found a home in Brody's car and boom goes the dynamite, right in the middle of Estes' speech. 

Walden' wife, son Finn (Timothée Chalamet) and Estes (David Harewood) are all killed in the attack, along with at least 200 others, and Carrie and Brody make it out alive, but she accuses him of being part of the attack. "I didn't do this," Brody says, insisting he didn't know his car was rigged and insists it was Abu Nazir (Navid Negahban), though he died in last week's episode. "What better way to make us drop our guard?" he reasons. Carrie eventually believes him, but realizes no one else will, so they run off. 

As if they weren't already having a bad day, the video of Brody's confession (filmed back in the season one finale) comes into play hard as the terrorists release it wide, making Brody Public Enemy No. 1 (if he's found alive). Though he and Carrie head off to the Canadian border with fake passports and money, she stays behind, promising to clear his name. "We came so close," he says. "This was love. You and me." Carrie's response? "But it's not goodbye." Just call 'em the modern-day Romeo and Juliet, people!

The Hunter's Heart: Though he was tasked with taking out Brody by Estes, Quinn (Rupert Friend) can't pull the trigger, even when he has an open shot as Brody heads out alone to pray while at Carrie's. He later calls Estes out for wanting Brody killed for selfish reasons and says it would kill Carrie (could he have feelings for her? Hmmm...). "The collateral damage will be to wreck a woman you've already wrecked once before and I ain't doing that," Quinn says. "Nothing happens to Brody or you'll find me back in this bedroom one night...'cause I'm the guy that kills bad guys." Is it too early to get shirts that have "Team Quinn" emblazoned on them? Asking for a friend...

A Family Collapses: Early in the episode, Brody gives Mike (Diego Klattenhoff) his blessing to be with Jessica (Morena Baccarin) and "to keep taking care" of his family, and Jessica is already packing up Brody's things. While it seems like the Brody clan might be OK, their world is rocked and they are left devastated when they see Brody's confession video. "We need to see this," Jessica says, refusing to turn the TV off. 

The Bear Is OK: Deep breaths, people, it wasn't all death and love lost: Saul made it out of the episode alive! Though he was sequestered by Estes (or "Javert," as the apparent Les Mis fan Saul calls him) for a while, he was eventually let out of the CIA's basement to deal with Abu Nazir's burial at sea; he quickly becomes the ranking officer in charge after the attack, but is mostly concerned about the MIA Carrie. Fortunately, the episode doesn't end on a completely devastating note as the last thing we see is Saul smiling when Carrie walks through the door. 

What did you think of Homeland's finale? Were you shocked? What are you most looking forward to in season three? Sound off in the comments and check back with us tomorrow for scoop  from the show's executive producers!

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