Homeland Delivers the Sleepiest Season Finale Ever, But At Least There Was Kissing

Did everyone make it out of season 4 alive?

By Lauren Piester Dec 22, 2014 3:47 AMTags
Mandy Patinkin, HomelandShowtime

Well, that was certainly not what we were expecting.  

We just spent an hour with our hearts nearly jumping out of our chests in anticipation of what might happen, only to be totally let down with two minutes of a jazz-backed "Carrie drives around" montage.

We could almost just tell you that Carrie took a road trip to Missouri, and that right there would sum up the episode both in terms of events and in terms of how very uninteresting it was, at least in comparison to every single other episode this season. Even when we were disgusted by Carrie sleeping with Aayan, at least something was happening.

Here's what went down: Everyone was back in DC, and people kept showing up for Carrie's dad's funeral. Dar Adal showed up at Maggie's house looking for Quinn, Carrie's estranged mother appeared looking to make amends or something, and Quinn came to the service, wearing a very nice suit.

Dar Adal was in town on a mission. He not only wanted Quinn for some reason he wasn't being totally clear about, but he had some news for Saul – he had made a deal to take Haqqani off the kill list in exchange for Haqqani not harboring other terrorists. Haqqani also gave up what is supposedly the only copy of the video of Saul and Haqqani that would ruin Saul's chances of a continued career in the CIA. Plus, Adal is intent on Saul getting Lockhart's job as soon as Lockhart resigns, which he will do soon.

Meanwhile, Quinn was actually in town, and he was also on a mission. His mission was to get Carrie to go out with him. They made out a little bit and he didn't even have to ask before Carrie told him she was bad for him, blah blah blah, she can't be with people. He asked her to think about it, she said she would.

While she was thinking about it and also doing other things, Quinn learned of a mission to Syria (which is why Adal wanted him), but he declined, even with the 20% chance that the mission would fail without him. "Oh well," he basically said, "I'm gonna have a normal life with Carrie instead!"

Usually, when anything like that is implied in a TV show like this, that means the character is doomed. We were mentally preparing ourselves to say goodbye forever to Quinn, because obviously there was a bombshell coming, right?

Well, sort of.

The bulk of the episode was dedicated to Carrie's relationship with her mother, Ellen, who just up and left the family 15 years ago. Carrie drives her out of Maggie's house, then later feels bad about it, so she drives to Missouri to talk to her. Before she does, Quinn calls. Does she have an answer yet? Nope. She'll talk to him in a few days. He takes this as a no. 

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Then we learn that Ellen has a 15 year-old son. Turns out that the woman left her family when she got pregnant by one of her many affairs, and not because of the fact that her husband was bipolar. Not only does this explain exactly where many of Carrie's "personality quirks" came from, but to Carrie, this means that she is actually capable of long-term love, so she immediately calls Quinn.

Of course, his phone is disconnected. She calls Dar Adal, but he doesn't answer. She shows up at his house and he explains that Quinn is on a mission in Syria with no way to communicate and no extraction plan. So basically, tough cookies. Carrie tries to blackmail him by revealing that she saw him in Haqqani's car, but he says there's really no way to talk to Quinn. He also explains the same deal he told Saul about, and Carrie doesn't believe him, until he takes her to Saul, who is casually reading in the backyard.

Carrie's clearly pissed, so she drives around for a while with angry jazz playing in the background.

And that's it. That's the end. No death. No explosions. No guns. No cool spy stuff. No headwraps that do absolutely nothing to cover Carrie's hair. Instead, we get mommy drama and Quinn being a whiny baby. It might have been a solid lead-up to a wild finale, but maybe it's leading to an incredible season five instead.

It wasn't bad, we guess. It just really wasn't what we wanted. 

Now if you'll excuse us, that episode made us so sleepy that we're pretty sure it's time for bed.