‘Homeland’: Did Carrie Become the Nicholas Brody of Season 8?
In its final season, Homeland is raising the stakes for Carrie Matheson (Claire Danes) and her mentor, Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin). She’s defying orders as usual, but her fraternizing with the enemy has some fans pointing out that she’s is turning into the Nicholas Brody of this season.
[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for Homeland season 8, episode 9.]
Where does Carrie stand in season 8 of ‘Homeland’?
After being captured and held by Russian intelligence in season 4 of Homeland, Carrie returned to a rehab facility where she was getting better. In the middle of her therapy, Saul comes by to recruit her for a mission. He needs her to use her connection to the Afghan general to broker a peace deal with the Taliban.
Carrie is ready to go, but her doctors are reluctant, knowing she’s not fully recovered. However, Saul needs her, so he pushes for her to go to Kabul. Once there, Carrie works her assets but finds herself back in contact with her Russian captor, Yevgeny Gromov (Costa Ronin).
When the helicopter carrying the American and Afghan presidents crashes, Carrie makes it her mission to find her friend Max (Maury Sterling), and the black box he retrieved from the crash site. When the CIA refuses to help, she goes to Yevgeny for help.
He helps her find Max, who is eventually killed and also helps her find the black box. But before she can take it back to Saul, Yevgeny steals it. In season 8, episode 9, Yevgeny asks her to expose Saul’s asset in the Kremlin in exchange for the black box.
Carrie has herself arrested and flown back to the U.S., and the presumption is that she’s going to betray Saul to get the black box and stop the potential war to come.
Fans are comparing Carrie to Nicolas Brody
The first season of Homeland was about an ex-soldier named Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) who was captured and held by Iraqi forces for eight years. Upon his return to the U.S. he is heralded as a hero, but Carrie thinks he’s been turned by the Iraqis.
Eventually, Carrie falls in love with Brody, but she also discovers that her hunch was right. He had been planning to bomb a government building. She manages to turn him against Al-Qaeda, and he goes into hiding. Brody, who is the father of Carrie’s baby, is killed later in season 3.
Carrie and Brody were both captured and held by enemy forces and worked against their own countries for what they believed to be the greater good. Now fans are seeing Carrie’s story come full circle, making her the Brody of season 8.
“Carrie becoming everything she claimed she was not at the beginning of #Homeland with Brody,” one fan wrote on Twitter. “The circle of life.””
“This season’s story is a remake of season 1,” another fan tweeted. “Nick Brody was a US Marine who may/may not have been turned by the enemy. This year’s story parallel’s that story. Brody turned out to be a traitor, will Carrie be as well?”
“Yevgeny running this divide & conquer game on Carrie real smooth,” one Twitter user pointed out. “Getting shades of Brody.”
Hopefully, Carrie won’t meet the same fate as Brody. He was ostracized for being a traitor and then hanged. But no matter what she does, after everything that she’s sacrificed and done for the country, she definitely deserves better than that.
