Homeland: Showtime Co-Creator on Series’ Final Moments, Potential Revival

Are you a big Homeland fan? Recently, co-creator Alex Gansa spoke with Deadline about the Showtime series’ final episode and possible revival.

The political thriller centers on Carrie : (Claire Danes), a CIA officer with bipolar disorder. The cast also includes Mandy Patinkin, Maury Sterling, Linus Roache, Costa Ronin, Nimrat Kaur, and Numan Acar.

WARNING: SERIES FINALE SPOILERS AHEAD!

Speaking to Deadline, Gansa said that Carrie really did betray her country and Saul in the final episode of Homeland:

In other words, let me be clear, Carrie really did betray Saul, really did betray her country, really did affect the death of a very important American asset in Moscow. And here is Carrie, at the very end, replacing that asset, becoming that asset, herself, and the glimmer of a repaired relationship with Saul is possible, at the very end. So, that was what we were going for, in that last 15 minutes.

Gansa later revealed that the idea for Carrie’s book was last minute:

I didn’t have that idea until Wednesday morning, before we shot the scenes, on Thursday morning, and our amazing production designer John Kretschmer put that f*cking book together, got people to clear the photograph, put that glorious book together, wrote all the copy for the cover, the inside book jacket. So, I mean, just unbelievable, what he did in the time allotted. Unbelievable.

The last season, Gansa says, was meant to mirror the first season and Nicholas Brody’s (Damien Lewis) experience:

Well, the season is really founded on two big ideas, and you mentioned one of them, and that is this tactic of putting Carrie in the very last episode, in the very last season, in the same shoes that Brody was in, in the very first season. That idea was born on a bridge in Budapest, at the end of Season 7, when we were all standing around and watching that amazing scene between Claire and Mandy, and all of the sudden, it just struck me that my God, you know, Carrie really is in a very similar situation to Brody – having been in captivity. Now, Carrie, having been in captivity, and there was a crazily poetic justice to all of the sudden having her be the one under suspicion.

And what about a future revival for the Showtime series? Gansa says:

Well, that’s certainly true but I think what we were thinking more was to allow this story to continue in the imaginations of our fans. Not to abruptly end the story, but to let it continue, and let the people think about, my God, what happens next? Rather than answer that question, just let the hope of that carry you through.”

What do you think? Do you watch Homeland? Were you satisfied with the finale?