Showtime's "Homeland" has come to a full-stop this 2014 and, sadly, it will take another 10 months before fans get to see a new episode. Certainly, the season 4 finale didn't help at all.
"Long Time Coming" was immediately criticized for its lack of action, suspense and everything in between. It was an episode unbecoming of a season finale. It was full of narrative and it wasn't something everyone expected to see after four gut wrenching episodes from the show. However, every fan must realize that the finale was merely setting up the story for season 5.
While showrunner Alex Gansa didn't like to spoil anything for the upcoming season, Showtime chief David Nevins talked to Variety about season 4 and season 5.
First, he highlighted that season 4 was a way for them to bring Claire Danes' character Carrie in her own element. They wanted her to be in a place where she has control. After all, she did play an undercover agent most of the time in the previous seasons.
Next, Nevins talked about the political theme for season 4, which some would describe as overreaching.
"What made this season so good was that it worked as an action show but it went back to the world of real political complexity. The show's always best when it takes a complicated political story and wraps it in a complicated personal story. The writers really spent valuable time (early on) figuring out what story they wanted to tell. They told the story of how difficult America's position in the world is in the 21st century. ... They really got at the complexity of the U.S. position in the Muslim world," he told Variety.
The writers also had to deal with the absence of the Carrie and Brody dynamics, which was pretty much the center of the story in the past three seasons. They had to wrestle with the idea that Brody is gone and Carrie will have to move on. In season 4, Carrie and Saul's complicated dynamics was the highlight.
Referring to the last scene where Carrie and Saul just stared at each other, Nevin said "The conclusion is, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. It's not a simple question."
Further, it was later revealed that the two actually exchanged a dialogue, but was removed by Gansa later on. Gansa believed the meeting didn't need any words as their emotions said it all.
Lastly, Nevins did hint about where the next setting will be. He said that Gansa and the writing team may be going to Washington D.C. to meet with Foreign Service officials and people from the intelligence community.
Meanwhile, there is no official word on when "Homeland" season 5 will come out, but seeing the pattern in the previous years, it is most likely going to come out in October 2015.
