Do you think Carrie Mathison is a good person? I’m sure many Homeland fans, after the show’s season four premiere and especially after the final scene of “Iron In the Fire,” would immediately say no, claiming Carrie to be some kind of monster. But really think about it: is she really?
There’s no debate over Carrie’s mental state–she’s a troubled, unstable individual who is not fit to be a parent at this time. However, when it comes to her job, Carrie is capable and overly passion. She makes erratic and sometimes unwise decisions, but they never come from a place of malice. In Carrie’s mind, she’s simply trying to do her job the best way that she can.
And that’s why I didn’t cringe or yell at my TV (as some people apparently did, according to Twitter) during the final scene of last night’s Homeland, because Carrie seducing and sleeping with Aayan wasn’t her trying to hurt him or her trying to take away his innocence in any form. Simply put, it was Carrie securing the asset. It was Carrie doing her job.
Additionally, just because Carrie does this, as a way to form a connection and secure trust with Aayan, doesn’t mean that she thought it was morally right. In fact, she pauses twice (once as she looks at herself in the bathroom mirror and once after Aayan admits he’s never done this before) before continuing with her plan, acknowledging that her actions here are questionable but also recognizing that, to her, they’re also essential. This isn’t easy or fun for her to do, but she commits to it because, for Carrie, nothing is more important than the job–than protecting American lives.
In a way, Carrie’s behavior here is similar to that of Jack Bauer on 24 (a show that many of Homeland‘s producers worked on), but it’s not wrapped up in Jack’s action hero packaging. Jack typically going too far is shooting a terrorist in the knee to get more information, while for Carrie, in this episode, it’s sleeping with a contact to make him feel safer. Neither Jack nor Carrie examine their actions through a moral lens–they simply see them as necessary means to an end.
Anyway, I go on this rant because, so far, much of the criticism thrown against the fourth season of Homeland has been about Carrie, which I find to be ridiculous after having watched this character for three seasons. It’s as if some fans out there expected a different protagonist now that Brody was dead, but before Brody and now after him, Carrie has remained the same–the determined, almost desperate CIA agent that will go to any lengths necessary to get the results she wants. Besides her being completely unfit as a mother (for which I will make no excuses), what has really changed about Carrie Mathison since the show’s first season?
And it’s a shame that so much negative focus has been put on the behavior of Carrie because season four of Homeland has been doing a lot of other things very well. The show has created an interesting new conspiracy for us to unravel with the characters, the most interesting plot Homeland has introduced since the question of whether or not Brody was a terrorist back in season one. Not to mention that the acting on the series continues to be top notch, with the show’s stars, Claire Danes, Rupert Friend, and Mandy Patinkn, doing great work alongside guest actors like Mark Moses, who appears for the first time this season in “Iron In the Fire” as Dennis Body, the husband of U.S. ambassador who helped Sandy get the information that he traded with Pakistani intelligence.
Homeland‘s new setting in Islamabad, plus the combination of new supporting characters like Aayan and John Redmond with familiar favorites like Fara and Saul, has helped the show rejuvenate itself. Is the series as good as it was back in seasons one and two? No, but after four solid episodes to start season four, I have renewed faith in Homeland and am excited to see where it goes from here.
Other thoughts:
– Do you think Redmond can be trusted? He helps Carrie out with the picture of Farhad Ghazi but is also having her followed and reported on. It will be interesting to see what role he plays in the rest of the season.
– Saul’s conversation with the general’s ISI contact was intriguing to say the least. Hopefully, his helping Carrie will turn into him being a full-fledged member of her team very soon.
– One thing Homeland needs to work on: the writing in the scenes between Quinn and Carrie. I’m okay with Quinn starting to realize that he may have feelings for her, but can we please not be reminded of how much he’s worried about her or how much she means to him in every single scene they share?
– So obviously nothing bad was going to happen to Quinn, but how tense was that scene with him in Ghazi’s apartment?
– Having Haqqani is alive was a very cool twist that I really liked. Plus, it raises the stakes of this season’s conspiracy plot even more.
What did everyone else think about last night’s episode of Homeland?
Photo via Showtime
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I think you missed the point, Chris, about Carrie. Her manic behaviour was only tolerable when Brody was in the picture. Now she is just an unstable, tiresome, neurotic, bad-tempered woman who is far too unstable to be a station chief. To think she was given the job because she blackmailed a weak boss is, frankly, ridiculous. She would have been dispatched, dead or alive, in an instant. Quinn should have finished her off eons ago when he had the chance.
I see your point about Brody,Barry, and I would agree with you that Carrie’s promotion at the end of last season was one of the biggest leaps in logic that Homeland has ever made. (With everything she had done to protect Brody, the CIA should have fired her, not given her a new position.) However, I would argue that I find Carrie’s behavior much more tolerable in Season 4 without Brody because her actions have a larger purpose. She’s doing all of these radical things not to help a man she loves but because she believes that her actions are going to protect innocent lives–a much nobler cause. I’m more on board for that than Carrie going out of her way to save Brody (yet again).
Additionally, her behavior towards her child, while inexcusable, is at least somewhat understandable given how much her daughter looks like Brody, plus her past unstable mental state. Personally, I’m just seeing too many arguments from people saying that Carrie is acting out of character when she’s been behaving this way since the very beginning of the show. I can see why people might be annoyed by her character’s personality, but it’s not because of bad writing from the Homeland staff.