'Homeland' Season 8: Carrie is still a vital cog in the scheme of things though she lacks mission readiness
The article contains major spoilers for 'Homeland' Season 8, Episode 1: 'Deception Indicated'
For those familiar with Season 1 of 'Homeland', there are a lot of parallels that can be drawn between how Damian Lewis' Nick Brody was introduced and how Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) is introduced. And much like she believed that Brody was a compromised marine back then, the CIA believes she is too, following her release from roughly seven months in the custody of the Russian gulag, of which she has partial, haunting memories of.
That she's put on a mission even despite the heavy uncertainty just goes on to show the vital cog she is in the political storm that's brewing. 'Deception Indicated' stays true to the title. There's betrayal and there's enough to cement the fact that Carrie's one last ride will be a rough one. Her mission: To ensure the Taliban and Afghan head honchos end their ongoing loggerhead scrimmage. However, before this, Carrie has a few issues to sort out. There are bursts of panic attacks, she's still unstable and fuzzy after the torturous captivity and if anything, she's not mission-ready.
She's hanging on despite this. Season 1 introduced her as an anti-hero, and over the course of the seasons, she was firing all cylinders, diving headfirst into issues, determined to win back that respect that she lost after the failed mission, and the loss of Brody. And now, she's back again, walking into the eye of a storm thoroughly unprepared. There's enough backing that's coming from former mentor Saul (Mandy Patinkin), who is now the National Security Advisor to the current President of the United States (Beau Bridges).
Carrie's the crusader and that's established. The bigger question is how long can she be pushed to deliver before it reaches the time where she can't piece herself back? That she sees one of the Russians, Yevgeny Gromo (Costa Ronin) just adds to the fuzzy memories where she begs him to not leave his side. For now, it's two missions for Carrie, and one of them is reconstructing the broken flashes of memory. Whether she's turned or not is a question the final season will answer.
'Homeland' Season 8 premieres on February 9 at 9 pm ET/PT on Showtime.