'Homeland' Season 8 Episode 12 Ending Explained: Anna Pomerantseva's death gave Carrie Mathison her new mission
Spoilers for 'Homeland' Season 8 Episode12 'Prisoners of War'
The ending scene of 'Homeland' is by no means the end of Carrie Mathison. And for that matter, it isn't the end of Saul Berenson either. In Anna Pomerantseva (Tatyana Mukha), Saul may have lost an asset after she kills herself following an identity compromise, but in Carrie, he has a new mole at the Kremlin. That 'Homeland' didn't have an open ending or a cliffhanger makes this more believable and in ways is similar to endings in spy movies which often ask the question: "What's next?"
The finale sees Carrie operate with two plans and the first one blows up in her face when a drugged Saul still asks her to "Go f**k herself". Plan B means jetting off to Israel to get some information out of Dorit, Saul's sister. This plan works for Carrie as Saul's thumb-drive containing the information of the asset is handed over by Dorit. Yevgeny Gromov (Costa Ronin) realizes Anna, currently the lead interpreter for the Russian intelligence agency. And despite the disbelief, he passes on the word to Russia.
Anna, knowing her time is almost up, kills herself, rendering Saul helpless as it means there won't be a source that feeds the US information of whatever is happening in Russia. Yevgeny lives up to his end of the bargain as Russia announces the details of the flight recorder that confirms mechanical failure as the cause of the death of the two Presidents. This effectively stops Pakistan and the US from engaging in a no-holds-barred war.
The episode then goes forward by a couple of years where we see Carrie and Yevgeny in a relationship. They celebrate a win by attending a Kamasi Washington jazz concert. Back in the US, Saul receives a call from one of his assets who asks for a Professor Rabinow, prompting the National Security Advisor to meet his asset at a bookstore and collect a package. Revealed to be Carrie's advance copy of her book, 'Tyranny of Secrets', Saul flips the first few pages and on instinct peeps through the handle and the spine of the book only to find a note that has details of Russia's missile system being sold to Iran with Turkey providing an "exploitable backdoor".
The note ends with Carrie, saying, "Specs to follow, Stay tuned." This end implies that Carrie will forever be the greatest spy that the US ever had.