The question of will he or won't he was finally answered in Homeland's season one finale last night. All season long, viewers have been mulling over the idea: will Brody follow through on his commitment to Abu Nazir and sacrifice himself in the names of little Isa? The answer: a resounding...maybe.
Damien Lewis' turn as Sgt. Brody has been amazing to watch; he's truly one of the most under-appreciated actors in the business. Personally, I have trouble even calling him Brody, because he'll always be Major Winters to me. But his performance as Marine POW-turned-suicide bomber has been superbly captivating this fall. I don't know many actors who can express emotion through breathing like Lewis; this man's ability to huff and puff with agitation/frustration/fear is untouchable and can expertly convey his emotions with little to no help from words.
That being said, a majority of this episode was spent with our two main protagonists: Brody and Carrie, each going through their own inner turmoil. Watching Brody give personal good-byes to his family, and the saddened look on his face as Jess walked out with a lackluster adios, was depressing but also built up some excitement: he's really going to do it. Watching Carrie try to warn everyone was kind of frustrating: listen, everyone thinks you're nuts and you need to stop trying to help. I was happy to see Saul finally cave and try to detain her, stopping the insanity of his unwavering devotion to her theories. I love Carrie and how unstable she is, but it can get pretty annoying at times; I can only see Claire Danes make this awful crying, batshit crazy face so many times before I just want to bury it in an avalanche of fists:
We also got to see Tom Walker eat the bullet we knew was coming after finding out he was still alive. But what we didn't get, and I'm pretty glad it's still a mystery, is seeing who's the mole inside the CIA. There's almost no way it's Saul (almost) but I believe that'd make great TV if it was. Estes is the next best, being so high up in the CIA, and he knew about the drone attack, and Brody called him personally to get Carrie fired. But there's always the chance Agent Galvez is our mole: he's young, Muslim and wasn't prominently shown throughout the season; he's not enough of a major player for it to be completely shocking, but I think him being a mole is too predictable for Homeland.
All in all, this was a pretty great finale that set up next season perfectly. Homeland has been an amazing surprise from Showtime, although they have a great line-up of shows already (Shameless, Weeds, Californication). I know I'm very excited for more Homeland next year, I'm actually going to go buy Band of Brothers on Blu-Ray for the sake of nostalgia.
Finale Score - 9 out of 10
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