Homeland is known for giving its viewers a lot to think about.
Sometimes I lay awake at night wondering if I would have the balls to do what Carrie Mathison does: " Did I miss my calling as an overseas CIA operative?"(Probably not.)
Other times I contemplate Saul Berenson's eyebrows (so lush, so expressive), and whether Peter Quinn's abs or jawline are better chiseled. (It's a tie.)
But in all seriousness, it's a mighty challenge to predict what the hell is going to happen next on the twisty thriller starring Claire Danes, Mandy Patinkin, and Rupert Friend.
What makes Homeland an especially interesting show to theorize about is its history of deriving key themes and plot-points from the headlines. And this season's focus on domestic counter-terrorism — it's successes and failures — couldn't be more prescient.
Season six of Homeland brings us back to Washington, D.C. and New York City, where 9/11 incited the War on Terror that we're still fighting today — overseas and at home. Zeroing in on the latter front means examining both sides of the same coin: The law enforcement agencies battling homegrown radical terrorists to protect our country, and — in a fascinating move for the show — the resulting desecration of the very civil liberties our country is supposed to hold sacred. Oh, and they still somehow managed to elect a female president.
Homeland premieres on Showtime on January 15. Check back here every Monday, where we'll be adding new theories about the next episode and the season as a whole. Feel free to share your predictions in the comments below!
President-elect Keane & Dar Will Form An Alliance
Dar Adal has always been one of the shadiest characters on Homeland. His loyalty seems to lie with whomever is the most powerful at any given time. We've already seen him shut out Saul from a national security meeting, so he has no qualms betraying his oldest friend. And as an intelligence insider, the wily Dar could prove useful to Keane for bringing down the CIA from the inside.
Photo: Jo Jo Whilden/Courtesy of Showtime.
Otto Is Still In Love With Carrie
Remember that time last season that Otto Düring basically told Carrie he wants to make a life with someone, that someone hopefully being her? The ambitious, smooth-talking billionaire German philanthropist is back in Carrie's life after she rejected him. He apparently dropped by New York to let her know that he's seeing someone, perhaps in an attempt to get her to change her mind because the guy for sure still has feelings for her. Otto also appears to be trying to seduce Carrie with the allure of bigger and better humanitarian work. (Works like a charm, I hear.)
Photo: Jo Jo Whilden/Courtesy of Showtime.
Quinn is going to be in a wheelchair.
We're just happy to know Quinn is still alive (after all, last we saw him Carrie was putting his pulse monitor on her own finger, seemingly about to put her comatose colleague out of his misery, per his request in a confessional letter he left her).
But Rupert Friend has said that his character is going to be "unrecognizable" to audiences. Given his near-death experience, we imagine Quinn will be at least partially paralyzed, perhaps with impaired cognitive function, debilitating depression, or, like many vets, an addiction to painkillers.
Photo: Courtesy of Showtime.
We're going to get some Brody flashbacks.
Now that Carrie is back on American soil, grappling with the at-home consequences of the War on Terror — on heroes like Quinn as well as innocent Muslims — she will likely be reminded of her lost love, another traumatized vet and a man who empathized with the perceived enemy. Plus, she'll be raising Frannie, now old enough to ask questions about her dad. Having Brody figure into Carrie's emotional life this season would be a nice way to bring things full circle.
It's going to be Carrie vs. Saul again.
At the end of last season, Saul offered Carrie a job at the CIA with full autonomy; she declined. Now, newly Brooklynite Carrie is working at a foundation that gives legal aid to Muslims unfairly targeted by the law, who she sees as another casualty of the War on Terror. No doubt we're going to see the two butt heads over where national security begins to undermine the civil liberty protections of Carrie's clients.
Photo: Jo Jo Whilden/Courtesy of Showtime.
Madam President = Trump's unpredictability + Hillary's secretiveness
Showrunners explained that they "hedged their bets" in creating the controversial new President-elect Elizabeth Keane, played by
House of Cards ' Elizabeth Marvel. While we we don't know much about her character, she doesn't seem like she's out to please anyone — Saul, the CIA, the American people, and certainly not Carrie Mathison. Is she behind the push to target Muslim communities?
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