Homeland - Season 3 - Episode 13 "The Star"
No spoilers here.
Season finale could very well be the series finale. Not in the same way that Season 4 of Breaking Bad almost had that feel, but this could legitimately be regarded as the series finale. It was beautiful, long, taking up the full hour timeslot, and perfect, doing what the show always promised it would in a satisfying, definitively and utterly bitter-sweet manner with a great sentiment to end on. To be completely honest, I almost feel that the showrunners made it this way, with only a single detail that could even be considered a slight ambiguity or loose end, as a precaution for the series. We've seen what the same network, Showtime, has done with Dexter, drawing it out much longer than it had any business being before ending it miserably, and due to the popularity of Homeland, that possibility for it going a similar path is always a possibility, should the network request it. The talent can leave, but the show will go on.
Trust me, that's not at all what I want to see happen, or even have weighing against me for next season, but I thought it was a great move to at least create this as a checkpoint of some sort to guarantee there can be something considered an ending to encapsulate the show's immense quality on a finale, graceful note. There is the guarantee of many prospects in the show's future, as planted in this finale, which could just as easily be seen as giving the characters direction to head off in, be it toward a sunset or darker road to end on, but it also gives the show direction to continue in. Still, I can't see an ending getting much better than this, with what we have left at least.
What a beautiful ending.
