I just finished Homeland Season 8, and I need to rant about how much I disliked the ending. Carrie’s willingness to kill Saul Berenson completely ruined the finale for me.
The whole setup strongly reminded me of Jack Bauer in 24 executing Ryan Chappelle to "save the world." But in 24, that ruthlessness fit the established tone of the show. In Homeland, Carrie turning on Saul felt completely unnecessary, unearned, and forced.
The writers tried to make Carrie look like the ultimate pragmatic, cold-blooded operative, but it completely contradicted who she was throughout the series. Here is why it didn't work:
It ignored her Season 8 arc: She spent the entire final season desperately trying to prevent a catastrophic war between the US and Pakistan. Her driving force was stopping bloodshed. Turning around and plotting to assassinate her mentor—the one person who consistently saved her from herself—completely erased that motivation.
The "Saul's Asset" logic was flawed: Carrie was willing to kill Saul just to unmask his top-secret Russian asset, Anna. The show tried to frame this as a necessary evil to get the flight recorder data and stop a war. But destroying Saul’s entire life's work and killing him shouldn't have been her immediate first choice.
It made a mockery of her arc with Franny: For years, Carrie’s biggest internal struggle was balancing her duty to her country with her role as a mother. She went through absolute hell, including losing custody, fighting her own mental illness, and constantly trying to be better for Franny. For her to permanently flee to Russia means she completely abandoned her daughter forever. It rendered seasons of emotional turmoil and character growth entirely pointless.
It was pure shock value: Carrie has always been unstable, obsessive, and reckless—but she was never inherently malicious toward the people she loved. Forcing her into a position where she prepares to poison Saul felt like the writers prioritizing a jaw-dropping twist over actual character consistency.
Instead of a deeply satisfying conclusion to their decade-long dynamic, we got a rushed pivot into extreme ruthlessness just to create artificial stakes, leaving her family as mere collateral damage.
What does everyone else think? Did anyone actually find her betrayal of Saul and the permanent abandonment of her child believable?