Why is ending the series “Homeland” the end of an era?
The fight against terrorism has been recreated fictionally in its most diverse facets in the series whose eighth and final season ended in 2020.
Before humanity turned the page of history, opening the dark chapter of the coronavirus, there was the era of terror. The September 11, 2001 attacks questioned the hegemonic role of the United States as a planetary economic and military power and changed the structures of the global order. Since then, many foreign policy decisions by the White House have been based on scenes of planes used as missiles against buildings in New York and Washington.
Few works of fiction profoundly captured the nuances, dilemmas and contradictions of the period. The series Homeland, whose last chapter of the eighth and final season aired in the USA on April 26, 2020, not only understood this context but also portrayed the metamorphoses through which the so-called war on terror went through. In the fictional universe of the work, whose title evokes the word that Americans use to designate the “homeland”, “home”, a CIA analyst, bipolar and jazz lover, incorporates the fears and guilt of the superpower, which was unable to detect signs of the mega attack. In the series, 9/11 has already occurred. The challenge is to prevent it from recurring.
It is in this traumatized and paranoid society that a Marine who has disappeared for eight years returns from captivity in Iraq. The protagonist, Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes), suspects that he has converted to Islamic radicalism and was sent on a new attack. Although interesting, this initial motto would not support Homeland’s eight years, which was inspired by the Israeli series Prisioners of War. Its writers have managed to maintain a carnal union between the plot and the reality of geopolitics over all these almost 20 years. There are the dilemmas of a nation that imagined itself invincible and was thrown into its fragility overnight, a country that plunged into the quagmire of two wars (Afghanistan and Iraq), the idiosyncrasies of the endless conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians (and the interests of nations in the great game of the Middle East), the subtle differences between the causes of extremist groups, their mimicry with local authorities, the transformation of the Al-Qaeda network into Islamic State and the change of stage of their actions, with the Europe as an epicenter.
In the more than 80 hours of Homeland, we find American presidents who seek war as a subterfuge in the face of internal pressure, authorities who use fear to justify the reduction of civil rights and persecute minorities, the contradictions of a democracy that prides itself on being a champion of human rights, but which, in allied countries converted into dungeons, uses torture in the name of “protecting” the homeland.
For an observer of geopolitics, the way in which the war on terror has changed, from conventional conflict with tanks and troops, to the use of drones, biological arsenals, information technology, hackers and fake news to manipulate public opinion, does not go unnoticed.
From reality for the series, the alliances of occasion that the United States made appear: the leader of an opposing group, supported by the CIA, overthrows the regime that opposes American interests and, once in power, becomes a rival in the best example of the maxim of international politics according to which “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. The story is full of examples, from Osama bin Laden to Saddam Hussein.
And the double game played by human beings also exists between countries. The two faces of governments like Pakistan are clear: the dictatorship that gave birth to the Taliban is an American ally, opening its airspace for George W. Bush’s US fighters to bomb Afghanistan. Irony of international politics, today Donald Trump is a partner of the Indian government, a regional opponent of Pakistan.
Homeland brought an impressive ability to walk along with the news — the growing influence of the far right in the bowels of Washington’s power — sometimes ahead of it, as it did last season, with the peace talks between the US and the Taliban. But perhaps its greatest merit is to deidealize the role of nations. The same country that suffered a devastating attack in 2001 uses drones to target terrorists and ends up killing civilians as a side effect. Furthermore, terrorism is a multi-faceted animal, as it can be the weapon of groups that claim autonomy or an instrument of the State to impose their will. It is not a case of justifying violence. But remember that, in international relations, there are no naives. Not even good guys.
Homeland ends as perhaps the era of terror has ended, now that beards buried in caves have been replaced, as global enemies, by a virus that started in China.
Homeland had a sensible ending, closed all of Carrie’s stories, while keeping the story of the United States and Russia rivalry going. The series ends, and it doesn’t end, only better than that was seeing all these years incredible performances by Davis, Damian Lewis, Rupert Friend, Mandy Patinkin and cast.
