Note: This article contains spoilers for Homeland season 8, episode 2, which has yet to air in the UK.
Homeland season 8 is the show's last hurrah for Carrie Mathison's Sherlock-level jazz epiphanies and side-satchel combo.
The show became a global phenomenon in its early days as it covered fears murky prisoner of war Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) had 'turned' after being held prisoner by al-Qaeda.
The will-he-won't-he push and pull of these early moments are some of the show's best. Now things seem to have come full circle, as our hero's own trustworthiness has come into question. Can we actually trust Carrie anymore? Even she doesn't know.
At the close of season seven, Carrie was held prisoner by the Russians and denied her bipolar medication by Yevgeny Gromov, unless she spilled state secrets.
Related: Why Homeland should do a ninth season without Carrie
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Of course, Carrie being Carrie, she put her country first and refused. But this meant she descended into psychosis and has around 180 days of her life she can't account for.
"It took about 20 days for me to devolve into a not very helpful subject, but they kept at it for another week or so. After that, it's all either blank or a series of images," Carrie tells the government interviewer.
Despite Carrie working hard to recover the missing time in her memory, things are complicated even further as she fails a polygraph test. But is she lying to herself? Was she just nervous? Or is she unwittingly lying to the interviewer?
Carrie claims she "edits her own answers as she doesn't trust her own brain" and that's merely what the machine is detecting. But then the show's flashback adds yet another wrinkle.
We see Carrie tearfully clinging to Yevgeny in prison, begging him not to leave her. Seemingly in her damaged mental state she's become desperate for support and potentially even developed Stockholm syndrome feelings for the brutal Russian officer.
During the season-eight premiere we also learn that one of Carrie's old assets in Kabul, Afghanistan has been publicly executed by the Taliban for being a traitor.
Is this the old asset Carrie admits revealing in her government interview? Did she think he was already dead when she wasn't lucid?
When the Kabul station chief confirms the Taliban and Russians share intelligence, our hero is left with the sobering realisation that she might have endangered numerous assets, and even worse, have no recollection of who.
This powerful storyline has obvious parallels with disgraced soldier Brody, as we spent the early seasons desperately trying to ascertain where his true allegiances were.
It's a classic storytelling trope to end a story by mirroring its beginning, but Homeland has evolved its seminal 'is Brody bad?' format, as Carrie is now the ultimate unreliable narrator.
The flashbacks with Yevgeny are coming from Carrie and therefore could be totally wrong. In fact, the flashbacks themselves could have never happened at all.
While it's undoubtedly clear that when she's well, Carrie will put her homeland's security first – even before her daughter Frannie. But there's no accounting for what might have happened in the black hole of those 180 psychotic days.
Matters are complicated even further as we discover in episode two that Yevgeny has political immunity and breezily taunts Carrie as she remembers begging him not to leave again.
Somehow we can't see Yevgeny kindly filling in all the gaps for her over a vodka – and anything he does explain, will likely be even more lies. Let's just hope Russia has interview tapes, eh?
Things will undoubtedly get even more complicated as Homeland season eight unfolds, but now Carrie is facing her greatest challenge by becoming a bigger threat than Brody ever was: an unwittingly weaponised turncoat.
Homeland season eight continues on Sundays at 9pm on Channel 4 and on Showtime in the US.
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Laurence Mozafari (he/him) is a multi-award winning journalist, editor, and presenter. A former Editor-in-Chief of Digital Spy, Laurence previously held roles as the site's Editor, Deputy Editor, and Associate Editor focusing on news, social, and video. Laurence hosted the BBC Sounds podcast Obsessed with Peaky Blinders in 2019. He also hosts his own podcast production, Time of My Life, where he interviews fascinating elders about their life lessons, including Only Fools and Horses' Sir David Jason, Star Trek’s George Takei and Bridgerton’s Adjoa Andoh.
Laurence was named Editorial Director – Youth Audience at Reach in early 2025. Prior to joining Digital Spy, he was previously at Bauer Media working as Digital Editor of Heat magazine's website Heatworld.com, and has also worked at and written for Sky, NME, Q magazine, Grazia, Closer, FHM and dedicated careers website GoThinkBig. He secured a first-class BA journalism degree at Staffordshire University, along with several NCTJ qualifications, and now has 14 years' experience in digital publishing covering TV, movies, music, gaming, tech, showbiz, and travel.
Laurence has been a broadcasting contributor on television and radio, including KISS, Heat Radio, BBC Radio London, Radio 5 Live, and BBC Breakfast.
He is also a visiting lecturer at various universities teaching journalism, including City, University of London, Nottingham Trent, Staffordshire University and London Metropolitan. Laurence has won numerous awards in his journalism career, including the BSME Talent Award’s Best Deputy Editor, the PPA's 30 Under 30, and the New Editor and Editor of the Year at the AOP and BSMEs. He led Digital Spy to win PPA's Digital Content Team of the Year twice, along with the British Media Awards’ Brand of the Year in 2021.
Laurence joined the committee for the British Society of Magazine Editors in 2022 and was named vice-chair in 2025. He has since hosted panels with CEOs of Immediate Media and the Media Trust at the PPA Festival, as well as presenting his own radio show on Green Man Radio at Green Man Festival in 2022. Laurence is also a Brits voting academy member.
Laurence has been lucky enough to interview numerous celebrities, actors, and musicians throughout his career. Arnold Schwarzenegger loved his hair, Jimmy Carr loved his coat and Antonio Banderas gave a shout-out to his mum. Laurence has covered set visits for The Witcher on Netflix and Marvel’s Inhumans, he got Daisy Ridley to do a Chewbacca impression and loves Marvel, PlayStation, Glastonbury and craft beer. Linkedin
