Homeland Season 8 Episode 10: Designated Driver
Airdate: April 12, 2020
Homeland Season 8 Episode 11: The English Teacher
Airdate: April 19, 2020
Homeland Season 8 Episode 12: Prisoners of War
Airdate: April 26, 2020
Homeland Season 8 Cast
Of course the major returning cast members and surviving characters are in place. Both Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin are leading the final season as Saul and Carrie. Additionally, Maury Sterling is returning as Carrie’s much overlooked and put-upon tech sidekick, Max. Linus Roache is likewise returning as former White House Chief of Staff David Wellington, as is Beau Bridges as now President Ralph Warner.
Sam Trammell (The Order, True Blood) is set to recur throughout the eighth season of Homeland. He will plays Vice President Benjamin Hayes, described as “a political survivor with an aptitude for optics who crosses the aisle to serve alongside the series’ new president… Bridges’ character believes tapping Hayes is an innocuous choice, one that could help heal the partisan divide, but the politico proves to be more dangerous than anticipated.” The actor is of course best known for his series-spanning role on HBO’s 2008-2014 series, True Blood, as shapeshifter/bar-owner Sam Merlotte.
Nimrat Kaur and Numan Acar are reprising their pivotal roles that had taken center stage during season 4, the year Carrie went to Pakistan. The two previously played Tasneem Qureshi and Haissam Haqqani, resptively. The former is a member of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence who had infiltrated the American embassy by turning the ambassador’s feckless husband into an asset. The latter was a Taliban leader who, with information from Qureshi, staged a violent attack on the embassy.
Hugh Dancy (Hannibal, The Big C) has meanwhile been cast as John Zabel, a D.C. beltway insider who is part of a new White House administration. There he is a foreign policy advisor for the president and a foe for political power against Mandy Patinkin’s Saul Berenson. It is unclear if Saul is still an advisor or might be directly back at the CIA, or even if this is still part of Beau Bridges’ President Ralph Warner administration.
Homeland Season 8 Trailer
For those nostalgic about marketing, here is a collection of Homeland Season 8 trailers, beginning with the final one.
Here is the first full trailer.
And now the teaser focused on how fuzzy Carrie feels.
Homeland Season 8 Release Date
Homeland returned on Feb. 9, 2020. Brace yourself for one last ride.
Homeland Season 8 Plot Details
Here is the original synopsis for season 8.
The final season of Homeland finds Carrie Mathison (Danes) recovering from months of brutal confinement in a Russian gulag. Her body is healing, but her memory remains fractured – which is a problem for Saul (Patinkin), now National Security Advisor to the newly ascendant President Warner (Emmy and Golden Globe winner Beau Bridges). The top priority of Warner’s young administration is an end to the “forever war” in Afghanistan, and Saul has been dispatched to engage the Taliban in peace negotiations. But Kabul teems with warlords and mercenaries, zealots and spies – and Saul needs the relationships and expertise that only his protégé can provide. Against medical advice, Saul asks Carrie to walk with him into the lion’s den – one last time. Along with Danes and Patinkin, the final season stars Maury Sterling, Linus Roache and Costa Ronin, with Nimrat Kaur and Numan Acar also returning from season four in series regular roles.
This is again intended to be the ending, and showrunner Alex Gansa has been teasing some major details in the past. Gansa told EW in April that the last hurrah will be set in Europe.
“[Season 7 arranges] all the pieces on the chessboard to make that a proper finale for the story we’ve been telling,” Gansa said. “We get to play this last season in D.C with the intention of taking us overseas for one last chapter. Season 8 will be overseas somewhere. We get to play a story with larger national stakes in season 7 and we’ll go back to a smaller intelligence-based season in 8.”