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If they had pulled off a strongly moving tragedy, I would certainly admire that. But in my opinion, they did the opposite. They did a rushed, last-minute, slopped-together edit and treated the male lead's death as an afterthought. That's because it was: they decided to kill him off last-minute and were editing literally a few day's before air date. A death without catharsis for the audience isn't tragedy--it's just a death. I felt no catharsis here. I did with Quinn's "death" last season, where Rupert Friend wrote Quinn's letter and read it in voiceover, and homage was paid to a great character. Now THAT was tragic and moving. I don't think anyone who watches the show expects that there will be happy endings and unicorns. But if they are going to have the two main characters be inextricably, emotionally bound for 5 seasons, it would be nice to have SOME clarity as to what they feel for each other. In real life, you often don't get that. But this isn't real life, and the show has kept them so artificially and implausibly star-crossed, it's gotten ridiculous. It's one thing to develop complex, ambiguous characters. It's another keep them so open-ended you never give the audience any cathartic relief or resolution. My issue isn't with shipping--it's with writing. But I'm going to shut up now! Other people love the show, and I'm just being negative. But it lost me this season with Quinn's disability storyline, which could have had a little redemption instead of endless torture and bleakness.

Yeah, I was being a little facetious about who wouldn't be in love with beautiful Quinn--but not that facetious. The thing is--this isn't real life. It's TV writing, and to some extent, it has to follow the principle of Chekov's gun. What you introduce into the story eventually has to be paid off. You don't introduce a romantic lead like Quinn and have Carrie be "myeh" about him. And she was clearly attracted to Quinn, and at times, in love with him.

I won't bore you with yet ANOTHER rant about how wrong and badly written Quinn's death was. But what irks me is that Ganza claims to have brought RF back for Season 6 to do this great disabled veterans' story. "Wounded warrior story", my ass. Is that why they heaped more pain and suffering on this poor guy, to tell a story about how mistreated and forgotten vets are? That would have been admirable, but it's not what they did. Season 5 was bad enough with the gratuitous pile-on of pain because Quinn was still well and a badass. But Season 6 was just sadistic. They took a disabled, mentally ill war hero with PTSD, shot him, nearly drowned him, beat him senseless (by cops/orderlies), humiliated him with sexual rejection (by Carrie), further destroyed him with Astrid's death, and had him survive a SWAT team and an explosion. We had to be privy to the icky Dar story, which was pointless. Then, we get a rushed "hero's" death where he goes out in a blaze of glory, and we're supposed to say "oh, he would have wanted it that way" and he couldn't live the way he was. Imagine if they had let him live. Imagine he goes back and gets rehab for a few years, and gets better--NOT miraculously healed, but better enough so that we see a new, interesting Quinn. Imagine he's working for veteran advocacy groups with Carrie on Capitol Hill. He hangs out with Franny and Carrie, and has a changed, but good life. Somewhere in there would be a conspiracy storyline where he gets to help Carrie and still be a badass. How interesting it would have been to see him compensate for his disabilities. That would be a true "wounded warrior" story that gives vets hope, and a pretty realistic one. People do come to almost full function after strokes and PTSD can be manageable. And people do come out of depressions with a little love and care. But no, Quinn was yet another sacrifice to shore up the insatiable ego of Carrie, in a repetitive storyline where her actions lead to the destruction of the man she loves. My problem is I'm not invested in Carrie. I don't care what happens to her anymore. And I have no interest in re-investing in a show that gives me so little reward.

I quit Homeland after Season 2. I got really sick of the Carrie/Brody melodrama, and as a person with bipolar disorder, I started to feel like the illness (and Claire's buggy-eyed acting) was being used as a gimmicky plot device, as realistic as her portrayal often was. Carrie's ending up in the psych ward getting ECT was straight out of the "The Snake Pit" and cheap melodrama. I cancelled my Showtime subscription, and I kinda forgot about the show for years. Only recently, my friend told me to catch up on it again. I said really, why? And she uttered one word: "Quinn. You have to watch for Quinn". So I got sucked back in and binge-watched season 3-5, and then the current season. Saul and Carrie still annoyed me, but I thought the show was much better than it had been, now that Brody was gone. And I got really invested in Quinn. So. My point. My biggest problem is not that they killed Quinn off, or that Carrie and Quinn had no resolution, despite them dangling that in front of us for 4 seasons. My biggest problem was this notion that Quinn had a "good death", that he died true to himself, as a "hero" and this is how he would have wanted to go out. The showrunners made this big deal of saying they wanted to tell the "wounded warrior" story, but they did the same damned thing they did with Carrie's bipolar--turned it into a melodramatic cliche. Someone on a forum said that the horrors of war needed to be shown, that this was an important story to be told. Well, so is the story of mental illness. But to me, Quinn's death was just as cheap and cliched as Carrie's "snake pit" storyline. Forget the fact that he died for the woman who caused his damage and never told him he was loved, even as a friend. Forget that he died for a president who, I guess, is now a bad guy. What bothers me the most is this idea that a soldier is only as good as his sacrifice, that once disabled, Quinn had no value as a human being. The imagery of "garbage" is really interesting: in Season 5 when he went away to die with the bullet wound (which Carrie caused by making him go back to the mail drop), he was trying to find a dumpster to die in. In the last episode, Carrie was unceremoniously throwing his clothes into trash bags. I get that Ganza wanted to make this big statement about vets being ignored by society and treated as disposable--and that might have been a valid story to tell. Except that he didn't just stop there-he piled abuse upon abuse onto Quinn--shot, beaten, gassed, SWAT-teamed, witness to his ex-lover's death, crazy and violent, possibly molested by Dar, and most cringeworthy of all, rejected by the woman he loved when he made a pass at her. It was Carrie in the Snake Pit all over again. It was all heavyhanded shock and awe and torture porn. And what is the message? That this person was so reduced to his former self, he had no right to love, a life, a family, recovery, less than a year since he came out of his coma? That as a soldier, he should be "happy" to die this way? That soldiers aren't people like us, they're just sacrificial canon fodder? If Ganza were trying to make a social statement about how we ignore and dispose of our wounded warriors, that's the statement he should have made. Instead of showing the waste of Quinn's death, he glorified it. He reduced him to nothing more than the cliched hero who goes out in a blaze of glory. And what I really can't stomach--all these fans who say that he deserved such an end, that his being a "hero" is worth it, and that it was his choice and that he's better off this way. Wow. Tell that to our troops abroad.

I have never entirely bought the notion that Carrie was in love with Brody, or more in love with him than with Quinn. If the writers hadn't sabotaged it, I believe she was well on her way to realizing that Quinn was The One. When have we ever seen Carrie as evolved or self-sacrificing as she was this season with Quinn? It wasn't all out of guilt. As a person with bipolar disorder (happy and stable on meds now), I remember the kind of relationships I used to get into when I was younger and crazier. I had a lot of Brody-style doomed romances where I risked all. It fulfilled my insatiably manic need for excitement and fantasy. Even if you're not having a manic episode, the illness hardwires you to feeling that the roller coaster is your comfort zone. And there is a YUGE element of obsessiveness involved, which you delude yourself is love but isn't. One of the things this show got right about BPD was when Carrie said to Quinn's proposal of a relationship, "But I'll just f*ck it up". That is a genuine fear with this illness. With Brody, she knew deep down they were doomed. That's why she could throw herself into it. If it's impossible to begin with, that absolves you of blame when it DOES go south. You can't be responsible for screwing up something that was destined to fail anyway. But to allow yourself a chance at a real love--that's far more terrifying. It requires a huge leap of faith and trust, not just of your partner, but of yourself. Brody never accepted her illness the way Quinn did. Hell, he used it against her! Was Carrie in love with Quinn? I think part of her was, but they never really had a chance or the time to explore it. I find it unrealistic that Carrie never ONCE told Quinn how she felt about him, that she valued him, and that he was loved, even as a friend. And unforgivable of the writers to not have given him that before he died. And not fer nothing, but who wouldn't be in LOVE with Quinn? He wasn't just a moderately attractive ginger with terrorist tendencies. He was a tall, dark, handsome, mysterious hero. The very first scene in "New Car Smell", he dripped ROMANTIC LEAD. He had just the right amount of darkness to keep him interesting, and just the right amount of heart to make you feel that he could have found a healthy love, given half the chance. That Carrie was never in love with him was the hardest thing to swallow about this whole show! But that's what you get when have men writing female parts.

I'd tune back in for Quinn ghost sex! That would really make the floorboards creak.

Ha! Good one. When Rupert said they had not decided FOR SURE whether to kill Quinn off until just before they shot the finale, that made me so angry. Yes, it was heavily foreshadowed, but there were also moments of hope. That's because they shot the scenes without knowing which way to go, so they tried to have it both ways. I write and direct commercials and videos. Even my measly projects get scripted WELL in advance of the shoot. You don't leave a decision that big for last minute. So what did Ganza do--flip a coin? That they shot almost the entire season not knowing Quinn's fate is why it was so inconsistent. That's why one minute, he was getting his mojo back and another, he was a howling monkey mess. I actually thought all the "let me go" stuff was so obvious and heavyhanded, that it was a red herring and he was going to part from Carrie in the finale alive. I am sick of being jerked around because these writers can't commit to a storyline, because they teased a romance for 5 seasons and never took it anywhere. In "R is for Romeo" Carrie ran into Quinn's arms, crying with relief he's still alive. It was a passionate, even romantic, moment that showed how much they needed each other. But when he actually dies, she doesn't even weep, or cradle him, or react the way a person would when losing their best friend who just FRICKIN' sacrificed his life for them. And to gratuitously kill off Astrid, and bring up this possible Dar sex thing--why? The only person who ever told Quinn he was loved was DAR, for godssakes? I would have accepted Quinn's death if just one small, human kindness had been granted him by the writers. All Carrie had to do was the simplest, most basic thing a person would do in real life--which is to tell her damaged friend that he was loved. I could think of many ways that Quinn could have had an empowering, interesting story about PTSD and recovery--a positive story for vets. Instead, we get the cliched war-hero death--a complete repeat of Brody--and him saving Carrie for the thousandth time. All so we can watch her tremble-chin over Quinn next season and be haunted by another death she caused in part. BAH. I'm done! All the Emmys to Rupert and I can't wait to see what he does next. But Homeland--you have exhausted my patience and my good will.

Claire Danes said the other day that Carrie has no "romantic" feelings toward Quinn. (She also says their love is "deep, real and lasting", so whatevs!) My friend says Carrie has only sisterly feelings toward Quinn, and that Carrie loves him, but isn't IN love with him. I think that's true this season. It's hard to be romantic when you're a caregiver, and it's emasculating to be the caregivee. Quinn does not feel he deserves love and is in no shape to accept it even if it were offered. But still. I think of what Carrie is like with the men she definitely feels platonic toward--say Saul or Max or someone like Otto. That's NOT the way she is with Quinn. Next to Franny, Quinn is the only person she loves unconditionally and protects no matter what. (Hell, she almost took a bullet for him when the SWAT team tried to take him down.) In this epi, when the bomb went off, he was her first thought up on coming too, and then she ran weeping with relief into his arms. That was, like, "Dr. Zhivago" level-romantic! It wasn't that long ago that she was kissing him passionately and wanting to be with him. When they were reunited in Season 5, her said she looked for him everywhere and thought of him all the time. She has heard his declaration of love in the deathbed letter (and what of that letter--are they going to never address that YUGE elephant in the room?) This is not a show where the writers pander to shippers or do traditional "happily ever after" scenarios, but THEY started it! From the very first moment when handsome, snarky Quinn appeared in "New Car Smell", we knew he was going to be Carrie's love interest. The writers could use the excuse of "realism", since in real life, couples don't always get closure. But if so, they are selectively "realistic". If they can bring Quinn very unrealistically back from the dead, they can give him a few happy moments with Carrie, dammit. In fact, it's LESS realistic to have them never acknowledge their feelings. We have endured watching this beloved character be shot, bleeding, tortured, poisoned and in a coma last season, only to be brought back to endure a living nightmare where he is crazy, lame, institutionalized, beaten by police, almost killed (again), and forced to watch his lover's death and endure the guilt of that. We also found out that he was possibly molested at 16 by Dar. and now he is being targeted by O'Keefe. I speak now as a writer (not a shipper), but at some point, there has to be a release valve for the audience. We have to feel some relief for Quinn. Wounded warrior "realism" or not, how bleak, pointless and depressing it would be to kill him off now. He's clearly getting better. His mind is sharper. His aphasia and limp aren't as pronounced, and frankly, he's looking hot as hell with those long (CLEAN) locks! Ganza says Carrie will be back at the CIA in Season 7 and probably overseas. We'll see Sunday night if Quinn survives, and if he doesn't, this could all be moot. But if he does, what do you think will happen with him? Do you think Carrie is in love with him, or are they going to dump that SL altogether and give her a new guy?

Sarin was used on Quinn and unfortunately, it's very real and extremely lethal. It has been used in Syrian attacks before, so that is probably what was used--or something like it. From the symptoms reported--seizures, foaming at the mouth etc.--it sounds like sarin.

When shows are so well done, it's easy to forget that every detail is deliberate and has to be created from a production standpoint. I produce and direct TV commercials, and even I forget! For that scene, the lighting had to be meticulously set up, so yes, it was planned. Even little things like Quinn's hair looking clean--a stylist has to do that. It is deliberately done to suggest he's getting his groove back. I notice that as his aphasia and limp aren't as pronounced and as he is clearly in control of his "Quinning" faculties, they are making him look hot again. In that scene, RF is seriously handsome--no longer the pathetic hobo he was. It's all done by design. My only worry with not one, but two, "let me go" scenes is that they are foreshadowing Quinn's death. He walks out into the light, leaving Carrie in the dark. Some people might interpret that as foreshadowing of his death. I don't think so though. It could just as easily mean that Carrie is still in the dark, whereas Quinn is always five steps ahead. I think as a death-foreshadowing, that's a little obvious for these writers. I think they WANT us to think that. I suspect Carrie will let him go in the season finale, and he walks away ALIVE to go heal himself. I hope, anyway. Quinn is why I watch the show.

This was beyond exploitative and offensive, and but I found it even more offensive that the show copped out (no pun intended!) and didn't address the real issue. The cases that have been controversial aren't because cops "accidentally" shot blacks. They are because cops make assumptions about blacks that they don't about whites. But this show didn't even do that. Romeo got shot because Rachel ran out and the cop accidentally shot him. And then it made it all about Rachel and White People's Problems. I have been on and off with this show--mostly--off, because it's became so relentlessly nasty and sadistic, I could no longer stomach it. I watched Season 1 because it was fun and I loved Adam. And I tuned into this epi because Freddie Stroma was going to be on. But now, this show has crossed the line from "edgy" into just sick, and I just can't anymore. I have no problem with dark stuff (hell, I LOVED "Hannibal"). And I love flawed, amoral characters. . But Rachel is not epic enough to be, say, a Walter White. She's not an anti-hero. She's just a little twat. It would be a different story if she had enough self-awareness to change and evolve, but she doesn't. She keeps repeating the same mistakes over and over, and the show keeps upping the ante in its mirthless, repetitive way. Who do they think is the audience for this unwatchable crap? Who would find this funny or entertaining? Sociopaths and sadists? So I, too, am done! Well, unless Adam shows up again because yeah, they do have chemistry and he's the only one who can knock sense into the twit Rachel.

No, you are not a crackpot! A lot of people feel the same way. I loved Season 1. It was funny, romantic, and the scenes between Raf and Jane were just magical. We began to see Jane evolving into an adult woman, exploring passion, sexuality, love, and heartbreak. The themes--Raf versus Michael, writing versus teaching, brave versus practical, heart versus head--all were very clearly delineated to reflect Jane's conflicted nature. Rafael and Jane had off-the-charts chemistry--which is what hooked me. At the end of Season 1, I was looking forward to her trials and tribulations with Raf, and their obstacles, and their both growing as people and parents. And Jane becoming her own woman. Michael always seems like a non-essential, secondary character. But then--Season 2, and Michael is now front and center. Raf tries to redeem himself but is shut down again and again--poor guy. Jane is no longer likeable. It's All About Her now. And the writers seem to think that her little dramas are interesting just by virtue of being hers. Grad school! Snore. The professor? Rando! Jane and Michael in a sugary, Disneyfied YA romance? Kill me now. Being a "'virgin" isn't just sexual. It means being a virgin in terms of experience, risk-taking, growing up. In choosing Michael, Jane decided to stay a virgin--even if she does has sex with him. If Michael lives, and I"m sure he will, there are all sorts of places they could take the storyline. But I won't care, because to me, they are fundamentally uninteresting as a couple. I will watch it for the other characters--but I think the show really needs to get some focus back. They need more Jane/Raf scenes, even if not as a romantic couple. Michael doesn't feel like a character all his own. He just feels like an extension of Jane. Raf, on the other hand, is a fully-formed, complex, flawed, character who sees Jane for who she really is. He calls her on her crap. They argue. The mediate. They negotiate. They laugh. That's what REAL, healthy couples do. Because they are different, they learn from each other. I don't see that happening with Michael.

I feel horrible for Bethenny. I doubt she's exaggerating for the cameras, because everything she's going through rings true. People think that because fibroids are benign, they are no big deal. But they can be serious, and it's major surgery. I had fibroids that were so bad, they wrapped around other organs. When I walked into the ER distended like I was 8 months pregnant, my BP was so low, it was life-threatening. I was put on the oncology ward, had to sign a living will and a DNR--and was rushed into surgery. Then there was the waiting to make sure the tissue wasn't malignant, which,thank god, it wasn't. My uterous was completely crowded with fibroids, they had wrapped around my ovaries, and they were affecting other organs, so I had to have a total hysterectomy. I had complications, so I was in the hospital for 12 days. I then had to go through a surgical menopause, and it took months to recover. Even when I recovered physically, it took a really long time to feel like myself again. I noticed Bethenny was really subdued on WWHL, which is how I was post-surgery. I wish her all the best in continuing her recovery.

I shrieked when I heard Tommy say at the end that he was going to buy a racehorse and get it trained. Foreshadowing May's return, perhaps? I too was glad that Grace didn't last. I don't know if it was the character or Annabelle's acting, but she just so myeh. I have to rewatch this season, because I didn't love it as much as I thought I would. It was relentlessly dark. Sam Neill added some humor and colorfulness to Campbell. He wasn't a black and white villain. But Paddy Consadine's priest was just depressingly evil. Of course, the season was brilliant, but what it added in dark brutality and tragic irony, it lost in heart, somehow. Maybe it could have used a little more humor? But how brilliant was Cillian? What an actor.

I know I'm late to the party--having just recently binge-watched this fabulous show. But my mind was officially blown today when I started reading on the internet that people thought that Tommy was planning to marry May--not Grace, as I automatically assumed. It never really occurred to me that it would be anyone BUT Grace for him, so my heart soared that it might be May. I don't want Tommy to be soft and stupid over shallow, manipulative Grace. May is SO much more interesting and his intellectual match (and Charlotte Riley is a much better actress). But I don't know. Charlotte gave birth to a child with Tom Hardy around the beginning of filming--so I'm not sure she'll be back for a big role. Tommy, who says that "the past is past" and he only lives for the "soldier's minute" may realize that Grace is the past, but May is the future. (I mean, really--Grace is soooo 1919.) I think at the "darby", he realized that the Grace ship had sailed, literally, and was heartfelt and emotional when he told May he'd come back and find her. Then Grace had to pop up annoyingly and pull him back in. When Grace told him she slept with him to prove she wasn't infertile-why in the world wasn't he furious? Why didn't he kick her manipulative ass to the curb? I would have expected him to go into a cold fury for her using him--but instead, he was sympathetic. Is Tommy that blind in love? Or is it more that he knows exactly who she is and is beyond caring? After their lovemaking, they seemed like two people who have been holding an idealized torch for each other and now realize they have to deal with reality. Yes, she is all he has thought about, and yes, she has been his great love--but they have both changed. And he clearly doesn't trust her--twice making jokes about how she is working undercover, and she slaps him ) bitch!) and says has never lied to her husband. He challenges her to tell her husband the truth about him. But later at the Derby, when she tells him she didn't lie and tell her husband the baby was his, Tommy doesn't seem all that thrilled. I also though it was telling that he didn't tell Grace about May. When she needily asked if he had someone, he said he had a racehorse, either because that's all May means to him, OR because he wants to keep May his little secret. He is a man who hedges his bets, after all. The writing is SO good in this show, so Tommy marrying Grace seems too obvious and soap operatic. This isn't "Dynasty" for godssakes. And if he does, I don't see them living happily ever after. Most likely, his lifestyle will endanger Grace and the baby, or she may be killed. Or, once he realizes how shallow and boring she really is, he'll look for love elsewhere, possibly with May. If he marries May, well--then he'll probably still be pining over Grace--and I REALLY don't want to see that either. Why would Tommy have made that pointed speech at the "darby" about how he will come back for May? He said win or lose (meaning live or die), he'd come back for her, and to remember that. It's true--he HAD thought Grace was sailing away--so he could change his mind. But still--that scene was so pointed. Other hints about May: they hold hands when they're walking together--very husband/wife. When he is in the car driving to May's, the song on the soundtrack is about "coming back home" as he pulls up to the mansion. During the goldfish scene when he dumps her, he seems genuinely in awe that May doesn't rumble into a quivering heap. She's strong and unpredictable. She is the one person who throws him off his game and is a challenge. If you watch that scene again, Cillian plays it as if he's truly seeing her for the first time. After he dumps her, she tells him he's free to go. She lets him off the hook. He starts to go, but then thinks better of it, and he slowly circles back to her--literally doing a 180. Why? If he's so in love with Grace, why come back to make inane comments about how "happy" the goldfish are? (Rather obviously in the symbolism department, there were THREE goldfish). Is he just hedging his bets, because he thinks Grace is leaving and he wants to leave things open with May? Then why break it off with her in the first place? She then says that she will win him, and cooly walks away--leaving his jaw on the floor. I think that scene was the moment when he realized his feelings for her are more complicated than he thought. It's also interesting that in her scene with Grace, she is wearing the vintage red dress that her mother wore when presented to Queen Victoria, reminding us that she is part of an outdated aristocracy, a woman who, like her dress, is a bit tattered and torn but a survivor. May has just gotten down in the mud with the horses, and is wearing red, the color of passion. Conversely, Grace is dressed in girly pink and comes across as wanting Tommy to rescue her. That she thinks she can just waltz back into Tommy's life and win him--I honestly hope he's not that dumb. She seems to be an annoyance, an interruption to Tommy. Granted, he's in the middle of his mission, but he wasn't that way with May. The first thing he wants is for Grace to pass the baby off as her husband's. When she tells him that the thing is she loves him--he softens and says "That is the thing". But he doesn't tell her he loves her. And he doesn't say "I'll come back for you" like he did May. He says he'll make a decision after the race, but gotta go--time to whack the Field Marshall! I think he loves Grace as an ideal from his past. But I don't think he trusts her. Remember all the cracks he made to her about being "unarmed" and "working undercover"? And is the baby even his? How long after they slept together did she realize she was pregnant? Days? A few weeks? That's awfully fast to know that you're pregnant. Either it's lazy writing to create a deus ex machina, or the baby isn't Tommy's. If she and her husband were "trying" to have a baby---they were probably having sex. They didn't have surrogates or IVF back then. So then we have the scene were Tommy is telling Campbell at the bar that Grace loves him. At first, you think it's because he's happy about it. But it could just be that he is just bragging about Grace to taunt Campbell. He doesn't say "She loves me and I love her--nyah nyah nyah!" But only that she loves him. He has used Grace to taunt Campbell before--when he called Campbell to say he was about to sleep with her. Would you do that to a woman you truly love? Maybe if you're Tommy Shelby. But May is absolutely right--business (or revenge) will always trump love with him. The most ambiguous piece of the puzzle is his declaration at his grave about how there's a woman that he loves. We are meant to believe that's Grace--which seems most plausible. We are meant to think that his being close to having "fucking all" means Grace and the baby. But what if it means May--and her influence? What if near death--he has an epiphany about what he really wants--not the woman of his past, bu the woman of his future? Remember May is the one he promised to come back to, not Grace. If he does marry Grace, I don't look forward to scenes with a baby and domestic bliss. And you know it will be short-lived. She and the baby will be endangered by his lifestyle. The old Grace I could see as a "mob wife", but the new Grace, who has had a taste of wealth and respectability with her NY husband? Not sure. I could totally see May packing a gun and being tough and Tommy's equal, though. So bottom line--I'm not sure whom he will marry. Maybe neither of them. As you can see, I've thought about it WAY TOO MUCH. I'm obsessed with this show! The only thing I AM sure of is that Cillian is an AMAZING actor and the most beautiful man I have ever seen.