Homeland is one of the grittiest political drama/action thrillers we’ve seen on TV in recent times. While there are debates about the show’s quality after Season 2, you can’t take away from the performances of all the central cast, especially Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison.
Carrie Mathison is depicted as a truly flawed character with numerous issues besides her bipolar disorder, and her arc throughout the show has been a roller-coaster ride. In fact, one of the most recurring storylines in the show is her leaving and returning to the CIA.
Here’s a list of every time she’s left the CIA in some capacity and then returned. Let’s jump in.
Carrie leaves the CIA at the end of Season 1, Season 4, Season 5, and Season 6. While there are multiple reasons, she does return to the CIA in Season 2, in Season 5 (unofficially), and in Season 7.
Does Carrie return to the CIA in Homeland Season 2?
Carrie returns to the CIA in Homeland Season 2 after Saul insists on her acquiring intel from an old source.
At the end of Season 1, Carrie has to undergo electroconvulsive therapy to treat her bipolar disorder. It was long overdue, considering she would be a liability to the CIA even in the future. Her hiding this from everyone didn’t help her case either.
We see her go for therapy at the end of Season 1 and the beginning of Season 2; she’s still in the aftermath of her treatment and is still getting used to not being part of the CIA. However, her connection with Brody is still an itch she’s trying not to scratch.
In Season 2, when the issues between Iran and Israel rise, Saul persuades his prodigy to get some intel, but that’s just the beginning. In the end, she inevitably becomes a part of the mission, marking her return to the CIA.
Does Carrie return to the CIA in Homeland Season 5?
Carrie doesn’t return to the CIA in Homeland Season 5. However, she does get caught up in a mess around the agency’s next mission and ends up working as an agent to find out who ordered the hit on her and also how she is related to the larger picture.
Season 4 delved into a much darker side of Saul. The entire fiasco of Dar, Saul, and Haqqani had left Carrie wondering why Saul took the deal and what his motives were. While Quinn was already asking her to leave the CIA and lead a normal life, she declined. According to her, her bipolar condition would get in the way of her life.
However, when she finds out about Saul and Dar, we see her driving away, presumably to leave all that mess behind.
Season 5 continues two years later, and Carrie is not part of the CIA anymore. This time she has decided to quit and, at the beginning of the season, is seen working with the Düring Foundation in Berlin as a security consultant.
But she’s once again dragged into the world of politics, terrorists, and bureaucracy when caught in an attack on the head of the foundation. Later, she realizes that the attack was on her and thus begins yet another season of Homeland. Although she doesn’t join the CIA, she’s very much entangled in the events surrounding the agency.
Does Carrie return to the CIA in Homeland Season 6?
Carrie at first works as an informal advisor to President-Elect Elizabeth Keane and later becomes the official personnel who would interact with the Intelligence Community on behalf of the President. So, technically, she isn’t part of the CIA at this point.
This season picks up three months after the events of Season 5, and Carrie has still not returned to the CIA. Now, she’s part of a non-profit organization in New York City that defends the civil rights of American Muslims. She is also taking care of Quinn, who got addicted to drugs after recovering from a brain hemorrhage.
As always, some case brings together Carrie, Saul, and a few others, and Carrie cannot resist pursuing them. Her innate need to have answers has always gotten the best of her, and this time around, it was no different.
Does Carrie return to the CIA in Homeland Season 7?
Carrie is part of the CIA in Season 7 as she now lives with her daughter Frannie and her boyfriend. She is doing covert work for the agency and is trying to free innocent federal agents who’ve been incarcerated.
At the end of Season 6, she is officially a part of the White House and works closely with Keane. She aids her in interactions with the intelligence community. However, an assassination attempt on her leads to Keane imprisoning numerous federal government agents despite them being innocent.
So, Season 7 picks up from here. However, this time, Carrie has a lot to lose. Her daughter Frannie, who’s now a recurring character on the show, takes a lot of her attention. As fate would have it, she takes on the mantle of an agent once again and sees the mission through the cost of everything she has going in her life.
Read More: Does Nicholas Brody ever get caught in Homeland?
Homeland Season 8 was the final one. So, all in all, Carrie returned to the CIA on multiple occasions throughout the eight seasons of the show.
About Homeland
Homeland is an American political-spy thriller created by Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa based on an older Israeli series, named Prisoners of War. It was produced by Fox 21 Television Studios and first aired in 2011. Homeland ended in 2020 with its eighth and final season.
The show follows the story of an insightful CIA operations officer, Carrie Mathison, who is reassigned to CIA’s Counterterrorism Center in Langley, Virginia after running an unauthorized operation in Iraq.
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