'Homeland' review: Final season off to a fine start

WHAT IT'S ABOUT Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) has been released from a Russian prison, but she's completely forgotten 180 days of her captivity. Was she turned? National Security Advisor Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin) needs her anyway, to force Afghani military strongman Gen. Abdul Qadir G'ulom (Mohammad Bakri), to guarantee the release of 1,000 Taliban prisoners. With "peace" achieved, U.S. forces can finally leave. This 8th and final season airs over 12 episodes.

MY SAY "Homeland" launched on the 10th anniversary of the so-called War on Terror, and ends just short of the 20th. The symmetry might be coincidental but it does hint at the series' broader themes relating to geopolitics, American might, diplomacy, Realpolitik and the evolving U.S. policy toward the Middle East.

In plain old English: Just how screwed up it's all been. Also: What goes around comes around, or yesterday's "ally" is tomorrow's "enemy." Or the good guys are the bad guys or the bad guys are the good guys. Who really knows which?

 The circles go around and around, and where they stop … well, who really knows that either. Carrie? Saul? They're just the proxies for the policy-order-of-the-day, the water carriers. Saul is U.S. Realpolitik writ large, and Carrie has learned from the best. Their stand on truth and justice, once proximal, has drifted far from the center. They don't exactly know where they stand now either, but they do know it's hot, dry, and just as dangerous as when they first started. 

If this sounds like a cynical read on the final season, don't blame the messenger: It's just "Homeland" being "Homeland," which has always insisted that questions beget more questions, and that answers are for suckers, or fools. At its best, "Homeland '' was a shrewd realist, and a Cassandra: This war may not end well or — worse — may never end, but don't for a minute think the perfect solution is just around the corner. The tragic lessons of history say otherwise.

By the start of the 8th, Carrie has essentially become Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis). After brutal captivity, her brain is fried and — also like Brody — she is possibly a sleeper-cell-waiting-to-explode. After 8 seasons, we appear to have come full circle there, too.

 Meanwhile, Saul's old frenemy from season 4, Haissam Haqqani (Numan Acar), is also back in crazytown. As leader of the Taliban, he may want peace, but probably not. The ruling factions in Kabul — American-supported — are cesspools of corruption. All he needs to do is blow hard, and they'll come tumbling down. Or just wait, and once the Americans leave, he can party like it's 1999 again.

"Homeland" ends as it began, with eyes wide open. Meanwhile, the series finale, airing in ate April, just might be a tragic one. How could it be otherwise? 

 BOTTOM LINE Fine, sharp opener to what already feels like a tragic climax.