Like so many, my heart broke. I sobbed so hard and so long on my couch that night that I gave myself I headache.
The moment that SUV exited the parking garage, my heart sank. I just knew this was the mission that Quinn wouldn’t survive. It was probably the way he spoke to Carrie in their final moments together. His pained pleas of “Do what I say,” and “Stay down.” These were not commands of a special ops solider in charge of the mission. These were the resolved pleas of a man who knew he wasn’t coming out alive. He knew. And Carrie knew. And yet I still found myself chanting, “No, no, no, no…” as the scene unfolded.
And when it came down to it - it was painfully sad because Quinn was so sad. At that point Quinn had given in to it all. Our man of steel, our Quinn was gone by the finale. Sure we saw small glimpses of him throughout the season, glimpses that gave us hope. But the showrunnes fucked us. Fucked Quinn.
In my opionion, They’ve been killing him slowly for two seasons now. When the season 5 finale aired last year, I sobbed just as hard as I did this past Sunday. At the time, I said my sadness was for both Quinn’s comatose state, which left his story in limbo and unresolved, and for the writers’ failure to deliver a plausible story for this amazing character. The once brilliant writing team was failing this show. I still believe this to be true.
Just as the show runners killed Homeland by keeping Brody alive for too long, they killed Homeland by ruining Quinn. They had an opportunity to make Quinn a strong, co-lead with Carrie and Saul back in season 4 but instead continued to push Quinn in the background, until season 5 when they beat up Quinn so ruthlessly his story became unbelievable.
I am bitter because I have always felt Gansa and his writers did not take advantage of Rupert Friend. Rupes created a character beyond what they hired him for and he did that with his talent. He turned his few, simple lines on a script into quiet, meaningful, powerful moments between two characters. He electrified the screen the moment he stepped onto it. Rupert MADE Quinn and he made us fall in love with Quinn.
And I am bitter because the showrunners did not rightfully honor Quinn in the end. I understand the idea that Quinn wouldn’t want a memorial or star on the wall, but they needed to give us, the fans, and Quinn more. You want to kill him off? Fine. But killing him off and then not honoring his character better? You just dismissed five seasons of an aamzing character and alienated half the Homeland fanbase. And fuck, Rupert deserved a better end! He was instrumental in saving this show back in season 2, and in my opinion, kept a large majority of its fans tuned-in these last few seasons.
At this point, all I can hope for is continued success and happiness for Rupert Friend.
As for Homeland -it’s too soon to tell if I can stomach watching it another season.
