The Couch Potato: Winter finale report

Before all the midseason TV starts up this week, I figured it was time to weigh in on a few winter finales. First up has to be the season’s buzziest new show, “Homeland.”

I was on the edge of my seat for pretty much every moment of that finale, which— spoiler alert! —  did a great job reveal some of Brody’s true motives while also finding a way to keep him around next season.

Before I get into more specifics, here’s a quick recap: After wondering if Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) had turned during his time as a POW for a few episodes of the Showtime series, it quickly became clear that he was, in fact, working with terrorist Abu Nazir, like CIA analyst Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) had suspected all along.

But Brody hadn’t turned into an America-hating zealot. It all traced back to his time as a POW: Nazir had tasked him with teaching his young son, Issa, to speak English; the two became very close, until a U.S. drone attack killed Issa and 70 other children.

A few days later, Nazir showed him footage of the now-vice president denying that the attacks ever occurred.

So, all along, Brody was out for the blood of the VP, who ordered the attacks even though he knew children were in the area, and his top advisors.

Through a series of not-so-believable circumstances (I just went with it instead of giving in to my skepti-cism), Brody found himself inside a safe room with all of his targets. While wearing a bomb vest that Nazir sent to him.

And he was all set to pull the trigger, but it kept malfunctioning. He even went into the bathroom, fixed it and came back out to try again, when his daughter reached him by cell phone and talked him down without even realizing it.

In the midst of all this, Carrie had a major breakdown, revealing her bipolar disorder to mentor Saul (Mandy Patinkin) and boss David, which led to walking papers from the agency as she continued to unravel.

Is it bad that I kinda wanted Brody to go through with his plan, only to clear poor Carrie’s name? After hating her for most of the season, I felt so, so bad for her during the finale. She ran around like the crazy woman that she is, but saved everyone. And nobody, including herself, even knew it. How tragic.

The episode ended with her agreeing to electroshock therapy to treat her bipolar disorder. But, in the closing moments, she had another revelation and realized there was a connection between Brody and Issa.

So will she remember next season? Probably so, and I can’t wait to see how the writers get there.

Here’s what else I was excited and enraged about before the holiday:

“Dexter”
This one can be summed up pretty quickly. Deb catching Dexter in the act of killing this season’s big bad: Good.

Deb suddenly realizing she doesn’t just love Dex, but she’s in love with him: Bad. Very, very bad. The series didn’t need to go there. Ever.

“Survivor”
I just knew Ozzy was going to choke in that final immunity challenge, yet I still rooted for him to beat Coach, Albert and Sophie. But, alas, it wasn’t meant to be.
Before the episode began, I swore up and down that I’d turn the TV off if Ozzy went out early. But I had to see how it all shook out, and I’m glad Sophie won.
Albert was a cocky jerk who managed to not even garner one vote (ha!), and Coach had annoyed me to no end with all his talk about honor and integrity — two things that have no place in this game — as he stabbed most of his tribe mates in the back.

Random thoughts
Will Stefan, Damon, Elena and company ever truly defeat Klaus on The Vampire Diaries? I’m not sure, but I sure enjoy watching them try. What a great, charismatic villain. … I’m so glad Ben and Leslie re-united on Parks and Recreation, and that her friends and coworkers decided to mount her city council campaign themselves (Ron’s “Every other damn thing you might need” even got me a little choked up). … Community’s “Glee” spoof was one of the funniest episodes this season; I especially loved Troy and Abed’s rap. … I’m really interested to see what Wendy Scott-Carr’s real motive is when The Good Wife returns. Is she really after Peter, like she says, or is she just toying with Will?