Homeland‘s season 3 finale titled “The Star” was another big finish for the CIA drama. Our recap breaks down the events of the episode.

The episode picked up right where we left off last week. Brody drags General Akbari’s body behind the desk, then mops up the blood with the pillow he killed him with. Carrie makes her way out of the hotel through a kitchen so she’s unnoticed.

Brody leaves the building and is incredibly nervous. He moves at a quick pace so he can leave before they notice the General is dead. Moments later, Akbari’s secretary finds the body and alerts others. As Brody is passing through the gate, people run out of the building, but Brody holds a gun to his driver’s head and tells him to keep driving.

Meanwhile, Carrie calls Saul and tells him that it’s done. Saul is hesitant to believe it, however, and asks Dar Adal to call Javadi, who could confirm the death.

But now, a new problem: Javadi has been tasked with tracking down Brody, and he tells Saul that he needs to know where he and Carrie are heading so that he can capture him. Otherwise, he’ll look weak and won’t be able to ascend to power, which has been the plan all along. Saul then speaks one on one with Dar Adal, who reminds him it’s his last official day as CIA Director, so he needs to take his “foot off the gas.”

Saul refuses, however, and orders the extraction plan because he wants to go through with his promise to Brody and Carrie. At the safe house, the two lovers have a talk about a wide range of topics, including their future. Asked what he wants to do now, Brody doesn’t know because he hasn’t thought this far. He talks about getting his redemption, but wonders how he can when he had to redeem himself by killing someone.

Then Carrie drops the bomb. She’s pregnant. Four months in. And confirms it was from the time at the lake. She believes she was put on this earth for their paths to cross and admits it’s crazy. Apparently happy with this little speech and revelation, Brody says that he doesn’t think it’s crazy and thinks “it’s the only sane fucking thing left to hold on to.”

While Brody is sleeping, helicopters arrive. The two come outside to meet what they assume are members of the extraction team, but it’s Javadi’s men who are outside. They take only Brody.

Carrie calls Saul to tell him about the development, and he immediately meets with Dar Adal and Lockhart to find out who revealed Carrie and Brody’s location to Javadi. It was Lockhart, who is now the CIA Director as ordered by the president of the United States. They argue that for the protection of Saul’s legacy and Javadi’s rise to power, Brody had to be captured. “I honestly don’t know what the fuck we’re doing anymore,” Saul says.

The next day Carrie is back in her hotel room packing up when she’s grabbed by Javadi’s people. He informs her that Brody has been sentenced to death because he’s an enemy of the state. He insists it’s out of his hands, and a public execution is scheduled for the middle of the night. “The plan is a success. You and Brody pulled it off,” he reminds her. “But not if he dies,” Carrie replies. “More so if he dies,” Javadi counters, “I ask myself over and over… why? Why would anyone do that to themselves? Why would you? And I think I know now. It was always about [Brody]. That’s what you care about.” Carrie asks for a phone call with her man, which he grants.

On the phone with him, Carrie insists Saul can still fix it, but Brody knows it’s over. “I want it to be over,” he tells her. Brody asks her to not come to his hanging, but she insists that she will. She calls Saul and begs for help, but he knows it’s over, too.

At the hanging, Abu Nazir’s wife Nassrin spits on his face and puts the noose around his neck. Carrie watches from the fence where many have gathered to witness the hanging. A crane lifts up the rope. Carrie climbs the fence and yells at him. A guard knocks her down.

Brody dies.

Continue to page 2 of our recap…

We time jump four months into the future where Saul is in a seaside town and enjoying a well-earned, extended vacation with Mira. Over breakfast, Mira reads a news report revealing that “Iranian diplomats have offered International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors full and unfettered access to the regime’s nuclear sites in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.”

“Saul. This is you,” she tells him. “You did this. It’s unbelievable. It’s your whole life. It’s your crowning achievement.”

Saul laughs. “It only cost me my career.” He tells her that he’s going back to America for the commemorative ceremony to honor those who have died.

Pregnant Carrie meets with CIA Director Lockhart, and they talk about the news Mira just discussed with Saul. Lockhart is impressed with Saul’s master plan and has a new job for Carrie: She’s offered a job in Istanbul to run Javadi. She’ll be the station chief and the youngest in the agency.

On her way out the door, she asks that Brody be one of the people who receives a commemorative star. Lockhart disagrees that he be honored, and it’s the final word on the topic.

Saul and Dar Adal meet at a coffee shop, and the latter congratulates Saul on the Iran news. Dar Adal thinks Saul is missing the CIA, but he insists he’s not.

At home, Carrie is visited by her sister and father. She reveals that she wants to put the baby up for adoption because she can’t feel love and won’t be a good parent. Carrie is scared and positive that she won’t be able to do it. Her father says she cannot leave the baby like her own mother did to her, and Carrie’s father offers to take her. In a heartbreaking moment, Carrie admits she’s still incredibly sad about Brody.

At the commemorative ceremony, Lockhart is reading each of the names of those who served and died. Afterward, Saul and Carrie talk for the first time in months and say goodbye to one another. Saul is heading to New York, apparently for good.

Later that night Carrie is leaving the CIA and draws her own star for Brody on the wall where the others were memorialized earlier in the day. The episode ends.

‘Homeland’ finale analysis

Tonight’s Homeland season finale is one of the biggest and best episodes of the season for obvious reasons.

Brody’s death was inevitable. You may remember that showrunners have publicly acknowledged that he had to die at some point. There were several memorable scenes, but the two that stood out most to us was Carrie and Brody’s final peaceful discussion in the safe house and the goodbye between Carrie and Saul at the CIA. She lost her two men.

The big questions:

– Will Saul ultimately return to the CIA? There seemed to be a hint of that happening when Dar Adal asked him if he would ever come back. Saul acted like he wouldn’t, but Dar Adal was on to him.

– Will Carrie remain in Istanbul for the season? And what will she do with the baby? Having her over there with a new terrorist to fight would be a big reboot for the show.

Homeland season 4 will premiere in late 2014.