Here are HD screencaps from the Homeland Season 1 finale, “Marine One”:

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Television > Homeland (2011) > Screencaps > 1×12 Marine One

There are two short articles on Homeland in EW’s current Best and Worst of 2011 issue. Thanks to Josh Bowman Fan.com for the scans!

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NewsStand > Entertainment Weekly (23 December 2011)

A sampling of the gazillion recaps and reviews of Homeland episode 12 “Marine One” that were posted around the web:

HitFix.com – Season finale review: ‘Homeland’ – ‘Marine One’: Wait til your father gets home

NYTimes – Private Torment Trumps Terrorism

CliqueClack TV – Homeland – Patriot or terrorist?

HuffPost – ‘Homeland’ Recap, Season 1 Finale: Brody’s Big Wardrobe Malfunction

TV Fanatic – Homeland Review: Bomb In A Bunker

Salon.com – Should “Homeland” have quit while it was ahead?

Time.com – Homeland Watch: Playing It Close to the Vest

latimes.com – `Homeland’ finale: A critical salute

Cinema Blend – Homeland Season Finale Watch: Marine One

Blast – “Homeland” — Marine One episode review

Hollywood Prospectus – Homeland: Drama of the Year

Slate – The Riveting Season Finale of Homeland

nymag.com – Homeland Finale Recap: The Trigger Effect

Washingtonian – WashingTelevision: Homeland Recap, Season Finale, “Marine One”

Screen Rant – ‘Homeland’ Season 1 Finale Review

EW.com – ‘Homeland’ season finale review: Radical solutions

Daemon’s TV – Homeland “Marine One” Review

Newsday – Showtime’s ‘Homeland:’ The end, for now

The A.V. Club – “Marine One”, A

IGN – Homeland: “Marine One” Review

WSJ.com – ‘Homeland’ Season 1, Episode 12, ‘Marine One,’ Season Finale: TV Recap

TV.com – Homeland: A War With No Winners

The following interviews have loads of spoilers for the finale!

Did you have this particular ending in mind from the beginning or was it something that organically came about as you were writing?

Alex Gansa: We had plotted out the course of the season in a general way early on after we’d written the pilot, but various elements came into play and we changed things. We knew, for example, that Brody was going to carry out some kind of an attack against the people responsible for Isa’s death. But we didn’t know how he was going to do it. We didn’t know, for example, that he was going to put on a suicide vest. We thought there may be another way to do it. So we had the general ideas, but we didn’t have the specifics nailed down until probably three-quarters of the way through our writing process.

Howard Gordon: We definitely tried a million things on for size, and at the end of the day, what was interesting is the target [i.e., the vice president] wound up being connected to Brody’s backstory, to his captivity. That wound up kind of defining the targets.

I thought that the finale was really good, but my issue is this: The “Homeland” I loved in Season One, it can’t be that show in Season Two because you’ve really taken these characters to some places that kind of can’t be undone.

AG: Yeah, but I think there’s more meat on the bone. You absolutely have to evolve the characters from this place, but we think there’s still a lot of story to be told. But you’re right; it’s not a reset. I mean, the premise of “Is he or isn’t he?” is something that you probably don’t want to go to [in future]. Also, he’s declared to Abu Nazir this idea that he’s going to get close to the next president of the United States. And it’s still an open question about whether he could influence policy or whether he’ll go through with it or [whether] Abu Nazir can put the screws on him in a different way. We still have some real estate to cover.

I think the big questions — Was he turned in captivity? Is Carrie reliable or unreliable? — are questions that we’ve resolved at some level. But interestingly enough, I don’t think the characters themselves have resolved those issues. So we’ve got some more runway to play with, I think.

Also, people have been saying after every episode, , if you read the blogs, they’re saying, “Well, what can they do now? The show can’t go forward from this, can it?” And if you stick around and really delve into the characters and figure out where they would naturally go from here, [the show can move forward].

Speaking of all that, the place that you took Carrie, I thought, was absolutely credible; but it felt so tragic that she doesn’t know that she prevented a terrorist attack on American soil. Given what’s happened, how could she credibly be part of the intelligence community and/or someone who interacts with Brody next season?

HG: Obviously everything is subject to change — but we have what we think is a really good way to get her back in the saddle. And if you look at our models, if you look at Graham Greene and you look at John Le Carre. I mean, for example, George Smiley was …

AG: Exiled.

HG: He’s constantly discredited and excommunicated from the Circus [i.e. the British espionage establishment], and then brought back into the fold, as was Jack Bauer on “24.” You know, there are many ways to get her back into the intelligence community, whether it’s in an official or unofficial capacity.

And don’t forget, we can start next season anywhere we want. We could pick it up right after this season or we could pick it up a year later or two years later. You have a tremendous amount of freedom and liberty in the storytelling on a series like this. So we have a lot of possibilities to explore for next season.

Read the full interview at the HuffPost.

More interviews with the producers:

Speaking to Damian Lewis on the telephone is disconcerting -– and not because Lewis, in his role as troubled maybe-terrorist Sgt. Nicholas Brody, appears likely to blow himself to bits on Sunday’s Homeland season finale. The red headed actor has an All-American bearing on television but in reality is an eloquent Englishman with a plummy accent more suited to Boodles & Tonics than boot camp. Lewis had so much to say about his complicated character than he barely required any questions before pontificating on the psychology of suicide bombers, what Brody is really thinking and how he and Claire Danes are like two broken birds.

How were you initially approached about taking the role of Nicholas Brody?
It all started at almost precisely this time last year when I was filming in freezing cold and smelly Manchester. I got a call from my agent saying Alex Gansa and Howie Gordon want to offer you a role in this show they’re doing. I’m going to send you the script. I read it and I couldn’t believe it. Here we are a year later.

How much of Brody’s true intentions were revealed to you at the beginning?
I was given a pretty good understanding of the themes of the show and what they were trying to present ot the world. We all agreed it was not going to be this muscular response to the terrorist threat, not goodies fighting baddies on the streets of New York. It was going to be far more reflective and a little more pensive. Ten years after 9/11 there seems to be more uncertainty, more rogue elements that have cropped up all over the world.

Was that lack of black and white thinking what attracted you to the role?
I was just keen that if I was going to be playing him then you would have to believe me when I convert to Islam. I thought that would be the most interesting and most impressive detail: that, in a time of need, I had actually chosen to be a Muslim. We did discuss the immediate assumptions about that, “Oh my god, this guy wants to blow us up. Why else would a marine have converted?” It seemed like too extreme of a choice for people to understand without there being some violent ulterior motive.

Despite everyone in the country calling Brody a hero it seems quite clear that he’s anything but. As the season has progressed he seems more and more like a damaged guy who, more than anything else, is desperate for a mission. Any mission.
Yeah, I think that’s shrewd. Alex and Howard purposely played around with our preconceptions of how the good guys should be and how the bad guys should be. Claire’s character intuitively suspects something –- she may turn out to be right but only has a hunch to go on and no substantial elements. She may be brilliant but she’s not an inherently likable character because she’s obsessive and at times selfish. And Brody is actively considering perpetrating an atrocity against the United States yet at times we feel sympathy for him and how he attempts to reconnect with his family and deal with post-traumatic stress disorder. He’s conflicted and damaged by real life experiences.

There was some talk about similarities with the Manchurian Candidate when the show first came out but I think there’s a key distinction here: Brody hasn’t been brainwashed by some sinister group. It’s reasonable to argue that Abu Nazir has failed to radicalize Brody and that, as you saw in episode nine, any reason he might have to act are personal. It’s a fine line the show has trotted the whole way through.

Read the full interview at Hollywood Prospectus Blog