‘Homeland’ Star Confirms THAT Character Is Really Dead This Time

Homeland came to a quieter close than usual this year (kind of hard to top the real-life political circus), but with it, the Showtime drama seemingly said goodbye to one of its own … again. This time around, said star at least confirms the character gave their life, and reflects on the big shakeup in Season 6.

You’re warned of full spoilers for Homeland Season 6 from here on out, but no amount of ambiguous offscreen memorial is going to save Rupert Friend’s Peter Quinn this year. Having gotten a slight reprieve from last year’s chemical-weapon induced coma, the character was shot to death in Season 6’s climactic set piece; driving Carrie and President-Elect Keane (Elizabeth Marvel) through a police barricade to flee an assassination attempt.

The moment’s aftermath saw Carrie assuring Keane that Quinn had died, though some fans naturally clung to hope that the offscreen memorial could provide cover for reviving the character later. Not so, as Friend tells Entertainment Weekly:

Yes! The nine lives have expired … The phrase “for sure” and this show are not really ever used. It’s so rarely the case that you know anything for sure. I’m sure, you know, I had a “for sure” ending last season which was then rescinded. This, I’m told, is for sure — unless he’s coming back as a ghost, hallucination, or zombie.

Friend also spoke to TVLine about the decision to bring Quinn back another year, where Season 5’s finale seemed poised to kill him off:

Had he died at the end of Season 5, then we wouldn’t have gotten to explore this fascinating and relevant moment where we not only took a character we all thought we knew and flipped him on his head, but we also were able to explore the reality of a modern veteran’s life in whatever society he or she returns to. We were also able to [feature] a leading character with severe mental and psychological difficulties and I’m not sure that’s something we’ve seen before.

The closing scenes of Season 6 confirm Homeland Season 7 is already off and running (with Season 8 likely to be the last), but did Season 6 give Quinn a proper send-off, compared with last year?

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