‘Homecoming’ Recap: ‘Work’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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It’s funny how sometimes, our desire to know everything about a particular story, blinds us to the fact that once in a while we manage to come across just about everything we need to know in said story. It’s rare when this happens of course, but once in a while it does, and a story tips most of its hand early, well before the ending and well, this is something that dawned upon me shortly after I finished the next episode of Homecoming, ‘Work’. Because shortly after this tale came to a close, it sunk in that the prior episode, ‘Protocol’, more or less answered all the questions that have been burning on my mind, and that at this point, and here on out I suppose, it’s about resolving the storylines for the characters in logical fashion and for proof, look no further than Thomas Carrasco’s story in this episode.
 
After all, this is a man who has been searching for the truth since we met him in the pilot episode, and now that he finally had time to speak with Heidi and take her statement about the Homecoming incident, that truth was finally in hand and he could explain to his boss why he went a touch rogue to get it and at the same time, inform her that he was going to escalate the complaint to the next level, an act that brought Thomas great satisfaction to say the least and well, it was just wonderful to see Thomas enjoy a sense of vindication at last after being ignored and pushed around for the entire run of the series and I also appreciated the implication that this might be Thomas’ last case for the Department of Defense and that he was potentially ready to move on to something more in life, something he honestly deserves.
 
But, this grand exploration of what comes next for the characters didn’t end with Thomas’ story, for this tale also saw Colin return home from his wild trip to Tampa, and for the first time ever, we saw Colin as a man, one filed with remorse who wanted to atone for sins…if only for a moment. Because a little pressing from his wife, prompted him to bury his concerns and his emotions and well, his penance in this tale was far smoother than Heidi’s, since she returned to work and her daily life, with guilt weighing heavy on her mind over everything she’s done, and she spent a fair amount of time reflecting upon her life and her decisions up to this point and her frustration with said decisions didn’t come to a head until a customer died in her restaurant, seemingly reminding her that life is far too short to spend it wallowing in regret.
 
Yet, while it isn’t exactly clear where Heidi goes from here, her ruminations were beneficial for the audience after all since there is in fact, one last thing to explore in this particular story as a whole; exactly what the hell happened at Homecoming on May 15, 2018. For the series has implied for some time now, that something terrible happened on this day and well, this episode gave us the beginning of the details of what happened on said fateful day and wouldn’t you know it? It wasn’t what any of us expected. There was no violence, no breakdown on Walter’s part. Just the reveal that he was going to back to the field to fight, something Heidi wasn’t good with and in a stunning move, she had lunch with Walter in the cafeteria, where the two of them sat down and enjoyed a meal that was laced with a heavy Week 6 dosage and that’s where we leave this tale, with everyone worried about the fact that Heidi was consuming something so powerful…
 
Which of course, now explains the memory loss that Heidi suffered when we first met her in this tale, and this twist sets the stage to finally answer the last of our questions when it comes 5/15/18. But all of that aside, kudos to the series for abandoning the mysterious air that has hung over everything in order to give us a story where plot lines begin to wrap up in logical and satisfying fashion and well, I’m now quite curious to see how this saga comes to its end. For with answers in hand, and just a little more to explore on that fateful day, there’s not much story left to tell, unless of course, the show plans to move beyond the events of Homecoming. But really, there’s only one way to find out, so, the time has come at last to finally see how this story ends, so if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to hit play next episode, one last time…

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