‘Homeland’ season finale: The 3 most idiotic elements

Unfortunately, last night’s conclusion was especially idiotic. Here’s the worst of it.

1. Delta Force are traitors

We learn that the mastermind of this season’s conspiracy is…the commanding general of Joint Special Operations Command. Having already orchestrated a terrorist attack in New York City, assassinated an FBI agent (and a German intelligence officer), General JSOC orders two Delta Force operators to assassinate President-elect Elizabeth Keane.

But after executing the Secret Service agent in charge of Keane’s detail, the Delta operators get lost in her office building.

This is idiotic for two reasons. First, Delta operators are experts at long-range patrolling: They don’t tend to get lost. Second, they are avowed patriots. According to a 2011 report, 50 percent of Delta operators have won Purple Hearts. That speaks to the unit’s high WIA/KIA rates in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. I asked a former Delta senior officer, Jim Reese, what he made of this storyline. He responded:

“The average Delta operator is areligious, apolitical and truly bleeds red, white, and blue. He doesn’t care who’s in charge. We are given a mission by the National Command Authority (President), we carry it out, then we drink a beer and go home to our families. We have great relationships with the Secret Service, FBI and Diplomatic Security. We just want a mission to execute in conformity with our charter.”

I also asked Reese how a Delta operator would respond if asked to assassinate a United States leader. Again, his response was colorful: “I would say hey, [insert colorful adjective], and go tell the FBI.” Ironically, Delta operators are sometimes asked this question during selection testing. If they say something along the lines of “I would do it”, they are assessed as psychologically unfit for the unit.

I get that “deep state” machinations were the focus of this season’s storyline. But the writers had alternatives. Iranian super spy, Javani, could have reappeared as the assassin? Or the assassins could have been mercenaries? Brody might have been brought back from the dead? Or Keane could have been attacked by crocodile-riding aliens on meth.

2. The Secret Service is useless

The U.S. Secret Service is the finest protective force in the world. It embraces overlapping security protocols to shield its protectees from harm.

Its portrayal last night was a joke.

First off, Keane’s motorcade consists of about three Suburbans and 10 agents. Both those numbers would be tripled in real life (I guess extras are expensive in New York City?).

Second, when the assassination attempt occurs, Keane’s head of detail is the only agent left standing. But what does he do? Instead of calling for backup he takes Keane and Carrie back into Keane’s office. He doesn’t even draw his firearm. Then he stands in the middle of a large open lobby and waits to be tricked by the Delta traitors.

What would actually happen? Well, whenever an attack (what the Secret Service calls an AOP: attack on the principal) occurs, the Secret Service will “harden up” around a protectee. Agents are trained to view one attack as a possible distraction for a secondary attack. To see this in action, watch what happened last May when protesters rushed at Bernie Sanders. The agents crowded around Sanders.

Correspondingly, were “Homeland” at all realistic, the moment the motorcade was attacked, the Secret Service’s counter-assault team would lock down all access routes and Keane would be rushed to a safe room until an evacuation route could be hardened for her evacuation. Keane’s head of detail would definitely call for backup. He would certainly not lower his guard to the two Delta operators (the service is highly sensitive to the threat of assassins using military/police disguises).

3. Keane goes crazy

Befitting the season’s narrative, the episode ends with (now-inaugurated) President Keane losing her mind. Sensing conspiracies everywhere, she starts rounding up Americans. She apparently has authority to do this under an addition to the Patriot Act. But glaring constitutional questions aside (the Supreme Court would rule 9-0 against such laws), Keane’s mindlessness seems almost sexist. It begins when the final attack takes place. Keane starts crying and hyperventilating. In a final scene, she is shown sitting at the Oval Office desk with a blank face.

Still, in an amusing self-inflicted wound of Hollywood irony, before she loses her mind, the writers present Keane as a Trumpian heroine. Saul Berenson explains why she’s the worst nightmare of the deep state: she “can’t be controlled from within.”

This is exactly what got Trump elected. Inadvertently, Homeland’s hero is Trump!

Last night’s conclusion neglected the functional beauty of American democracy. Regardless of time, politics or situation, American “deep state” patriots serve under law to guard us from tyranny.

Claiming pseudo-seriousness, “Homeland” season six is now to espionage, what Kevin Costner’s “Waterworld” is to science. Mental.

Alternative?

“The Americans.”

Tom Rogan (@TomRtweets) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a foreign policy columnist for National Review, a domestic policy columnist for Opportunity Lives, a former panelist on The McLaughlin Group and a senior fellow at the Steamboat Institute.

If you would like to write an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, please read our guidelines on submissions here.