As you know, Homeland season three recently came to a close.

A lot of shocking things happened in the finale episode titled "The Star." Hopefully by now you've had a chance to breathe. It's going to be a long and grueling layover between now and September or October when season four returns to Showtime. For now all you can do is wait, read the rumors and re-watch the show.

Will season four achieve the same level of critical, commercial and storytelling success its first season accomplished? The second and third seasons continually became more convoluted and implausible over time. It's hard to say, but by killing off Nicholas Brody, Homeland's writers finally admitted to themselves that they needed a clean slate to work with.

Where will Homeland go in season four? Geographically speaking, the show is following Carrie Mathison to Istanbul, Turkey where she has been promoted to Station Chief. But emotionally, the show is all over the place, thanks to the death of Brody and the fact that Mathison is pregnant with his child. Also, it was Carrie's boss, acting CIA director Andrew Lockhart's decision to not extract Brody from his Iranian safe house. That of course put in motion events that led to Brody's death while Carrie looked on in horror. Which Carrie will we see in season four? The woman who makes rash decisions to protect she loves, or a more pragmatic, focused version of herself? Will added stress affect her bipolar disorder?

As published on TVLine, show runner Alex Gansa thankfully has the answer to Carrie's future.

"Carrie had to make a choice. Is she going to continue to do what she loves to do, which is be an intelligence officer, or is she going to hold her anger and feelings of betrayal against the man who is now sitting in the chair that is going to determine where her career goes. That's one of the reasons for the four-monthy time break. And that was, frankly, one of the things that we were trying to go with was, 'OMG, Carrie is OK with all of this. How is that possible?' Well, Carrie is a pragmatist. This is job a calling to her. And although [Brody's death] was incredibly painful, she ... was able to move on from that and decide that her career was more important than holding a grudge."

Do you think Carrie should keep the baby? Let us know in the comments section below.