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‘Homecoming’ Season 2 Review: More of an Epilogue Than a Continuation
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mazon Prime series Homecoming is back for Season 2 after a year and a half hiatus, and in many ways it looks very different. In 2018’s Season 1, we followed Heidi Bergman (Julia Roberts) as she put together the puzzle pieces of her former life as a caseworker at a secret government facility testing out experimental drugs on soldiers to erase their PTSD and send them back into active duty. Things got tricky for Heidi as she became more involved with one of her patients, Walter Cruz (Stephan James), and, a few years later, was forced to revisit what happened as a Department of Defense agent (Shea Whigham) investigated was happened. Heidi ultimately finds out what happened to Walter, coming to terms with Walter making a new life for himself in rural northern California and going her own way.
In light of Season 1’s ending, you’d think the show might choose to pick up with Walter’s journey, turning him into the new protagonist and following him in a post-Homecoming initiative world. Alas, the first mistake Homecoming makes is not doing this. Instead, as we’ve seen in the Homecoming Season 2 trailer, we’re going in expecting another puzzle box but it’s not Walter’s puzzle — it’s army veteran Jackie Calico’s (Monáe). Season 2 kicks off with Jackie waking up in a rowboat in the middle of a lake somewhere in the wilderness. With no memory of her life before this moment and just a few items to help piece her life back together, Jackie soon discovers she may have connections to the Geist Group, the shadowy organization overseeing the Homecoming initiative. Along the way in this new season, Geist employee Audrey Temple (Hong Chau) and James’ Walter Cruz return in important ways while newcomers Chris Cooper and Joan Cusack appear in solid supporting roles as Geist founder Leonard Geist and eccentric Department of Defense official Francine Bunda, respectively. So, with some casting changes and a new mystery in place for viewers to dive into, is Homecoming Season 2 worth the watch?
