(This post contains spoilers for Homeland)

As great as the first season of Homeland was, its ending was a difficult hurdle for the writers to overcome. Brody’s story was essentially complete: his relationship with Carrie felt like it had run its course, and he had decided not to go through with the suicide bombing. For the next two seasons, fans and critics cried out for the writers to remove Brody once and for all, to kill him and move on with the story.

The problem was that, in all honesty, Brody and his relationship with Carrie wasn’t just a disposable plotline, it was the actual narrative engine of the first three seasons. While many of the accolades thrown at Homeland were concerning its complex, thoughtful ruminations on the war on terror, that was always more subtextual than surface-level. On an emotional level, where I would argue the show connected the most powerfully, people connected with Carrie, and her complicated feelings toward Brody and her conflicted desires to both be with him and see through his lies anchored the series.

So when Homeland finally killed Brody at the end of season three, the writers were left to not only figure out a plotline for the next season, but to essentially reinvent the series from the ground up. To their credit, they did well with season four. The changes in location and character functions gave the show a new, more plot-centric focus while still keeping enough familiar faces around that it didn’t feel like a completely different series altogether. However, despite their relative success with season four, following that season’s example could have put Homeland on a dangerous trajectory. Following a new terrorist threat in each season, with action set-pieces and Carrie as the expert, would lead to a show constantly trying to up the thrill factor while still holding onto the last vestiges of its former self. By season six or seven we’d be looking at a more pessimistic, pay-cable version of 24.

But from the premiere of season five, it appears that the writers have taken the far more interesting route of making reinvention the series’ new status quo. Once again, we experience a time-jump and see familiar characters in new roles, but this time the changes are even more severe. Carrie, the same woman we saw nearly drown her own child at the start of season four, is now a loving mother with a caring boyfriend who drops her child off at school and throws her a party. She’s working at a private security foundation, and her former mentor Saul (who himself left the CIA to work in the private sector during season four) is back at the CIA and horribly disappointed with her decision. Meanwhile, Quinn, the operative who went rogue and was falling apart last season, is now briefing government officials on the “strategy” in the war on terror and slowly falling back into his own habits.

It’s a great introduction and a smart way to shake things up, as each change opens up plenty of opportunities for characters to wrestle with themselves and each other. Also notable is the relative clarity of the storytelling. On its face, there’s a lot going on in this episode: the drama of the new character relationships, a CIA leak, a German-American secret security program, the growth of ISIS, a shadow campaign to clarify the danger of terrorist cells in Europe, a wealthy but dangerous donor with terrorist affiliations, etc. But the writers do an excellent job of making everything feel tied together.

Take, for instance, the character of Allison, the new head of CIA operations. On a narrative level, she’s tied most closely to the CIA leak plotline: she’s in the room as the files are stolen, and is seeing the whole fiasco through. But she also accompanies Saul on his meeting to discuss the surveillance program with the German ambassador, because that information was part of the leak. And arguably most importantly, she serves as a representative of Carrie’s past: she’s now professionally closest to Saul, and when Carrie meets her face to face as part of her new job, she’s having a conversation with herself from a few years back.

It’s always a bit foolish to judge a season by its premiere, but this episode does a very good job of building interest in the coming eleven episodes. There’s a solid framework here, and the inclusion of several standout moments, such as Quinn’s honest appraisal of the US’s terrorism strategy and Carrie’s business meeting/kidnapping with a man who would like to see her dead, prevent it from feeling like a slog. Homeland may not be about any one thing anymore, but if it can keep reinventing itself in interesting ways each year, then I’ll keep watching.