Season (or series) finales for high-profile TV shows can be a killer – or “The Killing.”

As this New York Times piece noted last Friday, “Sunday, after 11 episodes that have placed the characters on what could be a deadly collision course, [Showtime’s Homeland] faces a challenge that many recent gripping serial dramas have confronted: how to bring the season to a climactic end without leaving its most loyal fans ‘howling’ in disappointment.”

The way ABC’s Lost and AMC’s The Killing most memorably did.

The lesson was not lost on Homeland’s producers:

Alex Gansa, the creator (with Howard Gordon) of “Homeland,” acknowledged that the series faced what he called an especially “delicate balancing act,” because the season has built to a climax that would appear to have its two lead characters at the point of an exit: one through a suicide bombing and the other through expulsion from the role that keeps her in the story.

Give Mr. Gansa an A+.

Last night’s season finale was riveting and complicating and satisfying all at once. A knockout ending to a knockout series that showcases a fraught Damian Lewis and a fright Claire Danes.

See it next year.