Homeland Season 4 great - for 10 episodes. And then what happened?

Season 4 of Homeland was absolutely terrific, exciting, engaging, sometimes surprising, propelled by the always fantastic acting of Clair Danes with strong support from the grumpy Mandy Patinkin and just great action directing, art direction (how do they so effectively create an embassy under siege in what purports to be Pakistan), and the music - most of the time you don't notice it but it always adds to the mood and aura, esp in the cool opening credits montage. Unfortunately, they should have stopped at episode 10, the attack on the US Embassy by the the ISI (obviously modeled on ISIS, and the attack roughly modeled on Bengazi). The final two episodes of the season were a let down - all the drama had taken place and we're just tying some loose ends - Carrie/Danes trying to find Peter Quinn and get him out of Pakistan (a drama largely played out off screen), and finally Carrie at home bonding with her baby, visiting her estranged mother, squabbling w/ sister - it felt much more like a soap, and a bad one at that, as lots of time wasted in resolving a relationship (Carrie and Mom) that was never even established in the first place. Too bad because otherwise I'd give this season a rave. Will watch Season 5 anyway, but hope it doesn't pick up where this season left off.