Ep 1. Mandatory

Homecoming is a psychological thriller series that explores the twisted story of a government program, set up to help soldiers transition to civilian life. The series stars Julia Roberts as a caseworker at Homecoming, a facility that supposedly helps soldiers adapt to civilian life. The pilot episode is titled 'Mandatory'.

The first episode opens with a train ride where we see Heidi Bergman (Julia Roberts) on an Amtrak train heading towards her new life, doing something she had always dreamt of. Throughout the ride, Heidi is shown contemplating her new job and what it entails, having left her previous job and regular life behind. With its jarring frame cuts, the show jumps back and forth in time, building tension and intrigue.

Heidi appears nervous on her first day of work at Homecoming, having to present her confidentiality agreement to HR (who appears to be internal CIA agents) and being shown around the facility by one of the patient-employees, Walter Cruz (Stephan James).

The narrative is driven by an intense conversation between Heidi and Walter, which takes place in her office with Heidi flipping the file of his life and entire career to date. Their conversation is the first reveal that Walter is in fact a patient, albeit one who appears much healthier than the others. He is approaching the final stages of the Homecoming program and looks forward to getting enrolled in a foreign language class and jumpstarting a new career.

The show then takes us to an FBI agent investigating the entire Homecoming facility, four years after the events shown in this season. Following a complaint by the mother of a former Homecoming patient, the agent visits Walter’s mother, who claimed that her son went missing in the course of his treatment. The stakes get higher as we learn that the Homecoming program might be controversial and could land Heidi in serious trouble. Heidi then has a conversation with her boss, Colin Belfast (Bobby Cannavale), who is both insistent and reassuring about the delicate and specialized nature of her role at the facility.

The episode builds tension and drama through steadily paced dialogue and intense acting from Roberts, James, and Cannavale. Roberts’ character is driven and focused, and so invested in her work at the Homecoming facility that she has put her personal life on hold. She pours her heart and soul into deciphering the importance of each of her patient’s lives and helping them navigate their way into the civilian world.

The episode also has a brilliant amount of suspense and clever use of camera framing, making Heidi’s surroundings appear shadowed and out of focus at times. Cinematographically, this keeps the viewer on edge as there are numerous shots throughout the episode of an ominous employee sneaking behind in the corner of the frame without Heidi’s knowledge.

Overall, Homecoming’s first episode is an excellent start to the series, with great acting, character development, and cinematography that keeps the audience in suspense throughout the episode. It sets the foundation for the plot quite effectively and manages to pique the interest of the viewers right off the bat. The first episode makes it clear that Homecoming is not your average thriller drama. Rather, it digs deeper into the psyche of those that have been to war and the struggles they go through when trying to settle into an environment designed by non-combatants.