What do you think of when you think of Homeland? Mentally unstable C.I.A. agent conducts torrid affair with American terrorist against the backdrop of tense U.S./Middle East relations, right? And though we already said goodbye to that American terrorist and his family in Season 3 (don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Dana Brody), those other factors were still in play. But almost all of that is going out the window for Season 5.

Earlier this year, Showtime’s David Nevins hinted that we might be looking at a new setting for Season 5, saying, “We’re not necessarily going to stay [with addressing] U.S. relations in the Muslim world.” After an event at Paleyfest this weekend, we now have confirmation that Carrie will be in an entirely different locale next year. Homeland writer Alex Gansa said:

We’re going to jump two and a half years forward. We are going to be shooting the show in Europe — probably in Germany — and Carrie will no longer be an intelligence officer.

So that’s a change in setting and a change in career? Here’s hoping Carrie will still be her lovable, unhinged self or else Homeland will be completely unrecognizable.

Homeland is no stranger to time jumps—Carrie went from barely pregnant at the end of Season 3 to absentee mother in Season 4. But there were a lot of unanswered questions at the end of last year that could get lost or buried in such a lengthy gap between seasons. What’s going to happen with Haqqani? How will Carrie handle her near miss with Quinn? How can Carrie possibly process finding Saul in collusion with Dar Adal? The answer to those last two questions, apparently, is quit her job and move to Europe.

So what can we expect Carrie to do in Europe next season? Certainly not, as star Claire Danes joked, start her own Bavarian brewery. Even if she’s no longer in the C.I.A. (and who’s to say Saul won’t find a way to lure her back at the top of the season? Perhaps using Quinn as bait?), Carrie will likely be mixed up in some manner of political intrigue. Nevins boiled down the premise of Homeland in a post-Brody world as, “How difficult it is to be America in the world in the 21st century, how difficult the choices are.” Presumably he’s not talking about those infernal European outlets.

Could Homeland be taking a page from House of Cards Season 3 and setting its sights on Putin and Russia? There’s a chance that even with the European setting, ISIS might have a role to play in Homeland Season 5. Remember, when last we saw Quinn he was winging off to Syria. Gansa said:

Front and center (is) what’s happening in Syria and Iraq. . .We try to humanize our villains and our adversaries. People down there are difficult to humanize and to understand. How do we dramatize — do we give them a platform? I don’t know.

But whatever happens with Carrie, don’t expect a happily ever after for her, Quinn, and the baby. Danes has said Carrie’s difficult relationship with her child is one of her favorite aspects of Homeland:

There are very, very few representations of motherhood that are at all controversial on television, and I know personally it’s a very complex experience. I don’t know if there is a greater taboo than an unloving mother.

Homeland begins filming in May and Season 5 will premiere in fall of 2015.