Damianista’s note: What if Carrie wrote a letter to Dana about her father? NotLinda is giving us a brilliant Homeland Fan Fiction today. ENJOY!
Dana –
I’m sorry for the deceptive formation of this message. I’m afraid when you know this is from me, Carrie, Carrie Mathison, you’ll hit delete. Please – just don’t.
I know you asked to never see me again but there is a shit storm headed your way and you deserve to be warned. Those same crowds who cheered a hero, who yelled traitor and shoved mics and cameras in your face? You’ll see them again soon.
Maybe you’ve heard the rumors about a defector from highest levels of the Iranian regime. It’s about to go fucking viral and it’s true. There’ll be experts and panels and talking heads yapping about the “truth”. You need to be armed with other truths.
Your dad has a role in this story but not in the way you might think. He is the real hero of this story. He died a hero’s death in a public square in Tehran for his role. I swear it’s the truth. I was there. I had to be there.
Well, soon this will be a matter of public record and you’ll have all the details. I’ve worked hard over the years to get his story told but in this work sometimes events move the narrative more than efforts.
Please let me tell you the other facts.
Some said – Brody is a man who changes his mind. Dana, that is a fucking understatement. Eight years of torture and manipulation or an offer to save his family and himself in exchange for cooperation. That’s called changing his mind? Really. Or they say he’s a man who put on The Vest. Well, only you really know what drew him back from detonating that vest. Love. Love for you, Dana. When he had a choice he chose you.
Your father was not damaged goods, ever. He said it – Used, played, lied to, but, Dana, he was fully capable of and deserving of redemption. And, though you may not want to hear it from me – great love and great tenderness. If love includes self-sacrifice, then he gave more than he ever received. Maybe even from me.
I had my part in your tragedy. Living in gray areas makes a real light hard to see. I have regrets but knowing Nick Brody isn’t one and not trying to telling you about him will not be one either
What I hope you can understand is how desperate we all were. Everyone had so much to lose. Then in the end we all lost him. Husband, father. Brody. After all this time I have to suddenly cover my face and say his name. Oh Brody. You know that feeling, Dana. I know you do.
There is a ceremony at Langley. They’re finally putting the star he earned on the wall. You’ll all be formally informed, invited. If you want to give your mother and Chris a heads-up I leave it up to you but I will be there. My daughter will be there. Yes, our daughter.
My regrets? Your dad called it – keeping my distance. Yeah, I regret that. I’d like to spare you that regret, Dana.
You’ll know what’s best, you are your father’s daughter.
Carrie
Hi NotLinda, thank you for this wonderful fan fiction. I know it is a bit strange to miss a fictional character as if he was someone that I knew but I miss Brody SO MUCH. Your fan fiction has brought tears to my eyes. In contrast to many viewers that liked the show but hated Dana, I loved her. True, she was annoying at times, but she was just a teenager that had to go through a lot of extremely complicated stuff that she had no control over. She was as much a victim as Brody was. And her relationship with Brody was so special. I know also because I am a sucker for loving dad – daughter relationships, I am fascinated by their relationship. But I still think, next to Carrie, Dana was the only person that understood Brody. I could not have put it in better words: “You are your father’s daughter.” YES. I have been intending to write an essay about Brody and Dana for a long, long time… you inspire me to work on it as soon as possible. Thank you for taking the time to write this wonderful story and I hope Brody really gets his star on the wall one day before Homeland does its series finale and that Dana and Chris get to meet their little sister.
trés belle fan fiction Félicitations!!monique
I cannot agree more with you, Monique! Lina is one of our most wonderful readers like you and her story brought tears to my eyes. I miss Brody!
So beautiful! I want to watch this.
I could not have put it in better words, Iza! Me, too! I want to watch it! <3
I am so pleased with your gracious comments, my dears! I, too, loved Dana, Damianista. Morgan Saylor gave an accurate yet compassionate performance of a regular teen in exactly the situation you describe.
To be with women (mostly) who understand the phenomenon of loving a man who exists only in the artists rendition, our imagination and Damian’s performance is a real pleasure. Thank you so much for allowing me to express that love. Vous ête trop gentil!
I love this… gets the gist of actually having been written by Carrie! Great and original blog!
We are grateful to Lina for sharing it with us! <3
It’s taken me too long to reply, Eli, but I so appreciate your comment! Achieving Carrie’s voice was one of me primary concerns. I’m so glad I’ve been in any measure successful and thank you for saying so! <3
Yes, you did get Carrie’s voice! Beautifully done!
Thank you, JaniaJania. I find it so interesting to see the current character on Homeland and our early Carrie. She seems, I can’t find the right word, almost naive in the early days. I must admit I have enjoyed the return of crazy Carrie. Not suffering but jazzy.
I really miss Brody too.
Welcome Deborah! You’re among likeminded sisters.
Hallo liebe Damianista, hallo liebe NotLinda,
sorry für die lange Abwesenheit, bin ganz ehrlich, konnte mit Billions von Anfang an nicht unbedingt soooo viel Anfangen und irgendwann hab ich mich dann wirklich ausgeklingt. Seit kurzer Zeit bin ich wieder auf Deiner Seite liebe Damianista.
Heute hast Du mich in die guten alten Zeiten von Brody zurückgeholt. Ich hatte jetzt Gänsehaut pur.
Genau das hätte ich mir damals auch gewünscht, nämlich, das jemand das Mädel einmal richtig über die Handlungen Ihres Vaters aufgeklärt. Und zwar aufklärt mit den Augen der Liebe. Einfach fantastisch und zu Herzen gehend. Vielen Dank dafür Notlinda. Meinen Respekt. Ganz Toll.
Herzlichste Grüße aus Deutschland.
Google – translate:
Hello dear Damianista, hello dear NotLinda,
sorry for the long absence, I’m honest, could not really start with Billions from the beginning soooo much and then I finally really ausklingt. For a short time I am back on your side dear Damianista.
Today you brought me back to the good old days of Brody. I had goose bumps now.
That’s exactly what I would have wished for at that time, namely, that somebody enlightens the girl once correctly about the actions of her father. And enlightened with the eyes of love. Simply fantastic and heartfelt. Thank you for that Notlinda. My respect. Really great.
Best regards from Germany.
Thank you, Lucky Fellow! I was so pleased to open the website and see Damianista had published my story again. Very sweet. I’m glad you enjoyed reading it, the good old days of Brody indeed!
It’s a pleasure to re-post the letter! Like Lucky Fellow, I wish Carrie had written an letter to Dana or the family to tell them about Brody. She did not need to give details. And being the rebel that she is in the CIA, I think it would have suited her to do that. Brody deserved it. But thanks to your brilliant imagination, NotLinda, we have that letter. THANK YOU!
The pleasure is mine!
Maybe you’ve heard the rumors about a defector from highest levels of the Iranian regime. It’s about to go fucking viral and it’s true. There’ll be experts and panels and talking heads yapping about the “truth”. You need to be armed with other truths.
Who is this dissident from the highest echelons of the Iranian regime?
He is a “Javadi-like
He is a “Javadi-like” defector. In fact Javadi is captured by Mossad in S6 of Homeland never to be heard from again.
I liked Dana a lot.
She was almost the only one in the family that really showed emotions…not robot like…like her mother or her brother…and even Mike.
It is normal to have conflicts and strong emotions and be confused when dealing with all what she had to (Father missing…died?…Mother and Mike…Father back but broken…etc etc)
She was the only one who saw the good in her dad and really tried to welcome him back and integrate him in the family…she understood him and had a connection with him. Of course after the bunker it all came out of hand…and I was hoping Dana and Carrie would sit together and speak openly about Brody. Carrie would have got her to understand him. It was Carrie who knew Dana was the only one to make Brody come to reason and stop his mission. That shows that Brody was confused…that he wasn’t the strong man everybody thought…he was confused very deep inside. He was in a terrible situation…either side would try to kill him anyway Well…I think Brody was a confused man and broken. He was sticking to loyalty to two sides…and loyalty to the wrong people can have devastating consequences.
Actually I saw Dana as more mature than her mother…Dana questioned a lot of things…was a rebel about some things…she had no mature support …only from Mike and she had to find out her own way in life and find out what she wanted. Well Dana wasn’t perfect and didn’t always act perfect but that is normal.
Dana always knew there was more than the surface…that a lot more was going on and that drove her crazy…that is a big burden and people are seen as crazy. It’s dificult to handle when a person feels there is something dark and wrong but doesn’t understand it herself…can’t express it because it’s more a feeling, like a heavy vibration…so people will just act very emotional and confused…
And of course it had to be shown how hard it all hits a family and children (Missing in war…the coming back…a father that makes the wrong decisions) it had to be shown how it did impact her…how wrong and mean people are (Brody’s family had NO knowledge about what he was foing, they were not guilty but everybody hated them instead of trying to understand them what they were going through)
She was the unfortunate one that had to show some things that do happen that way and are so wrong.(The accident and how it was handled)
What she did moving out and working just showed that she was really trying to find her path in life. Obviously with the mother wasn’t going well. A lot of teenagers in Germany move out when they are 16…they want to be independent, learn an ocupation/job and earn money.
I really liked her character. She was very important for the show.
“I really liked her character. She was very important for the show.” You said it, Sister! I so agree with you on that. I didn’t perceive Chris and Mike as poorly as I think you did. Really they were not given much to do. Mike had a couple of plot lines that were not pursued – as was common with Homeland. Dana was a child with strong emotions and a high intellect but still she was a teen with a teen’s judgement. Her father left for Iraq when she was 8 so she had a basic awareness of him. I believe her Mom kept Brody alive for her children as long as she could but when even the government determined he was dead, Jessica moved on. Building on that I saw Brody and Dana had an instinctive understanding of each other in much the same way he and Carrie did. I don’t think speaking freely, about Brody or anything else, was a trait Carrie ever possessed. Brody was as close as she ever got. About Brody, my view of him today is different from the man I saw when I wrote this fic. You’re right he was confused and broken, more than I could see. I loved him so. Finally I loved your observation that Dana knew a lot more was going on, more than what was on the surface! Of course she came to hate lies and liars! Perhaps that was the real point of the Leo storyline as well as her final visit with her father. Great to hear from you again, Jordison!
homeland| “the clearing”
“Dana’s faith in doing what’s right — her faith in confession as a way to ease her conscience and begin to amend her sins — is so steadfast she would rather go to the police than let a bunch of powerful people make her misdeeds go away. In this she is, of course, the exact opposite of her father, who is hoping his behavior can be papered over, allegedly on his daughter’s behalf.” – Willa Paskin
Our Dana!
It’s been 8 years since Brody died and I’m always a bit bewildered when people ask about Brody’s family in the context of his death. Like, did they know how he died???? Why are we assuming it would fix anything? The damage he caused was irreparable.
Brody saw Dana before he left and did explain that it wasn’t him. She didn’t care. It was never just about that. It was about all of it. He was a bad, selfish father. She never wanted to see him again – or Carrie! As far as I’m concerned, Carrie leaving Dana alone post-Brody’s death was the most compassionate thing she could have done for a girl she directly and indirectly traumatized.
I am a late comer to Homeland, February 2022. I’ve never cared about any fictional characters more than Brody and Carrie, wanting them to be happy. I’m not sure why they seem so real.
To me there was insufficient focus on how the system failed Brody. First, the “bullshit” war, not finding him for eight years, and then parading him as a war poster boy.
Brody was a good parent before the war and was a good parent to Issa. It’s hard to be a good parent when you are broken. So, I think Dana at some point will understand her father and forgive him. And, forgive Carrie too. Without Carrie, he might have used that vest, and, Carrie was the only one who knew he was the Langley bomber.
Not Linda thanks for writing this great letter. I think eventually Dana will treasure it.
A) Brody was no hero in anyway shape or form he was a traitor simple and plain.
B) This take is more right than wrong, but nothing was ever “simple” or “plain” on this show.
At the CIA, the ends always always always justify the means. And US is a pragmatist.
Okay, possible public redress would undermine the US government’s plans to actively infiltrate the Iranian government, I just kept thinking about Brody’s family suffering the consequences of something he didn’t actually do. At least there should be an off-site repair for the family. Or at least, tell the truth to Dana, Jess and ???. They deserved at least that.
Will the writers give us the true present but a happy ending?
This is a serious question: why would they? What could they possibly have to gain from that? Brody was always going to be the person who made that tape and put on that suicide vest. In the eyes of the CIA and/or American government, he would never be anything else. They used him and his desire for redemption for their own ends – knowing he’d never be publicly redeemed. Everyone, including Carrie and Saul and probably Brody, knew this.
As for his family deserving more, well, yes, obviously. A lot of people on this show deserved more than what they got.
Like we are not expecting Dana to come back and care about her half-sister Franny , are we?
Children are the only innocents on this show, the only ones deserving of pure goodness and love.
The CIA and the US government would never admit that Brody carried out this mission in Iran. Not even after Carrie’s book revealed that Nicholas had nothing to do with the 2012 CIA attack.
Therefore, Brody’s family would not have any rights or benefits for those who lost their lives in the line of duty. So Jess would have to fight hard to get a job in accounting after 10 years out of the industry. Chris would be there to provide support, but it wouldn’t be easy. And Dana would still keep cleaning that motel. I hope her record drops and she returns to her family.
Nicholas’ actions have cast a huge shadow over Brody’s family… and knowing the facts from Carrie’s book won’t help.
For Frannie’s sake, it’s better that no one finds out and publishes who her daddy is on the internet. It’s hard enough being the daughter of the Drone Queen.
In S03xE06… Still in the family portion of the series, we saw more – and more – of Dana, who this time wanted to definitively get rid of Brody’s shadow by taking away her last name. When the girl said that the replacement name would be Lazaro – Jessica’s maiden name – the expectation was that she would make peace with her mother and the two would begin to establish a closer and more honest relationship. Jessica and Dana have always had a barrier between them because of Brody’s ghost, but it seems difficult for the two to realize that they share the same pain, the same conflicts and come together so that, stronger, they can face the difficult situation they are experiencing.
Instead, Dana simply packed her bags and was ready to leave the house without saying goodbye to a friend who appeared out of nowhere. Jessica tried to talk, tried to get closer, but realized that it was useless to seek any partnership with her daughter, and just accepted the situation. If together their plot already seemed out of place in the series, separately it will be even more difficult to create something that arouses the public’s interest.
In S03.E09 Dana was so removed from this connection to her father, that I don’t think she would have cared if he’d died a hero. Imagine Carrie coming to her home and saying that he died in service of his country. It doesn’t erase any of the lies he had told her, that very real betrayal that she felt. It didn’t matter to her in S3.E09, and it wouldn’t matter to her later. She never wanted to see either of them again. [In S03.E12] And that was the hollowness that Brody felt in his supposed redemption. It’s the hollowness Carrie might have felt, too — when Javadi says that everyone sees Brody through her eyes now, and I think she maybe believes that then, but it doesn’t really turn out to be the truth. She just has to give up that fight.