“She has a million names, and the star has none.” – Jacob Clifton
Brody in Tehran supported only by Carrie pursues the mission to assassinate IGRC head Akbari thereby moving CIA asset Javadi up the ranks. Self preservation is his strongest motive; there really is no other way out. There’s no guarantee it is indeed a way out.
Brody is brought to Akbari who receives him warmly. He has no trouble believing Brody’s information on Javadi and trusting the man delivering it. In fact he begins to reminisce about first hearing Nicholas Brody’s name, “here in this office.”
Brody looks around, amazed.
“You spoke with Abu Nazir here in this room?“
“How he would send you to America, a sword to strike at the heart of our enemy!” Brody relies, “Good.” Akbari is puzzled and Brody is feeling time collapse: an ambush in Iraq, eight years of captivity, Issa, Tom, Jessica …. it’s goes on and on. It will never stop.
“It all started here.”
He strikes quickly, using a heavy glass ashtray to bludgeon Akbari. Then he finishes him by smothering him with a pillow. As he checks for signs of life, hides the body and straightens the room his tortured face shows that his sought-for revenge is not sweet.
He calls Carrie. “I’m in Akbari’s office.” Even she has a moment of doubt. “Brody, what have you done?”
“I killed him. Get me out of here.”
Carrie’s face is the picture of wonder and hope. He did it! A bell tolls.
Then Homeland does what it does so well; shows us desperate people’s stories converging.
Brody cleans off the blood, hides the body and finds Akbari’s pistol.
Carrie slips out of her hotel through the kitchen.
Javadi glides out of the headquarters and slides smoothly into his Mercedes. Watchful as a cat.
Brody is escorted out of the building, he is stopped but it’s only to retrieve his visitors’ badge. Damian Lewis’ Brody is a commanding portrayal of controlled hysteria and grace. His car and driver almost make it through the gate when the alarm sounds! Pulling the gun, he presses it to the drivers neck.
“Drive. Drive! Go!!”
In Virginia Saul receives a call from Carrie.
” He went through with it Saul. He killed Akbari. Brody did… He completed the mission after all.”
If Saul will authorize it, an extraction plan can be initiated. Saul is less than confident about this development. He’s never seen Brody as anything but duplicitous.
As Carrie waits for him in the designated park, Brody commandeers the car in a desolate area. He spares the driver but tosses his cell phone into a crevasse. Yet when he gets to the park there’s no sign of Carrie. He lingers nervously for a bit, looking as blogger Jacob Clifton says, “all 6’3″ and red haired.” He gives up and returns to the car only to be accosted by Carrie. As they switch seats and cars, they bicker like a married couple.
They truly are the only people on their side for back in the states while Javadi has confirmed the kill, he’s also set the cogs of counter-intel in motion. He, Javadi, is in charge of the manhunt and should the murderer not be apprehended quickly, “The weaker I look and the less chance I will be chosen to replace Akbari.” The worst case scenario, in fact, is that Brody and Carrie be captured together
“I lose the ability to control events on the ground. Tell me where he is and at least I can protect your girl.”
It’s stark choice. Yet against Dar Adal’s advice Saul initiates the extraction plan.
Carrie and Brody driving through a dangerous land, with unreliable allies, into an unknowable future. If there is a future. The desert and sky stretch endlessly. A mysterious, mournful music surrounds a woman rushing toward a destination and her passenger, a man exhausted by the day, the month, the years he’s been made to endure and for what?
“I was born in the Desert.”
“I can’t believe I didn’t know that.”
“At least (my old man) isn’t around anymore. All this would’ve broke his heart.”
It has broken Nicholas Brody’s heart.
They manage to arrive at an isolated CIA safe house. They take care of mundane tasks and settle in to wait. It’s all somehow so ordinary.
The cold desert night descends. She bundles Brody up in blankets. She finally expresses the concern she’s felt since their rendezvous. “You want to tell me what’s going on with you?” He retorts, “I just took a man’s life today, Carrie.” Their conversation is interrupted by a call from Saul; he’s confirmed Brody accomplished the mission and that they’ll be extracted before sunrise. Carrie is so pleased. Brody is not. He asks her what’s next because, “I never expected to get this far so I try not to think about it.” She tells him, “I’ve thought about it.”
With the one person he can he tells a number of truths. He chooses this moment to tell her “the cockroach story.” “there was this man in Caracas … he called me a cockroach, unkillable but bringing misery wherever I go…In what world do you redeem one murder but committing another… I’m a lot of things but I’m not a Marine anymore. I haven’t been for some time.” His cynicism and disgust for everything she’s built her life around threaten her moment, her victory! She saved him against all odds. They are both at a loss. She tells her truth-
“I’m pregnant … from our time at the lake.”
“Carrie, Jesus.”
Now it’s her stage to act out on. “I don’t know…what kind of life we have back home either….but there will be a life! And I’m not sorry about that..
because I believe one of the reasons I was put on this earth was for our paths to cross
and, yeah, I know how crazy that sounds.” He goes to her and in his most tender tone tells her, “I don’t think that sounds crazy at all.
I think it sounds like the only sane fucking thing left to hold on to.
For them it always has been so as long they can be together.
So it is in peace that he sleeps, with Carrie watching over; it’s with joy she hears the sound of the helicopter and wakes him. “They’re here.” But it is with dismay and horror that they find troops outside the door are not rescuers but rather the Kuds Force. Forced at gunpoint to lie prone, hands behind heads, they look to each other.
As Brody is dragged off, Carrie invokes Javadi’s name for intercession. The commander says simply,
“The colonel is aware.”
Carrie makes a frantic call to Saul. He has no idea what’s going on. He soon will. Chief of Ops Scott, Senator Lockhart and Dar Adal are huddled when he accosts them.
He learns, in short order, that he is out as Director, Lockhart is in. That as first order of business Lockhart cancelled the extraction and called in Javadi. Dar asserts that “our people come before our mission is a sentimental idea and always has been”. That “Brody arrested is better for us than Brody back in America”. They know Brody arrested is Brody executed. We know it as well.
In Tehran a distraught Carrie is intercepted as she beats a hasty exit from her hotel. She is brought once again face to face with Majid Javadi. Deflecting his veiled threats she goes to the heart, “Where’s Brody?” He’s in Evin prison awaiting death by hanging.
“A public execution is scheduled for tonight.”
“Tonight??”
“Tomorrow to be precise, at 4 am.”
at the beginning of this encounter Javadi told Carrie “No one is just one thing. You, of all people should know that.” and Sean Taub proceeds to show us the truth of that. He sees Carrie and her sacrifices more clearly than most of her colleagues.”I’ve asked myself over and over ‘Why? Why would anyone do that to themselves?’…. I think I know now.
It was always about him.
That’s what you care about. Maybe the only thing….. Everyone sees him through your eyes now…Even me.”
She can barely endure being seen by this guy, but he sees Brody as well. “Who Brody is, that’s for Allah to know, but what he did, there can be no debate. It was astonishing and undeniable.”
She can’t be allowed to see him,
“He is at peace, in his cell. A kind of peace. Let that be.”
but she bargains for a phone call, “Two minutes. That’s all I ask.” Carrie battles between will and impending grief. There must be a way!
A tiny barred cage in Evin prison. Brody purifies his body. A guard wordlessly approaches and, through the bars, hands him a phone. He cautiously says,”Hello.”
Carrie launches immediately but he gradually talks her down. “Carrie, it’s over.”
“I want it to be over.”
“Don’t say that!”
“I’m okay. I really am”
He makes a request of the woman who’ll move heaven and earth for him. “Don’t be there. Don’t put yourself through that.” This she cannot, will not agree to.
“I have to be there. I will be there.”
The guard approaches and Brody says, “I have to say goodbye now.” “Brody.” she quietly pleads, “Brody, can you just, stay here, just for, just for a few more seconds.” The lovers listen to each other breathe; they feel their closeness for the final time.
Of course she tries Saul once more – Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch. Only when she hears her mentor say,
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.
…does the unstoppable Carrie Mathison acknowledge the reality
“Oh, my god.”
At 4 am a crowd gathers at a harshly lit public square behind hurricane fencing. A large industrial crane suspending a noose, enormous murals of a mutated American flag and the Ayatollah Khomeini are all that occupy this desolate space. Fara’s uncle Masud accompanies Carrie through the crowd.
Brody moves from his cell to his transport in mounting yet contained fear. As his car approaches the excitement and noise quickly overtake the crowd and swirl around Carrie. When he emerges his darting eyes and stiff shoulders betray his terror. Yet he refuses the blindfold.
Akbari’s wife and children stand before him. She spits in his face and places the red rope around his neck. The crowd roars. Carrie watches in shock. The crane rumbles to life and the noose tightens. Slowly, slowly Brody begins to rise. In this form of hanging the victim is strangled to death. It takes a while. His eyes sweep the gathered throng. As his death draws nearer Carrie breaks her trance and climbs the fence.
“Brody! Brody! Brody!!
And he finds her. They lock eyes across the distance for the last time. They’ve reached out across time and continents, over tragedies and people in pursuit of the wholeness they felt only with each other.
A soldier swats the fence with a baton; Carrie falls and Brody, his body spasms and he’s gone. The falling star disappears from view.
Carrie takes a last look then allows Masud to escort her away. She shakes with grief.
__________________________________________
Four Months Later
Saul’s out. The covert plan, both Phase One and Phase Two are a success. Carrie has accepted the post of station chief in Istanbul. She is now visibly pregnant. Yet Lockhart refuses her request that Brody get a star on the wall memorializing the unnameable fallen.
All of them attend a memorial for the CIA casualties. Saul, Quinn, Dar. The ceremony ends and Carrie is called forward into her new life. She turns to look back at Saul and her expression shows all that has passed between them. There will be no going back.
It’s night, the mourners and soldiers and officials are gone. Carrie enters the dark lobby her echoing footsteps the only sound. She slows and stops beside the wall of stars. Music drifts in as she mournfully walks to the wall inscribed
In Honor of those Members of the Central Intelligence Agency Who Gave Their Lives in the Service of Their Country
She draws a star among the others. Not a perfect star but a star nonetheless. And then…she walks on.
___________________________________________
A few years have passed since I first joined the conversations on Fan Fun, my perspective on the story of Nicholas Brody has altered through my participation here and other social media. My admiration for Damian Lewis’ work has only grown as a result. My views on the love story have enlarged as well but to those who’ve sneered that “it’s not like it’s a grand tragedy”, I must say; Yes, I think that’s exactly what it is. Will it survive the ages? Probably not but it’s around for the foreseeable future. I’m no longer young. I’ve long ago ceased expecting symmetry in relationships. Love is not a power struggle.
I think I’ve said all I have to say about Damian’s stunning creation but don’t be surprised if during S12 of Billions I pop up to say, “Wait! I’ve had a thought about Brody!”
I’d like to say something beautiful. My heart has been in my throat in writing this final piece. Instead I’ll share the words of blogger Jacob Clifton of the late website Television Without Pity. You can find this work now on Brilliantbutcancelled.com
She knew him before she ever saw his face. She climbed into the walls of his house, heard his sleeping breathing, and fell in love with him. She traveled side-by-side with him, through his trauma and his recovery, their hearts beat in tandem long before they met, and when they met the whole sky lit up. The purpose for which they were put on this Earth. She brought him back, so many times, she hauled him up out of there, every time it got dark.
So few of us are ever known.
She has a million names, and the star has none. But it shines on her, nonetheless. It always will. – Jacob Clifton
Beautiful and touching! Thank you! My heart is too in my throat. I think it is time for a re-watch of Homeland s1-s3. 🙂
Good morning again, Oana! Brody’s story arc takes a real commitment when you know what’s coming. On the other hand I gained perspective when I could see the whole picture. Sauls indifference and Carrie’s devotion are stunning. Thank you so much for reading and commenting!
Thank you, NotLinda! Thank you for your courage, for your big heart, for your love for Brody, and for going there before any one of us could and completing Brody’s story arc. Your heart is in your mouth as you write this, and so is mine as I read it. You gave me the first ever image and words about that horrible scene. Carrie didn’t listen to Brody and went to the execution. And I didn’t listen to Damian and never watched the execution scene. But you took me to the place I never wanted to go… I spent those few minutes in the bathroom crying, Lewisto still says I cried way more than Carrie did. And I think even if I didn’t see the scene, Brody passing away provoked me in a way that I ended up in launching this blog. I really think if Brody had lived for 5 more seasons, I could have enjoyed Homeland and not even thought about a potential blog. I don’t know maybe everything really happens for a reason… And I can’t believe I have felt all this for a fictional character. The blog has kept me sane thanks to lovely women sharing my sentiments. So thank you! Probably not. I still choose to believe he is not gone 🙂 Maybe he is somewhere in Iran, maybe he fell in love again, even with a woman who is my namesake — did I ever tell you my real name is Persian, we have a lot of words from Persian in Turkish, it is such a rich language and culture — hahaha! A girl can dream, right? 🙂
I’m amazed! You read the execution. It is beautiful in that we see them seek each other out again, as always. Ah I leave the dreams to you and Jania, I’m happy to be a reader and admirer. Have you noticed over the Falling Star series how much I learned by your example? 2 or 3 paragraphs then a photo. Potent quotes highlighted. Isn’t Clifton an fabulous wordsmith? Brody’s Star shines on you nonetheless. It always will. Thank you dear reader, sister, mentor❤️
I feel the very delay of this review, between exams and parties I have been lengthening it. After this poor apology, here’s the last thing I’ll talk about Homeland this year: it’s been a complicated season, so the seasone couldn’t be any less. Fat spoilers are coming, watch out.
“I think I get it,” Javadi says. “It’s always been for him. He’s what you’re worried about, maybe the only thing you’re worried about. Only Allah really knows who Brody is. But there is no doubt about what he has done, something shocking and undeniable, and just what you wanted: that everyone saw it just as you see it. And that’s what happened. Everybody sees it through your eyes now. Saul, Lockhart, the president of the United States. Even me.”
And so the purpose of what has been this season is clearly summed up: Brody’s ultimate redemption, only achieved through his death, which had been coming since the series began. Although I can’t believe that “everyone” sees him as the great romantic (and patriotic, but I’ll comment on that later) that they’ve bent on drawing, not when he’s so drastically doubted who to trust his loyalty to, when he’s ruined his daughter’s and his family’s lives, a fact homeland itself seems to have forgotten.
Despite everything, I think there’s something powerful about Brody dying at this point in history. It is no longer about the ambiguity of his character, Brody ends up being a man who, despite having tried to do good things, always “brings misery wherever he goes”. He really has no options left: even if he had returned to the United States, it would be very difficult for the CIA to reveal that his number one terrorist is now living in a cozy little house next to the woman who had to hunt him down. And besides, Brody has reached a point where he can’t accept the idea of “redeeming himself from one crime by committing another,” or of understanding himself as the justice-carrying Marine Carrie (and the Agency) sees.
On this point I wanted to stop especially. I understood Homeland as a series that sought to reflect on the thin line between betrayal of patriotism, featuring ambiguous characters who dared to question the CIA’s own modus operandi. But this season, and especially these last episodes, they begin to reveal to me that I have been terribly deceived: and this third season has not cut a hair in making an image of Iran perfectly convenient for American leaders: an essentially evil Iran and to be attacked by all possible means, even the most ruinous (especially with the most ruinous). In Brody’s mission, one sovereign nation, the United States, has eliminated one senior leader from another, Iran, so that he can sneak a mole there that acts in accordance with what Washington dictates. All this has been shrouded in an infamous appearance of justice. The same “justice” that, by the way, from the top of an unsumed aircraft, produced the innocent “collateral victims” who began Brody’s journey. In addition, Homeland is allowed to raise reasonable doubts about this dirty war without rules only on an individual level, because such is the case, as we mentioned, of Brody, who is honest with his lover: “Today I killed a man, Carrie”. But doing it on an individual level is not enough, more so: it is unacceptable.
In the end, Saul, Lockhart, Javadi, and even Carrie don’t matter. Brody can’t see how Carrie sees him. He has perhaps gone through all the places he could have gone in his life, from the House of Representatives to a heroinemanian, and he’s still in the same place he was when we met him: he wants to die. And that’s what happens, and at least he dies in a way that doesn’t take anyone ahead (directly). Javadi describes it as “a kind of peace,” and he’s right. If this is what the series has been able to extract from Brody’s existence over a season and a half, it’s not a bad conclusion.
From here, Homeland is presented with the opportunity to fully reinvent itself. Sending Carrie to Kabul, Saul in the private sector, and leaving Dar Adal at Langley, can allow the series to become something much less small and claustrophobic as we are at home. But the course things will take will only be known when the next season begins.
Could Brody be a story of redemption and Quinn a story of destruction?
In the end, both men were destroyed by the country they loved and fought to protect. Brody’s destruction just happened off-camera, while he was in captivity.
Quinn was a reminder of the way she warped the world. In a sense “mission over man” is the mentality of the Drone Queen. That’s what she did at the end of season five and it led to Quinn’s condition, more or less. New York–being with him and caring for him–was her attempt at redemption for that. But perhaps the writers were making the point that she couldn’t be redeemed for that. She places mission over man again at the end of the season and Quinn is the price she pays for that. It’s the conclusion to a long line of decisions in which she did not value his life. (The character regression here is interesting and key and it is upsetting, but bear with me.)
However, what she didn’t lose was the seemingly rock-solid belief in the mission over the man. That is, ends over means to those ends. In a sense, she traded one “mission” for another.
The price the second time around was a man(Brody) who loved her–unendingly–and whom she loved as well. Quinn is the price she must pay for having to “unlearn” this. Losing Brody wasn’t enough. Losing Fara, Max and Aayan wasn’t enough. Losing Franny was almost enough. Losing Quinn will be enough.
On the other hand, we have Homeland, and they evidently didn’t even decide they were gonna kill Quinn until like ¾ through the season.
“We do this little play in the middle of the episode, about Carrie reaching into Brody’s soul and finding the essential good in the man and convincing Brody that there is still, distant on the horizon, a glimmer of hope for his redemption.” – Alex Gansa on “Q&A”
Brody got a redemption storyline…. Brody wasn’t a story of redemption IMO. I outlined why I think that here…
In 3.09, C tries to convince B to accept the mission by saying that he can get redemption for all his wrongs – the deaths of the imam and his wife, Liz Gaines, the secret service ppl, the vest… Brody was not innocent (because he is one anti villian and / or anti hero). Many other people died as a result of Brody’s quest for vengeance against Walden. There was a lot of collateral damage, and there would have been more if the vest had gone off as planned. That is what Carrie is suggesting Brody needs to be redeemed for.
The show, at least in season one, makes it pretty clear that Brody was turned. Ultimately, yes, he was a traitor. But back when the show was nuanced, he was a character you could care about in spite of that. And I did.
Saul would absolutely sacrifice anybody for the mission. Including himself. And Carrie has been the same for much of the series — I think that Franny and Quinn took her a long way from that perspective, though. Saul’s a lost cause.
He is the WORST. I don’t even care that eventually he “decided” that he could trust Carrie. The way he treated her was basically inexcusable. It was disgusting and patronizing and condescending and every other awful, deplorable thing about that character, all wrapped up into one scene. He treats her like some nuisance child that he’s disappointed in.
“There’s a line between us that you drew.” LIke WTF does he have selective amnesia?? Why is he ignoring everything that happened at the end of S4?? She did save his life and he did return the favor by entering into a deal with a terrorist, or did we all mass hallucinate that???
What’s really sad is that Carrie legitimately believed he would help her, and she just seemed so hurt. Like this man whom she trusted more than any other person ever, her surrogate father, her trusted friend and mentor, basically treats her like a pariah. It’s gross. He is an awful human being and I can’t imagine ever liking him again.
Let go, Carrie. Let go.
She, Carrie, saw him as a terrorist, and then when she started to see him as a hero – Nicholas ‘Marine One’ Brody.
Carrie’s eyes, in addition to the love of his life. She contributed to his redemption (and death) in equal proportion to what he himself contributed to it. The star only mattered to Carrie, and Brody’s “redemption” was never ever going to be public.
The idea of proving Brody’s innocence and finding the bomber IMO has very little to do with loving Brody and almost entirely to do with “I missed something once before. I won’t–I can’t–let that happen again,” “everyone’s not me,” “it was right in front of my eyes, and I never saw it coming.” It’s her obsession with the truth–with saving America and making up for what she missed. Because it will always be Carrie’s job, because it’s her job to catch the bad guys.
You view Brody’s end far more rosily than I do. I don’t think he was redeemed. In fact that was the whole point of “The Star.” Carrie wanted something for him, he did it, and in the end he felt hollow. He couldn’t understand how she could be so callous after he’d just killed a man and she couldn’t understand why he cared – he was a Marine, “the rules are different.” The entire reason she has to draw a star on the wall is because Lockhart won’t allow it. What Carrie wanted for Brody (for everyone else to see in him what she did, per Javadi) she did not get, ultimately.
There can be tragedy without death. The entire Brody family met a tragic, very sad ending. I explained Brody’s above (though his death was not classically tragic: you were affected when he died not because he was a good person but because Carrie loved and fought for him – or at least that’s how I felt). I thought S3 attempted and was somewhat successful in showing the wreckage that Brody had left behind wrt his family. They were all ruined, through no fault of their own. Others… we can’t dismiss Fara’s, Max’s, Quinn’s, Anna’s or Aayan’s deaths so swiftly. After Carrie’s hand in their deaths (and Brody’s, a season before) I’m convinced it’s why she left the CIA. The dissolution of Carrie and Saul’s relationship has been tragic and gutting. It makes me really sad.
it was never about America. It was about personal redemption. He didn’t want to be seen as a hero by the masses. He wanted to be seen as not a monster by his daughter. I think Brody was seeking redemption. Carrie certainly was, and it’s clear he did it for her and for his daughter. He wanted some kind of cleansing of his soul.
The interesting thing is that the actual act of killing Akbari made Brody realize the hollowness of the mission – and that his so-called redemption was hollow, too. As he said, “in what universe can you redeem one murder by committing another.”
It’s interesting because Alex Gansa describes this conversation in one of his interviews as a type of “marital” argument. Carrie clearly represents the CIA POV here thinking that certain deaths are good/justifiable and certain are bad. It’s okay for Brody to kill Akbari because he was a “really bad guy” but that type of attitude is exactly the reason why Brody was moved to act in the wake of Issa’s death. It’s this mentality of weighing lives again and playing God. “The collateral damage falls within the acceptable parameters” and all that bullshit. Carrie says later, “Who are we to stand in judgment?” but that’s actually exactly what they’ve all been doing this entire time. And I love that complexity and greyness in her.
Brody’s Redemption had only one way. He had already suffered enough for one lifetime. Death was his salvation, was where he found peace. He died wanting to die. Ironically, I don’t think he felt redeemed at the end, but he did feel at peace.
“In what universe can you redeem one murder by committing another?” – Brody
Carrie takes the time to ask if Brody can get a star at the annual CIA commemorative ceremony. (VP Walden blew up a school with the help of David Estes, both of which have stars on the CIA wall.)
Lockhart answers the question “why not Brody” literally in the same scene:
Lockhart: First of all, he wasn’t technically an employee of the CIA.
Carrie: Well… technically? Come on.
Lockhart: Second of all, his actions previous to the Tehran mission cast a long shadow.
Carrie: Sir, he was a US Marine who was captured and tortured for eight years. Who are we to stand in judgment?
Lockhart: No one’s judging him. I’m just not memorializing him on the walls of this building. That’s where I draw the line.
The star only mattered to Carrie, and Brody’s “redemption” was never ever going to be public.
“Brody is not a hero.” –Damian Lewis
“I don’t think Brody loves Carrie any more than a drowning man loves a slowly leaking life preserver.” – Andy Greenwald.
#1 I believe when he came back he was a completely different person, Jessica and family(Dana) was something that he could recognize and relate too. I don’t think he had any emotional connection to her after he came back. I think Brody definitely loved Carrie. And although to an extent the analogy of a drowning man and a life raft does describe his feelings for Carrie,
nonetheless I think there was also a real recognition of each other there too and a true meeting of two people and two hearts, and what I think of as a real devotion and love (once it developed). Their relationship was the most powerful part of the show for me. It was so touching, and real; beautiful and heartbreaking.
#2: S1; S2: To Brody Wild; Jessica his first love and Carrie his true love? I don’t know if Carrie was Brody’s true love. Seems like most of Brody’s marital problems stemmed from him being a lying, shady terrorist.
#3: Seasons 1-2-3: Is it just me that I felt that Brody never actually fell in love with Carrie? Needless to say seducing Bridy was unprofessional and I believe the foundation of their relationship was purely sexual. Carrie was Briody’s outlet for his emotional and psychological issues. I wouldn’t say that he loved her but there was a sense of urgency in their relationship as well as an intense physical attraction.
Brody had an emotional and physical connection with Carrie. He did not love her. If anything, he lusted after her and then began to actually cling to her for survival.
Carrie, on the other hand, full stop loved him. To the end of the goddamn earth.
I believe in the core of my being that Carrie will always view Brody as the love of her life and that he was her one and only soulmate.