Tag: Carrie Mathison

Falling Star Part Three: The Nameless Star Chapter One

“She has a million names, and the star has none.” –  Jacob Clifton

You’re Carrie Mathison, you’ve been reunited with the man you’ve longed for, you’ve feared for, you’ve risked body and mind for. He has turned away. What do you do?  You wipe away the tears, you go to work.

She’s agreed to Saul’s audacious plan for infiltrating Brody into Iran with the goal of targeted assassination and with Brody as the assassin. The window of opportunity is narrow, the assassin unwilling.

“When do you need him ready by?”

It’s sixteen days till Senator Lockhart assumes Saul’s job as Director of CIA. He’d never agree to this wild plan. Saul fills her in on the time in Caracas and Carrie decides ..

Squeezed between two special operatives in the back of Carrie’s car, Brody rides, stone-faced to an unknown destination. Outside of a small motel, they wait, they watch. A maid appears pushing her supply cart. Her earbuds firmly in place. Continue reading “Falling Star Part Three: The Nameless Star Chapter One”

Another Turn: Homeland Fanfic
Chapter 1

Actors sometimes don’t know what they’re doing posing for pictures together. There they are, a part of a cast, at some event, posing with their cast mates, all to do their bit to promote their project and get folks excited about seeing it and them on the screen. Little do they realize, one actor posing with another actor, even on opposite ends of the pose, even when the characters those actors play in that particular project don’t have any time together on screen or intersect at all really in that project, can spark all sorts of ideas in those of us on the other side of the fourth wall.

Such a thing happened to this viewer upon seeing Damian on one end and Costa Ronin on the other in a promo shot from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. You see, Costa Ronin as Yevgeny Gromov in Homeland, Season 7, created the worst hell imaginable for Carrie Mathison. The same Carrie Mathison who Damian Lewis as Nicholas Brody had loved so untenably in Seasons 1 – 3 of Homeland. Brody, Carrie’s one true love and the father of her child, and Gromov, her most recent and most violent nemesis on stage together? How could such a juxtaposition not light a match on the imagination? A fanfic must be written! And it was. Here’s Chapter One of a multi-chapter treatment, with a chapter posted every Friday till it’s done. A window into what it might have looked like had Brody and Gromov intersected in Homeland and Brody and Carrie had another turn.

Continue reading “Another Turn: Homeland Fanfic Chapter 1”

Falling Star Part Two: The Silence

“The Silence of a falling star lights up the purple sky.”

Hank

Season Three of Homeland is one of it’s darkest and not only for the obvious reason.

Carrie learns what Brody has known for a long time: mission before the man applies to her, too.

In a very busy, noisy season, in the background is the silence between the lovers. We wait for their reunion. They wait for a sign, a word, with ever encroaching despair.

Continue reading “Falling Star Part Two: The Silence”

Falling Star, Part One: Into The Shadows

I left Carrie and Brody suspended in a golden light near the end of episode 11 in season 2 but I think maybe Brody will never leave me be. So will you go with me into the shadows?

Nazir is dead. Brody has left his family. He and Carrie are together in peace that  “is a rare thing for me”. They are back at the cabin; the place they first discovered that peace with each other. This time it’s different: “no secrets”. They have a fascinating conversation about that. Scarier and easier. Carrie says “That should be a good thing, right?” Well, yes it would seem it should but with these two people that’s a reasonable question. The ambiguity and tenderness with which they approach each other is a touchstone of their relationship. They are finding their way moment by moment. These two actors show us characters we’ve only seen in flashes: vulnerable, amazed. It’s beautiful. Continue reading “Falling Star, Part One: Into The Shadows”

Homeland Season 2: Star Ascendant

If you missed Homeland Season 2 Part I, you can read it here.

STAR ASCENDANT

“ Go to Brody .. empower the guy.” Peter Quinn

At the Brody home chaos ensues. Dana has taken off, Jessica is raking her husband over the coals for the events at the police station, Brody is due in half an hour to meet with Roya, and Carrie is right outside with her team listening to it all, worrying.

Jessica, how has she made it this far? It’s unbearable. There is no way she can understand any of this. “Tell the CIA to back off, that your daughter matters more!” “I CAN’T I CAN’T I CAN’T!”

Continue reading “Homeland Season 2: Star Ascendant”