How did Carrie and Brody’s Love
Story Take Off in Homeland?

source: showtime
source: showtime

I don’t know what it was that had you hooked on Homeland, but I know that, for me, it was not the CIA story… Not at all… It was Carrie & Brody love story that made me a die-hard Homeland fan and kept me at the edge of my seat for three seasons. Carrie and Brody made me, and a lot of other fans, believe in their impossible love with the off the charts chemistry Claire Danes and Damian Lewis had on screen! And, I just turned a deaf ear even when they gave us hints this may not end up well — think about Carrie’s “Imagine that!” to Brody’s “But we could be happy, couldn’t we?” or Brody’s “Maybe this will all end in tears….” and rooted for my favorite star-crossed lovers to live happily ever after against all odds!

Yes, yes, I know, I know, as my mom loves to regularly remind me “it’s not a romance, it’s a CIA show” I just couldn’t help it, I loved the possibility of the impossible love story.  And that is probably why, even though I still watched Homeland… well, you have no other option but behave when a certain ginger gentleman tells you to watch… I feel it missed something… well, someone… Yet the show was still good at keeping you at the edge of your seat for eight seasons which I think is quite an accomplishment on its own!

source: Times Talks

Damian shared with the audience at Times Talks New York that he was told early on he would be a two-season character but since the Carrie-Brody chemistry did wonders on screen (it is all you to blame, Damian!) the writers were somewhat pressured to keep him around for another season. And as he continued to talk about how Homeland appealed to different people for different reasons Damian made a hilarious impression of those who genuinely watched the show as a relationship drama:

“They’re gonna get together… They’re gonna have ginger babies…”

OK, Damian, I admit you are talking about me 😀 But hey you have to admit I was right about one thing: They may not have got together but they had a ginger baby! 😀

source:

Now, while some of us, per Damian’s spot-on observation, perceived Carrie & Brody love story as the centerpiece of the first three seasons… Did you know that the love story was not a given from the start?

Quoting Carrie Mathison:

“Imagine that!”

imageedit_65_3652015067

Quoting Nicholas Brody:

“I can’t, I can’t, I can’t!”

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I really can’t! 🙂

Well… It turns out, early in the season, the writers knew that something would happen between the two characters given that Carrie’s surveillance of Brody — well, she WATCHED him in pretty intimate settings — hinted to some kindling of an attraction. Writer Alex Cary notes:

“We needed Carrie to empathize with Brody, during the drama within the drama of Carrie watching what’s going on in Brody’s house.”(source: Homeland Revealed by Matthew Hurwitz. 2014. Chronicle Books. Page 55)

source: Showtime
source: Showtime

However, the real spark did not occur until the fourth episode Semper I. In this episode, forced to stop her video surveillance, Carrie, being Carrie, decides to take a new initiative and essentially stalks Brody to a veterans support group meeting held in a church and “bumps into” him! And, the key moment of the episode is when the two end up flirting as they stand outside the church… and in the rain…

source: showtime
source: showtime

…And, Brody being the sweetest flirt as Carrie is leaving:

“Don’t leave me like this… All alone… in the rain!”

source: showtime
source: showtime

“Lewis and Danes had only one scene together in the pilot, in which Carrie debriefs Brody upon his return, and the mood was fairly professional.

source: Showtime

So, the energy between two actors in the parking lot scene came as a surprise. The morning after that scene was filmed, Alex Gansa recalls, “I walked into my office, and my assistant said, ‘Alex, you may want to take a look at these dailies.’ I said, ‘Why, is there a problem?’ And she goes, ‘The opposite.’

I remember watching these two actors together and realizing, ‘Wow this is the show, right here.’ So it became clear that we would try to put them in each other’s company as often as possible. There was a long story to tell in this relationship.” (From Homeland Revealed by Matthew Hurwitz. 2014. Chronicle Books. Page 55)

Indeed.

source: showtime
source: showtime

Claire Danes and Damian Lewis gave us, in Damian’s words, “two broken-winged birds sort of hobbling and circling around each other” in Carrie and Brody  in such a compelling way that even though it really ended in tears, it was a GREAT RIDE as long as it lasted. And if you miss these two as much as we do, you may want to re-live the LOVE with JaniaJania’s brilliant Carrie and Brody: Was It Love? Series or her Homeland fan fiction Another Turn. Or you can find out more about Damian Lewis – Claire Danes on-screen partnership in their recent Variety Actors on Actors Zoom Conversation. Cheers!

Author: Damianista

Academic, Traveler, Blogger, Runner, Theatre Lover, Wine Snob, Part-time New Yorker, and Walking Damian Lewis Encyclopedia :D Procrastinated about a fan's diary on Damian Lewis for a while and the rest is history!

27 thoughts on “How did Carrie and Brody’s Love
Story Take Off in Homeland?”

  1. Love your recap.. Although that excruciating love was doomed to fall at some point, Homeland could not have been the same series without these two intense characters. Love the gifts 😉

    1. Thank you for reading! That is why, even though I still watch the show and I like it, I constantly feel there is something missing… well, someone 🙂 Brody is my all-time favorite fictional character. I still miss him!

  2. Aww what a Happy Brody Birthday to me! January ‘17 I gave that show Homeland try…. So I’m only living one year in the past, not seven! Sometimes I feel like the Mrs Haversham of Fanfun =-o

    1. Haha I love your sense of humor! And have a wonderful Brody Birthday. It was December 2012 for me!

      My mom watched only the first three seasons because we were spending a month together and I was like “why not introduce mom to Homeland?” She still says the show is very good even though there is no one to look at 🙂 She loves Game of Thrones!

  3. Just read on a social media site “ My cousin has a friend who was on the crew for Homeland season one and the only person who was down to earth was the guy who played Brody “

  4. The person went on to say that Damian “was awesome to everybody “. Mandy true to his reputation was described as “a total diva”. Have you not heard that?

      1. If you haven’t you must see the Princess Bride!! Mandy young and beautiful; at he height of his powers. Damian, to his own chagrin, relates greeting Mandy with a famous line from the movie. One of the best

        1. I know about Damian’s first meeting with Mandy with a line from Princess Bride but I never saw the movie. I should!

  5. Well, I’ve finally crept up upon Homeland in my chronological readings of the website. It’s interesting that most of Damian’s projects are preceded by buzz and news. Homeland seems to simply appear. It’s fun and you’ve all done a great job. Hope everyone is following our guy there as well!

    1. Thank you so much! I would love to go dig the archives and make a post about the time just before Homeland – the buzz! It seems Nick Brody was first Scott Brody! 🙂

  6. “They’re gonna have ginger babies” is the strongest argument in favor of a love story to begin. 😀 <3

    It was a great match indeed! I have not watched a crush like this lately except in "Don't move" with Penelope Kruz which is from 2004 😀

    I could not remember the exact date my CRUSH happened, so I checked the wikipedia – it was on my birthday 18th February 2015. 🙂

    1. I started watching in December 2012, I don’t know when my crush started. I remember looking for Season 2 desperately when we were done with Season 1. Maybe I had already fallen for Brody but it was probably Q&A in Season 2 that sealed the deal for me. So maybe January/February 2013. God, the kind of things we are checking! 🙂 How come you checked Wikipedia to find out about your crush date?

      1. Well, you already know your crush-date was the Emma evening. As Notlinda mentioned her Brody Birthday – I was curious about mine. Just as you I remembered the month but not the date, probably because I binge-watched 3 seasons for less than 2 days + many Damian’s interviews etc (it was no space and no time – only Damian and Homeland 😀 )
        Sometimes I use wikipedia for quick reference as if I can not find the original title of the movie or series (especially for Asian, Scandinavian or Middle Eastern). That’s why I know that distributors almost always add information about translators, the team (studio) that voiced over movie (episodes), the dates of the broadcasts etc. So, you can surely find your date. Here is mine : https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D1%8A%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%88%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%B3%D1%83%D1%80%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82_(%D1%81%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B0%D0%BB)

        It’s strange how sometimes the titles have been changed in different countries with no reasons.The Bulgarian sounds like “Internal /interior/ security” and the Russian – “a stranger among his…” which has a connotation with Brody’s alienation.

  7. I loved their chemistry and story. These are the kind of romances I enjoy – where the romance happens as part of an exciting plot. If it’s just Jane Austen-style talking for hours in a mansion I switch off!

    And what’s clever is that she has a reason for stalking him. It’s not Twilight where a vampire watches a girl sleep solely because he’s obsessed – she watches him because she thinks he’s a terrorist. Then develops feelings by accident. That to me is a more interesting romance than one where there is no plot but characters talking and for ages then eventually get together!

    I wish they’d continued it for longer. I would have changed S2 so they don’t get the suicide tape until the end of the season, then S3 is Brody tracking down Nazir with his real allegiance uncertain.

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