Carrie Mathison

: Saul Berenson: "Why? You like bad boys?"
: Carrie Mathison: "That sounds funny coming from you. You know why girls like bad boys, Saul? Because it gives us an excuse to be bad all the while convincing ourselves we're saving them."
: — [src]
Caroline Anne "Carrie" Mathison is the main protagonist of the American television drama/thriller series Homeland on Showtime. She is a CIA officer who, while on assignment in Iraq, learned from a CIA asset that an American prisoner of war had been turned by al-Qaeda. 
She is portrayed by Claire Danes. 
== Overview ==
Carrie Mathison is a CIA agent who plays by her own rules when it comes to protecting the US from terrorist attacks. Her uncanny intuition, dogged determination, and gift for persuasion have helped her convert allies, thwart plots, and take out terrorists, often using controversial methods that are uniquely her own. But Carrie's particular mix of traits also includes bipolar disorder, for which she must take daily medication in order to function. Her unusual sensitivities make it difficult for her to maintain the line between her personal and professional lives. She readily tries to get emotionally close to her targets and is not even above using sex to get what she wants, but the results often wreak havoc on her personally.
== Biography ==
A raid on a terrorist safehouse in the Middle East leads to the rescue of USMC Sergeant Nicholas Brody, who has been missing in action for eight years. Brody receives a hero's welcome from his wife Jessica, CIA Deputy Director David Estes, the Vice President and the entire country — but not from Carrie Mathison, a former CIA Operations Officer. Based on intelligence from her last (and completely unauthorized) mission, Carrie believes that Brody is a sleeper agent waiting to be activated. With the help of her mentor, CIA Middle East section chief Saul Berenson, Carrie sets out to prove that Brody, seen by the world as an American hero, is really a traitor.
== Background ==
Carrie Mathison, the Drone Queen, (born April 5, 1979), is a former operations officer working for the Central Intelligence Agency. Mathison is Bipolar Disorder, compulsively sexual, occasionally predatory, Case Officer.
In seasons one, two and three she is obsessively hunting down a terrorist named Abu Nazir, whom she suspects turned Nick Brody, an American prisoner of war, against his country.
In season 4, being known as the Drone Queen, served as head of the CIA station in Kabul.
In Season 5, while working in Berlin for the Düring Foundation, Caroline had the position of head of security.
In the Season 6, Anne became the secret senior advisor to newly-elected President Elizabeth Keane.
In Season 7, Mathison has left the position and is investigating the President's ties to the Russians. She is later captured by the latter and for seven months is left without access to her medication, which leaves her in a crazed state.
In Season 8, Carrie Mathison is recovering from brutal confinement in a Russian gulag. Her body is healing, but her memory remains fractured.
Carrie a CIA analyst, jazz lover (Thelonius Monk, Bud Powwell, Kamasi Washington), catholic and does not eat meat. Also has a history of alcoholism and was never a spy and yes a case officer (the person who recruits the spy).
==Novels==
Caroline Anne Mathison, nickname Carrie; operations officer, Baghdad Station, NCS (National Clandestine Service), CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) in the novel written by Andrew Kaplan:
#Carrie's Run
#Saul's Game
==About Her==
Carrie Mathison is a top CIA agent who is not afraid to use unorthodox methods in her job - uncovering terrorists in the Middle East. But a botched mission has made her unpopular within the Agency and stripped her of her authority in field operations. Carrie is also plagued by feelings of guilt because her skills failed when it came to 9/11 and therefore she feels destined never to let something like that happen again. Her questionable suspicions about Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody and her unauthorized investigation into this case could cost her her career, her reputation, and most likely her own judgment.
*Grew up... in a suburb of Washington D.C. Carrie, a Princeton graduate, has always been dedicated and intense. She received her real education working as a field agent in Iraq for the C.I.A.
*Living... on a thin line between sanity and madness. The only two things thing keeping Carrie grounded are her job and the pills she takes to control her bipolar disorder. Her condition, unfortunately, is often incompatible with her job. As she goes deeper into her investigations, it becomes difficult to distinguish her imagination from reality.
*Profession... Case Officer at the Central Intelligence Agency. Carrie was relocated back to the United States after causing an international incident in Iraq. Carrie’s dedication to her job and to her country sometimes causes her to go overboard. “I missed something once before,” she tells her boss, Saul, referring to 9/11. “I won’t, I can’t let that happen again.”
*Relationship Status... single, but Carrie doesn’t have time for a relationship. The only place where she finds the opportunity for romance is the workplace, which has gotten her into trouble in the past. She seems resigned to a life married to the C.I.A. “I’m gonna be alone my whole life, aren’t I?” she asks.
*Challenge... convincing her superiors at the Agency about a lead she obtained in Iraq. She insists to her boss that an American prisoner of war has been turned, and suspects Nick Brody. But Carrie’s bipolar disorder makes her prone to seeing conspiracy and pattern where there is none. Convinced that she is the only one who knows the truth, she embarks on her own mission to investigate this controversial lead.
*Personality... driven and intense. Carrie is willing to sacrifice anything for the sake of her professional and patriotic mission. Some of her colleagues would describe her as a loose cannon. She’s one of the C.I.A.’s best agents, but she’s also created severe problems for the agency.
==Biography==
Carrie was born on April 5, 1979 in Annapolis, Maryland. She has a Bachelor's degree in Near East Studies and Linguistics from Northwestern University, studied Arabic and Farsi at the American University of Beirut, and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Princeton University with a BA in Arabic Languages ​​and Literature in 1999. (Novel Homeland: Carrie's Run)
===Early life===
Carrie joined the CIA on August 1, 1999, and was recruited, trained, and placed in the field by CIA veteran Saul Berenson, with whom she continues to have a close working relationship. From the age of 22 she has been dealing with bipolar disorder, which is why she secretly takes an antipsychotic medication named clozapine. She also takes Lithium and clonazepam. She also has a history of alcoholism (Novel Homeland: Saul's Game).
Carrie made her first overseas assignment in 2004 to Lebanon, where she was not afraid at all (The Tradition of Hospitality). It is suggested that at some point she had an affair with David Estes, who was her boss, which led the breakup of his marriage (Semper I) (Novel Homeland: Carrie' Run).
===Nick Brody's return===
In Baghdad, Carrie Mathison is frantically trying to meet with a condemned terrorist named Hasan Ibrahim who claims to have intel about an attack Abu Nazir is planning against the U.S. At the prison, Hasan tells Mathison:
"An American prisoner of war has been turned." - Carrie say for Saul
10 months after her reassignment, Carrie attends an emergency staff meeting and learns that Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis), a U.S. Marine sergeant, has been rescued after eight years in terrorist captivity. Carrie tells Saul about Hasan's claims, and expresses concern that Brody is the POW he was describing. With the CIA having no cause to investigate Brody, Carrie conducts her own unauthorized surveillance using a one-month FISA warrant delivered by Saul. Initially, Carrie finds no evidence of Brody's involvement with terrorism.
When her FISA warrant expires, Carrie takes to making personal contact with Brody instead. She bumps into Brody at a veterans' support group, where they strike up a conversation and immediately bond over their mutual experiences in the Middle East. Brody asks Carrie to have a drink with him one night, culminating in a drunken sexual encounter hot in Carrie's car. The next day, he is brought in to Langley for a polygraph test over the apparent suicide of Afsal Hamid (Waleed Zuaiter), a detained terrorist with whom Brody had a violent confrontation. Carrie, suspicious of Brody's replies, orders the interviewer to ask if he has ever been unfaithful to his wife. Brody says "no", beating the polygraph.
Afterwards, Carrie and Brody drive to her family's secluded cabin to spend the romantic weekend together. However, after Brody realizes Carrie has been spying on him, she forces him to admit to his conversion to Islam, his meeting with and personal affection for Nazir, and his murder of a fellow POW named Tom Walker under duress by the terrorists. As Brody leaves, Saul contacts Carrie and informs her that Tom Walker (Chris Chalk) is alive and was the POW who was turned. Carrie tries to apologize to Brody, but he rebuffs her and goes back to his family.
The investigation into Walker leads Carrie and Saul to Mansour al-Zahrani (Ramsey Faragallah), a Saudi diplomat who acts as Nazir's intermediary. Carrie blackmails al-Zahrani into arranging a meeting with Walker at Farragut Square. However, the meet ends in disaster when Walker detonates a briefcase bomb carried by a double, killing al-Zahrani and three bystanders. Carrie is injured in the explosion, leading to a severe manic episode that causes her to be hospitalized. Upon learning of her affair with Brody, Estes — already under pressure by Vice President William Walden (Jamey Sheridan) to find a scapegoat for the bombing — dismisses Carrie from the CIA.
Carrie deduces the target of Walker and Nazir's upcoming attack: Walden's upcoming policy summit at the State Department. When Walker stages a sniper attack on the dignitaries, Brody, Walden, and Estes are led to an underground bunker. Carrie realizes that the shooting is a diversion from the actual attack, in which Brody will bomb the bunker with a suicide vest and kill everyone inside. Carrie appears at Brody's house and pleads with his daughter, Dana (Morgan Saylor), to contact her father and stop him from carrying out the attack. An alarmed Dana calls 911, leading the police to arrest Carrie.
Brody relents from the attack at the last minute following a sudden phone call from Dana. The following day, as Carrie is being released into Maggie's custody, Brody confronts her and tells her to leave him and his family alone. Carrie, now discredited and doubting her own sanity, asks to be taken to a hospital for electroconvulsive therapy. Saul tries to stop the procedure, but she is undeterred. When Saul mentions that Nazir's son, Issa, was killed in a drone strike, Carrie — remembering that Brody cried out Issa's name during a nightmare — fleetingly ponders this connection before being given a seizure by the ECT treatment.
Six months later, Carrie is working as an English as a Second Language teacher and living with her sister. When one of her former CIA assets, Fatima Ali (Clara Khoury), demands to talk with Carrie, Saul and Estes persuade her to fly to Lebanon for a meeting. Fatima gives the time and location of a planned meeting between her husband and Nazir in exchange for her defection. Saul and Estes' lack of trust in Carrie's judgment causes her to briefly have another breakdown. Carrie, Saul, and Estes set up an operation to capture Nazir, but Brody — who has been elected to Congress and is observing the operation with Walden in a situation room — tips him off and allows him to escape.
Carrie, her obsession with the case renewed, ransacks Fatima's apartment and comes out with a satchel full of documents. After a pursuit by a Lebanese mob, Saul finds a hidden compartment in the satchel that it contains a memory card with Brody confessing to the aborted State Department bombing. When the mission is over, however, she realizes that she will not be permitted back into the CIA, and attempts suicide by overdosing on her medication. At the last minute, she changes her mind and vomits up the pills. Moments later, Saul shows up at her door and shows her Brody's confession. The video convinces Estes to let Carrie watch Brody, and to assign a CIA analyst named Peter Quinn (Rupert Friend) to run the operation. Quinn has Carrie meet with Brody as part of a sting operation. During the meeting, Carrie intuits that he is on to her and blows her cover by confronting Brody about his treason, forcing Saul and Quinn to arrest him.
During her interrogation of Brody, Carrie catches him by surprise by admitting that she wanted him to leave his family to be with her. After Carrie systematically breaks Brody down and correctly surmises that Dana's phone call prevented the State Department bombing, he tearfully admits to his collaboration with Nazir and other al-Qaeda associates, and reveals that Nazir is planning an attack. Carrie gives Brody an ultimatum: either be exposed and sent to prison, or help the CIA in exchange for immunity. Left with no other options, Brody agrees to help the CIA.
The pressures arising from both his family's needs and his espionage work lead Brody to break off contact with al-Qaeda. Carrie takes Brody to a hotel to convince him to go back to al-Qaeda; she has hot sex with him while Saul and Quinn uncomfortably listen in. After Brody helps foil the attack, Carrie is captured by Nazir, who threatens to kill her unless Brody aids him in assassinating Walden. After Brody kills Walden at Nazir's instruction, Nazir releases Carrie, who leads the search of the abandoned mill where she was held. Realizing that Nazir is still hiding in the building, she leads a SWAT team inside and witnesses his death. Estes offers to reinstate Carrie and promote her to Station Chief. When Brody leaves his wife Jessica (Morena Baccarin) to be with her, however, Carrie finds herself torn between her career and her love for him.
She goes with Brody to a memorial service for Walden at Langley, and tells him she wants to be with him. During the service, al-Qaeda operatives plant a bomb in Brody's car and detonate it, in an attack planned by Nazir in advance of his death. The blast kills Estes, Walden's family, and numerous senior government officials. Al-Qaeda also leaks Brody's confession video, thus framing him for the attack. Believing that Brody is innocent yet knowing that no one else will, Carrie drives him over the Canada–US border and sets out to clear his name.
Fifty-eight days after the Langley bombing, Carrie has been reinstated to the CIA and answers questioning by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. During her testimony, she states that Brody had nothing to do with the attack. Information is leaked to the public about her previous immunity deal with Brody, as well as her sexual relationship with him. Saul acknowledges Carrie's bipolar disorder when he appears before the committee. In retaliation, Carrie leaks classified information to a reporter, leading Saul to have her temporarily committed to a mental hospital. She appears before a hospital committee to ask for her release, which her father and sister attend. When they tell her to begin taking lithium again, she flies into a rage and has to be forcibly medicated and restrained. She is then formally committed.
Weeks later, lawyer Paul Franklin (Jason Butler Harner) visits Carrie in the hospital and offers to help her retaliate against the CIA, but she refuses. Franklin nevertheless secures her release and persuades her to meet with Leland Bennett (Martin Donovan), a lawyer representing the Iranian bank that financed the Langley bombing. Bennett makes a deal with Carrie: his clients will protect her from further reprisals in exchange for intelligence on the CIA's inner workings. The episode's final scene reveals that her entire ordeal is part of a secret operation she has been working on with Saul.
Jessica Brody begs Carrie to help find Dana, who has run off with her boyfriend Leo. Carrie runs a ploy to slip her surveillance and tell FBI Special Agent Hall (Billy Smith), who is assigned to the Brody family detail, to find Dana. That night, Carrie is kidnapped and brought before Majid Javadi (Shaun Toub), an Iranian intelligence operative and one of the masterminds of the Langley attack. Carrie offers Javadi the agency's protection in exchange for information on the other bombers. Javadi agrees to help them, but evades his surveillance detail to murder his ex-wife and daughter-in-law. Carrie and Quinn arrive moments later and take him into custody. Meanwhile, Carrie learns that she is pregnant.
During questioning, Javadi says that one of Nazir's men detonated the Langley bomb, and that Brody had nothing to do with it. As Carrie delivers Javadi to the airport, he tells her that Bennett knows the bomber's identity. Carrie enlists Quinn to help clear Brody's name. To track down the bomber, she tells Franklin that Leland's firm has been linked to the bombing, provoking Leland into ordering the bomber moved out of the country. She takes part in a stakeout of the bomber's hotel room and watches as Franklin approaches with a silenced pistol. Carrie insists on intervening, as she cannot prove Brody's innocence without the bomber's testimony. Black ops agent Dar Adal (F. Murray Abraham) orders her to stand down, but she ignores him and starts running toward the hotel. Quinn shoots her in the shoulder to stop her. Adal's team then drives her to the hospital.
Saul visits Carrie in the hospital and reveals the full scope of the operation: Brody will seek political asylum in Iran and assassinate the leader of the Revolutionary Guard so that Javadi can take his place. Carrie goes to see Brody, who is suffering through heroin withdrawal, and takes him to the motel where Dana is working as a maid. Brody tries to get out of the car and see her, but is subdued by the soldiers flanking him; Carrie then tells him that going through the operation is his only chance for redemption. After Brody weans off the drugs and regains his strength, Carrie takes him to see Dana, who says that she never wants to see Carrie or her father again. Carrie and Brody say goodbye as he ships out for Tehran.
Carrie watches via satellite as a Special Operations team (United States Army Special Forces) transports Brody to the Iranian border. The team encounters Iraqi Police officers who recognize Brody and open fire on them. The operation is endangered when the team's van hits a land mine, severely injuring the team leader and attracting enemy fire. Saul calls off the operation and orders Brody to turn back, but Brody refuses and runs toward the border. Carrie tells Brody that he will die on his own, but he insists that she find a way to get him back safely. Fortunately, Iranian border guards take Brody in, saving the operation.
Carrie travels to Tehran to make sure the assassination goes smoothly, and watches as Brody is taken to meet with the head of the Revolutionary Guard, General Deshan Akbari (Houshang Touzie). Brody does not get close enough to Akbari to inject him with cyanide as planned, putting the mission in jeopardy. The situation worsens when Brody starts giving interviews to Iranian television denouncing the U.S.; over Carrie's objections, Saul orders Brody to be killed. Carrie calls Brody to warn him, and pleads with him to come with her to safety. Brody refuses, however, and manages to enter the Revolutionary Guard headquarters and kill Akbari.
After informing Carrie of his success, Brody goes with her to a safe house 100 miles out of Tehran. There, she tells him she is pregnant with his child. Saul assures her that Brody will be safely extracted, but his successor as CIA Director, Senator Andrew Lockhart (Tracy Letts), betrays their location to Javadi, who arranges their capture. Brody is convicted of treason and sentenced to death. Carrie tries desperately to secure his release, but to no avail. When she calls him in his cell, he asks her not to come to his execution. She goes anyway, however, and calls out his name as he is hanged in a public square.
Four months later, Lockhart promotes a heavily pregnant Carrie to Station Chief in Istanbul, but refuses her request to give Brody a star on the CIA Memorial Wall. Carrie accepts the job, but later tells her father and sister that she won't be taking the baby – a girl – with her to Istanbul. Her father tells her that he will take the child. Later, Carrie draws a star on the wall for Brody after a memorial ceremony for the victims of the Langley attack.
===Islamabad ===
Carrie, in 6 months as CIA Station Chief in Afghanistan, authorizes a drone strike on a Pakistani farmhouse where terrorist Haissam Haqqani (Numan Acar) is in hiding. The strike occurs while Haqqani is attending a wedding, resulting in his apparent death along with those of 40 civilians. Carrie travels to Islamabad to learn that Sandy Bachman (Corey Stoll), the Station Chief in Pakistan, had been outed. Carrie and Quinn attempt to rescue Bachman, but they are spotted by an angry mob that kills Bachman. Carrie and Quinn manage to escape. In Washington, Lockhart permanently "recalls" Carrie from her post in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, Carrie is struggling with raising her infant daughter, Frannie. She sees no point in being a mother with Brody dead, and interacts with the child as little as possible, often leaving her in the care of her sister Maggie. While bathing Frannie, Carrie is momentarily tempted to drown her. She leaves Frannie with Maggie, reasoning that her daughter is better off without her.
Carrie and Quinn meet Jordan Harris (Adam Godley), a former CIA case officer who reveals that Bachman had leaked intelligence and was protected by Lockhart. Carrie blackmails Lockhart into promoting her to Bachman's former post as the CIA's Station Chief in Pakistan. In Islamabad, Carrie attempts to turn Haqqani's nephew Aayan Ibrahim (Suraj Sharma), a Pakistani medical student whose family was killed in the drone strike, and who may hold valuable information. Quinn requests dismissal from the CIA, but Carrie convinces him to come to Islamabad when he finds evidence that Bachman's death was a setup.
Carrie learns that Haqqani is still alive, and sees him together with Aayan. Suspecting that Aayan is involved in terrorism, she sleeps with him in an attempt to recruit him as an asset. Carrie stages her own kidnapping to scare Aayan into leaving the country. She then watches via drone as he meets with Haqqani, who produces Saul, bound and gagged, from his car. Haqqani accuses Aayan of spying on him and shoots him in the head, killing him. Enraged, Carrie orders a drone strike, even though it would kill Saul. Quinn stops her, however.
Meanwhile, Dennis Boyd (Mark Moses), the husband of the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, breaks into Carrie's apartment and photographs her medication and family photos. Boyd switches her medication with a hallucinogen. She has a delusional episode and attacks a security guard, and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officers take her into custody. Lieutenant colonel Aasar Khan (Raza Jaffrey) questions her, but she hallucinates that he is Brody and breaks down crying in his arms. She receives a call from Saul, who has escaped from his captors. She helps him evade the local Taliban, and talks him out of committing suicide when they find him. Ultimately, however, she delivers him to the Taliban so they will spare his life. Later that night, she meets with Khan, who tells her that Boyd is working with the ISI. Carrie sets a trap for Boyd with his wife's help, and he is taken into custody.
Carrie oversees a prisoner exchange: Saul for five Taliban members. When Saul comes into view, however, Carrie sees a young boy behind him wearing a suicide vest. Carrie goes herself to retrieve Saul, and persuades him to let the exchange go forward and come with her. As they go back to the U.S. Embassy, their car is hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. Marines pull Carrie and Saul from the wreckage, and take them back the embassy, which has been invaded by Haqqani's forces. The White House orders U.S. forces out of Pakistan and relieves Carrie of her command. When Quinn kidnaps Farhad Ghazi (Tamer Burjaq), the ISI agent who kidnapped Saul, Carrie asks Lockhart to let her stay in Islamabad so she can bring him in. She finds Quinn and pleads with him to leave the country, but he refuses and escapes. She later stops him from assassinating Haqqani, and sees that Haqqani has Adal in his entourage. Meanwhile, she receives a phone call from Maggie, who tells her that their father has died. Carrie finds some solace in talking to Frannie, and decides to be a better mother to her.
Quinn shows up at her father's funeral, and the two share a kiss. She also sees her estranged mother Ellen (Victoria Clark), and finds out that she has a half-brother. She confronts Adal, and learns that Quinn has accepted a mission in Syria and that Saul and Adal are negotiating with Haqqani.
===Berlin ===
The fifth season begins 30 months later. Carrie has left the CIA, and is living in Berlin with Franny and her boyfriend Jonas (Alexander Fehling). She now works as head of security for the Düring Foundation, and is tasked by her boss Otto Düring (Sebastian Koch) to prepare him for a trip to Lebanon. She meets with her former colleague Allison Carr (Miranda Otto) to assess the security situation there; Allison refuses to help unless Carrie gives her inside information on the Foundation, a request Carrie refuses. She arranges safe passage for Düring to Lebanon - where an attempt is made on his life. Carrie meets with a contact named Behruz (Mousa Kraish), who tells her that she, not Düring, was the target of the attack.
To find out who wants her dead, Carrie goes off her medication, claiming that her manic phases make her mind sharper. She and Jonas get into an argument when he finds out how many drone strikes she ordered while at the CIA, and he storms out. Soon after, he learns that Quinn kidnapped his son and then released him as a ploy to draw Carrie out. The following night, Carrie finds Quinn sneaking up on Jonas' house and shoots him in the back. Quinn was wearing body armor, however, and incapacitates her. Quinn tells her that Saul gave him an order to kill her. They stage a crime scene and take photos to fake Carrie's death, and Carrie prepares to go into hiding. Before she does, she insists on scouting the post office where Quinn gets his assignments in order to confirm whether it really was Saul who wanted her killed. After Quinn drops off his "proof" of Carrie's death in the P.O. box, a hitman arrives, targeting Quinn, and a gunfight ensues in which Quinn is wounded. Carrie leaves Quinn with Jonas, and goes to investigate. She learns that the hitman worked for Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), and realizes that Russia wants CIA intelligence that had recently been stolen by hackers.
She meets with Saul and asks him to give her copies of the hacked documents, but he refuses. She decides to go into hiding, and asks Düring to smuggle her out of the country. Just before she is about to leave, however, Düring gives her the documents from Saul, who now believes her. One of the documents concerns an operation she worked on in Baghdad with Allison 10 years earlier, and she finds out that Ahmed Nazari (Darwin Shaw), a former asset who had been presumed dead, is still alive. She meets with Allison, who promises to help her. Carrie then asks her asset Numan (Atheer Adal) to hack into Allison's computer to find the case files about Nazari, and discovers a screensaver photo of Nazari at Allison's favorite bar. She deduces from the picture that Allison and Nazari are romantically involved, and that Allison is the traitor.
Carrie convinces Saul to put Allison under surveillance, despite the fact that he and Allison are in a relationship. They then lead her to believe that an SVR chief has defected to the U.S., and that he has documents revealing how the CIA had been infiltrated. Allison panics and goes to her handler, Ivan Krupin (Mark Ivanir), which allows the CIA to put her under arrest. Carrie then sees a news report showing video of Islamic State terrorists poisoning Quinn with sarin, and threatening to unleash a chemical attack on a major European city in 24 hours. Carrie traces the video to an address in Berlin, where she finds Quinn, barely alive. Quinn ultimately lives, but is left in a coma.
Carrie asks her contacts for information on an underground doctor in the area where Quinn went missing. Following a tip from former Hezbollah commander Al-Amin (George Georgiou), she tracks down one of the cell's supporters, Dr. Hussein (Mehdi Nebbou). Under threat of arrest, he brings her to an apartment belonging to Qasim (Alireza Bayram), one of the terrorists. In the apartment, Carrie finds extensive research on the Hauptbahnhof train station and heads there to investigate. She finds Qasim in the subway, and pleads with him to stop the plan to bomb the station. Qasim tries to reason with his cousin Bibi (René Ifrah), the ringleader, but Bibi kills him. Carrie then shoots and kills Bibi, neutralizing the threat. Back home, Jonas breaks up with Carrie, saying that neither he nor his son will ever be safe around her. Saul asks Carrie to rejoin the CIA, but she declines his offer. Düring essentially proposes to her, giving her a chance to co-head his Foundation. She does not answer him, and he gives her time to think about it.
Meanwhile, Quinn suffers a massive brain hemorrhage. Adal gives Carrie a letter Quinn wrote declaring his love for her. She visits him in the hospital, locks the door to his room, and removes his pulse monitor, implying a mercy killing. The episode ends with Carrie pausing before anything happens to Quinn.
===New York ===
The fifth season begins 3 months later. Carrie has returned to the United States and is living in Brooklyn, New York with Frannie. She is working for a foundation that provides legal aid to Muslims accused of terrorism, and serving as an informal advisor to President-Elect Elizabeth Keane (Elizabeth Marvel). She is also caring for Quinn, who emerged from the coma with neurological damage and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
When her client Sekou Bah (J. Mallory Cree) is killed in and framed for a terrorist attack, Carrie begins to investigate. She goes to talk with Sekou's family, leaving Quinn to watch Frannie. A group of protestors, angered by leaked reports that Carrie was Sekou's lawyer, gather outside Carrie's house; this triggers Quinn's PTSD, and he shoots one of the protestors and takes a reporter hostage. Carrie manages to talk Quinn down so he will be taken in alive. Dar Adal - the mastermind of the attack - exploits the situation by telling Children's Protective Services (CPS) that Carrie put Frannie in danger, in order to drive Carrie over the edge and discredit her in Keane's eyes. The plan works: CPS put Frannie in a foster home, and Carrie falls into an alcoholic despair that motivates Keane to question her judgment.
Saul raises Carrie's spirits by taking her to see Frannie, and asks for her help in setting up a meeting between Keane and Majid Javadi, who claims to have evidence that Adal is manipulating her. At the meeting, however, Javadi lies that Iran is not complying with its nuclear deal with the United States. Carrie discovers that Adal is part of a conspiracy of disgruntled undercover operatives who want to undermine Keane's antiwar foreign policy. She also finds out that Javadi had been working with Adal, and that Adal is the brains behind alt-right media personality Brett O'Keefe (Jake Weber), who is peddling a false conspiracy theory that Keane's son Andrew, who died fighting in Iraq, was deserting his post when he was killed.
Adal betrays Javadi to Mossad, who want to arrest him on terrorism charges. As he is taken away, Javadi leaves evidence of Adal's treachery for Carrie, who takes it to Keane. Keane asks Carrie to testify that Adal covered up the infiltration by a Russian agent of the CIA Berlin station. Carrie is reluctant to do so, as that would ruin Saul's career, but ultimately agrees that it is the best course of action. She refuses to testify at the last minute, however, after her driver makes suspicious comments about her upcoming appointment with CPS. After she refuses, she gets an ominous phone call informing her that her upcoming supervised visit with Frannie has been cancelled. She realizes that Adal is blackmailing her, and calls the CIA to tell them that he has "won".
Quinn informs her that he found evidence that Sekou was set up, and that Porteous Belli (C. J. Wilson), an assassin working for Adal, has been spying on her. They go to the conspirators' safe house, where Belli attacks them. Quinn kills Belli, and finds evidence that the conspirators are planning to assassinate Keane. Moments later, however, the house is destroyed by a hidden bomb, taking the evidence with it. Carrie and Quinn rush to Keane's headquarters, which has just received a bomb threat. During the evacuation, Adal calls Carrie and tells her that the bomb threat is a ruse to get Keane out of the building, where she can be assassinated, while Quinn is to be framed as the killer. Carrie stops Keane's vehicle from leaving, seconds before the decoy vehicle is destroyed. Quinn smuggles Carrie and Keane out of the building in his car and sacrifices his life to save them when a special ops team, answering to Adal, opens fire on them. Adal is arrested and Keane is inaugurated as President of the United States.
Weeks later, Keane - who has become hawkish and paranoid since the attempt on her life - asks Carrie to work for her administration. Carrie agrees, but has second thoughts when Keane orders dozens of intelligence operatives, including Saul, arrested on suspicion of being involved in the conspiracy. Carrie tries to meet with Keane to dissuade her, but Keane's Chief of Staff David Wellington (Linus Roache) has her banned from the White House.
===Keane's presidency ===
A few months later, Carrie is doing covert work for the CIA, and she and Frannie are living with Maggie and her family - a tense living situation, as Maggie's husband Bill (Mackenzie Astin) works for the Keane administration. Carrie sets up a meeting between Senator Sam Paley (Dylan Baker) and her old FBI contact Dante Allen (Morgan Spector), who has evidence of corruption within the administration. To escape a man she thinks is following her, Carrie changes the meeting place and asks Maggie's daughter Josie (Courtney Grosbeck) to bring her the keys. The meeting falls apart when Dante refuses to testify in court, and frays her relationship with Maggie, who is angry that Carrie put Josie in danger. The rift worsens when Maggie finds out that Carrie has stopped taking her lithium in favor of black market Seroquel.
While watching her surveillance feeds, Carrie sees an unknown woman (Sandrine Holt) going into Wellington's house. Desperate to identify her, Carrie posts a screen capture of the woman on 4chan, asking if anyone can identify her. A hacker responds to the post, and lures Carrie into downloading a file which infects her laptop with ransomware. The hard drive is encrypted with a demand for a $5,000 payment in bitcoin. The hacker then threatens to reveal Carrie's spying and raises his price to $20,000. Carrie tries to seduce the hacker by performing a striptease on her webcam, which entices the hacker to meet with her in person. At their meeting, Carrie beats the hacker with a baton, reveals that she is CIA, and threatens to kill him if he doesn't leave her alone.
Carrie learns from Dante that the woman in Wellington's house is Simone Martin (Sandrine Holt), who is in a sexual relationship with Wellington as part of a plan to get U.S. intelligence for the Russians. She also appears to be connected to the mysterious death of Gen. Jamie MacLendon (Robert Knepper), one of the conspirators in the assassination attempt on Keane. Carrie breaks into Martin's house to gather information, but is arrested for trespassing. Dante intervenes and manages to get her out of jail. Carrie proposes to Dante a "completely illegal" plan to connect Wellington to Martin's dealings, and Dante agrees to help.
Dante, Max, and former CIA officer Thomas Anson (James D'Arcy) kidnap Martin and get her to confess her complicity in MacLendon's death, which leads to her testifying in Paley's hearings. Carrie has her doubts, however, and meets with Saul to discuss the matter; the two of them figure out that Dante is in fact a Russian agent and had orchestrated the entire affair in order to bring down Keane. Carrie seduces Dante and then drugs him so her team can surveil his apartment; they discover that Dante had been spying on Carrie as well. That night, Dante and Carrie have sex, when are interrupted by a team of Saul's agents, who take Dante into custody. Carrie and Saul have a CIA agent pose as Dante's court-appointed lawyer and non-lethally poison him, and promise to give him the antidote if he gives them the details of his plan. He tells them of a secret code that would signal GRU Operator Yevgeny Gromov (Costa Ronin) to dissolve his forces. Saul persuades Keane to broadcast the code by compromising Twitter servers and violate the privacy of U.S. citizens by tracking who posts confirmations in response to the tweet.
Carrie goes to Maggie's house to try and reconcile, but instead learns from Bill that Maggie is meeting a lawyer to seek custody of Franny. When Dante accuses Gromov of poisoning him, he denies it and tells Dante to call Carrie and ask her if she was responsible. Dante calls Carrie, who is picking up Franny from school early. He realizes that Carrie is lying to him, but nonetheless he tells Carrie that Gromov is in the room with him; Gromov then kills him. Carrie opts to leave Franny at school in her rush to the hospital, but Franny runs after her and is almost accidentally run over by her mother in the parking lot. After learning that Dante is dead, Carrie has a psychotic break at the hospital.
As Carrie prepares for a custody hearing, Saul asks her to lead an operation in Russia to exfiltrate Martin, but she refuses. She then has Anson break into Maggie's office to get proof that she illegally medicated Carrie for years in order to undermine her custody petition. She ultimately decides not to use them, however, after Maggie helps her realize that she will never leave the CIA and thus cannot give Frannie the attention she needs. She agrees to give Maggie custody of Frannie, and arranges to see her every two weeks. She then accepts Saul's offer.
In Moscow, Carrie and Saul meet with GRU representatives, including Gromov, in order to distract them while Carrie's team extracts Martin. The plan fails, however, as the team is ambushed by guards and forced to retreat. Carrie salvages the mission by personally infiltrating the safe house where Martin is being kept, and persuading her that the Russians now consider her a liability and only the CIA can keep her alive. Gromov arrives to murder Simone, so Carrie tricks them by disguising herself as Martin and taking them away while the real Martin escapes.
Carrie is ultimately captured and taken into Russian custody. Gromov wants Carrie to film a confession video stating that Martin was a CIA operative and that the U.S. orchestrated everything, while threatening to withhold her medication if she doesn't cooperate. Carrie refuses, and has sex with a guard after he promises to get her medication in secret. It turns out that the guard was lying, however, and reveals her duplicity to Gromov, who punishes her by refusing her medication.
Seven months later, Keane resigns from the presidency, and her vice president, Ralph Warner (Beau Bridges), takes over. He and Saul negotiate Carrie's release in a prisoner exchange; after months without being medicated, however, Carrie is barely lucid and doesn't even recognize Saul.
===Kabul===
In Middle East where talks are breaking down between the Afghan government and the Taliban, and Saul is scrambling. He needs one thing: Carrie. Saul, now serving as the National Security Advisor to the newly elected President of the United States, recognizes Carrie’s unparalleled experience and skills in navigating treacherous territories. Her ability to push the peace talks forward is crucial, especially in a land where danger and hidden agendas abound.
After being captured by the Russians, led by Yevgeny, and held for seven months, withstanding interrogation, torture and having her medication withheld, Carrie’s recovering in hospital and desperate to get back to work. But she can’t recall 180 days of her life in captivity, making the Americans wary of what information she may have given up, sparking another round of interrogations from her own.
Saul Berenson calls Carrie Mathison back to Afghanistan with a specific purpose: to aid in the delicate task of negotiating peace with the Taliban.
When Saul’s mission ramps up, he is determined to retrieve Carrie. He whisks her out of hospital and flies her straight to Afghanistan. She reconnects with Mike, her new handler, who’s suspicious about her time with the Russians and spies on her communications, and meets his assistant Jenna, brand new and keen to take on more field work.
It’s not only the people around her who are sceptical about what Carrie may have revealed while in the gulag. She’s cracking under the weight of that burden, too, and is desperate to claw back her memory of those lost days. In true Carrie style, she keeps it together in front of the team, but when she spots Yevgeny at Kabul, how can she not lose it? However, there’s more to the story.
Carrie’s past connection with Yevgeny Gromov adds complexity to her mission. When she encounters Yevgeny in Kabul, her reaction is a mix of horror, fear, and confusion. Despite this, she remains committed to her task, gathering critical information to gain leverage in negotiations. Meanwhile, Saul takes bold risks, drugging and confronting Taliban leaders in his pursuit of peace.
==Personal Life and Relationships==
On 9/11/2001 Carrie was 22 years old (born on April 5, 1979). She wouldn't have got a lot of insight in the hits and misses of the agencies. She worked as a trainee probably. Her as a trainee growing into the role. Learning from everything else and she has to hide her illness at that point. Weeks leading up to 9/11, how Carrie managed it, specially considering how dysfunctional the agencies were coordinating.
Spying was lonely. Carrie could only trust Saul because he was emotionally supportive. Nor with your CIA colleagues and your political supervisors in charge of the CIA. Only Berenson understood his loneliness.
Family reunions and vacations with his relatives became tense affairs.
At first, his occasional affairs provided sufficient social relief but Mathison's alienation only increased after she met Nicholas Brody. Carrie was living a double life working at the CIA, so she didn't feel like she could live happily, she revealed to Saul. Everything would change when he fell in love with Brody. She was finally ready to share her life with someone. Mathison was dismayed when Nick died.
===Saul Berenson===
Saul and Carrie’s relationship is the foundation of the show. Carrie hasn’t done so well in her relationships with men (except Brody, Quinn, Virgil and Max), now Saul is this father figure/mentor to her. For him, she is a protégé. When Saul asks how she’s doing, he’s told she’s getting better and healing. He makes this choice to take her out. He takes her out because for him, it’s mission first.
She isn’t completely honest with him and she puts mission first, too. That whole moment is the irony that makes their relationship complicated and layered and they’re not completely honest with each other.
The insights into the Saul and Carrie relationship. Saul’s conversation with Ivan in “A False Glimmer”. The way Saul relates to Ivan about running an important asset like Allison has always made me feel like Saul was talking from experience, specifically in how he manages Carrie.
I truly believe that as he is trying to convince Ivan to give up Allison, Saul relates to him and leverages that insight and understanding to get the intel he wants from him. As Saul describes how he would know everything about Allison if she were his asset, it struck me: It’s because Saul already has an asset he handles. His prized asset, the one he is painting his own professional masterpiece with. It’s a cold realization, but with that scene I finally see the writing on the wall: Saul acts as Carrie’s handler and views her as his asset.
Framing their relationship in this context has been eye opening for me. Look back at “Species Jump,” for example. When Saul’s secretary brings him the message that Carrie is on the phone, he is annoyed and tells her to take a message. But when Saul sees Carrie outside, he is all warm and fuzzy with his “you ok?” Saul is constantly toggling between soothing Carrie, scolding her, and using her as his situation and needs demand it.
===Nicholas Brody===
Carrie became obsessed with Brody; convinced that he was the POW that Hasan Ibrahim said had been turned. She had his home under constant video and audio surveillance, watching him for weeks. When the surveillance was pulled she approached him and made personal contact. She eventually started a short lived affair with him. Brody found out that she had been investigating him and ended the love relationship, she was devastated and tried on several occasions to make up with him.
Carrie attempts to convince the current CIA director to give Brody a star on the CIA memorial wall, but she is unsuccessful. She instead draws a star for him herself out of respect for his unknown sacrifice for his daughter Dana Brody and her love for Carrie.
===Franny Mathison===
She then gives birth to Brody's daughter, whom she names Franny. After his death, Carrie gave birth to his daughter and left her with her sister Maggie to raise as she copes with his death and her ability to become a mother, while working overseas.
===Peter Quinn===
Carrie and Quinn finally shared their first kiss after her father's funeral. After moving to Berlin to work, Quinn was tasked with killing Carrie but failed to do so. He was later taken hostage by a group of jihadists who intended to release sarin gas in Berlin Hauptbahnhof and used him as their test subject. This led to him slipping into a coma but Carrie refused to allow him to be taken off life support.
He was taken back to Brooklyn and placed in a military hospital, now suffering from PTSD. After freaking out in front of the medical staff, Carrie took him home with her and gave him the room in her basement. She also asked Max to keep an eye on him while she worked but he suffered a seizure when out at the shops. He later tried to keep the authorities away from the house in order to protect Frannie, who was later placed in foster care by CPS. Following a tip-off about an imminent attack against President-elect Elizabeth Keane, he managed to save both her and Carrie, but died in a hail of bullets.
===Jonas Hollander===
In Season 5, Carrie fantasized about starting a family and abandoning her spying career. At first, Jonas enjoyed the challenge of trying to court the CIA's "Drone Queen". Jonas was attracted by Mathison's ambition, determination and cunning.
It took a long time for her to finally let him in, and when she did he realized that the warmth and kindness were not going to come out of a way to make up for who she was and for her inexplicable wariness of good people. Then Mathison started dating Jonas, an attorney at the During Foundation
===Yevgeny Gromov===
In Season 7, they came face to face when she tricked him by impersonating Simone Martin, allowing the real one to be safely put on a plane. She was imprisoned for seven months by the Russians and had her bipolar medication confiscated.
In the final season, it is heavily hinted that she and he had some sort of relationship, while she was in Russian custody and he obtained her medication, also revealing that during one of their many conversations that she attempted to drown her daughter as a baby.  
When she found a note with the name of Samira Noori, he accosted her in a bar and revealed that he was the one who left it on her desk in the Kabul station. He also accompanied her on her bid to rescue Max when he is captured by the Taliban but he was eventually shot dead by Jalal Haqqani. Together, they searched for the black box from the helicopter crash in which President Warner and President Daoud lost their lives, but when she eventually obtained it and discovered that the accident was caused by a helicopter blade, he tricked her by sedating her and taking the black box. He brought her back to her room and laid her on her bed, kissing her on her cheek.
They next came face to face when he requested that she find out the identity of Saul's asset in Russia. After she discovered Saul's method of communication with the asset via red leather-bound books, they had a meeting and he told her that she had to kill Saul.  However, as she prepared to kill him, she decided to spare his life, but told his sister Dorit that her brother had died from a stroke as means of getting her away from the house after she was given a USB key with a video of Saul revealing the name of the asset - Anna Pomerantseva​​​​​​​. She got Yevgeny to come to the house and told him to watch the video. He texted the name to his boss, who decided that Anna had to be stopped. After being warned by Saul that she was in danger, Scott Ryan helped her get to safety by barricading the both of them in a storeroom. However, she was reluctant to turn herself over to the Russians and committed suicide with hid gun. After Yevgeny got the news, he and Carrie decided to escape to Syria.
Two years later, Carrie and Yevgeny live together in Moscow and went out to a jazz concert to celebrate the publication of her new book "Tyranny of Secrets", which detailed why she had to betray the US. Saul receives a package containing an advance copy of a book Carrie has written denouncing the U.S. He finds a note in the binding – mirroring Anna's tradecraft – with a note from Moscow indicating how to defeat the Russians' missile defense system. He realizes it is from Carrie, who has become his new Russian asset.
==Character profile==
Carrie Mathison: The Complex Brilliance of Homeland's.
Leading LadyIn the captivating world of the critically acclaimed television series Homeland, one character stands out as both highly intelligent and deeply flawed.
Meet Carrie Mathison, a dedicated and talented CIA officer, whose unorthodox methods and unwavering commitment to her job take center stage. However, beneath her impressive facade lies a complex battle with bipolar disorder, which adds an extra layer of intensity to her character.Carrie Mathison's intelligence is unparalleled, allowing her to excel in the world of espionage. Her analytical mind and quick thinking make her a formidable force in uncovering terrorist plots and suspect activities. Whether it's deciphering complex codes or connecting seemingly unrelated dots, Carrie's razor-sharp intellect consistently proves itself.
But what truly sets Carrie apart is her determination. She possesses an innate drive to see justice served, regardless of the personal cost. Her unwavering commitment to the pursuit of truth becomes a defining characteristic, pushing her to go to extreme lengths to uncover the underlying secrets that threaten national security. Carrie's unyielding tenacity fuels her unorthodox methods, as she fearlessly treads into morally gray areas to achieve her goals.
However, it is Carrie's struggle with bipolar disorder that adds a profound depth to her character. This mental health condition, characterized by extreme mood swings, introduces a unique vulnerability and unpredictability to her persona. While her intelligence and determination offer her an advantage professionally, her bipolar disorder complicates her personal life and introspective journey.
Homeland adeptly explores the complexities of Carrie's bipolar disorder, providing viewers with an empathetic portrayal of her struggles. Her manic episodes unleash a whirlwind of brilliance, manifesting as hyperfocus and enhanced creativity. Yet, these highs are often followed by crippling depressive episodes, leaving Carrie emotionally drained and susceptible to self-destructive behaviors.The series navigates the delicate balance between emphasizing Carrie's exceptional abilities and confronting the harsh reality of her mental health condition. It showcases the challenges she faces as she fights to maintain control and find stability in a demanding and relentless profession.Carrie's bipolar disorder serves as an allegory for the human condition itself. It highlights the inherent contradictions within all of us, as intelligence and determination can coexist with vulnerability and self-doubt. Homeland provides viewers with a rare glimpse into the internal struggles of a character who, despite her flaws, refuses to let her condition define or limit her.
Carrie's journey encapsulates the ongoing debate surrounding the relationship between mental health and brilliance. It challenges societal stereotypes that often perpetuate stigmatization and marginalization of individuals dealing with mental health conditions. Homeland dares to explore the notion that Carrie's bipolar disorder may be intrinsically linked to her exceptional abilities, rather than serving as a hindrance.
The character of Carrie Mathison is brought to life by the exceptional performance of Claire Danes, who masterfully captures the intricate nuances of her character's emotional turmoil. Danes' portrayal, combined with the thought-provoking writing and immersive storytelling of Homeland, create a truly unforgettable viewing experience.
In conclusion, Carrie Mathison is a captivating and multi-dimensional character whose intelligence, determination, and struggle with bipolar disorder make her an enigma within the world of Homeland. Her unorthodox methods and unwavering commitment to her job drive the narrative forward, while her mental health condition adds complexity and depth to her character. Homeland's exploration of Carrie's journey challenges societal preconceptions and sheds light on the intricate connection between brilliance and vulnerability.
Ultimately, Carrie Mathison serves as a powerful reminder of the inherent strength and resilience that resides within us all, regardless of the battles we face. [x]
==Reviews==
“Carrie is, in many ways, a boogeyman; she is what professional women, and particularly ones in male-dominated professions, have been taught never to become – emotional, hysterical, crazy. Emotion is how women who want to be taken seriously are undermined and dismissed. Even if you’re perfectly sane, being emotional – and most especially, being angry – devalues you and your professional contribution…It’s certainly possible to read this arc as purely tragic, Carrie’s self-destruction being the cost of saving the world .. but to my mind its effect is more complex. It makes a crazy, hysterical woman into a hero without in any way mitigating her craziness or hysteria, and thus defangs the argument that emotion in women is a weakness.” - Abigail NussbaumThe “perfectly impossible love”, as Claire Danes described on Charlie Rose interview from 2013. (The issue of the baby….requires an entire other post…because her ambivalence towards her baby was the most real picture of motherhood ever shown on any show EVER. But some (most) hated Carrie for her willingness to desert her child. All I saw was the most real depiction of the complexity of motherhood EVER TOLD.)
The Case Against Carrie: TV deserves a better female antihero.
What makes one Carrie cry-face greater than another, you ask? Our criteria: commitment, total absence of vanity, its ability to elicit empathy from the viewer, and, occasionally, context.
In the age of the antihero, Carrie Mathison is an honest-to-god hero. Dedicated to keeping America safe, she is often mistaken for an antihero.
Mathison is deeply flawed, stubborn, reckless, self-righteous and occasionally unethical. As played by the uncannily excellent Danes, she is an amalgamation of perfectly communicated contradictions, heartbreakingly fragile and unyieldingly steely, unhinged and single-minded, a basket case and a genius. Last season, her instincts led her to violate Brody’s First Amendment rights by putting him under illegal surveillance. When that failed, she began sleeping with him. Flailing around for a way to bail herself out of trouble, she once hit on her mentor Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin), a breach of etiquette so profound it almost amounts to a violation of the incest taboo.
Carrie is not a bad person we care about in spite of her atrocious actions: She's a well-meaning person who sometimes makes mistakes. Carrie is dedicated to saving American citizens from gruesome deaths. That is her job and her passion. If she has crossed ethical lines — and she has, repeatedly — it has been to protect people, not to harm them. She’s a hero, flaws and all. - WILLA PASKIN
Glatter describes the character of Carrie (who was based on a real person that has since retired) as layered, complicated and ambiguous. “Her actions were sometimes reprehensible but you still loved her. There was something so compelling about her and you were just with her every step of the way.”
This season’s theme centered around the question: What has America learned since 9/11? “If there was a repeat attack, would we behave differently? Would we take our time and look and really see what happened, rather than have the need to avenge? I think this season really looks at how America projects its power overseas,” says Glatter.
Carrie had many significant relationships with men in her life and Glatter summed them up: Max was the best friend-slash brother she could always depend on and he always came through for her (though she took him for granted), Quinn knew her better than anyone else and in many ways they were the same person, Brody was the love of her life and Saul was her father figure and mentor. - Dana Feldman
Most importantly, last season’s finale got Carrie invested in being a mother to Franny, and established that Carrie consciously chose motherhood. Society judges absentee mothers and those who are less than enthusiastic about parenting more harshly than deadbeat dads, and that judgmental tone frequently finds its way into fiction. But now it seems like Carrie just chose to have a close relationship with her daughter. She’s always had a strong sense of duty to whatever cause she’s involved with, which we’ve seen several times this season, when Carrie refuses to compromise The During Foundation in her interactions with CIA personnel and vice-versa. So when Carrie decides it’s her duty to be better to Franny than Ellen was to her, she’s not doing it because she feels biologically obligated to the child. She’s doing it because it’s who she is, and actively raising Franny is a natural extension of her lifelong devotion to protecting innocents.[x]
The problem for Carrie, and female characters on television more broadly, isn’t just misrepresentation. It’s under-representation. - JESSICA M. GOLDSTEIN
==Background information and notes==
*The character was originally planned to be named Carrie Anderson.
*She is the only main character to appear in every episode of the series
*From the initial conception of the character, Gordon and Gansa targeted Claire Danes to play the lead role of Carrie Mathison.
==Quotes==
Spoken by Carrie
*Carrie Mathison: Sure she's smart and pretty now, but if we deport her she'll be fat and stupid in no time.
*Carrie Mathison: Look, the World is Ending and we're standing here, talking!
*Carrie Mathison: Brody! Brody! Brody!
*"DAMMIT, SAUL!" - Carrie's signature, recurring line. See here .
*"Fuck" - Carrie Mathison. Look here.
Spoken about Carrie
*“Is there no line, Carrie? Is there no fucking line?” - Peter Quinn to Carrie Mathison
*It's always your mission, your mission, the mission." - Peter Quinn to Carrie Mathison
*From what I've can see, you can do just about anything. - Yevgeny Gromov to Carrie Mathison
*But everything she does, everything... is because she never loses sight of what's important. - Saul about Carrie
*Maggie to Carrie: "There is no medical diagnosis for what's wrong with you."
*Nicholas Brody: You know how crazy everyone says you are? You're crazier than that.
*Quinn: "We lost her."
*Saul: "But we know who's got her. We're back in business."
*Quinn: "She's on her own, Saul."
*Saul: "She's always been on her own."
==Trivia==
*Operations officers, also commonly referred to as case officers, deal specifically with the recruitment of sources and the collection of intelligence. Their work requires them to ensure sources are in place and significance and relevant intelligence is captured and disseminated in a timely manner.
*Case Officer is an intelligence officer who is a trained specialist in the management of agents and agent networks. Case officers manage human agents and human intelligence networks. Case officers spot potential agents, recruit prospective agents and train agents in tradecraft.
*Paramilitary operations officers run covert action programs. Operations officers are the ones responsible for getting information from human sources. There is some overlap between the two jobs. Case officer isn't a job title but just a generic name for any CIA officer.
*Case officers are HUMINT operations officers, which means they are "core collectors" -i.e. approved by CIA to come in direct contact with assets or potential assets. Case officers are one of many types of operations officers. Usually all operations officers are core collector certified.
*A station chief – also called chief of station (COS) – is responsible for managing the CIA's station in a country, from coordinating work between operations officers and others to understanding the overarching mission of the particular station. Many station chiefs previously serve as operations officers at several stations before rising through the CIA ranks to become a COS. Their first post is typically at a small station where they can learn the job tasks as a whole and those that are individual to that country. Still, even small stations are important posts for a COS because coups, bombings, and other life- and mission-threatening emergencies can occur anywhere. Station chiefs work undercover as operations officers do, and the CIA does not publicize their names. However, when Gina Haspel was nominated for CIA director in 2018, her CIA bio was released by the agency. While showing necessary gaps, it revealed that she had served as an operations officer for many years and as station chief first in Africa, although the bio declines to identify where, and also in London, a prestigious post at the station of a major U.S. ally that comes only after years of experience.
==External links==
*Carrie Mathison (Showtime's official character page)
*Everything Carrie drinks on Homeland - Kristin Hunt
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