Franny Mathison

Franny Mathison
Status:	Alive
Date of birth:	2013
Nationality:	American
Father:	Nick Brody (d. 2013)
Mother:	Carrie Mathison
Sibling(s):	Dana Brody (half-sister) Chris Brody (half-brother) Frank Mathison (grandfather) Ellen Mathison (grandmother) Maggie Mathison (aunt) Ruby Dunn (cousin) Josie Dunn (cousin)
Played by:	Luna and Lotta Pfitzer Claire and McKenna Keane
Season(s):	4, 5, 6, 7, 8
First episode:	"The Drone Queen"
Last episode:	"Prisoners of War" (photograph)

• Franny: Are you coming back?
• Carrie: Of course I’m coming back, I’m going work and I always come back when work is over , don’t I?
• Franny: [Silence]
• Carrie: HEY, FRANNY? I ALWAYS COME BACK .

Frances "Franny" Mathsion is the daughter of Carrie Mathison and Nicholas Brody in Homeland. However, she is not born until a few months after Brody's death.

Biography

Franny is the illegitimate daughter of Carrie "Drone Queen" Mathison and Nicholas "Marine One" Brody, born a few months after her father's violent death.

At the beginning of the Season Two finale, Carrie and Brody returned to the place where they’d first gotten lovey-dovey: the Mathison family cabin. In it, they both talk about their future. Although neither is sure if they really have a future together, they both kiss and sleep together. In the morning, surrounded by the beauty of nature, they talkinng their future together and decided that in order for this love to endure, Carrie would have to quit the CIA. When they rendezvous again at Langley during the ceremony, it was to make it official. Carrie confirms she’s out. They kiss. And then the bomb goes off, and they run. (The Choice)

Season 3

Carrie is 8 months pregnant.

In another crazy twist, the sixth episode revealed that Carrie was pregnant. She revealed in the episode "A Red Wheelbarrow" that the baby was Brody's.

Mathison finally confesses to Nicholas that she is pregnant by him and is firmly convinced that she and Brody were meant for each other. The final episode did a time jump with Carrie deciding to take a position as station chief in Istanbul, Turkey, and give up her soon-to-be-born child. Her father and sister pleaded with her to change her mind, but she wouldn't — and her father offered to take baby Brody if Carrie was going to leave the states. That is what Carrie decided to do (her poor sister), but leaving her child behind may not prove to be so easy. (The Star)

Season 4

We'll actually see in Season 4 that instead of Istanbul, she'll be working in Kabul, Afghanistan, but regardless, she's not working in the US. Carrie is the CIA's youngest station chief.

Carrie had left for Kabul to be CIA station chief right after Franny had been born, leaving her with her father and her sister Maggie. Memories of that time still haunted her and she often questioned how she had been able to leave her baby behind. Because Frannie looks a lot like Brody, Carrie finds it very difficult to take care of her. She still grieves too much to be a good mother to the little girl. Carrie goes so far as to want to drown Franny in the bathtub, but balks at the last moment. Because she does not see herself as a suitable mother, Carrie puts Franny in the care of her sister Maggie. Together with her father Frank, she takes care of the little one until his death, while Carrie is stationed on the other side of the world in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In last episode got Carrie invested in being a mother to Franny, and established that Carrie consciously chose motherhood. 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.

Fortunately for her, Franny had no recollection at all of that stage of her life and after her last job for the CIA in Islamabad, in which she had faced death, betrayal and destruction, Carrie had left the Agency and started a new life, a "normal" life, like she liked to call it.

Season 5

Carrie and Franny in Season 5

Thirty months later, Carrie is now living in Germany with her new boyfriend, Jonas, her daughter (with Brody) Frannie, and a new job working private security for the Düring Foundation with supposed philanthropist boss Otto Düring.

Franny lives with Carrie in Berlin and goes to kindergarten and speaks German. She also has a crush on Carrie's new boyfriend Jonas, who not only shows at her birthday party that he really enjoys taking care of the girl.

When Carrie's work in Germany makes it too dangerous for Franny, She is sent back to Maggie in the US. Carrie, who has meanwhile absorbed her role as a mother, misses her little one very much and tries to keep in touch with her regularly. But when it looks like she'll have to go into hiding and fake her death to protect her family, she bids farewell to Franny with a video message.

Season 6

The six season begins 3 months later. Franny is reunited with her mother in New York. They have a big house with a granny flat and a nanny looks after Franny during the day while Carrie is at work. When Carrie puts Peter Quinn upstairs in the basement, Franny notices and is curious who the man is. Over time, however, she gets to know Peter better.

Franny in season six

When Carrie wants to pick up Franny from daycare a few days later, Dar Adal comes along. Franny notices that Carrie is worried, but her mother calms her down. When they get home, Peter is already waiting for Carrie and Franny asks him if he's had his snack since it's time. Then she tells Peter about Dar Adal.

After the New York bombing, Franny follows the news mesmerized with Quinn, but Carrie drags her away from the TV to have breakfast. Carrie tells her not to worry because they are all safe and that life is going on as normal. However, since school is closed that day and Carrie has to go to work urgently, Quinn stays with Franny until the nanny comes. The two play together until suddenly several news teams show up in front of the house and ask for Carrie. Franny then wonders what her mother did when everyone is so mad at her. The situation escalates as the afternoon progresses, and Franny watches as Quinn drags a reporter through the apartment and shoots at a man who threw a rock through the window. She and her nanny Latisha are taken to the bathroom by Quinn, where they are said to be safe, but the police interpret the whole situation as a hostage situation and only let Carrie into the apartment hours later, where she can make sure Franny is okay. But then the police stormed the apartment and arrested Quinn in front of everyone. Exhausted, Franny falls asleep next to her mother a short time later. Latisha and her husband promise to take care of Franny for the next few days so Carrie can take care of all the chaos and the bombing. The very next day, however, Carrie takes her daughter home and tries to give her a feeling of normality and security.

Shortly afterward, someone from the youth welfare office comes to Franny's school and questions her about the hostage situation at her home. Social worker Christine Lonas assesses Franny as traumatized. She is then taken to an orphanage without being able to speak to her mother again. In other conversations with Lonas, Franny is said to have said she was scared to death and that Carrie slept next to her with a loaded gun. All this ensures that Franny is not allowed to return to her mother for the time being. Franny is a few days away from seeing her mother again, and even that is just a brief afternoon meeting monitored by child welfare. Shortly thereafter, however, Carrie manages to control her life to the point that the youth welfare office gives her custody again under certain conditions.

Season 7

Clarity

Franny is now living with her family in Washington again with Carrie.

She gets along well with her cousin Josie, as well as her parents Maggie and Bill. However, she notices that her mother is not always well and that she is often distracted. She doesn't like it when Carrie fights with Maggie and Bill and gets scared when they rush out of the house. Carrie didn't think about packing things for Franny too and when they are turned down by the receptionist at the motel because Carrie's credit cards don't work, Franny starts crying. She wants to go back home, which to her is Maggie and Bill's house. Carrie tries to calm her down and finds a short-term solution by letting them stay with Dante Allen. Franny relaxes a little in Dante's apartment and tries to get to know Dante better. She is very happy when he gets her some of her things from home. During the night, however, the apartment is stormed and Dante is arrested, which frightens Franny. Carrie takes her to school the next morning, but Franny is still traumatized by the events of the night. She can't concentrate at school and keeps crying until Maggie finally picks her up. Because Carrie told her not to tell anything about the night's events, Franny doesn't want to tell Maggie why she's feeling so bad. She finally gives in when Maggie promises Carrie won't get in trouble. She has a hard time falling asleep that night.

Two days later, Carrie picks Franny up from school surprisingly early, but then abandons her when she gets an important call. Franny runs after her mother and almost gets hit by her, after which her teacher takes her to safety. A short time later, the court will decide whether Carrie keeps custody of Franny or whether she should grow up with Maggie and Bill. However, the two sisters then agree out of court on visitation rights for Carrie, since she will never be able to live without her job. Carrie, on the other hand, realizes that Franny will be much better off with her sister and says goodbye to her daughter with a heavy heart, not without telling her that she will always come back to her. (Clarity)

Season 8

Saul calls Wellington and asks him to set up a press breakfast outside the city tomorrow as a last resort. He arrives home to find Maggie leaving a note for him, to tell him that she hasn’t heard from Carrie since she got back from Germany–and neither has Frannie. In the episode "Prisoners of War", Franny appears in photograph form twice to Carrie. Knowing that Franny had a loving home and a family who could raise her in her absence I think made the decision easier, but only an eensy bit. She still abandoned her kid like her mother did to her.

Quotes

• Franny: Did my mom do something wrong?
• Quinn: No.
• Franny: Well, then, why are those people all mad at her?
• Quinn: They're not mad at her.
• Franny: They look mad. (episode Casus Belli)

• FRANNY: A man came to school, and he had painted hair, and he scared Mommy.
• Carrie: No, he didn't, sweetheart. (opens drawer). Dar Adal. (s06e04)

• He would’ve been a terrible father. I mean, you think I’m a terrible mom? I am, but he would’ve been even worse. He was happy to hear that you were on the way, though. He was. I think it was the last thing he was happy about. And I tried to hold on to that and feel it, too. Happy that you’re here. But with his being gone, I can’t remember why I had you. I loved him so much. When I close my eyes, I still see him there. - Carrie shows daughter Frannie her father's house where they met.

• Turns out we had a lot to talk about.
• Really? Like what?
• Like your relationship with Nicholas Brody.
• Tell me something you didn't just read in my file.
• You had a daughter with him. Franny. You slipped her head underwater in the bath. There was a moment when you actually considered drowning your own child. - Episode FALSE FRIENDS

• I'm so sorry. - Carrie to Franny

• “I can’t be a mother, because of me, because of my job, because of my problems.” - Carrie

• FRANNY: "A man came to school, and he had painted hair, and he scared Mommy."

• Franny says - "Hope needs me", [she means Peter needs Carrie.]

• Carrie: Franny never knew her father. He died before she was born.Honestly, I wasn't even sure I should have her. And it wasn't because I thought I'd be a terrible mother. Some people would say that's a given. It was because... Her father and I-- We had a relationship that was unusually intense. However complicated my life was, his was 1,000 times more. It didn't end well. At all. Maybe I was afraid she would remind me of that.
• therapist: And did she?
• Carrie: Well, her father had red hair, and... and she has red hair, so at first, whenever I looked, what I'd see... What I'd see was that he wasn't there.
• therapist: She reminded you of his absence.
• Carrie: Not just that. Of my role in his not being there. I knew where everything was heading. I... I knew. And I pushed him toward that. I-I really-- I really don't like this.
• Therapist: No one does.
• Carrie: Someone else decides if I get to see my daughter, sure, I'll talk about whatever they want, but...
• Therapist: But you don't think it's fair.
• Carrie: I don't see how you could possibly understand.
• Therapist: Look, I don't know all the facts of your life, that's true. But I know you're ex-CIA. I can enter a Google search. I have some idea what you're talking about.
• Carrie: Good. So... So maybe you'll understand this. Peter Quinn, the man that I had living in my home... who they say took Franny hostage... I have a very intense relationship with him, too. I mean, not-- not like Franny's father, not physical, but... He nearly died last year in Berlin. And I-I managed to save him, but... The way he's been acting the past few months, it's... it's as if he wants to finish the job. So I brought him into our home because-- because I can't go through that again. I-I can't lose another one.
• Therapist: I want you to listen to me a second. I want you to listen and really try to hear. What you go through, every parent goes through. Here is you, and here is your child. And how do you balance that? How do you make it work? A 4-year-old doesn't need much, but they do need something. They need, at times, to come first.- Carrie’s meeting with a therapist (Sock Puppets)

• “You are the most important… the best thing that I’ve ever done. You make up for every mistake that I’ve ever made. And altough you probably don’t believe it, I love you very very much.”

• Franny: Hi peter!
• Quinn: Hi🤗
• Franny: have you had your snack yet?
• Quinn: no....
• Franny: well it’s SNACK TIME!
• Quinn: ...

Trivia

• In Season 5, her birthday occurs either in August (~4 months after Brody's death at the end of Season 3) or in April (when Season 5 with her birthday party).
• As a baby, she was played by an uncredited actress in Season 4 while appearances in the following seasons were credited to different actresses.

Reviews

The “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.)

"Consider this: Homeland rarely utilizes point-of-view filmmaking, meant to place us literally inside a character’s head. But it does here. Carrie looks down at her baby. What would it be to be the mother of this child? And then we switch to the infant’s point of view. What would it be to be the child of this mother?" THIS BABY IS THE LIVING, BREATHING MANIFESTATION OF ALL OF CARRIE'S BRODY BAGGAGE. [x]

Why did Homeland make Carrie a mother? Claire's reason is that it's forced Carrie to confront her fear of intimacy and fo others relying on her. The 2013 Charlie Rose interview Claire did seems more and more relevant after Sunday’s episode. Here’s she talking about the significance of Carrie being pregnant, as it necessitates an intimacy and dependency that she’s resistant to. The only stated one from the producers I can ever recall is that it was a way for Brody’s presence to remain on the show. Why else would Franny have red hair?!

Showrunner Alex Gansa tells that an earlier version of the swan song included a sequence wherein Danes’ Claire reunites with estranged daughter Franny. “There was a very significant Carrie/Franny scene that opened the finale at one point,” before adding that the scene ended up getting excised for “two big reasons.” - by MICHAEL AUSIELLO

As of my knowledge cutoff in September 2021, the conclusion of the TV series "Homeland" had Carrie Mathison becoming a mother to Franny, her daughter with Nicholas Brody. The decision to make Carrie a mother in the series could be attributed to several reasons:

1. Character Development: Introducing motherhood as part of Carrie's character arc allowed for further exploration of her personal growth and emotional depth. It added a new layer to her identity and provided opportunities for exploring themes related to family, sacrifice, and the challenges of balancing personal and professional life.
2. Humanizing Carrie: Parenthood is often portrayed as a transformative experience that can soften and humanize even the most complex characters. By making Carrie a mother, the writers may have aimed to showcase her softer side, emphasizing her vulnerability, love, and protective instincts. This could help viewers connect with her on a more emotional level.
3. Narrative Complexity: Adding a child to the mix can introduce additional narrative complexity and raise the stakes for the protagonist. It can create tension, moral dilemmas, and add an extra layer of vulnerability. Carrie's role as a mother could have provided opportunities for storytelling that explore the challenges of balancing her duty to her child with her work in the intelligence community.

It's worth noting that the decision to make Carrie a mother is ultimately a creative choice made by the show's writers and producers. The motivations behind this decision may vary, and the specific reasons may be best addressed by the creators of the series themselves.

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]

Notes

• The timeline on Homeland has always been sort of strange, starting from season one.

The pilot was shot in Charlotte in January, so of course it looks in the dead of winter. Regular production takes place between June and October, though, so the remaining eleven episodes don’t exactly look like they followed right after. I can fanwank that, though. The first season was said to have concluded in December 2011 (Quinn says in “Q&A” that Elizabeth Gaines was shot some date in December; this is also when it concluded IRL, on our TVs).

The second season is supposed to pick up six months later, and when Carrie travels to Beirut, the stamp on her passport is dated May 2012. So far so good. Except that the entire second season takes place over a course of about three weeks in the show’s universe, which would place the attack on Langley not on 12/12/2012, but about six months earlier. Sigh.

Anyway, the third season picks up two months later (Lockhart says it’s been 58 days since the attack on Langley in S03.E01), and Carrie goes into the psych ward about one week later, stays there for about 4 weeks, and has now been out for about five or six days. So in the show’s world it’s March 2013, which Carrie confirms during Javadi’s polygraph. If the baby is Brody’s, Carrie would be about 14 weeks along.

• This is now March (lie detector with Javadi). Even if the baby was conceived the night before attack 13 wks is mid-Feb. She’s 13 wks means baby conceived in Dec. With ginger frm liquor store it will LOOK like Brody’s.

The bomb was 12/12. I repeat, the bomb was 12/12. This is confirmed several times throughout the season. When the season picks up, it is 58 days later (two months). And Carrie is in the psych ward for about a month. So it’s been 12-13 weeks.

• She would be nearing her 4th month of pregnancy tho, does anyone buy that no one would have noticed a small bump?

She would be just beginning her second trimester. Carrie has been dressing in loose-fitting tops this season, and especially in the last few episodes. Every woman carries (no pun intended) differently during her pregnancy. She had the slightest slightest bump when she was getting the ultrasound. I buy that no one would have noticed

• 13 weeks in? So, it is in fact Brody's? I'm still a little hazy about the timing of everything tbh.

They had sex at the cabin, in “The Choice.” I actually buy Carrie was a little lax with her birth control then, with Brody, whereas I’d have a harder time buying she would be with a random stranger.

So that was about three months ago. 13 weeks makes sense. Carrie was clearly taking a pregnancy test about every other day before she was committed, hoping the result would change based on her behavior (heavy drinking) or just dumb luck.

Either the psych ward didn’t test her blood for a pregnancy hormone (possible?) or they did, and they found out she was pregnant, and we just weren’t privy to the nurses discovering, “oh! she’s pregnant!” onscreen (also possible, and especially considering they wanted to reveal she was pregnant at a specific point).

But Gansa confirmed they knew Carrie was pregnant for the entire season. It’s not a shoehorned plot element, or at least I don’t think it is.

• That baby, between the drugs, alcohol, gun shots, and general environment of Carrie’s womb, has been under a shitload of stress. More likely the baby will survive this round and then she will skirt in another more tragic way (Season 7), because Homeland.

Behind the Scenes

Appearances

Season 4
The Drone Queen	Trylon and Perisphere	"Shalwar Kameez"	"Iron in the Fire"	"About a Boy"
"From A. to B. and Back Again"	"Redux"	"Halfway to a Donut"	"There's Something Else Going On"	"13 Hours in Islamabad"
Krieg Nicht Lieb	Long Time Coming

Season 5
Separation Anxiety	"The Tradition of Hospitality"	Super Powers	"Why Is This Night Different?"	"Better Call Saul"
"Parabiosis"	"Oriole"	"All About Allison"	"The Litvinov Ruse"	"New Normal"
"Our Man in Damascus"	"A False Glimmer"

Season 6
Fair Game	The Man in the Basement	"The Covenant"	A Flash of Light	Casus Belli
The Return	"Imminent Risk"	Alt. Truth	"Sock Puppets"	"The Flag House"
"R for Romeo"	"America First"

Season 7
Enemy of the State	Rebel Rebel	"Standoff"	Like Bad at Things	"Active Measures"
"Species Jump"	Andante	Lies, Amplifiers, F**king Twitter	Useful Idiot	Clarity
"All In"	"Paean to the People"