Dana Brody

Dana is the teenage daughter of a Marine sergeant just returned from eight years as a prisoner of war, and she is the first to sense something is wrong with him. Watchful, prickly, and quicker than the adults around her give her credit for, she wants her family to be honest with itself.

Homeland's political plot runs on adult deception, and Dana is the pressure valve who won't play along—Saylor plays her adolescent bluntness as moral clarity rather than mere teenage sulking. She asks the questions the show needs asked, and her scenes with her father crackle with a suspicion he can't quite deflect.