Damian Lewis Wants Us to Stick With Dana

Episode three of Homeland Season 3 finally gave fans what they wanted: Brody. Titled "Tower of David", the show featured Brody in a Venezuelan warehouse undergoing gruesome, disgusting surgery. For the most part, the episode was centered on Brody's journey to free himself, which mirrored Carrie's journey's back in a DC hospital, but the best thing about the third episode was that it didn't focus on Dana. After two episodes that centered on the teenager, it was sweet relief to see Brody half-dead and drugged in South America. Most fans tune in for that sort of drama, not so much the sort that centers on an unlikable high school student.

But actor Damian Lewis thinks Dana's story line is just as important as his. In an interview with the Huffington Post, Lewis explained that he doesn't understand the Dana haters. He told Maggie Furlong:

I don't know why it is, to be honest. I just think there are really compelling stories that people tuned in for, and maybe people are prioritizing those a little bit more rigidly in their minds. They want to be with those stories, and they just want to be with those other stories less.

It's unclear why Lewis doesn't think he understands the anti-Dana stance, because those few sentences right there hammer the nail right on the head. Yes! Of course we have prioritized story line preferences, and of course Dana's is at the bottom. Her hit-and-run last year was enough to warrant more than a few eye rolls from viewers, and when the first two episodes of Season 2 gave us even more of what we wanted less, it felt like we were being punished: You won't get Brody until you get Dana.

Lewis sees that as a good thing, though. He continued:

I think it's interesting to see what happens to her when she goes off the rails, personally. Especially since you've got to figure that Brody and Dana are going to come together again at some point, because that relationship was so strong and so central to Brody's story ...

Was Dana really that central to Brody's story? Sure, we can certainly give her credit for preventing Brody from activating his suicide vest in the bunker, but it's just not clear why those in charge of the show find Dana to be so central, when the viewers do not.

Lewis does give us a reason to keep tuning in, though:

I think it's in [the audience's] best interest and good for the audience to stay in touch with Dana and be part of her life and see what's going on in her life. Especially given the fact that she and Brody, I'm sure, will be in a room together again before the end of the season.

Okay, now we're getting somewhere. A Brody family reunion will be fantastic... whether that means Brody returns home to DC or Dana's kidnapped and shipped off to Brody's cell in an undisclosed location, either scenario sounds way more interesting than watching Dana evolve, on her own, without her dad.

The more Brody, the better, and if Lewis implores that we stick with Dana if only because she will provide fodder for her father, so be it. As long as Dana delivers her dad, metaphorically or literally, her boring story lines will have served a purpose.

Now, all that's left to do is to trust the Homeland writers... a task easier said than done after the first two episodes of Season 3.

Image: Showtime