How is Kari represented in Homland?

Kari is one of the main characters in homeland she works for the CIA and is very well know by many people in the agency. You can see that she is such an important character in the program as in the pilot episode we mostly follow her though out the whole episode and it starts with her as the first character you see. It is mainly centered on her and the audience is on her side the whole way through the program. She works for David but questions his commands and information when she thinks he is wrong, she does what she likes most of the time. In the program Kari is portrayed as a very manly character and therefore challenges her stereotypical representation, she is not physically imposing but still the "on hand" jobs, this is shown when she gets dragged away by the prison guards, they move her roughly yet she does not react dramatically in any way. She is strong and domineering, you would usually not see this in many other action drama programs as typically the women in this genre do not usually play this sort of role they mainly play parts such as the damsel in distress which need to be saved by the main good guy, which Kari plays in this program. In the opening of the pilot episode Kari does not effect the audience expectations at all as she does not give away much except from her being suspicious towards Nick Brody.