‘Homeland’ Broke a Major Television Rule in This Twisty Season — and Reminded Everyone Who the Show’s Real Star Was

A TV show losing a main cast member in its middle season is often a bad sign. Whether the creators chose to write the character off or the actor themselves wanted to depart for other reasons, the subsequent shift has led many shows into a state of decline after such a major shake-up. On rare occasions, shows can benefit from such a change. The Showtime series Homeland is one of the most notable examples of the latter.

Season 3 of the spy thriller ends with the bold twist of Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) being killed off in a particularly brutal way, despite how integral the character was to the series’ initial premise, as well as the praise and accolades Lewis had received for his performance. But rather than leading to collapse or cancellation, Brody’s death was crucial in rejuvenating Homeland and ensuring its longevity, as it instigated interesting new types of stories for Claire Danes’ Carrie Mathison and allowed the show to bring similarly compelling characters to the forefront.

What Happened to ‘Homeland’s Nicholas Brody?

Nicholas Brody was a U.S. Marine Sergeant who was taken prisoner and held captive by al-Qaeda for eight years, until he was rescued by American forces. Carrie Mathison, a brilliant but reckless CIA agent, begins to suspect that Brody has been turned and is actually working for al-Qaeda based on a bit of intelligence she had received in Iraq but previously discounted. She installs unauthorized surveillance equipment in Brody’s home and becomes obsessed with figuring out his unusual behavior, with the investigation exacerbating her struggles with bipolar disorder. Becoming increasingly desperate for answers, she also befriends Brody in person, and the two characters begin a tumultuous affair that collapses when Brody discovers Carrie’s suspicions.

In Season 2, after learning for certain that Brody was, in fact, working for al-Qaeda, Carrie manages to turn him against the terrorists, with Brody working as a double agent for the CIA. Although Abu Nazir (Navid Negahban), the leader of Brody’s al-Qaeda cell, is eventually killed in a struggle with Carrie and law enforcement, his followers successfully carry out a devastating bombing of CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. The attack kills hundreds and is blamed on Brody after al-Qaeda reveals evidence of his prior allegiance to them. Although Carrie helps Brody escape the country, he only appears sporadically at the beginning of Season 3, and his family was written out of the series after the season’s first half.

Brody and Carrie are eventually reunited as part of CIA Director Saul Berenson’s (Mandy Patinkin) elaborate plot to install a general who had been turned into a CIA asset into an even more influential position in the Iranian government. This led many viewers to expect that Brody would continue to appear on the series long-term, despite how farfetched his storyline had become. However, after killing another Iranian official (who was involved in Brody’s initial abduction) as part of Saul’s plot, he is captured, and when Carrie’s attempt to rescue him fails, Brody is publicly hanged, with Carrie watching on in horror from the crowd.

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‘Homeland’ Was Always Carrie’s Story

While the dynamic between Brody and Carrie, and even more so, the chemistry between Lewis and Danes, remained highly compelling throughout the former’s time on the series, Brody’s continued involvement in the narrative had, again, begun to strain credulity in what was otherwise a relatively realistic entry in the spy genre. As important as Brody was in the show’s early days, Homeland was ultimately Carrie’s story.

Killing the former off demonstrated the show’s continued maturity and realism and reestablished Danes as the singular lead, while also opening up new storytelling opportunities, especially with the reveal that Carrie was pregnant with Brody’s child. This added a new layer to subsequent seasons, as Carrie struggled to balance her enthusiasm for and dedication to intelligence work with her responsibilities as a mother, and ensured that Brody’s legacy continued to influence the series for the remainder of its run. As sad as it is, Brody meeting an ugly, violent end always seemed like the most natural destination for his story, and it is impressive that the series remained committed to that idea, despite the character’s popularity. Having his final mission tie back into his abduction provides some catharsis, although the series is sharp enough to recognize that his last major act being a vengeful killing that serves the CIA’s latest morally ambiguous plot isn’t necessarily a triumph.

Brody’s death allowed supporting characters, like Rupert Friend’s Peter Quinn, to receive more attention and development in Homeland‘s future seasons. Likewise, writing off the rest of the Brody family helped make the show’s more global focus possible. The politics related to covert operations were always a prominent part of Homeland, so the series continued to return to the Washington D.C./Virginia area on occasion, but Season 4 and beyond saw the show developing an anthology-like quality, with successive seasons starting with Carrie in a new country or city as part of stories that then delved into the current and historical events related to spycraft in those areas. The characters’ histories continued to build (with Brody still haunting Carrie and others for years), and some political plots progressed across more than one season, but that willingness to change and adapt helped keep Homeland fresh and is likely a big part of the reason it was so successful for so long.

Homeland

Release Date

2011 – 2019

Network

Showtime

Showrunner

Alex Gansa