Did Brody Die on Homeland? Is Nicholas Brody Really Dead?
BY K Shabi PUBLISHED 15 Dec 2014
It's always shocking when a TV show kills off a main character. The death of Sergeant Nicholas Brody (played by Damien Lewis) on Showtime's hit TV series Homeland was certainly a bold plot move, but fans can't help but wonder if Brody is really dead. Did Brody really die in Homeland?
How Did Brody Die in Homeland? Why Did Brody Die?
For fans of Showtime's TV show Homeland, Brody's death probably seemed pretty unavoidable at the end of season three. The ex Marine turned terrorist turned vice presidential candidate seemed destined for destruction ever since the first season of the series. While you could definitely say that Sergeant Nicholas Brody had it coming, fans were still flabbergasted when his character was hanged from a crane in Iran at the end of "The Star," the second to last episode of season three. Carrie and viewers watched helplessly in horror as the show's "star" was graphically executed in a long, uninterrupted sequence that not only seemed to last forever, but also seemed to be intentionally designed by the show's producers to kill off any hopes or talk of Brody still being alive and somehow escaping death, soap opera style. So this means that Brody really died, right? ...So he's not coming back?
Is Brody Still Alive on Homeland?
While Brody's death in season three seemed pretty cut and dried and irrefutable, rumors soon started circulating that Brody might actually still be alive. What?! Actor Damien Lewis was seen hanging around on Homeland's South African set during the filming of season four, seeming to many like a sure-fire indication that his character would in fact return on the fourth season of the Showtime series. Rumors of Brody's possible return from the dead got so out of hand that Homeland producer Alex Gansa was forced to make a statement on the subject. Gansa said:
Is Nicholas Brody Really Dead? Will Brody Be in Season 4?
This statement from the show's makers serves as pretty solid evidence that Brody is really dead, but why did Damien Lewis return to the Homeland set if his character died? That question was answered in episode 7 of Homeland Season 4, and in retrospect the answer to the riddle seems pretty obvious.
(SPOIILER ALERT) Carrie's troubled mental state has been a long running theme on Homeland, but things get really crazy in the seventh episode of the fourth season when she is drugged by a double agent in the Pakistani embassy and her mind is sent hurtling into a barely lucid, borderline psychotic state. Alone and confused in her room, Brody suddenly appears to comfort Carrie. Viewers experience Brody's phantasmal return much in the same way that Carrie does, at first confused and very much hoping that he is still alive, in spite of better judgment.
Nicholas Brody remains as just an hallucination in Homeland at this point. Though Brody may be dead, it seems very probable that he could make a repeat appearance on Homeland in the future in this phantom state.
Why Did Nicholas Brody Die on Homeland?
Why did Brody die on Homeland? Find out why Nicholas Brody and more of your favorite characters "had to die" on Showtime's Homeland.
