Inside ‘Homeland’s Shocking Death [Spoilers]

It’s safe to say that Showtime’s Homeland burned down the house during its season finale on Sunday night. In the same fashion of the first season finale’s spiraling pace, fans of the CIA drama were shocked when the show finally killed off Damian Lewis’ character Nicholas Brody.

For those who missed out on the shocking finale, Nicholas Brody finally got his redemption with the CIA. Throughout the first two season Brody was known as a once war prisoner who was turned by al-Qaeda. Lewis’ character’s storyline came to a head during the last two episodes when he finished out his orders given to him by the CIA. In his final episode he was retaliated against and hung for killing a high official in Iraq.

In an interview with TVLine, executive producer Alex Gansa spoke at length about Brody’s death and public hanging. For those who think that Homeland left Brody’s life in the balance, Gansa said to look again, “I encourage [doubters] to watch the episode again. The issue has been settled. He is not unkillable.”

From the exclusive interview with TVLine we learn that the writers were supposed to kill off Brody way before season three. In fact, they were supposed to kill the character off in season one, but apparently there was pushback from Showtime. For season three both of the teams were on the same page for Brody’s death.

“There was a real strong feeling, both at Showtime and in the story room, that we’ve crossed a lot of emotional ground and the time was right. Hopefully, it was the correct decision.”

As for Carrie, who dropped the bombshell that she’s pregnant with Brody’s child, the revelation may change the tone of season four. Gansa said of covering Carrie’s pregnancy and work, “That’s certainly one direction it could go — and an interesting one. I don’t think you’d spend a lot of time [on that], but who knows? Read Valerie Plame’s book about being a case officer and having a child. It’s an interesting dynamic.”

Were you shocked by Homeland’s finale?