WHAT REALLY HAPPENED: Brody tries to kill himself in a suicide bombing but his vest malfunctions, so Brody survives for 2 more dreadful seasons.
WHY THIS STORY LINE SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED: This is an easy one, so I'll get it out of the way first. I also don't fault Homeland's show runners Alex Gansa and Howard Gordan for wanting Damian Lewis (the actor who played Nicholas Brody) to stay on their show. Lewis won the Emmy for Best Actor at the Emmys in 2012, and he deserved it. He was fantastic in Homeland's rookie season, and if you were running Homeland, you'd probably want this great actor to stay on as long as possible. Vince Gilligan was planning on killing off Aaron Paul's Jesse Pinkman during Season 1 of Breaking Bad, but didn't because he realized what a great actor Paul was and what a gem he had on his hands. Gansa and Gordon probably thought they had the same thing with Lewis. And the fact that Brody didn't actually blow up didn't change how great Season 1 of Homeland was.
However, Brody's existence did change how "good" (a term I use very loosely) Seasons 2 & 3 of Homeland was. Now there were many problems with the later season of Homeland that have absolutely nothing to do with Brody, but the fact that he was around and the writers were shoehorning him with scenes with Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) didn't help anything either. Plus, the reason Lewis was such a great actor and performed so well in Season 1 was because you weren't sure what side he was on. After Season 1, not only was his side very clear, but he wasn't given any nuances to work with.
