Nicholas Brody

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Born in the Mojave Desert while his father was stationed at the MCAGCC, Gunnery Sergeant Nicholas Brody was a United States Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance Scout Sniper deployed during the Iraq War. On May 19, 2003, Brody and a fellow Scout Sniper Thomas Walker were captured near the Syrian border by forces loyal to Saddam Hussein. The two men were sold to al-Qaeda commander Abu Nazir and held captive in Damascus for the next eight years. Brody's guards tortured him for much of his captivity, but Nazir treated him with kindness in order to gain his trust. Brody converted to Islam while in captivity. Under Nazir's direction, Brody severely beat Walker and believed he had killed him. Nazir ended Brody's torture in 2008 and invited him into his home, asking him to teach his son Issa English. Brody soon grew to love the boy as his own son. In 2009, however, Issa was killed in a drone strike while attending school. Brody helped Nazir bury Issa and joined him in reciting an Islamic prayer over the child's grave. Shortly thereafter, Brody watched an interview with Vice President William Walden, who falsely claimed that no children were killed in the drone strike. Brody swore revenge on Walden and agreed to kill him in a suicide attack.

In Their Own Story

Brody is rescued by Delta Force troops during a raid on a terrorist compound in Afghanistan. He is flown back to the US, where he is reunited with his wife, Jessica, and his children, Dana and Chris. He also meets Walden during a press conference at Andrews Air Force Base. During his debriefing, Brody finds himself interrogated by CIA officer Carrie Mathison, who had been told by an informant that an American POW had been turned by al-Qaeda. However, the interrogation is stopped by Carrie's superior, Counterterrorism Center director David Estes. Even so, Carrie sets up a slipshod intelligence operation and bugs Brody's house. As he settles back into civilian life, Brody struggles with posttraumatic stress disorder and has nightmares about his captivity in Damascus, all of which takes a toll on his family. The situation is worsened when he finds out that Jessica and Mike Faber, his best friend and fellow Marine, had been in a relationship while he was in captivity. Brody initially shuns the spotlight, physically assaulting a reporter who enters his backyard. He also rebuffs a suggestion from Faber that he re-enlist in the Marine Corps and seek a promotion. However, Brody eventually changes his mind and addresses the press in full uniform outside of his house. Carrie watches Brody's TV appearances and notices that he taps his fingers in a repeated pattern, believing that he is giving a coded message. This observation convinces her CIA mentor, Saul Berenson, to help her obtain a FISA warrant for Brody's home. Carrie continues surveilling Brody after the warrant expires and breaches CIA protocol by approaching him at a support group for veterans. They bond immediately over their shared experiences in the Middle East. The only survivor of the al-Qaeda group that held Brody for eight years is captured. Carrie summons him to consult about the interrogation of Afsal Hamid, his torturer during captivity. Brody meets Estes and demands an opportunity to confront Hamid, face to face. And it is later discovered that Afsal killed himself in his cell using a razor blade. Carrie suspects that Brody slipped the blade onto Hamid during the fight. Carrie comes up with a way to get Brody to take a polygraph test. The two eventually embark on a relationship. Carrie and Brody further complicate their relationship when they head to the countryside for the weekend. Brody considers leaving Jessica for Carrie until he figures out that Carrie suspects him of being a terrorist. After it is revealed that Walker is alive and was also turned, Brody angrily rejects Carrie and goes back to his family. He tells his Saudi contact, Monsour Al-Zahrani, to tell Nazir that he will not go through with their planned attack – a suicide bombing at a State Department policy summit that he and Walden will be attending. However, Brody reconsiders and records a suicide video, intending for it to be released after his attack. The video is collected in a drop by Nazir's men. Brody retrieves a bomb vest from one of Nazir's men and prepares to kill himself. As Walker opens fire on the summit, Brody and his targets are sent to a safe room inside the State Department. As Brody prepares to detonate the vest, however, he finds that it does not work. After he fixes it in a restroom, Dana calls and asks him to promise he will come home; unbeknownst to Brody, Carrie had shown up at his house and told Dana what he was about to do. Brody decides not to detonate the bomb and later kills Walker to reassure Nazir of his loyalty. He tells Nazir via phone that he plans to run for a seat in Congress, which will allow him to influence the U.S. military as a double agent. He then tells Carrie, who has been fired from the CIA, to leave him and his family alone.

Reader's Guide

Six months after the State Department attack, Brody has been elected to the House of Representatives, representing Virginia's 7th congressional district. Walden approaches Brody and offers to tap him as his running mate during his planned presidential campaign. Meanwhile, Brody meets Roya Hammad, a journalist who gives an assignment from Nazir instructing him to retrieve a list of potential attack targets from a safe in Estes' office. Despite his initial reluctance, Brody procures the list. Roya tells him to help an al-Qaeda bomb maker get to a safe house, but Brody ends up killing the man when he tries to escape. The incident causes him to miss a speaking engagement that Jessica had arranged for him. When he returns home, she tells him that she has had enough of his lies and that she is no longer sure of their marriage. When Dana admits at school that her father is a Muslim, an angered Jessica confronts Brody and throws his Quran to the floor. Later, Dana helps Brody bury the desecrated Quran. Meanwhile, Berenson finds Brody's suicide tape in Beirut and gives it to Estes. Carrie is reinstated, and an operation is set up to monitor Brody's actions. They meet in a hotel bar, where she intuits that he is on to her and arrests him. During the ensuing interrogation, new team leader Peter Quinn stabs Brody in the hand. Carrie takes over, and convinces Brody to become a triple agent for the CIA. Brody uses this as an excuse for his strange behavior to Jessica. Dana is involved in a fatal hit and run committed by Walden's son Finn, her new boyfriend. Brody takes Dana to the police department to report it. Carrie stops him, stating it will affect his cover. Angered, Dana runs away and goes to stay with Faber, who by now has discovered that Brody killed Walker. Carrie tells Faber to stop his investigation into Walker's death, which he reluctantly does. Under pressure, Brody meets Hammad and says he wants out of the plot. During a tryst at a hotel, Carrie convinces Brody to return to Nazir so they can prevent his next attack. During a rendezvous with Hammad the next morning, Brody is taken away in a helicopter. In a warehouse, he is confronted by Nazir and reaffirms his loyalty as part of his cover. Brody makes good on his pledge to help stop Nazir's attack. Later, he receives a call from Nazir, who is holding Carrie hostage; he threatens to kill her unless Brody helps him kill Walden. Brody goes to Walden's office and texts Nazir the serial number of Walden's pacemaker so Nazir can remotely tamper with it. Brody then demands that Nazir let Carrie go, which he does. As Brody meets with Walden and tells him he cannot accept a place on the ticket, Nazir causes Walden's pacemaker to malfunction. Brody refuses to call an ambulance and taunts Walden as he dies. That night, after learning that Nazir has been killed, Brody leaves Jessica and reunites with Carrie. Dana finds Brody's explosive vest and asks him if he had been planning to use it; he replies that he changed his mind. He goes to Walden's funeral with Carrie, who tells him that she has decided to leave the CIA and be with him. Just then, however, a bomb hidden in Brody's car detonates and kills 219 of the funeral's attendees, including Walden's family and many CIA agents and government officials. Brody realizes that Nazir had planned the attack in advance of his own death and reassures Carrie that he had nothing to do with it. As she smuggles him into Canada, al-Qaeda airs his suicide tape, and he is branded as the mastermind of the attack. At the border, Brody and Carrie tearfully part ways, with Carrie promising to clear his name. In the aftermath of the Langley bombing, Brody becomes one of the world's most wanted fugitives. In Caracas, Venezuela, he is shot twice and nearly dies before he is found by a group of drug dealers. They take him to a drug house, where Dr. Graham, an underground surgeon, treats him.

Did You Know?

• Brody was a United States Marine Corps Private who was promoted to Gunnery Sergeant after his rescue.
• He was held as a prisoner of war by al-Qaeda terrorists for eight years.
• Brody converted to Islam while in captivity.
• He was captured on May 19, 2003, near the Syrian border by forces loyal to Saddam Hussein.
• Damian Lewis won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his performance in the first season.