In Season 3 finale, did Brody really mean to finish the mission or only after he have the chance?

Question

Brody learned that the CIA wants him gone after they think that the mission failed. He then comes to Abu Nazir's wife, Nassrin, and convinced her to setup an emergency meeting with Danesh Akbari by saying that he has information about Majid Javadi. It looks like that Brody really intend to burn the mission down by exposing the CIA's plan and Javadi. Only until when they are alone in the room and he realized that he can kill Akbari did we know that the mission is still on.

Now, did Brody really intend to kill Akbari in the finale or was that just a sudden change of heart when he thinks he got a chance to escape.

Answer 1

Chanandler has given a bit of background which I would generally agree with, however I think there's one thing that hasn't been touched on yet: Brody's state of mind clearly changed, during that meeting, when Akbari made him realise that he (Brody) had been played from the start.

It's been awhile since I saw the episode so I can't recall the exact words, but I distinctly recall Brody "stopping in his tracks" - and you can almost see his mind ticking over as he contemplates what he must do (brilliant acting by Lewis, by the way).

Because he has already exposed the plan (which I believe is what he originally intended to do), he now must act very fast. He thought the CIA were the bad guys, but he's just realised that the entire brainwashing he went through under Nazir was concocted from the start. He now has an opportunity both to punish Akbari, and give a final attempt at helping the CIA.

So in answer to your question, no, I don't think Brody intended to finish the mission - until Akbari unintentionally provoked him by unwrapping the lie Brody had been living ever since his captivity. I think this is a subtle but brilliant conclusion for Brody's tenure on the show.

Answer 2

I'm afraid that the only good answer to this question is: we don't know.
The show writers made sure that we didn't know what he was up to until the last moment, so the only way we could tell was if he revealed it to someone (Carrie) later. However he didn't do it (or at least it was not shown) and this leaves us with no idea about his plan.
That said, we can still assume something, based on our knowledge on Brody's state of mind at the moment and this state of mind was: desperation.
He was extremely desperate and shown it several times since being "brought back to live" by CIA. His desperation came from one source: this was the only way for him to (at least partially) redeem himself.
Based on the above my opinion is that he really wanted to kill Akbari.