Homeland Series 04 Overview (2014)

Introduction

The fourth season of the American television drama series Homeland premiered on 05 October 2014, and concluded on 21 December 2014, on Showtime, consisting of 12 episodes.

The series is loosely based on the Israeli television series Hatufim (English: Prisoners of War) created by Gideon Raff and is developed for American television by Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa.

Outline

In the fourth season, Carrie is working as a CIA station chief in Kabul, Afghanistan. Pakistan station chief Sandy Bachman tips Carrie about the location of terrorist target Haissam Haqqani in Pakistan. Carrie orders an air strike, supposedly killing Haqqani, and 40 civilians are killed as a wedding was taking place at his location. A survivor of the air strike, Aayan Ibrahim, after losing his family, returns to medical college where his friend uploads the wedding video from Aayan’s phone. This causes uproar and Sandy Bachman is attacked in the streets of Islamabad by an angry mob, after his picture somehow finds its way onto local TV. Carrie and Peter Quinn try to rescue him, but Bachman is dragged from the car and killed, while Carrie and Quinn barely escape. They are recalled to the U.S. by CIA Director Lockhart. Carrie contacts another agent who reveals Sandy was trading state secrets in exchange for target info and Lockhart was aware of it. Carrie blackmails Lockhart to send her back as the new station chief in Islamabad, Pakistan. There, Carrie sets up another secret base with Max and Fara and convinces Quinn to join. Saul arrives at the embassy to oversee private security. Carrie asks Fara to recruit Aayan but she fails to do so as Aayan is too scared. Carrie then makes contact with Aayan offering help, to smuggle him out to London. Fara later follows Aayan to a mosque where it is revealed that Haqqani is alive and being helped by his nephew Aayan with stolen medicines.

Meanwhile, ISI official Tasneem Qureishi contacts the ambassador’s husband, Dennis Boyd, revealing the latter as the source of Sandy, by stealing info from his wife, Martha. Tasneem forces Dennis to continue working for her. Aayan confesses to Carrie that Haqqani is still alive. In a staged attack set up by Carrie and her people, Aayan flees the safehouse and makes contact with Haqqani. Carrie monitors Aayan via drone leading them to Haqqani. Dennis gives info about Aayan to Tasneem who alerts Haqqani. Haqqani’s men have kidnapped Saul and Haqqani meets Aayan in the mountains where Saul is shown captive. Haqqani blames Aayan for the drone tracking him and kills Aayan. Carrie, out of anger, orders a strike but Quinn intervenes. Haqqani demands five prisoners to be released in exchange for Saul. Lockhart arrives at the embassy to manage the situation. Saul escapes from captivity and calls Carrie who leads him to a nearby town for extraction, but he is later surrounded with Haqqani’s men and Saul is recaptured. Lockhart agrees to the terms of the prisoner exchange. At the embassy, Dennis is caught as the leak and imprisoned. Saul is successfully exchanged, despite not wanting the deal to go through.

On their way back to the embassy Carrie’s convoy is hit with RPGs by Haqqani’s men. Haqqani infiltrates the embassy by a hidden tunnel (information given by Dennis to Tasneem) and kills several people. Threatening to kill more people, Haqqani demands the list of informants, which Lockhart eventually gives up. However, Haqqani kills Fara, and Quinn attacks, forcing Haqqani to retreat and escape. The convoy gets help from the Pakistani military after a delay. The White House cuts relations with Pakistan and orders an evacuation of the remaining embassy personnel. Quinn escapes the embassy and plans on killing Haqqani. Carrie stays behind to find him. During a rally of Haqqani, Carrie forces Quinn to abort his plan on killing him and discovers Dar Adal in Haqqani’s car. Back in the U.S., Carrie reunites with her estranged mother. Quinn accepts a dangerous assassination mission in Syria. Later, Carrie confronts Dar Adal who reveals Saul as a supporter of a deal made with Haqqani, to take him off the CIA kill list, in exchange for the only video evidence of Saul in Haqqani’s custody. Carrie leaves in anger and confusion.

Cast

Main:
- Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison, a CIA intelligence officer assigned to the Counter-terrorism Centre.
- Rupert Friend as Peter Quinn, a CIA SAD/SOG (black ops) operative.
- Nazanin Boniadi as Fara Sherazi, an intelligent, young, and professional Persian analyst.
- Laila Robins as Martha Boyd, the United States ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
- Tracy Letts as Andrew Lockhart, the new director of the CIA.
- Mandy Patinkin as Saul Berenson, Carrie’s old boss and mentor, now working in the private sector.
Recurring:
- Suraj Sharma as Aayan Ibrahim, a Pakistani medical student
- Amy Hargreaves as Maggie Mathison, Carrie’s sister and a psychiatrist.
- Sarita Choudhury as Mira Berenson, Saul’s wife.
- Alex Lanipekun as Hank Wonham, a CIA officer at the Kabul station.
- Akshay Kumar as Rahim, a Pakistani medical student.
- Shavani Seth as Kiran, Aayan’s girlfriend and fellow medical student.
- F. Murray Abraham as Dar Adal, a retired black ops specialist.
- Michael O’Keefe as John Redmond, a CIA deputy station chief in Pakistan.
- Maury Sterling as Max Piotrowski, a freelance surveillance expert.
- Mark Moses as Dennis Boyd, Martha’s husband and a political science teacher at Islamabad’s Quaid-I-Azam University.
- Raza Jaffrey as Aasar Khan, the counter-terrorism chief of Pakistan’s ISI.
- Nimrat Kaur as Tasneem Qureishi, a member of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence.
- Art Malik as Bunran “Bunny” Latif, a retired Pakistani general.
- Numan Acar as Haissam Haqqani, a high-priority target and Taliban leader.
Special Guest:
- Damian Lewis as Nicholas Brody, who appears in a hallucination of Carrie’s.
Guest
- Patrick St. Esprit as Aaron Gage.
- Corey Stoll as Sandy Bachman, the CIA station chief in Pakistan.
- Adam Godley as Jordan Harris, a CIA case officer.
- Emily Walker as The Landlady, with whom Quinn has a brief relationship.
- Nina Hoss as Astrid, Quinn’s former lover who works for the German embassy.
- Victoria Clark as Ellen Mathison, Carrie’s mother.
- John Getz as Joe Crocker.