Homeland‘s season four finale, “13 Hours In Islamabad,” picked up in the moments following the explosion that ravaged the caravan bringing Carrie (Claire Danes) and Saul (Mandy Patinkin) back to the embassy in Islamabad, and Haqqani (Numan Acar) leading his men into the embassy via the underground passageway.

‘Homeland’ Recap

Carrie and Saul both survive the blast, but John was not as fortunate. Ambassador Martha Boyd (Laila Robins) informs Quinn (Rupert Friend) that ISI likely set off the bombs as a distraction, leading the embassy to deploy the marines to the blast sight and leaving the embassy unprotected. After checking to make sure Carrie and Saul are alive, Quinn phones a marine to tell them to get back to the building ASAP. Just as the marines start to set a new plan in motion, snipers start gunning them down.

Lockhart (Tracy Letts) tells the men and women in the embassy that they’re going on lockdown and need to incinerate all documents in case of a massive security breach. Their actions might be too late, though, as ISI is already in the building and gunning down embassy employees. In the CIA’s operation room, Haqqani lines up the survivors and demands to know from Fara (Nazanin Boniadi) where the list of contacts is – the list that Lockhart escaped the room with. Haqqani continues to single Fara out, shaming her for being a Muslim and supporting America’s efforts int he Middle East.

After fielding a frantic call from Carrie, Aasar (Raza Jaffrey) wants to call to send some help. Nasneem (Nimrat Kaur) dissuades him from taking action, coming out and sharing her contempt for the U.S. and the country’s involvement in matters in Pakistan. As Carrie and Saul try to help the marines with some suppression fire, Haqqani manages to get Fara and the others to lead him to Martha’s office. One by one, Haqqani has the Americans killed. With a knife at Fara’s neck, Lockhart decides to give Haqqani the list in its case. Pushing Martha aside, Lockhart leaves the office to hand over the information. After Haqqani has the case, he knifes Fara in the back.

Quinn then emerges from around the corner and begins firing. Haqqani is hit, but he manages to get away. As Quinn and the marine chase the ISI men down, a small bomb blast barricades them them from following the terrorists out through the emergency exit. When Quinn gets back to the blood-soaked hallways outside the ambassador’s office, Fara is dead, cradled in Max’s (Maury Sterling) arms.

Four hours later, news reports reveal that about 40 Americans were killed in the attack. “You were mean,” Max tells Carrie as they sit near Fara’s body. “All she wanted was your approval, and all you gave her was a hard time.” Carrie admits she was hard on her and is then summoned by Lockhart. He tells her the president is going to break off diplomatic relations with Pakistan. Carrie wants to stay and make sure all the assets are okay, but the president doesn’t want her representing the country there anymore, so she’ll be heading back to the States with Lockhart first thing in the morning.

From his jail cell, Dennis (Mark Moses) tries to apologize to Martha, but she points out that the deaths of 36 Americans are on his hands. He asks for her belt. She’s resistant to the idea at first, but then Dennis notes that it’s the one thing that could potentially save her career and the one good thing he could do.”My life’s ruined, yours doesn’t have to be,” he says. Struggling with the decision, Martha finally goes to the locker, gets his belt and throws it at the bars of his cell. In the end, however, Dennis opts out of his sacrificial suicide.

Quinn, desperate to bring Haqqani to justice, debriefs Saul about where the terrorists had kept him. It quickly turns into an interrogation, as Quinn is impatient for Saul to remember details about his captivity. Carrie tries to bring Quinn down and convince him that he needs to leave with her in the morning. She then tries to convince Saul that the attack was not his fault. Meanwhile, Quinn goes to the room with the dead bodies, searching for clues. Later, he takes off on a rogue mission and manages to isolate an ISI leader and bring him to a torture room to find out where Haqqani is hiding.

In the morning, Quinn is still nowhere to be found. Carries asks Lockhart to give her five days to track him down and bring him back.

 

 

Leave a comment

Read more about: