Homeland’s fourth season opened with Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) working in her new job as the Station Chief at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. There, she’s tasked with, among other things, ordering drone strikes.

‘The Drone Queen’ Recap

Based in Kabul, Carrie had to leave her and Brody’s daughter, Franny, back at home with her sister. In the midst of birthday celebrations, she makes a hasty exit to try to get back to her room in time to Skype her sister and see Franny. After realizing she was too late to see the baby, Carrie takes an Ambien and goes to sleep.

As for the drone strike Carrie ordered earlier off of a tip from local agent Sandy Bachman (Corey Stoll), it hit a wedding in order to take out target Haissam Haqqani. As a result, there was “collateral damage,” including the mother and sister of an apolitical medical student at the Ommaya College of Medicine in Islamabad, Pakistan named Aayan (Suraj Sharma). Aayan had captured video footage of the wedding and devastating bombing, but refuses to post it online at his friend’s urging. Somehow, however, the video gets uploaded, much to Aayan’s chagrin.

Saul (Mandy Patinkin), no longer working for the CIA, is back at the Pentagon bidding for defense gigs in his new job as a private military contractor. While making the pitch alongside his boss, Saul can’t help put pose a policy question. Outside the meeting, the boss tries to explain to Saul that matters of policy are none of his concern these days. The only goal now is to secure contracting jobs. When Saul gets back to New York City, where he and Mira (Sarita Choudhury) are now living, he reveals the day didn’t go so well. Mira urges Saul to apologize to the boss, because it’s her turn to decide where they’re calling home. While Saul may no longer work for the government, upon watching the video of the drone attack in Afghanistan, he makes a phone call.

In Afghanistan, Carrie is having to face the consequences of ordering the strike on the wedding. Though the intended target was killed, the large number of civilian deaths disturbs Peter Quinn (Rubert Friend), and enrages the pilot who flew the mission. Things only get worse when it’s revealed in the media that Sandy Bachman was the agent who gave the go-ahead on the strike. Though Carrie and Quinn try to save him, they’re too late and Sandy ends up dead.

Following Sandy’s brutal killing, Carrie arrives at the Pakistan Embassy to see the U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Martha Boyd (Laila Robins). Upon arrival, a guard stops her and informs her that there’s blood on her face. “The Drone Queen” ends with Carrie in the bathroom, cleaning off the spatter.

'Trylon and Perisphere' Recap

New CIA director Andrew Lockhart (Tracy Letts), who told Carrie to fix the mess, and Peter Quinn are more than distressed about Sandy’s death and all of the other fallout from the wedding drone strike. Carrie has returned to the United States and has a warm welcome at home with Maggie and Franny, while Quinn is getting liquored up at a cheap motel, where he eventually takes the hotel manager to bed.

Aayan, studying for his degree in medicine, continues to worry about the video that his roommate uploaded without his permission. He fears that the video, which exploded on the Internet, will come back to haunt him. He does not want to be any kind of political martyr, the face of the wedding drone strike. While on the grounds of his campus, he’s approached by a reporter, who wants to know what he makes of the attack. He tells her he thinks that the bombing was wrong, as was Sandy’s murder.

Carrie is consumed by Sandy’s murder and wants to find out how it happened. She thinks that she and Quinn should be in Islamabad working on the case, but Lockhart says that she has to remain stateside after the wedding bombing mess. One of the things Carrie has been avoiding at home is being a mother to Franny. When her sister tells her it’s time she takes responsibility for her child, Carrie reluctantly takes her. Driving Franny to Brody’s house, Carrie explains to her daughter how it’s hard for her to raise her after losing the love of her life. Giving Franny a bath later, a disconcerting look falls over Carrie’s face when her daughter briefly slips under the water before she pulls her back out.

Aayan, with a bag of medicine he took from school, goes to see his girlfriend. The girlfriend’s father questions Aayan about his uncle Haissam Haqqani, the target in the drone strike. Aayan doesn’t deny that he was related to the man and then asks for a moment alone with the young woman. He asks her to hold on to his “personal stuff (the vials)." Later on, two guys burst into Aayan’s room, beat him up and demand that he not conduct any more interviews.

While Dar Adal (F. Murray Abraham) is trying to convince Saul he might have a chance at getting the CIA Director job, Carrie tracks down former Afghanistan case agent Harris. Harris tells Carrie that it was Lockhart who transferred him to the file room in D.C. Carrie uses that information to confront Lockhart at Sandy’s funeral about how he allowed Sandy to trade top-secret information to get high-profile targets. If Lockhart doesn’t let her go back to Islamabad, Carrie promises to rat him out. At the funeral, Carrie also secures support from Saul and his new military personnel if she needs them in Islamabad.

When Carrie reveals to Quinn what she found out about Sandy’s work from Lockhart, he tries to help her figure out who Sandy had been talking to. However, Quinn is not anywhere near eager to return to Islamabad. Carrie is, however, and she informs her sister that she’s going to have to leave Franny with her again. The sister tries to push back, but settles for Carrie saying goodbye to her daughter before she leaves.

Leave a comment

Read more about: