Season 4

Complete listed story — includes the ending

1. The Drone Queen

Carrie, now operating as the CIA station chief in Kabul, authorizes an airstrike on a farmhouse in Pakistan believed to be the whereabouts of Taliban leader Haissam Haqqani. However, reports soon emerge that the airstrike occurred during a wedding, killing Haqqani and 40 other people. Among those killed were the family of medical student Aayan Ibrahim, who survived the airstrike and has a video of the wedding he was filming on his mobile phone at the moment of the strike. One of Aayan's friends uploads the video online against his wishes, creating a rift between the United States government and the Pakistan Armed Forces. Carrie travels to the Islamabad embassy to meet with its station chief, Sandy Bachman. Before Carrie arrives, Sandy leaves the embassy without protection to meet with the secret source of his intelligence on Haqqani. At the same time, Sandy's identity is leaked to the Pakistani press and his face is shown on the television news. Carrie and Quinn attempt to pick Sandy up, but a violent mob surrounds their vehicle and beats Sandy to death. Carrie and Quinn narrowly escape.

2. Trylon and Perisphere

Carrie and Quinn return to Washington; Lockhart recalls Carrie from her posting in Afghanistan as punishment for the botched airstrike. Carrie struggles to form a bond with her infant daughter Franny, who has been under the care of Carrie's sister Maggie in her absence. Quinn, meanwhile, lapses into alcoholism while coping with the events in Islamabad, for which he feels responsible. He has a sexual encounter with his landlady and is later arrested for beating two men at a restaurant. When Carrie bails him out, he gives her the name of Jordan Harris, a former Islamabad case officer who was removed from his posting despite an exemplary record. Carrie tracks down Harris and learns that Lockhart had him transferred out of Islamabad after Harris reported that Sandy was buying information using state secrets. Carrie uses this information to leverage Lockhart into placing her in charge of the Islamabad station, taking over for Sandy.

3. Shalwar Kameez

Carrie arrives in Islamabad as the new station chief and learns that the embassy has been placed on lockdown at the order of the U.S. ambassador, Martha Boyd. However, Carrie has set up an alternate base of operations with Fara and Max, aiming to establish contact with Aayan (who has been threatened to keep him from talking to the media). After Aayan refuses to speak with Fara, posing as a journalist, Carrie makes contact herself, saying she is Fara's boss, and offers Aayan protection as well as safe passage to London where he can continue his medical studies. Saul arrives in Islamabad with a security team from his company to back Carrie up; while there, he meets with Martha, who is an old friend and colleague, and offers Carrie further assistance. Meanwhile, Quinn submits his resignation to the CIA, but faces pressure to stay from Dar Adal, who goads Quinn with his failure to protect Sandy. While watching video footage of the mob's murder of Sandy, Quinn discovers evidence that the attack was premeditated and reports this to Carrie, who implores him to return to Pakistan. Quinn reluctantly agrees.

4. Iron in the Fire

Aayan is told that he is being expelled from his university for stealing medicine. With nowhere else to go, he accepts Carrie's offer. Carrie receives confirmation from Aayan that the man who threatened him was ISI operative Farhad Ghazi, the same man Quinn identified as having coordinated the attack that led to Sandy's death. Carrie and her team begin surveillance on Ghazi, but he escapes. Dennis Boyd, the ambassador's husband, is approached by ISI agent Tasneem Qureishi, who has learned that Dennis was Sandy's secret source of U.S. intel. She uses this to blackmail him into becoming her informant. Fara follows Aayan and discovers that Haqqani – his uncle – is alive, not having died in the airstrike, and is receiving deliveries of medicine from Aayan. Carrie realizes that she can use Aayan to get to Haqqani. She installs Aayan at a safehouse, claiming that they must wait several days for his passport and visa, a ploy which buys her time to interrogate him and earn his trust. As part of her recruiting strategy, Carrie seduces Aayan.

5. About a Boy

Carrie interviews Aayan about his relationship with Haqqani, his uncle, but he panics when she broaches the rumor that Haqqani may be alive. On his way back to the United States, Saul spots Farhad Ghazi at the airport and calls Quinn to tell him that Ghazi is waiting for a flight to Johannesburg. Ghazi then gets out of the line and has two of his men kidnap Saul before revealing that he is working for Tasneem. Fara and Quinn, after failing to reach Carrie for assistance, follow a cleric who was seen with Haqqani, but are unable to proceed past a checkpoint, unaware that Saul is being transported in the trunk of the cleric's car. Dennis enters Carrie's quarters in the embassy seeking information about her. Quinn confronts Carrie over her having abandoned the mission to focus on recruiting Aayan, and accuses her of sexually exploiting the boy. Aayan confides in Carrie that Haqqani is alive.

6. From A to B and Back Again

Carrie gives Aayan his new passport and rehearses him on the details of his identity. He and Carrie are attacked by several men at the safehouse, but Aayan is able to escape. The break-in is revealed to be a ruse engineered by Carrie to prompt Aayan to seek refuge with Haqqani. Dennis tracks down the safehouse and gives Tasneem evidence of Carrie's bipolar disorder, also reporting that Carrie has procured a new identity for Aayan. Quinn learns that Ghazi did not leave Islamabad and that Saul is unreachable. Carrie and deputy station chief John Redmond, together with Max, use a GPS tracker in Aayan's passport to monitor him as he travels to a rendezvous with Haqqani, following him with a CIA drone. However, Haqqani emerges with a captured Saul, aware that he is under watch, and executes Aayan for leading him into a trap. An enraged Carrie orders a drone strike even with Saul present at the site, but Quinn talks her down, allowing Haqqani and his men to leave with Saul in tow.

7. Redux

News of Saul's capture reaches the United States, prompting Lockhart to travel to Islamabad. With Saul's presence protecting him from an airstrike, Haqqani holds Saul captive at a compound near the Afghanistan border, where he plots to negotiate Saul's release in exchange for several prisoners. Dennis breaks into Carrie's apartment using a key given to him by Tasneem, and replaces her medication with a hallucinogenic substance. Carrie unwittingly takes the replacement drugs and begins suffering increasingly severe paranoid delusions while following one of Aayan's contacts. Carrie is soon taken off the streets by the police and delivered to a house where she has a vision of Nicholas Brody. Carrie breaks down crying in his arms, unaware that it is a hallucination and that she is actually in the presence of ISI colonel Aasar Khan.

8. Halfway to a Donut

Carrie awakens in Khan's house with no memory of how she got there. Tasneem tells Khan that the ISI was trying to have Carrie removed from Islamabad and that his intervention foiled their plan. Carrie surmises that her meds were tampered with, but Khan denies being involved. Over live video, Haqqani presents a captured Saul to the U.S. embassy and names the prisoners he wants released, but Saul begs the U.S. to refuse Haqqani's demands. Saul then escapes and is guided by Carrie and Quinn to a nearby CIA refuge. During a meeting between the U.S. embassy and the ISI about the prisoner exchange, Carrie realizes that the Pakistanis must already have Saul's location. Unable to extract Saul, Carrie reluctantly directs him back into the hands of the Taliban, refusing his wish to die rather than be recaptured. Lockhart decides that the U.S. will accept Haqqani's terms for the exchange. That night, Khan informs Carrie that Dennis Boyd is the ISI's mole in the embassy.

9. There's Something Else Going On

Carrie has Dennis detained at the embassy with Martha's help. During the prisoner exchange, the Taliban use a young boy wearing a suicide vest as leverage to ensure the release of the five prisoners. Saul refuses to move, hoping to prevent the exchange from succeeding, but Carrie convinces him to get up. However, their convoy is struck by two RPGs on the way back to the embassy, prompting Lockhart to send the embassy's security forces to the scene. Dennis realizes that the security personnel are being diverted from an incoming attack on the embassy, and admits to Martha that he told Tasneem of the embassy's hidden underground entrance. As they speak, Haqqani and a troupe of armed men use the tunnel to enter the embassy.

10. 13 Hours in Islamabad

Carrie and Saul survive the assault on their convoy, but they and the troops sent to retrieve them are tied down by sniper fire. Haqqani and his men storm the embassy, slaughtering numerous employees. Lockhart, with a list of the CIA's assets in Pakistan, joins Martha, Dennis and a number of staff members in a secure room. Outside the door, Haqqani begins killing off survivors of the attack one by one, saying he will continue doing so until the list is handed over. When he gets to Fara and threatens to slit her throat, Lockhart relents and gives him the list, but Haqqani executes her nonetheless; Quinn and a Marine with him start shooting at Haqqani and his men, but a wounded Haqqani escapes with the list. The White House breaks off diplomatic relations with Pakistan and prepares to evacuate the remaining embassy staff; Quinn, however, goes rogue and kidnaps Farhad Ghazi in hopes of locating Haqqani. Lockhart gives Carrie permission to stay in Islamabad for five more days to find Quinn.

11. Krieg Nicht Lieb

Quinn visits his former lover Astrid, a German intelligence officer stationed in Islamabad, and receives her help in locating Haqqani. While searching for Quinn, Carrie is devastated to learn from her sister that their father has died of a stroke. Quinn has Aayan's ex-girlfriend upload a video of Aayan's execution to the internet, intending to prompt public protests and draw Haqqani out of hiding, and he assembles a bomb he plans to detonate during the demonstration. Tasneem sends a group of pro-Haqqani counter-protesters to the demonstration. Carrie prevents Quinn from detonating the bomb, but moves in to kill Haqqani herself when he shows himself to greet his supporters. However, Khan prevents her from shooting Haqqani, alerting her to Dar Adal's presence in Haqqani's vehicle.

12. Long Time Coming

Dar Adal informs Saul that he made a deal with Haqqani, who agreed not to harbor terrorists in Afghanistan in exchange for being removed from the CIA's kill list. Dar assures Saul that the video evidence of his capture by Haqqani will not be publicized, preserving Saul's chances of becoming CIA director. Carrie returns home from Islamabad for her father's funeral. She and Quinn reunite and share a kiss later that night; Quinn suggests to Carrie that they leave the CIA together, but Carrie believes she is incapable of upholding a relationship. Carrie tracks down her estranged mother, who apologizes for abandoning her family and assures Carrie that her bipolar disorder does not prevent her from having a healthy relationship. Carrie attempts to call Quinn, but he has already accepted a high-risk mission in Syria with Dar's group, believing Carrie turned him down. Carrie visits Dar Adal and confronts him over his dealings with Haqqani, claiming that Saul would never approve; however, she is dismayed to find Saul already at Dar's house, and realizes that he in fact agreed to the deal.