Sunday’s episode of Homeland season 4 continued to escalate the drama set by episode 9 which was a full two weeks ago.

It’s funny: Homeland continues to top itself this season. There’ve been so many episodes that have left us thinking that the show couldn’t get any better – and then it does.

Homeland season 4, episode 10 saw many people lose their lives at the hand of Haqqani, and in the face of so much tragedy, Carrie and Quinn have once again found themselves going off-script to take down the enemy.

Our recap of tonight’s episode breaks down the events of a very important episode.

Outside

The episode begins where we left off at the end of episode 9. Carrie and Saul are alive, but a familiar face, John Redmond, has a piece of glass in his neck that’s left him dead.

Did you think that the bombs would be the last of the firepower? Think again. The terrorists open fire on Saul, Carrie, and the military. A solider asks them to help suppress the shooter while Carrie wonders why no one from the embassy is coming to help.

She gets her answer when they return to the embassy: A flag belonging to the Taliban is hanging out front (they had time to hang that thing? Well, it was a nice touch for viewers).

Inside

Martha alerts Quinn to the breach that Haqqani may be using to penetrate the embassy, so he takes matters into his own hands by organizing a plan of attack.

Meanwhile, Lockhart is tasked with keeping safe some very important paperwork including their recontact lists. Right after Lockhart grabs the documents, Haqqani and his men enter and kill several Americans, but Lockhart escapes in the nick of time.

Quinn catches up to Haqqani and his men as he’s standing at the door of the vault which holds many officials. The terrorist demands the paperwork be given to him by Lockhart. Martha advises that the information not be turned over because it’ll give up all of their sources, but when Haqqani puts a knife to Fara’s throat, Lockhart steps out and hands it over.

Not one to keep his word, Haqqani fatally slices Fara despite receiving the information he requested. Lockhart realizes later that Fara was going to die either way, and that’s a hard pill for him to swallow in hindsight. He clearly did not want Fara to be killed, so at least tried to save her. The problem is that it came at the expense of handing over important information.

Four hours later

The embassy is a tragic scene, and Max is someone who’s taking everything particularly hard in light of Fara’s death. He wishes that Carrie had just once said something nice to Fara about her work (something that was on exhibit a couple times earlier this season). We suspect this’ll be haunting Carrie for a bit.

Lockhart tells Carrie that the President wants them to exit the country. He also plans to cut ties with Pakistan. She reluctantly agrees – for now.

Elsewhere at the embassy Dennis asks Martha for her belt so he can commit suicide. While she’s initially shocked by this request, he argues that it’s best for the family. “My life’s ruined, yours doesn’t have to be,” he tells her. “It can’t… be my belt,” she says before handing over his belt.

Meanwhile, Quinn is hoping for Saul to help figure out where Haqqani could be getting treatment for his bullet wound. Carrie stops this “interrogating” dead in its tracks when she tells Quinn that they’re being forced by the President to get out of town tomorrow.

Quinn isn’t happy with just letting things go, so he takes matters into his own hands: In one of our favorite Quinn scenes to date, he leaves the embassy, grabs Fahrad (the man who kidnapped Saul in episode 5), and holds him prisoner. We see that Quinn has set up a safehouse where he has several tools that he’ll probably use to torture Fahrad until he gives up Haqqani’s location. But does Fahrad really know? And would he ever give up the information?

With Quinn missing the following morning, Carrie gets permission from Lockhart to stay an extra five days without protection from the government. Carrie knows that Quinn is looking to get to Haqqani himself, and she wants to help.

“Be very careful,” Saul warns Carrie as he heads home with Lockhart, Martha, and yes… Dennis, who wasn’t able to kill himself for a yet-to-be-revealed reason.

In memoriam

Homeland season 4 lost three of its major players tonight: Henley, Redmond, and perhaps the biggest this season: Fara. Her death was the most significant since Haqqani killed Aayan.

What did you think of ‘Homeland’ season 4, episode 10?

It was easily one of the best episodes of the season – if not THE best – but was it one of the best episodes of the series?

One final point: At the beginning of the episode we saw Tasleem essentially admitting to Aasar that she’s on Haqqani’s side when she asked that he wait before calling in Pakistani officials to help the Americans stop the attack. With Aasar now fully aware of what she’s up to, we think Tasleem’s days may be numbered.