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Max Piotrowski
Max
Status: Deceased
Cause of death: Shot by Taliban leader Jalal Haqqani
Nationality: Flag of the United States American
Profession: Surveillance Technician
Sibling(s): Virgil Piotrowski (brother)
Significant other(s): Fara Sherazi (love interest)
Played by: Maury Sterling
Season(s): 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8
First episode: "Pilot"
Last episode: "Threnody(s)"
  • “Well, Max would do anything for me. Absolutely anything. Wherever I’d go, he’d… he’d end up there, by my side. And the reason I never mentioned him, is I took him for granted. Used him, all these years and… and now he’s dead.” - MATHISON, Carrie

Max Piotrowski, like his older brother Virgil, works for the CIA and is called in by Carrie Mathison to investigate suspects. Max is an excellent programmer and has perfect knowledge of surveillance technology. He becomes one of Carrie's most important and closest confidants.

Background[]

Max Piotrowski is Virgil's younger brother, who works with him on freelance security consulting operations. Max is reserved and socially awkward, but technically adept and competent at reconnaissance work.

Season 1[]

Max is Virgil's younger brother. When Carrie Mathison spontaneously needs Nick Brody to be under surveillance, he helps his brother install microphones and cameras in his house. When Carrie notices that Virgil isn't using his normal partners for the job, he explains to her that he had to use Max because she didn't pay enough. For $1,000 a day, which the CIA pays, he couldn't hire a three-man team of specialists to do the job.

When Carrie is at work and Virgil and Max are watching Nick Brody from their home, Max finds antidepressants in Carrie's bathroom cabinet. He gives it to Virgil, who confronts Carrie about it. Because he hasn't worked with her before, Max doesn't trust Carrie as much as his older brother. Nevertheless, he is always there when Carrie needs Virgil's help and observes Brody when he meets with Helen Walker or others.

Season 2[]

Some time later, David Estes, Carrie's superior, also realizes that Carrie was right from the start in her suspicion that Nicholas Brody was a terrorist. The surveillance with Brody begins again, but this time not from Carrie's apartment, but from a CIA office. However, Max mostly takes on the task of tracking down terrorists like Roya Hammad. He also breaks into the apartment of Peter Quinn, who is actually the head of the operation, together with Virgil. However, Saul and Carrie are skeptical of him, so Max keeps an eye on him and sees him talking to a man named Dar Adal on the bus. This clue helps Saul eventually figure out that Peter Quinn is a trained sniper who is probably tasked with killing Brody.

Season 3[]

A few months later the situation changed. Max, Virgil and Peter join forces to support Carrie, who in turn wants to help Jessica Brody find her daughter Dana. Max plays a big part in ensuring that Carrie can make contact with FBI Agent Hall unnoticed. Some time later, Virgil and he are given the task of searching Saul's apartment for bugs after Senator Lockhart was able to find out the actually secret information about Brody's whereabouts. The two actually find what they are looking for in the apartment and then monitor the address to which the bug sends the signals. Ultimately it turns out that Mira's lover Alan Bernard planted the bug there.

Season 4[]

A few months later, Max works at the CIA base in Islamabad under the direction of Carrie. An attack on the terrorist Haissam Haqqani triggers a scandal because 40 civilians who had just celebrated a wedding were killed. Haqqani, however, survived. After Fara finds out, Max works with Fara to help Carrie win over Haqqani's nephew Aayan Ibrahim, who survived the attack. Carrie wants to get to Haqqani through him. Your plan actually works. After gaining Aayan's trust, they stage a raid on the safe house where he is staying, whereupon Aayan flees and is pursued by Max via a drone. He can also ensure that they can monitor a phone call between Aayan and Haqqani. Shortly afterwards, uncle and nephew actually meet and Carrie, Max and Co. have to do nothing to watch as Haqqani kills Aayan and presents Saul as a hostage. Since Haqqani then disappears in an unknown direction, Carrie, Fara and Max are back at square one and have to start the search for him again.

However, they cannot stop Haqqani and his men from breaking into the American embassy a few weeks later. Max and Fara are taken hostage along with several other employees. Haqqani demands a list with the contact details of the embassy's allies, with which Lockhart disappears into the safe. Max has to watch as Haqqani gradually kills his colleagues and finally holds a knife to Fara's throat. But even though Lockhart gives the list to Haqqani, he kills Fara. Max is devastated. He then blames Carrie for never acknowledging Fara's work.

Although the order from Washington says that the CIA should withdraw from Islamabad immediately, Max stays there with Carrie and a few other employees to search for Quinn, who wants to finally put an end to Haqqani. Max has faith in Quinn and believes he can do it, which is why he steals money from the safe and gets him a fake passport. However, Carrie catches him, whereupon Max again blames her for Fara's death. Carrie replies that that's why they have to make sure they don't lose Quinn too. Later, Max takes a call for Carrie and learns that her father has died. When Carrie is finally informed about this, Max is there for her.

Season 6[]

After Fara Sherazi's death, Max falls into a deep hole and turns to alcohol. He no longer accepts orders from the CIA and goes into hiding for the time being. However, Carrie Mathison seems to keep in touch with him because when she is back in New York she needs his help.

After Peter Quinn almost died from the use of poison gas and then began to have psychological problems, Carrie took him into her home. Max supports her in looking after Quinn, who, however, has little enthusiasm for having Max with him permanently as a babysitter. Max quickly realizes that being close to Carrie Quinn isn't good. He offers her his help whenever she needs it. After a man breaks into Carrie's house, she takes up Max's offer, who then installs a security system in her house. He advises her to inform the police about the incident, which Carrie doesn't want to do. When the youth welfare office gets wind of the circumstances, Franny is taken away from her mother, which plunges Carrie into deep depression. Although Max is present in her house the whole time, he can't cheer her up any more than Saul Berenson can.

Max then decides to help Carrie investigate the death of FBI agent Ray Conlin. When a job is advertised at the company located in the building from which Conlin called Carrie immediately before his death, he applies there. Carrie is worried about Max's safety, but he is confident and manages to impress at the interview. The only problem he has is a one-year gap in his CV. When asked about it, he initially refuses to talk about it, but eventually admits that he lost an important person in his life at the time - Fara. His interviewer is satisfied with this answer and hires him.

Max's first task is to save his colleagues' fake accounts on social media. Max masters this without any problems, which delights his colleagues. They then use the accounts to express their solidarity with their home country of America on social media. Max quickly understands that fake news is being produced in the company and a few days later discovers Dar Adal and the talk show host Brett O'Keefe, whose goal is to incite against the aspiring President Elizabeth Keane in his broadcasts. Max records a short part of the two's conversation, but he is caught by a colleague. Since it is forbidden to carry a cell phone with you in the company, Max is locked up. However, he is able to send the video to Carrie in time, and Saul finally finds it on her computer. With the help of a colleague, he almost manages to escape from the company, but he is discovered escaping in the underground car park and taken straight to Dar Adal. Adal asks him to hack into his boss's computer because he is probably running a fake profile for Quinn. In fact, Max finds numerous articles on the Internet about conspiracy theories and against Keane, which were allegedly written by Quinn.

Shortly afterwards, Quinn dies while trying to save Keane from an attack. Max is then deeply upset, especially since Quinn's fake profile on the Internet means that it is assumed that he carried out the attack on Keane. He seeks refuge with Carrie. When she finds a photo of herself in Quinn's things, she is sad because it shows how much she meant to him. Max then comforts his girlfriend.

Season 7[]

Max Piotrowski is still in contact with Carrie Mathison in Washington. She provides him with material with which he can bug David Wellington's house.

A few days later, Max tries to help Carrie when she catches a ransomware virus on her laptop that encrypts her data. However, he has no other advice than that she should pay the ransom. Since she can't raise the money herself, he offers her about $750 of the $5,000 required. However, they then realize that the hacker has been eavesdropping on them and is doubling the ransom amount. He again asks Max to leave.

A short time later, Max visits Carrie at home because she wants to give him a USB stick with the data from Simone Martin's computer. He learns from her that there was a dispute between David Wellington and Elizabeth Keane over an unauthorized military operation. When Carrie says she wants to tell Dante Allen about it, Max is against it because the surveillance trail would lead to him. He later receives a call from Carrie that Simone has made a $9,950 charge in Hazelton. As he continues to search her computer, he finds information about her most recent whereabouts - including Hazelton. He compares her route with other credit banks and finds possible shops where Simone could have made further transfers. However, he is then interrupted by Maggie and Franny coming home. They want to know where Carrie is and Maggie suspects something is wrong, but before he can think of an excuse, Carrie comes in the door.

Shortly afterwards, Carrie put together a team to put pressure on Simone Martin. Max keeps an eye on her calendar to clarify possible access points. Later he is also there when the team ambushes Simone, puts her under pressure and plants a bug in her bag. It's Max who soon notices that it doesn't work, which is why he equips Carrie with a replacement. When this doesn't have the desired result, Max uses the surveillance videos from Wellington's apartment to find out whether Simone is telling him about the blackmail. But contrary to expectations, she doesn't do this and instead sleeps with him.

The next morning, Max discusses with Carrie what they may have missed as they continue video surveillance of David Wellington's house. That's when they see that Simone Martin has received a subpoena from Senator Paley. They hope that she will now talk to Wellington about the blackmail, but again nothing comes of it. Carrie wants to tell Dante about it, but Max stops her because they would get in trouble because of the unauthorized surveillance. Carrie then brings up the idea that her assumptions were wrong and Simone is working with someone other than Wellington. However, Max cannot find any other connection to McClendon in her contacts. When the entire team toasts their success in a bar that evening, Max is also there. However, this is a diversionary tactic to drug Dante and eventually search his apartment as Carrie believes he is involved in the case.

When Max comes home the next morning, Saul Berenson is already waiting for him and wants to know where he was. He tells him that he knows everything about it, including the surveillance, and that he told Carrie to back off. But Saul knows that she wouldn't stick to it, which is why he came to Max. Max tells him that they searched Dante's apartment, but he doesn't know if there was any relevant information. Saul therefore takes him to his secret office, where he is supposed to search Dante's computer data. If he found something unusual, he could only report it to Saul and not to Carrie. At the same time, Saul threatens to make his life hell if he doesn't stick to his terms. Later, Max receives a call from Carrie, who has new information about Dante that he should investigate. While Max is talking to her, Saul overhears the conversation. He wants to talk to her, but Max ends the conversation. He then tells Saul that he doesn't think it's right to leave Carrie out, after all, she uncovered this part of the conspiracy. However, Saul explains to him everything she did wrong and forbids him from calling Carrie again. During his research, Max, Sandy and Clint immediately found five overlaps between Dante's and Simone's trips abroad, which cannot be coincidental.

Shortly afterwards, Max, Clint, Carrie, Sandy and Saul discuss how they will use the NSA to hack the Twitter servers in order to post Dante's code word that will cause Yevgeny Gromov's network to collapse. Sandy notes that it could also be a trap, but since they have no alternatives, they go through with the plan. They try to find out the real identities of Twitter users from Yevgeny's network and land a few hits.

A short time later, Max and Sandy receive a call from Carrie, who wants to develop a plan B from Moscow to arrest Simone Martin after the first attempt failed. Max then sends her information about Yakushin's deposits in American banks, which makes him vulnerable to blackmail. When Carrie and Saul finally implement the plan, Max and Sandy accompany the mission from the base of operations. When Clint arrives, Max informs him of what went wrong in his absence. Then things come to a head when Yakushin's people want to storm Mirov's suite at the GRU because they suspect Simone is there. Max decides that they should put the video feeds online to paint a picture of a crumbling Russia. He is irritated when Clint hesitates to use the remains of Yevgeny's Twitter network for this purpose, but then turns his attention back to his team, who are now disguised as SVR agents and are making their way into the GRU building. When Carrie gets stuck, he leads her to a dangerous alternative route via the roof to get her to the residence where Simone is. They are under considerable time pressure.

The next morning, Sandy and Max notice that Clint keeps receiving calls that he doesn't accept. He finally admits to them that it is Paley's assistant Janet. This is how they learn that the failed mission to Yevgeny's estate was due to Clint's betrayal. While Sandy takes care of Clint, Max has to assist Carrie in finding a way to the American embassy because it is cut off by the police. He keeps her updated on each other's status and eventually informs her that Saul has managed to get Simone out of the country.

Three days later, he and the team follow the news about Simone Martin's Senate testimony, Paley's arrest, and Keane's response to the Russian conspiracy. They watch triumphantly as Martin confirms everything. They are surprised when President Keane suddenly shows up at their mission base with Saul to thank them and explain that she will do everything in her power to bring Carrie home.

Season 8[]

Max Piotrowski is taken by military helicopter to a remote American base in Afghanistan. He is on a secret mission, which is why the team on site is only told that he is supposed to repair digital infrastructure, which they all have to risk their lives to do. At night, after a long march, they reach the desired location, where Max locates a listening device under a stone dummy. However, repairing this is taking longer than planned, which is why the team is becoming restless. Max thinks they should return to the base without him, but that's out of the question for the leader. Max then explains that this device is essential for the peace negotiations, because otherwise the USA would not know whether the Taliban are seriously interested in peace or whether they are just using it as a means of pressure to release their prisoners. The listening device is necessary to know what plans Haissam Haqqani is pursuing and when the soldiers realize that Max was present at the attack in the Islamabad embassy, they begin to respect him. Since they have to return in daylight, they are discovered and shot at by Taliban fighters. However, they all survive, which is why Max is then considered a lucky charm. Instead, he prefers to check whether the listening station is actually working again and listen directly to some Taliban telephone calls.

The next day he is still working on evaluating the talks and is looking for certain keywords such as "peace negotiations", "Doha" or "Haqqani". He manages to intercept a conversation between Haqqani and his son, which he immediately informs Scott Ryan and Saul Berenson about. While he continues to work on the evaluations, the team of soldiers prepares for their next mission. Everyone strokes him - the lucky charm - on the head, which Max doesn't like at all, but he can't stop it. He then disguises a potato as Max, which is supposed to be used as a substitute for good luck. A few days later he contacts Saul again because he is worried. Some encrypted phones from the Pakistani secret service that he couldn't tap were on the way to Saul's location and he didn't know what that meant. Saul, who is waiting for Haqqani at this point, asks him to continue monitoring the matter.

When President Warner is killed in a helicopter crash, Max and the team are dispatched to the scene. Carrie has Max retrieve the flight recorder from the helicopter to ascertain the cause of the crash; Max succeeds, but the rest of his unit is killed by the Taliban, while he is captured a lone Taliban soldier who sells off the flight recorder. Carrie and Yevgeny Gromov track down Max, who gives Carrie the flight recorder's location before being escorted to another safehouse. At the second compound, Max is held prisoner by Haqqani's son Jalal, who threatens to execute Max unless Haqqani's death sentence is revoked. When Haqqani is executed, Jalal kills Max. While waiting for Max's body to be collected, Carrie breaks down in tears while expressing her guilt over taking Max for granted.

Biography[]

Max Piotrowski was a technician who worked with his brother Virgil Piotrowski. They were paid by Carrie Mathison to conduct surveillance, before the former branched out on his own. Carrie's go-to guy when it comes to surveillance, Max is a private consultant with a long history of helping her out of scrapes. Max may be socially awkward and shy, but he is one of Carrie's most trusted associates.

He and Virgil help Carrie throughout the Brody investigation, installing surveillance in the Brody family's home and monitoring his activities after he becomes a CIA asset.

Max assists Virgil in bugging Nick Brody's home. When Carrie observes that he isn't Virgil's usual partner, Virgil says that he has to use him because Carrie is paying less than the usual fee. Max finds large, blue pills concealed in an aspirin bottle in Carrie's bathroom and shows them to Virgil. (Unknown to Max, they're an antipsychotic medication.) He later assists in eavesdropping on the meeting between Nick and Helen Walker

Max was later assigned to the CIA station in Islamabad, where he served under Sandy Bachman and Carrie Mathison. Carrie later enlists Max alongside Fara Sherazi to her task force in Islamabad to help her find Taliban leader Haissam Haqqani. During this time, Max forms a close bond and partnership with Fara, for whom he harbors romantic feelings, until Haqqani murders Fara during a Taliban raid on the U.S. embassy.

Max spends the next two years in a deep depression, and claims to have developed a methamphetamine habit to cope with his grief.

Max later moves to New York to help Carrie take care of Peter Quinn, who is recovering from a stroke. When Quinn uncovers a homegrown conspiracy against the President-elect, Max goes undercover in Brett O'Keefe's shadowy private company, which he learns is a troll farm whose services are being solicited by Dar Adal. Dar himself enlists Max's help in uncovering a plot to frame Quinn for the murder of the President-elect.

After Carrie returned to Brooklyn and brought Quinn home to live in the apartment below hers following his near death experience after the sarin gas attack in Berlin, she asked Max to keep an eye on him while she went to work. When Quinn left his apartment to go shopping, he suffered a seizure and having asked not to be taken to hospital, he asked Max not to tell Carrie what happened but he did so as he was worried.

He later managed to gain access to Brett O'Keefe's business by posing as an applicant only to discover that he had hackers working for him. He also discovered that Dar Adal was connected to O'Keefe which led to his phone being confiscated and Dar questioning him. After this, he showed up drunk at Carrie's house and passed out on the bed that Peter Quinn had occupied. When he later awoke he found Carrie looking at photos of Quinn's son as well as one he had of her. He comforted her as she broke down crying.

Following the attempted assassination on Elizabeth Keane, a number of government officials, including Saul Berenson, were arrested. Believing David Wellington to be hiding something, Carrie asked Max to plant cameras in Wellington's house. Carrie also came under attack from a hacker who demanded ransom money in exchange for unlocking her laptop. Max tried but failed to unlock it.

He joined Carrie, Dante and her friend Thomas Anson on a mission to discover what sort of information Wellington and Simone Martin had about McClendon's death.

Following Carrie's discovery that Simone Martin lived a few miles from the prison where Jamie McClendon was murdered, she wanted to contact Dante Allen, but Max warned her against it since it could lead to Wellington discovering that his house was wiretapped.

After Keane's inauguration, Max continues aiding Carrie in Washington D.C., installing surveillance in Chief of Staff David Wellington's apartment, and assisting in the investigation of Simone Martin. Saul forcibly recruits Max into his Russia task force, where Max helps Carrie and Saul extract Simone from Moscow. Max and the rest of the group are personally thanked by President Keane for their efforts in thwarting the Russian conspiracy against the White House.

Seven months later, Max joins a military unit in Afghanistan, still seeking justice against Haqqani and the Taliban for Fara's death. He was later stationed in Kabul and refused to get on the presidential helicopter before it was shot down. After retrieving the black box from the crash site, he was captured by the Taliban and shot before being held prisoner. Even though Haissam Haqqani got a stay of execution, Max was shot dead by his captors.

Personal life and relationships[]

Max was the younger brother of Virgil Piotrowski, but unlike him he does not inherently trust Carrie. During Season 6 his last name is revealed to be Piotrowski and he admits that he was in a relationship with a woman, which broke up due to his drug habit. In this season, Max expresses how the murder of Fara Sherazi in Season 4 deeply affected him because he loved her.

Character profile[]

Max Piotrowski is a character in the popular television show Homeland, who serves as a loyal friend and confidant to protagonist Carrie Mathison. Max is an important member of Carrie's team, bringing his expertise in surveillance to assist her in various tasks throughout the series.

Analyzing Max's character, we can see that he embodies the archetype of the loyal friend. He consistently remains at Carrie's side, supporting her through her turbulent journeys in the world of espionage. His unwavering loyalty is seen in his willingness to put himself in danger to help her achieve her goals.

One of Max's defining traits is his exceptional skill in surveillance. With his vast knowledge and technical expertise, he is able to gather valuable information and exploit it to aid Carrie in her missions. His ability to navigate through complex surveillance systems and decipher encrypted messages proves to be instrumental in uncovering the truth behind various conspiracies.

In viewing Max's character through a theoretical lens, we can align him with the concept of the "necessary other." This concept refers to individuals who possess unique qualities or abilities that complement and support the protagonist. Max fulfills this role perfectly, becoming an indispensable asset to Carrie's endeavors.

Max's surveillance skills also reflect the post-modern concept of power and control. In a world dominated by advanced technology and surveillance systems, those who possess the knowledge and expertise to navigate this landscape hold immense power. Max exemplifies this by using his surveillance abilities not only to assist Carrie but also to manipulate situations to their advantage.

Though Max may not possess the glamorous qualities often associated with typical leading characters, his down-to-earth and relatable nature make him a beloved and endearing member of the Homeland cast. His humble demeanor and relatability resonate with the audience, allowing his character to become an anchor amidst the chaos and constant tension of the show.

Moreover, Max's character reminds us of the importance of friendship and loyalty. In a world where trust is often compromised, Max's unwavering loyalty to Carrie serves as a beacon of hope and stability. His friendship goes beyond the call of duty, providing emotional support and a sense of camaraderie in Carrie's often isolated and dangerous world.

In summary, Max Piotrowski is a character in Homeland who serves as a loyal friend to Carrie, leveraging his surveillance skills to help her with various tasks. Through an analytical and theoretical approach, we see that Max embodies the archetype of the loyal friend, the necessary other, and reflects post-modern concepts of power and control. His down-to-earth nature and relatability make him a beloved character, while his unwavering loyalty emphasizes the significance of friendship. Max's character adds depth to the show, contributing to its overall appeal and success. [x]

Trivia[]

Quotes[]

  • What about Max? What does Max think? (Carrie)
  • He thinks the wife is hot. (Virgil)
  • Max: You were mean. All she wanted was your approval, and all you gave her was a hard time. You could've said something nice. Just once. Would've meant so much.
  • Carrie: I wish I had.

"I got the mute here to drive me." - Quinn in episode “The Clearing.”

Behind the Scenes[]

Appearances[]

Season 1
Pilot Grace Clean Skin Semper I Blind Spot
"The Good Soldier" "The Weekend" "Achilles Heel" "Crossfire" "Representative Brody"
"The Vest" "Marine One"
Season 2
"The Smile" "Beirut is Back" "State of Independence" New Car Smell "Q&A"
A Gettysburg Address The Clearing I'll Fly Away Two Hats "Broken Hearts"
"In Memoriam" "The Choice"
Season 3
"Tin Man Is Down" "Uh... Oh... Ah..." "Tower of David" "Game On" The Yoga Play
Still Positive "Gerontion" "A Red Wheelbarrow" One Last Thing "Good Night"
"Big Man in Tehran" "The Star"
Season 4
"The Drone Queen" "Trylon and Perisphere" Shalwar Kameez Iron in the Fire "About a Boy"
From A to B and Back Again Redux "Halfway to a Donut" "There's Something Else Going On" 13 Hours in Islamabad
Krieg Nicht Lieb "Long Time Coming"
Season 6
"Fair Game" The Man in the Basement "The Covenant" "A Flash of Light" "Casus Belli"
The Return Imminent Risk Alt. Truth Sock Puppets The Flag House
R Is for Romeo America First
Season 7
Enemy of the State Rebel Rebel Standoff Like Bad at Things Active Measures
Species Jump Andante Lies, Amplifiers, F**king Twitter Useful Idiot "Clarity"
"All In" "Paean to the People"
Season 8
Deception Indicated Catch and Release False Friends Chalk One Up Chalk Two Down
Two Minutes F**ker Shot Me Threnody(s) "In Full Flight" "Designated Driver"
"The English Teacher" "Prisoners of War"
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