| Peter Quinn | |
|---|---|
| |
| Name: | John |
| Status: | Deceased |
| Birthplace: | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America |
| Nationality: |  American
|
| Alias(es): | Peter Quinn |
| Affiliation: | Central Intelligence Agency |
| Profession: | CIA Agent, Black Ops |
| Marital status: | Single |
| Significant other(s): | Ex-girlfriend: Julia Diaz |
| Children: | with Julia Diaz: John Jr. |
| Played by: | Rupert Friend |
| Season(s): | 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
| First episode: | "New Car Smell" |
| Last episode: | America First |
John, known in the CIA as Peter Quinn, was a CIA paramilitary officer who was assigned to lead a surveillance team consisting of Carrie Mathison, Saul Berenson, Virgil and Max to observe Congressman Nicholas Brody after it was discovered that Brody had attempted to assassinate Vice President William Walden.
Eventually, after two meetings with Brody, Carrie felt that her assignment had been discovered by him and informed him that she knew about his role with Abu Nazir. Brody was then arrested, much to Quinn and Saul's dismay.
Brody was taken to an intelligence base where he was interrogated by Quinn. After tricking Brody and showing his lies, Quinn resorted to brutal bad cop/good cop tactics and impaled Brody's left hand with a knife.
After Quinn was dragged from the room, Carrie took over the interrogation, while Quinn revealed to Saul that this was his plan. Carrie showed Brody her love for him, managing to get him to reveal that he had worn a suicide vest and informing her that although he didn't know Nazir's plan, he believed that Roya Hammad might know.
After watching Roya and failing to identify a contact of hers, Quinn and Carrie called in Brody, who also failed, but revealed to him that the Gettysburg tailor was dead. Knowing this, after having wasted time with a team watching the shop, Quinn, Danny Galvez and a team went to Gettysburg.
While there, Carrie revealed details of a meeting Brody had with Roya, informing him that there was something there. Enemy Intel that Roya had wanted to recover. After Carrie warned him to be careful and just as he discovered a hollow wall, the CIA team was attacked by enemy assailants, killing most of them and wounding Quinn and Galvez.
It was later discovered by Saul, Virgil and Max that Quinn was hired to assassinate Brody whenever Abu Nazir was caught, or killed. However, Quinn later refused to kill Brody, as it would hurt Carrie and told Estes that if Brody was killed, that he would be killed, as well.
Biography
Early life
John "Peter Quinn" told Carrie that he was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States of America. He also tells her that he attended The Hill School and Harvard University. (New Car Smell) Quinn tells his landlady he did not have a degree. (F.Murray Abraham) Dar Adal tells Carrie that Quinn was found by the CIA as a sixteen year old foster child in Baltimore. (A False Glimmer).
He later met a woman named Julia Diaz. The two have a son together, John, Jr., who Quinn wasn't around to raise. (Two Hats)
CIA Recruitment
According to Dar Adal, at sixteen years old, Quinn was found in a Baltimore foster home and was recruited by the CIA and two years later became the youngest SAD officer of the agency, due to his natural talent. He served under Dar Adal. (Two Hats) (Broken Hearts)
Congressman Brody assignment
Surveillance leader
Quinn after being assigned to kill Brody.
After Saul Berenson discovered a video of Congressman Nicholas Brody admitting his part in an attempt on Vice President William Walden's life, he showed it to Carrie Mathison and David Estes.
After Estes viewed the tape, he and Saul discussed putting together a small team to watch Brody, with Estes insisting on assigning his own choice to head the team. Estes selected Quinn for the assignment. (New Car Smell)
Unknown to Saul, Carrie and Brody, Quinn was hired for the assignment to assassinate Brody when the team no longer needed his assistance in finding and killing, or capturing, Abu Nazir. (Two Hats)
Quinn met Saul and soon after Carrie, where the latter two got off to a rocky start before collaborating together on the assignment. Not long after their mission began, Carrie received a call from Congressman Brody, asking her to meet him at a hotel bar for a drink.
She quickly accepted and met with him. After a conversation and a drink with Brody, he left to his hotel room. Quinn and Saul asked Carrie to wrap it up and return to the surveillance headquarters, but she insisted that her cover was finished and that Brody had noticed that she was after him.
She went to Brody's room and told him that they had little time together, revealing that she knew he was working for Abu Nazir. After a brief confrontation with Carrie, Brody was arrested by the surveillance team. (New Car Smell)
Interrogating Brody
Quinn interrogating Brody.
After his arrest, Brody was taken to the intelligence base, where he was soon questioned by Peter, who asked him various question about his captivity, as well as Abu Nazir and his son, Issa. After Brody lied to Quinn about knowing Issa and having been involved in a plot to assassinate Vice President Walden, Quinn revealed the tape of Brody stating his intention to assassinate Walden.
Quinn left the room to let Brody think on his next answers before returning. Receiving truthful answers the second time, Brody still wouldn't admit that he was wearing a suicide vest when he was with Walden and other American higher-ups on December 17, 2011. In apparent anger, Quinn drew his knife from his pocket and impaled it through Brody's left hand.
Quinn was dragged from the room, screaming, appearing to be angry and frustrated. However, this was only a plan to get Carrie in the room with Brody to play good cop and get answers from Brody. She soon succeeded, revealing to Brody her love for him and convinced him to help the CIA find Nazir, to which he agreed.
Brody revealed that there was a plot Nazir had masterminded to attack America and that even though he wasn't sure what it was, he believed that Roya Hammad might have some information about it. (Q&A)
Brody's assistance
Quinn and Carrie soon began watching Roya, with other agents following her. She met with an associate, whom Carrie asked Virgil to track, but he got away. With no leads to go on and no facial recognition, even with a clean picture, Carrie convinced Quinn to ask for Brody's assistance in identifying the man.
Brody later arrived and spoke with Carrie and Quinn about the man, claiming that he'd never seen him before. Brody looked at Carrie, who was standing next to a photo of the Gettysburg tailor Brody had mentioned to them before. Quinn noticed that Brody had information about something and questioned him.
Brody revealed that he knew the tailor and that on the way to a safe house, the tailor died. Brody avoided mentioning that he had killed the tailor, though Quinn questioned him about it. Angered that the CIA had wasted time with having a team watch the tailor's shop, he decided to go to Gettysburg himself.
After telling Brody to stay put where he was, Carrie and Quinn discussed the situation, with Carrie coming up with a plan to get Brody to ask Roya about the man he had met with earlier, as Brody was all that they had to go on. Quinn objected to the plan and warned Carrie not to trust Brody, but considering Brody had led them to Roya, he agreed to let her try it. (A Gettysburg Address)
Gettysburg investigation
Quinn went with a team including Danny Galvez to Gettysburg. They searched the tailor's shop, but could only find mostly receipts and cigarette butts. Carrie called Quinn after Brody met with Roya, informing him that she mentioned enemy Intel being there, before warning Quinn to be careful. Just as Quinn noticed a hollow wall, an armored and masked enemy assault team entered the store.
Quinn after being wounded in the stomach.
The assault team fired upon the CIA team, hitting Quinn in the stomach, leaving him motionless on the floor. Galvez managed to kill one of the assailants, but was then shot as well. One of the assailants removed his mask, revealing himself to be the man Roya had met with. After they left, Quinn began moving, again, holding his stomach wound in pain. (A Gettysburg Address)
Survival
Although he was wounded in the stomach, Quinn survived the Gettysburg attack. He met with Carrie while he was admitted to a hospital and though he was informed to stay in bed, he discharged himself from the hospital, quickly return to duty. (The Clearing)
Mission compromised
After Virgil and Max broke into Quinn's apartment, they discovered a photo of a woman named Julia Diaz, her child and a clean apartment, ready to be ditched at any moment. Saul investigated the woman, meeting with her and learning that she knows Quinn as John and the child in the photo is their son, John, Jr..
After Saul left from visiting Julia, she called Quinn and told him what the man looked like. When Saul returned to their headquarters, Quinn left, knowing that Saul was the man who visited her. Max followed Quinn and observed him meeting a man on a bus, that Saul later confirmed to be a CIA black ops leader named Dar Adal. (Two Hats)
Mission aborted
After watching Carrie and Brody spend time together at her family's cabin, Quinn had an opportunity to assassinate Brody from a distance with his sniper rifle while Brody was in the woods, praying. However, Quinn stopped and decided not to kill Brody.
Quinn: Nothing happens to Brody.
Estes: Or?
Quinn: Or you'll find me back in this bedroom one night. Right back in that chair...'cause I'm the guy that kills bad guys.—Peter Quinn threatens David Estes
Quinn confronting Estes.
Quinn visited Estes one night and informed him that he knew Estes was trying to cover his own back and that if Brody died, it would deeply hurt Carrie. Quinn informed Estes that if Brody were to be killed, that Estes would be killed next.
Quinn never could fulfill his threat, as Estes was killed in a bomb explosion at a memorial for Vice President Walden. (The Choice)
Hunting for Haqqani
Quinn was later assigned to the CIA station in Islamabad, and saw action during the hunt for Saul Berenson and Haissam Haqqani's assault on the US embassy, where his actions saved the lives of many Americans. After Haqqani escaped, the US made the decision to break off ties with Pakistan and the embassy was evacuated; despite orders to evacuate, Quinn remained in Islamabad and tracked Haqqani to a heavily guarded apartment complex in Islamabad and was going to explode a pipe bomb under Haqquani's car but Carrie got in the way so he had to call it off.
Mission in Germany
Quinn later saw service in Syria's al-Raqqa province, where he worked for two years with an American special operations task force, first against the Assad regime, then al-Qaeda's al-Nusra Front, and then ISIS. Quinn believed the program was effective in a tactical sense, but felt that the US had no real strategy in place.
In Berlin, Quinn was initially assigned to investigate a leak of classified documents dealing with cooperation between the CIA and German intelligence. Saul later recruited him for an off-the-books operation to target ISIS terrorists in Berlin, an operation that was complicated when Carrie's name ended up on his list. Quinn later rescued from an ambush by assailants that turn out to be Russian intelligence officers. Quinn later infiltrated the ISIS cell (led by Hajik Zayd, a convicted jihadist released after the journalist Laura Sutton revealed that he illegally put under surveillance and imprisoned by the German Bundesnachrichtendienst) and discovered their plan to use chemical weapons in Berlin. Quinn attempts to convince them to stop the attack, but the ISIS recruits decide to use him as the test subject for their chemical weapon. One of the terorists gets qualms about the operation and injects Quinn with an antidote.
The rest of the ISIS recruits make their way to the Berlin train station; Carrie is able to intercept Qasim and convince him to desist. When his partner Bibi kills Qasim, Carrie shoots and kills him. Quinn is later hospitalized and suffers a massive brain hemorrhage, leaving little chance for survival.
Post-Germany
Having returned to the US, Quinn was treated for PTSD at a hospital in Brooklyn. He rejected any help from Carrie, who was told by the medical staff that it was probably better if she did not visit him. However, he later left the facility and ended up in the company of prostitutes and high on drugs. He was robbed of his government check and after Carrie was notified that he was missing she located him and attempted to return him to the hospital, he violently resisted it and she decided to let him move into the apartment downstairs from her and Frannie.
While Carrie was at work, she asked Max to look after Quinn after he refused to take his meds. Quinn later wandered off to a convenience store and suffered a seizure. Although he asked Max not to tell Carrie about the incident he did and Quinn later asked Carrie what happened to him as he had no memory of it. She showed him the footage of the sarin gas attack and told him that she worked out his location from the floor tiles.
He soon became convinced that a person who lived across from Carrie was spying on the house but his attempts to tell Carrie fell on deaf ears.
Following Sekou Bah's death, the press convened on Carrie's house while she was out, leaving Frannie in his care, and he tried to protect Frannie and her nanny, which led to a shoot out between him and the authorities. They eventually managed to take him into custody and Frannie was soon taken away by social services, who felt that Quinn's actions had put her in danger.
Quinn was brought back to the psychiatric hospital and later abducted by a mystery man and Astrid, who had flown in from Berlin to bring him to a safe house by the lake. Quinn became convinced that Astrid was working against him and he spotted the man from across Carrie's street while out shopping with Astrid. While Astrid was out, he removed the bullets from her gun but when the man tracked down their safe house, he killed Astrid (who was not aware that the gun was not loaded) and shot Quinn multiple times when he ran for cover into the lake. After the man left, Quinn emerged from the water.
Quinn managed to drive to a diner near Queens where he met with an old friend before arriving at a suburban house, which he had known from his days working as a Black Ops agent. He called Carrie to meet them but the man who had killed Astrid tracked them down and Quinn killed him via multiple blows to the face. Carrie later found another van in the garage similar to the one Sekou was driving when he died and they soon realized the house was rigged with a bomb. She and Quinn survived the blast while other agents were killed.
Carrie and Quinn went to Brooklyn to talk with President-elect Keane and it was discovered that there was a bomb in the hotel. Quinn managed to get them to safety but was killed in a hail of bullets.
Behind the Scenes
Appearances
| 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 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 | |||
| Main Characters | |||
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