( CNN ) -- [ CAUTION : If you 're not caught up on `` Homeland , '' stop reading now ! Minor season four spoilers also follow. ] . How does one pick up the pieces after one of your main characters has been hanged ? That 's a question that `` Homeland '' will attempt to answer on Sunday 's fourth season premiere . The show returns after a season which saw the excruciating death of Brody , Carrie 's lover and the father of her child ( and once a U.S. congressman and terrorist ) . It ended poignantly , as Carrie added a CIA star to mark the life he gave ultimately for his country . The first season of `` Homeland '' was nothing short of a masterpiece , many critics agreed , and it won award after award . But some fans have complained that the show has since started to slip . The third season , critics thought , did not live up to its potential . The New York Times said it found the third season `` more baroque and much less compelling than the first two . '' There were episodes devoted to Brody 's daughter , which some found grating , and a twist in which Carrie pretended to go off the rails and was sent to a mental facility -- all as part of a plan devised by her and another character , Saul . It just seemed like `` Homeland '' was not what it once was . This season is for all intents and purposes , a reboot . Carrie has had her baby ( which she almost gave up for adoption ) , but she 's back in the field , in Afghanistan . The new season begins as she 's engineered a drone strike , but all does n't exactly go as planned . Peter Quinn has a bigger role now , as the leading man of the show . And fan favorite Saul is back , but things are n't exactly going better with his wife , who moved on ( so to speak ) without his knowledge . Viewers will get plenty of opportunity to decide whether they 're on board with the new season , as Showtime will premiere back-to-back new episodes on Sunday night . Will you tune in for season four ?
'Homeland ' returns after a critically-maligned third season . The new season is basically a reboot . Carrie returns with new issues in the CIA .