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    FBI 

Special Agent Darwyn al-Sayeed

Played by: Michael Ealy

A Muslim FBI agent of African-American descent, Darwyn infiltrates the LA sleeper cell using the name of Darwyn al-Hakim. A former Army Ranger, he quickly wins the cell's trust, though the stress of his job threatens to compromise his mental health.


  • Becoming the Mask: Both Darwyn and his handlers are concerned that this might happen to him, especially in Season 2.
  • Cowboy Cop: Darwyn is forced into quick thinking in intensely dangerous undercover situations and having to actually commit crimes and other serious moral transgressions so as to maintain his cover. This can give him the appearance of a loose cannon, but as stated, it comes with the territory. Called out as such by both Patrice and Warren.
  • Deep Cover Agent: For the FBI, spending time in prison in order to fabricate an appropriate backstory.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Invoked. Darwyn is, of course, a very good guy, but he pretends to be a terrorist with standards in order to convince Farik to take out a child prostitution ring.
  • The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: Given that he's an FBI agent pretending to be a terrorist pretending to be a reformed ex-con, it's not surprising that his relationship with Gayle comes under a lot of strain.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Practically dead inside after the FBI accidentally let Mina get away and kill Gayle and many veterans, he declares war on Farik, even if it surely means it'll become a suicide mission. The two reunite and, despite Farik revealing he's uncovered Darwyn's deception and preparing to execute him for treason, Darwyn has the upper hand. He quotes the Quran as a justification for his mission, with CIA assistance, to kill Farik's wife Samia in revenge for killing Gayle and his countrymen. He then manages to gun down a few of Farik's disciples and has a showdown with Farik himself which ends up in a stalemate.
  • Scary Black Man: How he looks to his "allies" in the cell.
  • Sixth Ranger Traitor: To the LA terrorist cells.
  • Western Terrorists: He's pretending to be an American Islamic extremist.
  • Where da White Women At?: Played with. Nobody really has a problem with Darwyn's romance with Gayle on account of his skin colour (or hers). The fact that he's a Muslim, however, worries her sister and brother-in-law, while Gayle being an "infidel" (and an unnecessary complication in his view) has Farik urging him to break it off. The case agents are similarly wary of the situation.

Case Agent Ray Fuller

Played by: James LeGros

Darwyn's first handler by the time he started to go undercover. An old friend who is wowed by Darwyn's commitment to undercover work in the interests of eradicating the terrorist cell.


  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Being Darwyn's first case agent, he earns his trust the easiest (they also have a prior history of friendship) and usually backs him up with no questions asked.
  • Mutual Kill: Despite getting his throat cut by Khashul, he ensures that he can gun him down in retaliation before expiring himself.
  • Slashed Throat: How he's unfortunately killed before his time several episodes into the first season.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Sometimes clashes with Darwyn in getting more resources to put the immediate family members of al-Farik and the other terrorists due to manpower issues. Also, he can be a little overzealous in his character assessments of Muslims, sometimes mistaking innocents for actual terrorists.

Case Agent Patrice Serxner

Played by: Sonya Walger

The FBI agent who takes over Darwyn's case after Ray Fuller was killed. A hardline cop who follows procedure to the letter, she clashes with Darwyn, who prefers to improvise his plans as he goes along. Eventually they win one another's respect and trust.


  • Action Girl: She's the one who actually captures Farik at the end of the first season, taking out his kneecap rather than letting him martyr himself.
  • By-the-Book Cop
  • Cruel Mercy: Letting Farik live.
  • Elites Are More Glamorous: Her beloved brother serves in Iraq and is implied to be special forces, given the equipment and camouflage he's seen wearing in various photos on her fridge.
  • Iron Lady
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: She initially sets out to rein in Darwyn's impulsiveness, and there is tension between the two of them when he believes that she had his apartment covertly surveilled (but it turns out it was actually the LAPD). Later, she eases up on him and says he doesn't need to do a psych eval until the conclusion of the case.

Case Agent Warren Russell

Played by: Jay R. Ferguson
Darwyn's third case agent who is scrambled to assume the role after Patrice Serxner's death. Comes into the most conflict of the three with Darwyn due to their differing views of how the undercover operation can be safely maintained, and other disagreements.
  • Failed a Spot Check: His intel about Hassani the supposed arms dealer is faulty and out of date at best, and it also relies on outside sources which he doesn't personally confirm. Hassani did arm the insurgents against the Soviets in Afghanistan, but he's been trying to stay legit ever since he moved to America. His ability to provide the second cell with a surface-to-air missile (motivated by his need for a quick profit and to set up his retirement) is thus put into serious doubt, which risks Darwyn's credibility and suggests very quickly that Russel doesn't have what it takes to facilitate the case's smooth operation.
  • Nepotism: Darwyn calls out that Russel got this new job because his uncle is the deputy director of the FBI, and Darwyn has far more important responsibilities than babysitting him in his first major action as a case agent.
  • New Meat: Darwyn views him as this given his age (27) but he downplays this, saying he's been working in FBI counter-terrorism for five years.
  • Obstructive Bureaucrat: He ensures that the SAM sold to the cell is an inoperable one with expired battery coolant, but he's ignorant of the fact that Salim had the ability to spot this issue due to his militant background. Likewise, he flatout refuses to allow the cell to obtain explosives unless they are inert, even after being told that Mina is an expert who would immediately call foul. In both cases, he has a reasonable motivation in that he doesn't want dangerous weapons to fall into terrorist hands (and probably has instructions from his superiors forbidding it too). But he fails to recognise that failing to source the weapons would cause dangerous credibility issues for Darwyn, and likely lead to his death at the hands of his Network superiors or fellow cell members and other terrible consequences. He also doesn't get, unlike Agent Serxner, that terrorist plans tend to follow a timetable (so the weapons wouldn't be an immediate danger) and that Darwyn is both the leader of the cell (so can largely section off the weapons until the FBI could shut the cell down at an opportune moment) and capable of covertly sabotaging both the Grouse SAM and the detonators for the RDX. This forces Darwyn to obtain the RDX through other means, without Russel's say-so, making him worry that Darwyn is going rogue.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: More so than either of his predecessors. He is a novice case agent and different factors can compromise his professionalism in running the investigation, which puts him at odds with Darwyn, the seasoned (but constantly stressed) man on the inside.
  • Wrong Line of Work: Frequently Zig-Zagged.

Special Agent In Charge Edgar Diaz

Played by: Carlos Gómez

The overall man in charge of the operations to investigate the LA terrorist cells, also coordinating the emergency response against them when the shit hits the fan.


  • Mr. Exposition: Plays this role when he shares the newly-exposed intelligence dossier on Farik with Patrice.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Initially he appears to avert this when he's very angry at the possibility that Darwyn's Mercy Kill of Bobby Habib could ruin the case before it really got started (they would have to arrest the cell members prematurely, without them actually trying to enact their deadly plans, and possibly putting their prosecution in doubt, while also putting Darwyn in some form of homicide legal jeopardy). However, the surveillance operation is allowed to continue when it turns out there are also cells in two other major American cities. From this point on, he is very supportive of Darwyn, defending him against Patrice's doubts, and becomes a surrogate for Ray in terms of sympathetically handling him.

    CIA 

Patrick Erskine

Robert "Bob" McNeil

Played by: Chris Mulkey

Female N.O.C. Agent

Played by: Anna Khaja

Terrorists

The worldwide Islamic terrorist organisation, known as "The Network" or "The Base" but in essence those are just another set of names for Al-Qaeda (in fact essentially English translations of that name), as their depiction suggests.

    Recurring 

In General

  • The Fundamentalist: A cadre of Islamist terrorist fundamentalists, from around the world.
  • A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: They are all to lesser or greater degrees capable of an affable facade, and take part in regular aspects of American lifestyles and work to blend in. Darwyn, in his capacity as an undercover agent infiltrating their operations, inverts this. He's much more decent than he leads them to think he is.

Faris al-Farik aka Saad bin Safwan aka Yossi Amran

Played by: Oded Fehr

Born Saad bin Safwan, Farik is the charismatic and brilliant leader of the LA sleeper cell. A former Saudi national currently masquerading as a Sephardic Jew in his civilian life, Farik is a fanatical, but cold-blooded zealot, who thinks nothing of mass murder so long as it meets his political ends.


  • Archenemy: To Darwyn, though he doesn't know it at first.
  • Bad Boss: In the first episode, he has Bobby Habib executed for bragging to an uncle about their operation. He later murders Eddy Pangetsu (whom he forced into joining up with the cell in the first place)
  • The Big Bad: Of both seasons of the show. Yes, the rest of al-Qaeda is out there somewhere, and Farik takes his marching orders from their higher-ups, but he's the one driving all the action in Sleeper Cell.
  • Child Soldier: If his birth year matches that of his actor (1970) then he's technically this, as he started fighting against the USSR in Afghanistan in 1987, making him 16-17 years old when he started brandishing RPGs.
  • From Camouflage to Criminal: Of the terrorist type. He used to be with the Saudi Arabian National Guard before he fought against Soviet and pro-communist Afghan troops in 1987-89. Farik later returend to SANG service and faced against Iraqi troops in the first Gulf War. It's mentioned that he used his Saudi military experience to train Mohamed Aidid's militia.
  • The Chessmaster: Farik has multiple back up plans, and never lets any of the members of the cell know all the details for any of them. He typically gives each member of the cell a job to do, while keeping the master plan all to himself until it's finally time to enact the grand plan.
  • Diabolical Mastermind: A terrorist variant.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His wife and daughter.
  • Faking the Dead: Al-Qaeda pulls this when they rescue him from government captivity in Saudi Arabia. They claim he died in the rescue attempt, which buys time to put him into hiding and back into operational command of terrorism from Yemen.
  • The Heavy
  • The Leader: Of the LA sleeper cell. He's a combination of Type I and Type IV, running the cell through brains and sheer force of personality.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Excels at playing the various members of the cell against each other, and preying on their insecurities in order to keep them in line.
  • Meaningful Name: Faris al-Farik = "The deadly knight".
  • Middle Eastern Terrorists: Became radicalised after he fought against pro-Serb forces in Bosnia and against Northern Alliance forces in Afghanistan.

Ilija Korjenić

Played by: Henri Lubatti

A Bosnian Muslim who saw everyone he knew butchered by Serbs during the Yugoslavian Civil War, Ilija grew to hate the United States for not intervening in the conflict. Having been rescued by Farik's team of mujaheddin during the Civil War, he is now Farik's right-hand man. He spends his days undercover as a substitute math and science teacher.


  • Cleanup Crew: Does this solo on Carli's apartment, to remove all traces of his presence before he stages his escape with her help.
  • Conspiracy Theorist: He deceitfully invokes this so as to gain Carli's trust as a kindred spirit, who believes that the Dodgers Stadium attack was a False Flag Operation and for some reason the authorities chose him as one of the patsies. When he knows good and fine well that it was a real attempt at terrorism orchestrated by him and his comrades, and he needs to escape the blame with at least one person believing him.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Ilija is a Bosnian Muslim, and his entire family (along with the rest of their town) were slaughtered by Serbs in the Bosnian War. The mujihadeen under Farik's command saved him, which caused his Undying Loyalty for Farik and conversion to the jihadist cause.
  • Doomed Hometown: His town was massacred by Serbs.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • He refuses to put Ken Wall's corpse in an oil drum because he fought alongside Muslim fighters in the Balkans and deserves to have a proper burial.
    • Also, despite being an avowed terrorist who hates the US military and everything it stands for, he (only half-jokingly) correctly asserts that it's a good thing they dishonourably discharged Tommy (a different kind of seriously disturbed individual) after he assaulted his drill sergeant.
  • Freudian Excuse: He's got the most tragic backstory of any member of the cell. Given everything he's seen, it's not surprising he turned out the way he did.
  • Genocide Survivor: Ilija survived the Bosnian genocide, while his family and neighbors were murdered.
  • Karma Houdini: As of the end of Season 1 when he escapes the FBI manhunt.
  • Know When to Fold 'Em: Ilija only showed up to join Tommy in their intended method of martyrdom (defend one of the approaches to the Dodgers Stadium against law enforcement) when Tommy was already boxed in and doomed. Tommy also had their cache of AK-47 rifles, so Ilija couldn't really assist anyway. When Tommy resorted to blowing up his van (and with no enemy casualties, at that), Ilija knew that there was nothing he could do (and may have heard reports that Farik had also failed at his part of the attack) but to quietly walk away and find a place to lay low.
  • Mad Scientist: He handles the technical side of Farik's plans. Also befits his cover as a substitute science teacher.
  • Politically Incorrect Villain: In addition to his religious fanaticism, he's got serious racial problems with Serbs and Croatians.
  • Shell-Shocked Veteran: The Bosnian War broke Ilija in every way. He's still carrying all the pain around, and that's what drives him. Brought full circle by the end of the series. When Darwyn directs the Hellfire missile strike onto Farik's terrorist camp, Ilija is superficially wounded at worst, but shocked and traumatised into silence from the violent event. He cannot bring himself to do anything but sit and breathe raggedly, and neither can Darwyn bring himself to kill Ilija.
  • Trauma Button: Ilija survived the Bosnian genocide, where Serbs murdered his entire family. Given this, he's triggered by running into anybody with Serbian heritage. The first season has him go on a date with a woman who's revealed to be a Serbian-American from wearing a crucifix which Ilija recognizes as the one used by Serbian Orthodox Christians. Ilija's response is to then ask if she thinks he's a dog, which bewilders and upsets the woman (as the genocidal Serbs had called Bosnian Muslims this) before he leaves in a rage. After he's on the run in Season 2 and returning to Serbia, he hitches a ride with a man it turns out is a Serb. Ilija immediately starts to jump out, but is stopped by the man, who's compassionate to him and wishes for reconciliation after the Yugoslav Wars, revealing he's also married to a Bosnian Muslim woman. On hearing this, Ilija is mollified and sits back down.
  • Undying Loyalty: To Farik. It's his main trait. Brought into doubt by the end of the second season. He maintains that his loyalty remains beyond scrutiny. But it's clear in his facial expressions that he no longer wants anything to do with the man. He's only brought back into the fold against his will (as in forcefully expatriated to Yemen from Bosnia), but has no other choice but to play the role of the loyal right hand man he once was.

Ziad

Played by: Mike Batayeh

The financier of the sleeper cell, operating out of Tijuna, Mexico. He enables the cell to operate by gathering revenue from pirated CDs, DVDs, narcotics and prostitution. Requires assistance from Farik to keep the funds flowing when the untimely death of one of their allies presents problems. Later, he brokers the exchange of explosives for heroin with a white supremacist gang, to equip for Youmud Din. In the aftermath of that failed attack, he succumbs to paranoia and goes off-grid to avoid the authorities. He wastes some of the ill-gotten funds on more vice for himself, before Darwyn reconnects with him and orders him to shape up.


  • Enemy Mine: Like Farik, as a Middle Eastern he is willing to endure some petty racism from white supremacists so as to obtain their abundance of explosives and so further the terrorist operation. Darwyn has no such patience.
  • Hookers and Blow: Darwyn shames him upon discovering that his version of "laying low" after the failed Dodger Stadium attack is to waste the jihad fund on this. But Ziad justifies himself by saying he uses chump change on cheap drugs and prostitutes, to release tension from the stress of hiding from the authorities.

The Homeless Man

Played by: Eli Danker

A mysterious, Arabic elder of The Network, living undercover apparently on the streets of LA to watch and occasionally guide the sleeper cells.


  • Greater-Scope Villain: He gives Farik and his successors their marching orders, but he's rarely seen and never comes under full surveillance by the FBI (justified, as they need him around to be able to give instructions to the cells).

"Julio Torres" aka Yussef

Played by: Nasser Faris

Farik's counterpart in the DC sleeper cell. Very little is known about him beyond a brief meeting he conducted with Farik and their brother in arms who ran the NYC cell, Abbas, in Las Vegas. This was to coordinate the date of the simultaneous attacks on their respective cities. Farik had cunningly booked out all the rooms in the hallway of the hotel, so FBI surveillance was compromised and had no audiovisual monitoring of the meeting. Torres did manage to escape the reach of American law enforcement in the aftermath of the attack's failure, and to all appearances he and his subordinate cell members remain at large, in hiding.


  • First-Name Basis: Assuming "Yussef" is his real name (unlikely, as Farik was an alias itself) he is only called by this among his brother terrorists. The FBI never learn this name and know him only by the alias "Julio Torres".
  • Hookers and Blow: While it's suggested that they only drink virgin martinis, the leaders of the DC and NYC cells are contrasted against Farik in their wanton consumption of vice in the form of prostitutes in Las Vegas.
  • The Leader: Of the DC cell, and at that the only one of that group seen in the flesh.
  • Present Absence: The DC cell is tipped off that the New York and Los Angeles attacks failed, so they abort their mission and fade into obscurity. Torres manages to completely escape detection after this point, so his identity and whereabouts is a focus of Farik's interrogation by the CIA. Because the FBI unit in DC didn't manage to penetrate this cell with an undercover, they know even less about the other members than they do about Yussef, only managing to get eyewitness sketches of them (suggesting they couldn't obtain photo surveillance at any time) as shown at the debriefing after the failed attacks.
  • Public Secret Message: To enable the three leaders to continue to communicating if necessary, he has set up a secure website and hidden the password to it in an eBay bidding's product photo. The password can only be extracted by reverting the image through a liquefy filter in Photoshop.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He and the whole DC cell do this when they hear that the other baseball stadium attacks were stopped by the FBI, rightly fearing a stakeout which would lead to their capture or worse. The terrorists gain the upper hand in the sense that by all appearances, each and every one of them evaded capture right through the rest of the series.

"Dmitri Gonis" aka Abbas

Played by: Amro Salama

Farik's counterpart in the NYC sleeper cell. Like Yussef, he's pretty much a cipher, not getting much focus in the series. He and his cell members are killed and captured before they can successfully attack Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.

  • Bald of Evil: Well, balding. Only has very thin hair left on the sides of his head, bleeding into sideburns, and facial hair besides.
  • Character Death: Upon apprehending Farik's satellite phone, the FBI are able to intercept communications with Abbas and swoop down on the NYC cell using GPS. The lead agent warns him to freeze, but he keeps trying to detonate his (presumably phosgene) payload, so the agent shoots him dead.
  • First-Name Basis: Just as with Farik and Yussef, he's likely to be using one or even two aliases, and the one he uses amongst his friends has only the first name mentioned.
  • Hookers and Blow: Like Yussef, being a self-righteous terrorist does not make him shy away from hiring expensive prostitutes.
  • Rail Enthusiast: He basically masquerades as this upon leaving the meeting with the other cell leaders, so as to obfuscate who he might be to law enforcement. While not studying trains, he does drive all over the Midwest, photographing cows and cloud formations, staying at Motel 6's. Slowly, he gets back to New York to resume his leadership of the operation, apparently on the very day the attack was due to happen. The FBI teams who watched him doing this must have been both perplexed and amused.
  • The Leader: Of the NYC cell, in particular taking it upon himself to ensure he can detonate the bomb they are carrying to a game in the Bronx. Unfortunately for him, his insistence on trying to accomplish this while being ordered to surrender by FBI means his fate is sealed.

    Season 1 Cell Members 

Christian Aumont

Played by: Alex Nesic

A French skinhead who converted to Islam after falling in love with a Moroccan woman, Christian simply exchanged one form of extremism for another. A brutal thug, Christian is a deeply troubled man, who regularly seeks out one-night stands, even while bemoaning the failure of his marriage.


  • The Alcoholic: Goes on a massive bender against strict Islamic doctrine banning the consumption of alcohol. Luckily for him, it's Tommy who finds him like this rather than Farik.
  • Bald of Evil: Still has his skinhead haircut.
  • The Brute: He's the muscle for Farik, and is regularly used to hurt or kill people the cell needs dead.
  • The Casanova: Of a particularly predatory variety. He uses and discards women, typically blaming them for his own failings in the process.
  • The Charmer: Christian can still turn on the charm when he needs to.
  • Converting for Love: Christian converted to Islam after he fell in love with a Muslim woman (his wife later on).
  • Drowning My Sorrows: After his wife leaves him.
  • Everything Sounds Sexier in French: Uses this to try and impress women.
  • The Fundamentalist: Though unlike the others, he may just see it as an excuse to hurt people.
  • He-Man Woman Hater: Regularly blames the women he has sex with, referring to them as whores, and declining any personal responsibility for having slept with them.
  • The Horseshoe Effect: Christian went from a Neo-Nazi who beat up Muslims to a Muslim terrorist (his Muslim wife is horrified by this). He tells some white supremacists about once being like them, and they retort that Christian is even now.
  • Hypocrite: He's an Islamist radical who nevertheless sleeps around, drinks, and otherwise violates even his own moral code.
  • I Banged Your Mom: And brags about it to Tommy's face.
  • Irony: An Islamist terrorist named "Christian".
  • Kick the Dog: Joins Tommy in beating up a street preacher who annoyed them. And that's without getting into the time he slept with Tommy's mother.
  • Neck Snap: Darwyn reluctantly kills him this way.
  • Pædo Hunt: Disturbingly, he may be this on top of all of his other acts of adultery. At the very least, he did not care one bit about checking ID on the girl (emphasis on "girl") who Felix sent him, and Felix's prostitutes were established as being primarily underaged and victims of human trafficking.
  • Really Gets Around: If she's moving, Christian will try to have sex with her.
  • Those Wacky Nazis: Was a Neo-Nazi before becoming an Islamist.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: With Tommy. They may bicker constantly, but spend all their time hanging out anyways.
  • Western Terrorists: A French Islamist convert who's recruited to the terrorist plot to attack LA.

Thomas "Tommy" Allen Emerson

Played by: Blake Shields

The son of two liberal college professors, Tommy Emerson seems to have converted to radical Islam just to spite his parents. A loose cannon who possesses all the maturity of an enraged teenager, Tommy is simultaneously violent and unsure of himself, which causes the cell some problems.


  • Affably Evil: For all his poor social skills and anger issues, Tommy's probably the member of the group who tries the hardest to befriend the rest.
  • Berserk Button: Pretty much anything having to do with his mother, honestly.
  • The Brute: Like Christian, he's largely there to be the muscle.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: Does this to his mother in the episode "Family". How fair he's being, we don't really know.
  • Driven to Suicide: Blows himself up to avoid capture by the LAPD.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: He's not a racist, and calls Christian out on it whenever his old Neo-Nazi tendencies flare up.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Setting Tommy off takes basically no effort.
  • Kick the Dog: Beating up a Christian street preacher springs to mind.
  • Mommy Issues: Loathes his mother, but won't hesitate to hit her up for money.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: Based on John Walker Lindh, right down to the three names.
  • No Social Skills: Tommy has a flat effect, speaks in a monotone, and avoids eye contact.
  • Parental Neglect: His parents left him alone to be raised by their housekeeper, Theresa.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: At the end of the day, Tommy's little more than a spoiled brat rebelling against his mother.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Repeatedly has to be saved from his own stupidity. Even Christian is smarter than he is.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: With Christian. They argue and fight constantly, but spend all their time together anyway.
  • Western Terrorists: He's American born and raised.
  • What You Are in the Dark: When ordered to block an approach to the terrorists' target to law enforcement, he shoots up some civilians' cars, but he's clearly unable to actually put his sights on the innocent people themselves (suggesting that the man who he killed in the previous episode had actually imparted good advice onto him, "civilians are not legitimate targets"). Then he barricades himself in his van, but although he'd probably like to shoot at the cops who just showed up, they hit him with wounding shots before he can raise his rifle.

    Season 2 Cell Members 

Khalid Noor al-Dibb

Played by: Aasif Mandvi

The initial leader of the second LA cell. Set up as a new version of Farik, his operations have hit a dead end with the funding from Mexico having dried up. Darwyn's return to the fold enables Khalid to make contact with Ziad and resume liquid cash flow. But Khalid's suspicions of Darwyn persist.

  • Character Death: Killed after a violent struggle in his introductory episode, because he smells through Darwyn's lie of needing to visit his parole officer when supposedly the guy is meant to be in deep hiding to avoid law enforcement. He's shot by Darwyn and the necessary killing is obfuscated by the FBI to appear to be a random carjacking.
  • Crazy-Prepared: Darwyn theorises that he must have been using an internal network (within the cell's HQ) to call Darwyn upon their visit, because to use an external one would be too risky given the sensitive intelligence he's divulging. Also, he actually tracks all of the cell members' cell phones using GPS from his car, which leads to him pulling Spotting the Thread on Darwyn.
  • The Dragon: Serves as this for his short time on the show. Presumably subordinate to The Homeless Man, and he was due to lead the second cell into their attack operation in vengeance for the first cell's defeat.
  • A Father to His Men: And to his "woman" (Mina). His three underlings (Mina, Salim and Benny) are on the verge of a Despair Event Horizon when they learn of his passing. His experience and knowledge of the attack plan were invaluable. But Darwyn takes advantage of the job vacancy, and his experience in the first cell, to become Khalid's replacement.
  • Gun Struggle: He comes up short on this, because Darwyn is able to spray him in the face with the car cleaning hose and get his gun off him before he can bash Darwyn's head in with the broken-off car mirror.
  • He Knows Too Much: Correctly ascertains that Darwyn is not who he says he is (unlike for the first cell's members) and so Darwyn has no choice but to kill him to protect his own life and cover identity. This enables Darwyn to usurp his place as the new cell leader, and to enjoy commanding them while simultaneously keeping tabs on their activities and plans issued from higher up in The Network.
  • Hypocrite: Darwyn calls him out for complaining about the lack of liquid funds for the operation, while driving a top-of-the-line Land Cruiser. Khalid laughs this off by saying it's his one indulgence, and that the car is also "the vehicle of choice for holy warriors across the world".
  • Inspirational Martyr: His untimely death (at least in the eyes of his followers) is skilfully manipulated by Darwyn. While his underlings may be thinking of aborting the operation, Darwyn says that Khalid can't just allowed to be another dead Muslim to American bullets (shot by Darwyn, no less) and takes his place as leader of the outfit.
  • Implied Death Threat: He says that, yes, they'll need to go to clean his car because "it needs something good for where we're going". I.e. it will be covered in Darwyn's blood. Thankfully, that doesn't come to pass.
  • Pragmatic Villain: While he is suspicious of Darwyn, and wants to push forward the new cell's plans as soon as possible, he knows that this is impossible without serious liquid funds. So he takes advantage of Darwyn's connection to Ziad for a resumed cash flow and puts his doubts on the backburner for the time being.
  • Spotting the Thread: He realises there's no logical justification for Darwyn's cover to be visiting a parole officer when he's meant to be a wanted man... so the only conclusion is that he must be someone working against the terrorists. As Darwyn later puts it to Diaz, this was a dangerous case of initially half-assing the investigation which could have had even more serious consequences.
  • Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Dark skinned and dark haired. He is quite charismatic, and his height lends him an imposing presence during his fatal confrontation with Darwyn.

Wilhelmina "Mina" van der Hust

Played by: Thekla Reuten

A former prostitute from Amsterdam, she radicalised when she met her husband and went to Iraq to wage war with him. However, she became even more thirsty for revenge against America when an American gunship killed him, their fellow militants and even her unborn baby. She is an explosives expert and managed to get a visa for the USA to work as a nanny while covertly joining up with the second cell.

  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Unlike Salim, she was unwilling (albeit she did initially consider) to involve the lives of innocents near and dear to her in her method of suicide attack. Those being the children who she serves as a nanny to.
  • Rape as Drama: Mina's visa is almost expired, threatening her job as a babysitter and therefore her status in the US and her eligibility for participating in the attack. The perverse father of the children she looks after turns the situation to his advantage, by baiting her with skeevy voyeuristic pictures of her at work. She is forced to let him rape her and perform oral sex on him or he will report her to immigration. Traumatised, she begs Darwyn to accelerate their date of martyrdom, and tells him about the story. A morally disgusted Darwyn then orders Benny to call in a beating of the man by the Maravilla, giving Mina revenge and a way out of her captivity.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Unlike so many of the other terrorists, she manages to evade the surveillance tails she has on her and actually accomplish the mission given to her by The Network, motivated strongly by grievance against America. First, she discretely takes Gayle hostage and forces her to drive towards Nevada. As Gayle forced a gun struggle, Mina got her gun back under control and shot her in the chest, driving off and leaving Gayle to bleed out. Reaching a Las Vegas hotel, she then goes undercover in a huge meeting of a US Army reserve unit (just back from overseas action) and martyrs herself in a suicide bombing, killing hundreds of them.
  • Stalker without a Crush: Creepily follows Gayle around, because Mina is concerned about how she is a distraction to Darwyn's duties to the cell, and feels suspicious about him. She introduces herself in the guise of wanting to help Gayle learn more about Muslim women, and Gayle is on board until the FBI warn her of Mina's true nature.
  • Tranquil Fury: While she does accomplish the aforementioned suicide revenge plot, she keeps a tight lid on her anger throughout.

Salim

Played by: Omid Abtahi

An Iraqi immigrant, raised in London, England and trained as an electrical engineer. While intensely pious, he brought great shame upon his family for being discovered in a homosexual affair. However, perhaps to compensate for his internalised homophobia, he dedicated himself to the cause of Islamic terrorism, fighting in Chechyna and later making his way to LA to help enact a deadly plot there.

  • Armoured Closet Gay: Salim's very devout and very violent. He is revealed to be a closeted homosexual. In the finale, as he prepares to attack the Rose Bowl, he invites along a man he'd been having an affair with, intending to take him along in the blast.
  • But Not Too Foreign: He's a British national of Iraqi origin, who settled in the UK as a kid due to the Iran-Iraq War.
  • Cure Your Gays: His parents set up a date which they (and Farrah's parents) hope will lead to an Arranged Marriage. Salim's parents further hope that this will help convert him to heterosexuality (after a "gay scandal" earlier in his life) or at the very least that she'll serve as The Beard for him and he won't act on his homosexual urges. Needless to say, this doesn't work.
  • Hidden Depths: It turns out that he trained in asymmetric warfare in Chechnya, which left him well placed to spot that the surface-to-air missile the cell was sold has expired battery coolant. Then, he's able to replace it and make the weapon viable again with his engineering experience. Of course, there's also his closeted homosexuality.
  • Middle Eastern Terrorists: Salim's a terrorist of Iraqi origin, but was raised in the UK.
  • Seme: Serves as this, a volatile yet emotionally-shuttered top to Jason's Uke, as befitting his Armored Closet Gay extreme beliefs.

Benito "Benny" Velasquez

Played by: Kevin Alejandro

A former gang member who met Darwyn and their mentor, The Librarian, in Lompoc Federal Penitentiary. He converted to Islam, finding truth in the Quran and being an easy mark for radicalisation. It is through his old friendship with Darwyn that the FBI are able to infiltrate the second cell.

  • Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Before his cell can set their attack in motion, he warns his mother and sisters to vacate LA for their own safety.
  • Generic Ethnic Crime Gang: Unlike any other cell member throughout the series, he doesn't seem to be ex-military. He's an ex-member of the Maravilla Latino gang who abandoned them after his latest stint in prison. This is because he turns to Islamic extremism instead while inside, although Russell thinks this is just much of the same thing for Benny. He still springs the odd favour from the gang for the cell, and uses the cell to get back at his old gangland rivals so that they can obtain RDX explosives from them.
  • Mellow Fellow: Compared to anyone else in the cell, he's this. He jokes around, mocking Salim's dour and severe adherence to Islamic jihad being Serious Business and says working towards it can actually be fun. But he does take things seriously when the stakes are highest.

Abu "Karrar" Amin Mussa

Played by: Saïd Taghmaoui

AKA Karrar Bashir al-Abbani. The third leader of the second season's cell after Khalid and Darwyn himself. He is mysteriously transported by shipping freighter from the Gulf countries. He finalises the plans for a radioactive attack on LA, usurping the authority Darwyn had been enjoying over the cell.

  • The Dragon: Farik's right hand man on the other side of the globe, enabled as such because Farik is in hiding after escaping US and Saudi custody.
  • If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: Why Darwyn manages to restrain himself from summarily executing Karrar, despite him trying to taunt Darwyn into doing it for his part to play in the death of Agent Serxner.

Other Recurring Characters

    Love Interests 

Gayle Bishop

A single mother who works hard at a nail salon to support her five year old son, Marcus. Introduced to Darwyn at Bobby Habib's daughter's birthday, the two rapidly fall for each other. She is initially completely unaware of Darwyn's deep secrets and believes that he's just a reformed ex-con who's working under parole at a grocery store. However, Gayle is strained by the fact that his commitments to the cell and the FBI mean he frequently has to make excuses and get out of dates or otherwise not be there for her. On the rocks and seeing some red flags which he's exposed, she mistakenly reports him to the LAPD, which puts his undercover status in jeopardy. They eventually reconcile after his true nature as a hero becomes apparent to her, and she spends the second season now fully aware that he's with the FBI.

Carli

Played by: Angela Gots
This attractive woman is drawn to Ilija by their shared love of modern music. She agrees to shelter him after the failed first attack in Los Angeles because he leads her to believe that the attack was actually a False Flag Operation and he's an innocent victim of persecution. When the heat dies down, he asks her to join him in his escape from the country through the Canadian border.
  • Conspiracy Theorist: From 9/11 and beyond, she has viewed the Islamic terrorist attacks on American soil as fake theatre staged by the US government to keep its citizens deluded and to further other goals. This makes her an easy mark for Ilija who takes advantage of her gullibility and masks his culpability in the Dodgers Stadium attack from her.
  • Granola Girl: A contemporary version of this, although the environmentalism is downplayed. Really doesn't get worried out by anything, apart from the stress of having to cross the US border by car while Ilija sneaks over under cover of night. She's prone to partaking of weed, but this causes Ilija to panic because that one little illicit purchase might draw heat onto them when he's almost scot-free.

Farah

Played by: Sarah Shahi
An Iraqi American junior doctor who has been set up to date Salim against his preference. Her liberal take on Islamic values contrast with his hardcore fundamentalist views, and this leads to a speedy breakup.
  • Arranged Marriage: What her and Salim's parents want to set up. It doesn't take.
  • The Beard: Functioned briefly as one for Salim, although he never got very close to her to uphold the lie.

Jason

Played by: Michael Rady
A gay gym-goer who embarks on a physical relationship with Salim, revealing Salim's sexuality to the audience in the process. He wants to get emotionally closer, but Salim can't abide that due to the problems it represents for his faith. Pushed away from him, Jason does eventually reconcile and is invited to join Salim for the fateful Holywood Bowl attack (unbeknownst to him; he thinks it's just their first public date).
  • Uke: Plays the more emotionally sensitive bottom to Salim's Seme.

Samia bin Safwan

Played by: Susan Pari
Farik's/Saad's wife, who has a daughter, Asma, by him. A Palestinian refugee who found asylum in the UK. They begin the series estranged, because Farik had gone overseas from the Middle East to fight Jihad, and abandoned her and Asma. She risks everything to meet him in a hotel and beg him to not martyr himself, but he is unwilling to listen to reason. Unfortunately for her, this leads to her being apprehended by the authorities and thrown into black site detention just like Farik after the failed Dodgers Stadium attack. She is eventually released, albeit placed under heavy surveillance by MI5 back in London. Darwyn then gains her trust as a means to reunite with Farik.

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