Still Positive - HL

Homeland episode 3-06 "Still Positive"

Written by Alexander Cary, an executive producer on the show

Directed by Lesli Linka Glatter, who is just working non-stop lately


When I last watched television two weeks ago, Carrie was quickly carted off to a meeting with the new Abu Nazir...Javadi (Iran CIA #2).  This will be fun, I have three episodes on the DVR here so I get to watch a quarter of the season back to back to back.  However these posts are likely going to be short and bulleted.

• The dark humor of a CIA stakeout "You took a taxi to a CIA safe house?!"
• Heading in the direction of Germantown, MD...if truckstops are what they are looking for then they should take 270 to 70 and get off at Breezewood, PA, the Las Vegas of truck stops 
• Hey CIA team, I can follow Google maps too!
• Actually, after Google maps came out my Intelligence professor said that was basically the technology they'd been using ten years before at the CIA
• Saul's wife is awful and she keeps beating this dead horse even though Saul wants it to lie there.  You don't get to leave your husband, cheat on him and then set the terms of who is mad about it, how mad, and what specific aspects to be mad bout.  The way she keeps bringing it up is to hear him say it's all okay in order to make herself feel better about her behavior
• Carrie is doing pretty well  on this polygraph considering that she flushed all her meds
• Clandestine  means hiding the actual operation, covert means hiding the hand of the United States (or whatever country) in the involvement of the operation
• One of the strengths of Homeland is whatever the opposite of dramatic irony is (have been searching for a term for this but have been unsuccessful.  It is some combination of suspense and unreliable narration.)  We're unclear as the viewer whether what is happening is according to plan and how much the characters know.  For example, at the time of the polygraph we're not sure if Carrie is ad libbing or if the plan was for her to blackmail him into coming in
• Turns out the answer is "sort of"
• Saul tried to get Dr. Sanjay Gupta out of Iran but failed
• These guys driving Carrie to the middle of no where has an Adrianna and Silvio feel to it
• On the "Still Positive" episode title, Carrie is pregnant, but Morena Baccarin is the one who looks pregnant in this episode
• Google says she announced her pregnancy in May and had a boy on October 22.
• I was surprised Jess Brody is still Jess Brody, given that even Skyler White changed her name.  But Dana's going to change her name now in what is hopefully the fine point on her storyline this season
• Close caption says the new name is "Lazaro"
• She pronounces it LAZ-a-ro but the clerk mispronounces it la-ZAR-o.  Now Dana has the joy of constantly dealing with people mispronouncing her name, which is only slightly better than being Nick Brody's daughter
• I can't decide what is the most inappropriate thing this (public employee) clerk did, commenting about her mom/dad, asking if he can pray for her or saying "God Bless"
• Sometimes in Homeland things have to be extreme or nothing.  Like Dana trying to kill herself and later running away with a kid who likely murdered his brother.  But the name change is a good way to show the aftermath caused by Brody on his family without going to eleven
• In a way the whole season is tied to the 12/12 bombing at the end of Season Two, whether it be the aftermath at the CIA, the revenge operation, or how the Brody family is being treated.
• Does Carrie has some California roots because she called it "The 270" instead of "270"
• There's no exit 1 unless you are talking about the spur
• Exits 1A and 1B though are for Bethesda and Rockville
• Maybe Carrie inadvertently flushed her birth control when she flushed the rest of her meds.  Whoops!
• Actually, it's not that cyclist guy.  Her doctor says she's 13 weeks along, but Carrie's not been willing to accept reality.  It's Brody's apparently.  Congrats Nick!
• I originally though she was stockpiling the tests for some future caper, not having the slightest idea of what that could be.  Then I wondered if she was stockpiling urine like fellow crazy Howard Hughes, except instead of mason jars, really tiny amounts absorbed by pregnancy tests.
• That is disgusting 
• Pregnancy storylines are rarely interesting, come out of nowhere and almost always a result of the well running dry. Also, I'm on Season Three of Dexter and I don't really need another one of these.
• Justified has manged to not let Winona's pregnancy become a hinderance because 1) it largely motivated Raylan's actions and career ambitions in Season Four and 2) Time passes so slowly in Harlan, it hardly matters.  Season Four was about two weeks in television land
• Also, so often a character is given a pregnancy simply so the writers have something to take away and manufacture some sympathy
• I want to work at the CIA and not wear a tie
• You can tell this is fiction because of the expected speedy confirmation.  In real life Senator Keith Olbermann employed several illegal immigrants to do his lawn, thus creating a political problem holing everything up
• Javadi shot his daughter in law in the face IN THE FAAACEE!
• Not quite evening them up, Saul nails him with the palm of his hand in the face.  IN THE FAAAACE! 
• Two murders in about two minutes for Javadi.  In cold blood.  I'm surprised there was no dog at the house for him to kick
• Homeland is generally not graphically violent.  The murders I can remember seeing up close have been bloodless (Veep, The Tailor).  While other victims are taken out from a distance or as part of a larger threat that we do not see the gory details of.
• They are all very matter of fact about glossing over the murder.  Get the murder weapon and follow the procedure.
• I wonder who designed the SOP for the CIA on murder ignoring
• "There's a lot of blood."  "It's a bloodbath" - Peter Quinn lacking poetry in describing the scene
• This episode was 48 minutes long with the credits and previouslies.  Most of the episodes have been in the 40-s, which is basically network length.  
• Sons of Anarchy has been running 90 minutes each week with commericials and it is too long