"Posing like you are in a men's catalog is a sign of strength."--David Estes (Showtime)

These questions regard last night’s episode of Showtime’s Homeland. Please answer the prompts with specific examples from SUNDAY’S EPISODE, though supplementary material will be accepted as a secondary source. Please write legibly. No. 2 pencils only. You have an hour to finish this test. See below for questions and sample responses.

1. In last week's episode, Dar Adal expressed nostalgia for the Cold War, when it was obvious who the enemy was. Conventional wisdom has it that militarized societies will turn on each other in the absence of a clear antagonist. And yet it is only now, when Nazir is right before them, evident and nearly in their grasp, that the CIA is really attacking itself, from Carrie tackling Galvez to Estes discrediting Saul "The Bear" Berenson. What does this self-hatred express and why is it all coming out now?

Look, we've all suspected Galvez as the mole from like, the fourth episode of the season. His sudden "reemergence" last week was the perfect red herring. Didn't his appearance  front and center of the FBI's firing squad in the opening of this episode ring some "Aha" bells for anyone else? The fact that Carrie was sure enough to go off the hunch (that I've been screaming at her to listen to since he became this over-eager little ass-licker,) makes me think that this isn't the last time he'll find himself in her cross-hairs.

As for the whole "enemy within" theory, it's always been Homeland's take that everyone is simultaneously  paranoid and clueless. Like:
A) Why has nobody in the FBI watched Spike Lee's Inside Man, because Nazir's "fake wall" act was coined by Clive Owens in 2006?

B) Why does Saul suddenly care so much about Brody? It can't be because of Carrie's feelings, and it's not "just" about assassinating a U.S. congressman. I mean, not even Estes knows for sure that Brody killed the VP (though if he did, he'd be even more justified in taking Brody out). Saul's actions strike me as more of his obsession/blind spot when it comes for saving lost causes than of some deep-down belief that Brody is not a threat.

C) How has Carrie been able to intuit any and all malfeasance towards Brody, but has entirely missed Quinn and Estes sniper-tracking her boyfriend? Especially when she was the one who put Virgil and Max on Quinn detail in the first place? Did she just forget that was a thing?

2. Compare Carrie's two interrogations, of Brody and of Roya. Did she really think her Good Cop routine would work again, in these very different circumstances? Did Quinn know she would slip in and question her and let it happen anyway?

Aww, Roya! I so wanted her empathy with Carrie to be a "real" moment, but of course it couldn't be. Roya knows all about Carrie's affiliation with Brody, which is why she set her up to take the fall when she asks ,"Have you ever met somebody who takes over your whole life (and) makes you do things you'd never thought you'd do?...Well, I've never been that stupid."

Quinn always acts like he doesn't want Carrie to get involved, but I'm starting to believe him. Unlike with Brody, he doesn't use Carrie as an emotional bargaining chip this time around. (Then again, maybe he knows he can't.) She wasn't supposed to be in the room, but he knows how much it would undermine her already wavering confidence if he had to drag her kicking and screaming out of the room, so he lets her take a shot of it.

My creepy question...what was he letting those guys with the big hypodermic needles do to Roya when Carrie finally called?

3. This episode placed a lot emphasis on the literal meanings of words and expressions. Not only did Nazir literally not run away, but Dana literally cried over spilled milk, and a light literally turned green for Carrie. Assuming that Homeland, like any riddle, is tracing some sort of trajectory from ignorance to understanding, what is the nature of the endgame in which this too-emphatic stress on the literal places us? (Things to consider: Saul getting trapped by the yes/no limitations of the polygraph, Jessica realizing that she doesn't even need to know the truth anymore.)

The strategy of Homeland's endgame--or the answer to the riddle to the show's literalness—is simple: It is not real life and never will be. Visual metaphors and wordplay rarely coincide with epiphanies. (Though I have literally cried over spilled soy milk, which struck me even at the time as being too obvious to be anything but a coincidence.)

In reality, terrorists don't accidentally give away the location of their leader by slipping on their verbs, and inmates are rarely running the asylum, as Carrie seems to be doing with heading up the detail on Nazir. When it comes to the polygraph bit (which, by the way, can we give James Urbaniak his own spin-off now?), I find that part literally believable, sadly. Out of all the C.I.A. strategies for neutralizing a threat from within, making  them take a polygraph test with questions that in a court of law would be nothing short of entrapment might be the first one that actually works.

4. Picture yourself watching Homeland when you were Dana's age. Which would you find more romantic: Jessica's "If you don't have to lie to her, you must really love her" or Brody's "I would gladly and without hesitation assassinate a head of state for you"?
The second, and I'd go with it today. But that's less about my age and more to do with the fact that I am a woman with irrational LADY FEELINGS that tell me that honestly is less important than someone killing the Vice President for you. I would have made a great Jody Foster.

5. As should be clear by now, Carrie is somewhat less fallible than the pope. Can the CIA really afford to burn her, as Estes/Quinn seem determined to, if she is the most intelligent, most forward-seeing, most capable agent in the whole building? Wouldn't that be like smashing your crystal ball on the ground because it is a little too shiny for your tastes?

See, I don't read Estes and Quinn trying to burn her; in fact, they are trying to keep her by getting rid of the two people in her life that she relies on for structure outside of Langley. Estes seems to have a personal grudge against Brody this season, and I don't think it's because the United States "doesn't make deals with terrorists," because obviously…they did. I think deep down he still harbors some feelings for Carrie that go beyond doubting her reasoning. He was always Walden's go-to guy, and if things had gone according to plan, there would have been no way Quinn could have killed the new vice president. (Though they do seem much easier to kill than congressmen.)

The way I read Quinn is pretty similar, except he's cracking a bit. He feels a sort of protective love for her, maybe it's a big brother instinct, maybe it's more. But whatever it is, he couldn't go through with killing Brody on her doorstep, which is basically what Estes instructed him to do. With Carrie being almost level-headed this season, I wonder if next week will end not with her breaking point, but his. Can he go through with shooting Brody in the woods? If he can't, what good is he to Estes and the C.I.A.? But if he kills Brody he will lose Carrie for good…right before she destroys his face with her teeth or something.

BFFs for the next ten minutes. (Showtime)

1. Homeland is known for asking from its viewers a heroic amount of suspension of their disbelief (except for the parts which looked semi-plausible after the Petraeus scandal broke). But this episode may have taxed even the most engrossed fans. Out of the following plot developments, which was the most balls-out absurd and why? Please phrase your answer in the form of an under-medicated conspiracy theorist.

a) That the next guy in line to the presidency has a Pacemaker--no Cheney jokes, wait for it--that is easily hackable and can be accessed remotely via its serial number;

b) That The New York Times—sans a report fromWikileaks-- would reveal to its readers the precise location in VP's office of said device;

c) That the head of the only terrorist organization in the entire world (at least in Homeland reality) would concede to hostage negotiations with a triple-crossing traitor because the guy swears (cross his heart and hope to Isa!) to still murder the vice president of the United States once the terrorist lets go of his only bargaining chip.

d) That Brody would not only go through with giving Abu Nazir the deadly code once Carrie is freed, but do some extra credit work by strangling the VP to death in his own office;

e) That it is apparently possible to strangle the VP in his own office, as long as you trick the Secret Service into thinking you just need to go to the bathroom;

f)That Finn would still be interested in a Debbie Downer like Dana long after the rest of the world has lost interest.

1. We must have room in our understanding of the world to admit things that mainstream culture cannot admit is true, even when it sees it with its own deluded eyes. And in that light, one I suspect Nazir sympathizes with a great deal, all of these things are equally likely. Well, except for Finn's behavior. That doesn't take much suspension of disbelief at all: he's a teenage boy, who cares more about getting laid than anything else, and here is a girl who may yet let him in her pants without him having to diverge much from his carefully curated mopey emo persona. ("I feel really emotional and stuff, because we killed that lady, remember? And you're the only one I can talk to now. Also, remember when we made out in a giant metaphor for my penis?") Honestly, the most heroic feat of suspension of disbelief in this episode was none of the above: it was believing Brody wouldn't tell the CIA that Nazir had contacted him. Sure, he hates Walden, but if he cared enough about Carrie, his play is to involve the agency with resources, not hope that known liar and manipulator Nazir is true to his word. Brody is a duplicitous bastard, but that was just weird, dumb and reckless.

2. After a marathon of the first season of Walking Dead this weekend, I was struck by the similarities in the leads. Not only is Andrew Lincoln as British as Damian Lewis, but there's that whole "presumed dead husband stoically reappearing to family, inadvertently thwarting best friend's attempt to steal his family" plot line. I guess what I'm asking is: In a fight between Sheriff Rick Grimes and Sergeant Nick Brody, who would win? Shane Walsh vs. Mike Faber?  How about the dispensable children, Carl Grimes and Chris Brody? Zombies v. terrorists?

I don't want to spoil the next seasons of Walking Dead for you, so suffice it to say that two of these are no contest once you've seen a bit more. Carl over Chris any day, that kid is hard-core, not dispensable at all. Chris may be able to cheat at hearts, but that's about it. Same with Shane over Mike. Mike can steal your woman, but he isn't a patch on Shane. But Rick vs. Nick is a tossup. The edge would go to Rick, though. Nick was a soldier, but I'm sure he never machete'd anyone's skull. Trial by zombie will battle-harden you more than trial by sitting in a hole without water or a good barber any day.

3.    There is a lot of contention around the use of bipolar disorder-as-insanity-plea in criminal court. As Ronald Kuby once told The New York Times, "The problem with using bipolar disorder as an insanity defense is that you can be extremely crazy but still not legally insane... "the insanity defense focuses on cognition, and reckless behavior isn't an insanity defense." If Homeland ended up somehow as material evidence in a Supreme Court case on the issue, how would Carrie's decisions this episode affect the judges' verdict?

What decisions? Trying to escape? Plucking some trucker's cell off his dashboard? Carrie continues on her trajectory of seeming more and more sane the more trouble she is in. If it was Brody on trial, I think he'd have a pretty good defense, as he doesn't seem to know the difference between up and down, much less right and wrong. And Saul, if he didn't realize cursing out David Estes and antagonizing Salieri was a bad idea, his lawyer may have some grounds for such a plea. Carrie could be the least bipolar character on the show right now. Just wait until nothing immediate is happening to her; once she starts spinning her wheels, that's when she brings the crazy.

4. A portion of Confucianism has been interpreted to mean that any one person's life has no value, beyond what good they can provide to society as a whole. This belief was essential to the teachings of Chinese Muslims during the Qing Dynasty, who were trying to understand Islam through Confucianism. How then should we judge David Estes this season ... as a Confucian, or a dogmatic terrorist on par with Abu Nazir? Is it possible to be both? Neither?

This is a distinction without a difference. Everyone on Homeland (well, everyone except the rest of the Brody family) appears willing to kill (or die) for what they believe in. The reason Carrie and Brody can see eye to eye, despite everything, is that they agree that it is not okay to kill innocent people for such a cause. Brody, of course, believes Walden to be guilty. But Estes, not without cause, sees Brody to be guilty as well. Whether his Machiavellian plans extend beyond this we have not seen. I suppose it depends on what awaits Saul in the basement of the CIA: a pension or a firing squad.

5.  If you were a politician who lived by the lessons of Homeland, what would be your first order of business Monday morning: Pushing through an extra round of funding for MedMon, or demanding an increase in your Secret Service detail?

My first order of business: security cameras in my private office. And in the offices of anyone who keeps classified documents. I mean, seriously, how many times can Brody rifle through sensitive materials unobserved? It's like half this show takes place in the 19th century.

Brody's like a bird, he wants to fly away (Showtime)

These questions regard last night’s episode of Showtime’s Homeland. Please answer the prompts with specific examples from SUNDAY’S EPISODE, though supplementary material will be accepted as a secondary source. Please write legibly. No. 2 pencils only. You have an hour to finish this test. See below for questions and sample responses.

1. The episode's title refers to Carrie's metaphorical desire to fly off with Brody, Dana's emotional flight from Brody, and Roya physically flying off ... with Brody. It's also what I thought that Nelly Furtado's song "I'm Like a Bird" was called for a really, really long time. Using "I'm Like a Bird," Lenny Kravitz's "Fly Away," and that Christian spiritual "I'll Fly Away" sung by Gillian Welch and Alison Krauss on the Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack for reference, pick out one line from each lyric to apply to Carrie, Dana, and Abu Nazir, respectively.

Now these are some lyrically complex songs we've got here. Oh! Oh! Oh! Yeah! Well, ok.

Carrie: "When the shadows of this life has gone" ("I'll Fly Away.")
http://youtu.be/sdRdqp4N3Jw
This gospel song about yearning for heaven is actually based on a prison work song. And while Brody is the one facing actual prison bars here, Carrie shows us yet again in this episode just how helpless she is when it comes to him. She may have the excuse that she is protecting an important asset, but she is also waiting there in the dark, spying on the man she loves with another woman. Like Dana in this episode, even if she tells the truth, she'll still feel like she is trapped in the shadows.

Dana: "I don't know where my soul is, I don't know where my home is" ("I'm Like a Bird").
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roPQ_M3yJTA
Pretty self-explanatory. I love that the writers keep finding ways of making Dana her father's Jiminy Cricket. She tells the dead woman's mother she wasn't driving but she was in the car, and the woman replies that it's the exact same thing. The real crime in a hit and run isn't the hitting, it's the running. Don't you wish, just once, someone would answer one of Brody's similar moral evasions with the same no-bullshit klaxon?

Nazir: "I'd fly above the trees / Over the seas in all degrees / To anywhere I please" ("Fly Away").
http://youtu.be/EvuL5jyCHOw
Seriously, can this dude just go wherever he wants? He's the most wanted man in the world, supposedly. Imagine if we ended up catching Bin Laden somewhere in the U.S. Impossible, right? But I guess the best surveillance equipment in the world is stymied when a guy shaves off his beard. Wait til they get Nazir a pair of Clark Kent glasses, he could probably walk right up to Estes and ask for a cigarette. Or a job.

2. An anti-pattern is a software/design/business term that applies to a pattern that is repeated as a norm, despite resulting in more negative effects than positive. In order to be an antipattern, a pattern must contain these two elements:
a) Some repeated pattern of action, process or structure that initially appears to be beneficial, but ultimately produces more bad consequences than beneficial results, and
b) An alternative solution exists that is clearly documented, proven in actual practice and repeatable.
Can you identify five antipatterns that the characters in Homeland acted upon this week?

1. Dana somehow continues to think that she can punish her dad by avoiding him, when that is exactly what he needs right now.
2. Jessica somehow continues to think that arguing logically with Brody will get her anywhere.
3. Quinn persists in believing that just letting Carrie do her insane thing will have terrible results, which it never once has.
4. The CIA continues to think it is smarter than Roya/Nazir and their operation.
5. Mike Faber continues to be Mike Faber.

3. Imagine that you are a parent and this is the first episode of Homeland. You only recorded it on your VHS because your teenaged child tells you that you "really should watch this show," because it will "be right up your alley." After watching "I'll Fly Away," what would you think your son or daughter was trying to tell you?

That I should get out of the Stone Age and get myself a DVR? Honestly, if this were the first episode of Homeland, even with the "previouslies," I would have been totally lost. Without the background on Brody's captivity, his involvement in the conspiracy and his getting caught, none of his or Carrie's actions would make a lick of sense. He'd just be a squirrely cheating husband who neglects his daughter so he can play kinky spy games with his CIA girlfriend. I'd suspect my kid thought I was a depraved sicko who was ruining my family. Incidentally, my dad (like the rest of America) loves Homeland, and in his opinion, anyone who throws over Morena Baccarin for Claire Danes must be—to paraphrase Brody—even crazier than everyone thinks he is.

4. The first season saw Jessica changing hairstyles as often as a mood ring, and with the same purpose. Now that she's settled on her "wife of a congressman 'do," we see Abu Nazir is back, sans his iconic beard. Combined with Saul's subtle facial hair fluctuations per episode, develop a theory about the relationship between a character's follicle choices and their emotional/mental state.

On the contrary, as the scene with the vaguely antisemitic warden last episode shows, hair here is mostly about how people want to present themselves. As with anyone who puts on a show for the public, this may be masking underlying issues: Jessica's changing hair stopped after she gave her big public speech, i.e. both when she became a public figure and when she realized she was never going to be able to count on Brody. In this light, the purpose of Nazir's beard-cutting is twofold: yes, he needed to avoid being seen, but more than that, he needed to convince Brody that he would do anything--including violating his own religious principles--for his cause. His bare chin is itself a rebuke, because that is how Nazir rolls. Roya shouts and threatens, but Nazir just looks at you like he's disappointed and you fall in line. The show has finally pushed toward its logical conclusion: pitting Carrie's manipulation of Brody ("If you're a hero, maybe this will all go away") against Nazir's ("If you make this all go away, you'll finally be a true hero.")

5. They say craziness is defined by doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. Would that make Quinn, Saul, and David Estes more or less insane than Crazy Carrie, who can at least be counted on to do something original each week? Why or why not?

Maybe I'm the crazy one, because I persist in believing that the CIA knows what it is doing, in some larger sense. Despite Saul's terrible grimace, female agents are, in fact, trained to use sex to keep assets in line. They may know that Carrie is lying about her feelings, but so far she has given them nothing but results. Quinn is crazy like a fox. When he says "make only one pass," he knows Carrie will buck authority and go for it, because that is what he really wants. He also knows that his order may restrain her somewhat, not to mention giving him plausible deniability. As for Carrie, when Brody tells her she is crazier than everyone says, it is during one of the sanest moments she has yet had on the show. She is straight up playing off Brody's emotions—his feelings for her, certainly, but even more for himself and his own heroic self-image—to get him back on track. Right now, she isn't coming off as an insane person at all, just someone who knowingly fell in love with the wrong man. Brody, on the other hand, is finally about nine-tenths of the way to totally nutbar.