2013 Golden Globes, Bill Murray

If you are too busy watching the Australian cycling thing and can't understand what the hell is going on with Twitter (honestly, we don't know who you follow, but no one on our feed actually bothers naming the winners of these things), here are the latest updates for the 2013 Golden Globe Awards.

Best Motion Picture, Drama
WINNER: Argo
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama
WINNER: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Best Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama
WINNER: Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty

Best Motion Picture, Drama
WINNER:

Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical
WINNER: Les Mis

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture- Comedy or Musical
WINNER: Hugh Jackman, Les Mis

Best TV Series, Comedy or Musical
WINNER: GIRLS

Best Director
WINNER: Ben Affleck, Argo

Cecil B. DeMille's Lifetime Achievement Award/Freestyle Portion of Evening
WINNER: Jodie Foster

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical
WINNER: Lena Dunham, Girls

Best Animated Feature Film
WINNER: Brave

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama
WINNER: Claire Danes, Homeland

Best Foreign Film
WINNER: Amour

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical
WINNER: Don Cheadle, House of Lies

Best Screenplay
WINNER: Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
WINNER: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Best Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
WINNER: Ed Harris, Game Change

Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
WINNER: Kevin Costner, Hatfields & McCoys
(RUNNER-UP: Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
WINNER: Julianne Moore - Game Change

Best Television Series - Drama
WINNER: Homeland

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
WINNER: Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained

Best Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Mini-Series
WINNER: Maggie Smith - Downton Abbey

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Drama
WINNER: Damien Lewis - Homeland

Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
WINNER: Game Change

Best Original Song
WINNER: "Skyfall," Adele

Best Original Score - Motion Picture
WINNER: Life of Pi

Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
WINNER: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Lining Playbook (Also, best speech? Y/N?)

Golden Globe nom-toppers. (Various)

Not too many surprises this year in the nominations, announced today, for the 2013 Golden Globe Awards. This year, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will be making history as the first female duo to host the ceremony, held on Jan. 13., but other than that, it's all Lincoln (seven nominations), Argo (five) and Django Unchained (ditto).

In television, we're looking at dramas like Game Change (five), Homeland (four, including one for "The Bear" Patinkin), Downton Abbey and, yikes ... how did The Newsroom (two) manage to get on there? That's more nominations than Mad Men (one) received! Comedies remained from last year: Girls, 30 Rock and Modern Family topped the chart. HBO shot to the top of the chart with 17 nominations total, and in a distant second place came Showtime, with seven.

Read the full list below:

Best Motion Picture, Drama

Argo
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Zero Dark Thirty

Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Les Misérables
Moonrise Kingdom
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Silver Linings Playbook

Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama

Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Richard Gere, Arbitrage
John Hawkes, The Sessions
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight

Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy

Jack Black, Bernie
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Hugh Jackman, Les Misérables
Ewan McGregor, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Bill Murray, Hyde Park on the Hudson

Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama

Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Marion Cotillard, Rust and Bone
Helen Mirren, Hitchcock
Naomi Watts, The Impossible
Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea

Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy

Emily Blunt, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Judi Dench, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Maggie Smith, Quartet
Meryl Streep, Hope Springs

Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture

Alan Arkin, Argo
Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture

Amy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Nicole Kidman, The Paperboy

Best Director

Ben Affleck, Argo
Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained

Best Screenplay, Motion Picture

Mark Boal, Zero Dark Thirty
Tony Kushner, Lincoln
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Quentin Taratino, Django Unchained
Chris Terrio, Argo

Find out which star's daughter is Miss Golden Globe

Best Foreign Language Film

Amour (Austria)
A Royal Affair (Denmark)
The Intouchables (France
Kon-Tiki (Norway)
Rust and Bone  (France)

Best Animated Feature Film

Brave
Frankenweenie
Hotel Transylvania
Rise of the Guardians
Wreck-It Ralph

Best Original Song, Motion Picture

"For You," Act of Valor, Monty Powell & Keith Urban
"Not Running Anymore," Stand Up Guys, Jon Bon Jovi
"Safe and Sound," The Hunger Games, Taylor Swift. John Paul White, Joy Williams & T Bone Burnett
"Skyfall," Skyfall, Adele & Paul Epworth
"Suddenly," Les Misérables, Claude-Michel Schonberg & Alain Boublil

Best Original Score, Motion Picture

Mychael Danna, Life of Pi
Alexandre Desplat, Argo
Dario Marianelli, Anna Karenina
Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil, Cloud Atlas
John Williams, Lincoln

Best TV Movie or Miniseries

Game Change
The Girl
Hatfields & McCoys
The Hour
Political Animals

Best TV Series, Drama

Boardwalk Empire
Breaking Bad
Downton Abbey
Homeland
The Newsroom

Best TV Series, Comedy

The Big Bang Theory
Episodes
Girls
Modern Family
Smash

Best Actor in a TV Series, Drama

Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Jeff Daniels, The Newsroom
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Damian Lewis, Homeland

Best Actor, TV Series Comedy

Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Don Cheadle, House of Lies
Louis CK, Louie
Matt LeBlanc, Episodes
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory

Best Actress in a TV Series, Drama

Connie Britton, Nashville
Glenn Close, Damages
Claire Danes, Homeland
Michelle Dockery, Downton Abbey
Julianna Marguiles, The Good Wife

Best Actress in a TV Series, Comedy

Zooey Deschanel, New Girl
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
Lena Dunham, Girls
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation

Best Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie

Kevin Costner, Hatfields & McCoys
Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock
Woody Harrelson, Game Change
Toby Jones, The Girl
Clive Owen, Hemingway & Gellhorn

Best Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie

Julianne Moore, Game Change
Nicole Kidman, Hemingway & Gellhorn
Jessica Lange, American Horror Story: Asylum
Sienna Miller, The Girl
Sigourney Weaver, Political Animals

Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Mini-Series or TV Movie

Max Greenfield, New Girl
Ed Harris, Game Change
Danny Huston, Magic City
Mandy Patinkin, Homeland
Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family

Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries, or TV Movie

Hayden Panettiere, Nashville
Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife
Sarah Paulson, Game Change
Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey
Sofia Vergara, Modern Family

Cecile B. DeMille Award

Jodie Foster

"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.

How much frozen yogurt can you buy with $5.85 million?

There comes a time in every former starlet's life when she realizes that she has outgrown her Soho loft and needs to move on. For Claire Danes, this realization apparently hit when she found out she was pregnant with her first child.

Ms. Danes, who owns a 3,851-square-foot condo at 42 Wooster Street, which she purchased as "A. Kulik" back in 1998, has sold the space for $5.85 million, reports The New York Post.

The single-girl loft has been sold.

That's a little bit less than the $5.99 million that she was asking when she listed the three-bedroom, 3-bath space with Town Residential brokers Lee Clifford Schweninger and Elaine Schweninger in June. But it's a pretty nice haul considering she bought if for $627,000. Unlike Evening, the condo was a massive hit.

At least Ms. Danes met husband during the filming of that dull flick. And she moved on to star in one of television's most riveting dramas. It was time for a scene change and something more family friendly for the actress described by the Post as "a Yale drop-out who is currently pregnant." Ouch.

The apartment does have some wacky, late-90s, it-girl touches that Ms. Danes might be happy to leave behind, including a rotating breakfast nook. But nothing a renovation to the 16-windowed loft couldn't fix.

Where to next for Ms. Danes and Mr. Dancy? Park Slope? Cobble Hill?

kvelsey@observer.com

Brody finds a payphone! (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 only personal item in Quinn's bare-bones apartment is a copy of Great Expectations in which he keeps a picture of his newborn son, John Jr. There is a character named John in Great Expectations: Mr. Wemmick, the man with "a post-office of a mouth" who serves as the go-between for Pip and his lawyer, Jaggers. How may Quinn be comparing himself (John Sr.) to Wemmick here? What other similarities might he see between his current situation and the plot of the Dickens novel?

The most obvious comparison between Quinn and Wemmick, besides the aforementioned "go-between" status, would be that they both go by their last names, as a way of protecting themselves against the world. (That's why his baby's mamma waits for Saul to give John X a last name and isn't forthcoming with one.)

Additionally, Wemmick builds himself a replica of a castle with a moat to live in to protect himself from the outside world; Quinn lives in a secure fortress of solitude and apparently spends more money on security measures devices than decor.

Wemmick's split personality is revealed with his love for his fiancé, which humanizes him in Pip's eyes. The only link Quinn has to the outside world is the mother of his son and his child.

So even while we hate Quinn for trying to kill Brody, we must remember what Pip says of Wemmick, "there were twin Wemmicks and this was the wrong one."

2. The title of the episode, "Two Hats," refers to Quinn's two jobs (analyst/assassin), but several characters conspicuously wear hats over the course of the episode: Nazir, Quinn, Quinn's real boss (F. Murray Abraham!) and, of course, the oft-behatted Saul. We have many expressions involving hats in English beyond the titular one: we do something at the drop of one, talk through one, keep things under one, etc. Which of these or other idiomatic hats are evoked by the characters' various chapeaux?

It struck me watching this episode how the writers have finally found a use for Mike, who now wears "two hats": He is both a source of comfort/security for Jess and the Brodys, and is the apparent go-between for the CIA and the family. (How good is he laying down the law as Dana's new daddy? So good!)
"Keep it under your hat" could be the alternate name for this entire series, while "I'll eat my hat" is usually what I find myself saying in regards to the realism of Homeland. As in: "If it turns out that Carrie is the last person to know that Estes and Quinn have a hit out on Brody, I'll eat my hat." I've eaten several hats this season, BTW.

3. It is clear from Estes comments and Quinn's actions that CIA brass still considers Brody a terrorist and a threat. In light of the two details that Brody apparently chooses to leave out of the retelling of his abduction--Nazir thanking him for saving his life in Beirut, and the two of them praying together--how justified is such a judgment? Has Homeland tipped its hand, or do we still not know where Brody's true allegiances lie?

Ah, nope. We know where Brody's true alliance lies at this point: With Carrie and his family and the good ole' U.S. of A. Of the two things he leaves off his confession, Carrie knows about one of them (that Brody is a secret Muslim), and the second one seems more like one of those lapses that she would forgive him for once Brody becomes "a hero." We don't even know why the CIA would plan on killing Brody once Abu Nazir is dead, or why Brody's life is contingent on Nazir staying alive...a plot device that will inevitably lead Carrie into letting Nazir escape so Brody can live.

4. What is the significance of Nazir's CIA code name "Sandman"? Reference at least two of the following in your answer: "Mr. Sandman" by the Chordettes, "Enter Sandman" by Metallica, "The Sandman" by E.T.A. Hoffmann, the Sandman series by Neil Gaiman, the Spider-Man villain The Sandman.
1. In many of the Spider-Man continuums, William Baker/Flint Marko commits some criminal act in order for his daughter, Suzie, to live a better life, and in doing so sacrifices his life for hers. While Isa ended up dying, it was the impetus for Abu Nazir to wage a more personal war on American soil.

2. The Chordettes sing: "Give him a pair of eyes with a come-hither gleam, Give him a lonely heart like Pagliacci":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX45pYvxDiA
In the Italian opera Pagliacci, the titular character is the iconic "sad clown" who sings to his audience that actors have feelings too. When his wife Nedda is unfaithful to him, he kills her. One could say that "Mr. Sandman" (in this case Nazir) created a "dream" for Carrie much in the style of the song; he has an unfaithful wife, and is constantly trying to convince Carrie and the CIA that he, too, is a human being. ("Do you believe me?" Brody asks Carrie. "Because that's the only thing I care about.") Although, unfortunately, Damien Lewis does not have "wavy hair like Liberace."

5. These days Carrie seems to be holding it together slightly better with each passing episode. On a scale from one to electroconvulsive therapy, how far off the deep end will she fall if the CIA succeeds in killing Brody off?

It depends on how you define "crazy." We saw what would happen if Carrie believes Brody is dead in the beginning of this episode ... she handles it with remarkable professionalism. However, if she knew Estes and Quinn were behind it, it wouldn't take much for her to go all vigilante on the CIA and start taking them out, one by one. Is that crazy? Maybe, but if Brody was gone, I doubt I'd watch the show either, which could effectively lead to them canceling the series and "killing" all the characters.

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.

"Hi, I'm Carrie." (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. Even for a show about espionage, this episode was unusually concerned with the seen and the hidden (Quinn disrobing in front of Carrie; Aileen asking for a window, talking about the light, needing reading glasses; Brody hiding his scars from eager watchers). What did this episode allow us to see/understand that was previously hidden?

I'm pretty sure this one was just a set-up. Two words: Quinn ass.

2. Quinn seems to say what Carrie is thinking several times, most notably "Brody is everything." Chart the likelihood that Quinn has actually died and is now just a Tyler Durden-esque outgrowth of Carrie's subconscious.
I'd say these two were Tyler Durden-esque, but that would assume one of them was the manifestation of the other's nihilistic tendencies. In fact, Quinn and Carrie are the opposite of Tyler Durden: Instead of being one person split between his desires and society's demands, these two think exactly alike. They both run around like they are all id and superego but no ego. I mean, was it any coincidence that Carrie saw how cray-cray it looks when you wake up from being exploded in a terrorist attack and your first instinct is to pull out the I.V.s and go back in the field? Neither of them have any control over their impulses except where they draw their own moral lines. If this was another kind of show, they'd be superheroes. Like Batman. Or super villains. Like Bane. No, the Joker. No, Bane. I'm going to stick with Bane.

3. The Talmudic rabbis claimed that every line in the bible could be interpreted in four distinct ways. How many different levels of meaning are present at once in Carrie's conversation with Mike? (E.g., "I hope you get what you want.") How many of these levels is Carrie aware of?
Okay, Saul.
1. Agent Mathison: This is the Carrie that's relating to Mike as a professional; a member of the C.I.A. telling him to "back off" his investigations into Brody because it potentially jeopardizes their entire mission. (Hence, "I hope you get what you want" could actually be seen as somewhat of a threat. As in "I hope you get what you want, but don't go around trying to get it to happen because we will disappear you so fast your assistant's head will spin.")

2. Compassionate Carrie: This is the one that Carrie pulls out of her sleeve and uses on Brody a lot when it's convenient. She allows Mike to see that she's in a similar situation as he is, without revealing that he's part of the reason why she's in that position. (Hence, "I hope you get what you want ... because I too, want someone who desires me but is unable to be with me because of familial obligations.")

3. Crazy Carrie: The next layer on the cake is the Carrie we all know and love, the one who only understands the world through Brody-filters. (Hence, "I hope you get what you want because that means I'll get Brody and then you and Jessica can move far, far away, and while I don't hope you die because someone needs to take care of Dana--who I will reintroduce myself to later in the episode like I'm Jack Donaghy's avian-boned fiance on that season of 30 Rock--I will not want her to be part of our lives. The younger one, maybe.")

4. Off her meds mental patient: Here is the one who is about two blue pills away from causing another 9/11 because she's about to tell this guy Mike the world's shittiest-kept secret. (Hence ... exactly above, but she says it out loud, and then gets all crazy-eyed.)

4. By this point it has become clear that Carrie is using her real feelings for Brody in part to control him, and Brody explicitly acknowledges that he knows this. How does this map onto Homeland's increasingly obvious methods of manipulating its audience?
Oh, I love the idea that this is the writers' way of tackling the issue of government transparency in foreign relations. "Look, when one of us asks another one of us if we are just manipulating each other, and our answer is 'I don't know,' that's our way of telling you that we are definitely manipulating you. And just as Brody 'likes' being manipulated by Carrie (which, by the way, keep it in the bedroom you guys!), you too have come to love of us despite of ... nay, because of ... all this fantastical bullshit we keep throwing your way." Note: This only refers to white people.

5. Once again, Carrie's incompetence ends up looking like competence, while Saul's professionalism ends up making him look like a buffoon. If you were Mandy Patinkin, how would you feel about what the writers have done with your character? How about if you were Bill Hader?
Er ... I'm not really sure what you are referring to here. Carrie was actually quite competent (and surprisingly compliant with the C.I.A.) this week. Saul was not being professional; he let himself be emotionally manipulated by a desperate woman, per usual. So: competent?
http://youtu.be/G2y8Sx4B2Sk

"The Expendables" (Showtime)

These questions regard the second season premiere 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. Imagine Coleridge and Wordsworth were reanimated to watch an episode of Homeland. For the sake of argument, let's say that they also have the same amount of knowledge about the modern world and its government infrastructures (not to mention cars, light bulbs, etc.) as you do.  Walk the two men who came up with the term "Suspension of Disbelief" through last night's episode, and explain to them how we've bastardized their literary idea to apply to almost every scenario in the show. Be specific.

Ok, Sammy, you know how when you were writing, it was deeply unfashionable to write stories about vampires and superheroes and stuff? And so you had to come up with this idea that modern audiences could still get real, human ideas, emotions and situations from fantastic stories through a willing suspension of disbelief? (And then your pal Bill, he was going to come at it from the other side, and show the spiritual and the unbelievable and the weird in ordinary situations?) Well, here's the thing: vampires are just everywhere now. No, really. Like the height and the depth of all storytelling. Your concept worked too well. Modern audiences don't like stories about real people doing real things; we find them boring, even when there are spies and terrorists and explosions. A tense drama about the CIA simply isn't enough. To keep today's watchers enthralled, they need to believe in the unbelievable, whether it be the CIA trusting just two guys (I love Virgil and Max, but c'mon) to tail the most important lead the entire agency has, but twenty dudes to go through the accounting books of a dead tailor, or Brody hiding and then revealing (sort of) his murder of the tailor for no real reason but narrative convenience, or Roya Hammad miraculously revealing important intel other than the important intel that Brody was fishing for, or Dana miraculously happening to find the right hospital ward and recognizing the woman Finn hit despite the fact that she only saw her for a split second flying into the windshield, or Carrie not blinking an eye when Brody tells her that he is using the CIA as cover to save his marriage, or Brody thinking admitting this to a woman who clearly has feelings for him, is clearly mentally unstable, and clearly could get him executed for treason if she wanted is somehow a good idea ... Enough to drive you back to laudanum, amirite?

2. When Carrie reaches to squeeze Brody's arm in the car, he grabs her hand and sneers, "What is this? Sex? Understanding? And if that doesn't work, then what?" Implying that Carrie's physical intimacy is just another technique to gain his trust. Yet the final scene, it's Brody who reaches for Carrie's hand when she breaks down over the men she lost at Gettysburg...men that he possibly was responsible for killing, had he signaled to Roya that the C.I.A. was planning a raid on the tailor's shop. Was Brody trying to tell Carrie not to trust his lies, or being sincere? Is there a difference anymore?

It is associations like this that crystallize for me just why, despite all of the unlikeliness enumerated in my last answer, the bond between Brody and Carrie is one of the most interesting and complex relationships that I have seen depicted in any narrative medium. Because there are layers of their doubt and distrust in there, but in both of these situations, we know (approximately) the truth. Yes, Carrie is manipulating Brody, and he is right in saying that her touch is part of that manipulation, but that doesn't make it insincere. Quite the opposite: Carrie is manipulating herself too, deploying her real feelings for Brody to get what she and the CIA need. When she tells Saul that her eyes are open, she is telling the truth, but Saul shouldn't have been reassured. When she touches Brody, it is real. And until the second of these two scenes, we do not know whether Brody knows this, or he thinks it is all just manipulation. But when he sees her really wild and scared and full of doubt, he knows. That hand he offers her is a revision of his previous accusation, not a hint that he is lying. We may not know where his loyalties now lie, but we know he didn't signal Roya.

It's a good rule of thumb (pun intended) on this show: when you want to know what is really valuable to Brody, watch his hands. He raises them over his head to pray, uses them to bury his friend and his Koran, touches Carrie's hand.

3. Dear TeenCosmo:
I broke up with my high school boyfriend of one season to start dating a much more sophisticated guy. We've only officially been "going steady" for two episodes, and while I think he really likes me, he's starting to pressure me into stuff I'm not comfortable with, like lying about his hit-and-run that ended up killing (?) this woman. Now he doesn't want to talk in school anymore, and I feel like we're growing apart. Is there anything I can do to win him back/relieve this unrelenting guilt over being an accessory to manslaughter?

Dear Lost in NoVa,

It appears you have become entangled in a television subplot that often besets teenagers when their lives seem to be going well and writers fear that audiences may forget about them or lose interest. This is a tragic error. Nothing will make us care about you less than becoming the template of an afterschool special. On a show about international intrigue, you are fast becoming a sad footnote. But all is not lost. Now you are wild-eyed and guilty, with none of that remorseless subterfuge at which your father has become so proficient. Forget your new boy, forget what he did, but nurse your inchoate suffering until it causes you do something really interesting, like, you know, out your dad as a Muslim again--maybe on national television this time? Or just start dabbling in super-outre stuff, like explosives. I may know some people you can talk to.

4. On a scale of "One of the Gosselin children" to "Police partner last day before retirement," how expendable is Mike right now? What about Quinn? The other Brody child who isn't Dana?

Obviously Chris is the most expendable character on the show, except maybe magical disappearing ex-boyfriend Xander. I know this because I am only about 40 percent sure his name is even Chris. Why did the show even bother having the Brodys have two kids? Mike's "investigation" is obviously stupid and can't go anywhere except back to Jessica (or getting himself killed); he serves an important purpose, though, because without him to serve as an escape hatch, ready and willing to jump with her into his flashy car and take off, Jessica would just be harried and helpless, rather than a loose cannon Brody has to keep strapping back down. But Quinn, suddenly he is the engine running Homeland's entire plot. Even before the camera showed him, bloody but alive, rather than dead like every other CIA agent in the tailor shop, you knew he would be found alive. In part because why get an actor of Rupert Friend's caliber to do only three episodes, but also because without him it just becomes the Brody and Carrie show, with occasional avuncular commentary by Saul's eyebrows.

5.¿Es verdad? "Los blancos amor Homeland."

¿por qué?

Si, es verdad. El mucho grande cuestion es por que los non-blancos no amor Homeland como mucho.

Ok, I can't sustain this even in my pidgin Bloombito Spanglish, but I do have to wonder why they decided to made this such a white show in the first place. With Galvez's death, the writers have now killed off one of only two non-terrorist nonwhites on the show. When you really take a look at it it is pretty remarkable: Sure, Dana and Finn's school is some Quaker sanctuary for the kids of the elite, but _man_ is that place white. As is the CIA, aside from Estes. At least last season Saul had a wife who was a minority, but now she's out of the picture. For all of the complexity of the themes here, the "us against them" mentality comes into sharp focus when looking at it this way. When Brody was a Caucasian Talibani it was at least unique, but If he really has turned, now we just have a blonde woman and the palest man in Congress fighting the conveniently dark-skinned terrorists.

Bonus Question

Who is the scariest terrorist: Abu Nazir, Jafar, or the Riddler?

I'm going to give the edge to Jafar, because I once heard that they patterned his face after that of Nancy Reagan.

Brody doth protest too much (Showtime)

These questions regard the second season premiere 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 title of this episode is "Q&A," and it is primarily taken up by an interrogation sequence. Compare this interrogation with one of the many famous scenes of interrogation in literature or film (e.g. King Lear, The Birthday Party, Marathon Man). How does Quinn/Carrie's line of questioning line up against the classics?

Obviously, the good cop/bad cop interrogation trope is one of the most famous tv/movie techniques used, and this episode did it extremely well. How does it stack up to other versions of this idea? Well, I feel like if you combine these two clips, you get last night's episode:

http://youtu.be/ky8BkclMXBY
2. When Carrie gives Brody water, she makes him dependent on her, bringing it up to his mouth, even though she is just about to unlock his cuffs. We've seen this same manipulative technique before, with Nazir. Does Carrie acknowledge this similarity? Conversely, when Quinn mentions that Nazir tortured Brody with electricity, it calls to mind Carrie's ECT, for which Brody is indirectly to blame. How do these echoes influence our understanding and appreciation of the interrogation scenes?
We saw how Carrie reacted to the ECT question the first time: I think Quinn's whole plan was to manipulate Carrie into feeling those ole' Brody-obsessive feelings. When Quinn brings it up, it's not to bristle her, it's to remind her that Brody and her share the same traumas. When Quinn stabs Brody, Carrie doesn't come in as the "Good Cop," because she would never be able to fake something like that, especially after harboring so much rage against him. He was stabbed, and Carrie went into overdrive. Her reflexes were maternal, protective. (Hence the water thing.) He was physically vulnerable, but could still withstand interrogation techniques. What his Abu Nazir brainwash couldn't clean out entirely was real compassion. The "I've been there, and I know who you are, and I love you anyway" that Carrie brought to the table.

3. Various events work out very conveniently in this episode. Rank the following in order from most to least likely: 1) Just when he needs to play "bad cop," Quinn has the best "good cop" he could ask for, preloaded and ready to go; 2) Dana's boyfriend Xander disappears in a puff of offscreen smoke, leaving the road open for Finn; 3) Brody suddenly finds himself able to tell Jessica (a version of) the truth when she demands it outright; 4) after being almost entirely absent for the entire season, Chris returns for long enough to remind us that the Brodys have a son, right before Nick admits that he thought of Aysa as his own child; 5) Brody's chief of staff is too dumb to ask Estes too many questions.

1.) Xander: High school boyfriends evaporate all the time. Sometimes they are run over by the VP's son. Sometimes they are abducted and held in a CIA torture camp. Sometimes they go up to cabins and have a double-crossed affair. You know, shit happens.

2.) Brody tells Jessica he works for the CIA: It's almost weird that he didn't try that line earlier ... he could have explained away the Carrie affair that much easier. And it's not like Jessica can check in with her contacts at Langley to make sure he's not lying.

3.) Quinn having Carrie as an interrogator: Well, that's not a coincidence. Carrie is the only reason anyone was even paying attention to Brody. She shot, tagged, and bagged that son of a bitch. The only thing that's unlikely is that Quinn happens to read people so well that he knew that his tricks would work. He's basically Abu Nazir using Carrie as Aysa.

4) Brody's chief of staff being a dumbass: Well, is he dumb, or scared shitless? When the CIA tells you that your boss is in trouble and hints that you might be next, you don't ask questions. Though he is dumb enough to seem as equally scared of Jessica as Estes. Grow a pair, you know.

5.) Chris showing back up: The most unlikely of the bunch, but only because they seem to have replaced Chris with a much older actor, who actually seemed to age as the episode progressed.

4. Dana ducks involuntarily when Finn drives his car under a low overhang. This reaction is known as an "escape reflex" or more specifically, a "withdrawal reflex." How do other characters display reflexes that might be characterized as "escape" or "withdrawal"?
1.) Brody flinching when Carrie tries to touch his hand.

2.) Dana completely shutting down mentally after the car accident.

3.) Mike. Mike is Jessica's escape reflex, especially since he doesn't have enough of a personality to be a person.

4. VP's son turning from a three-dimensional character into every stereotype of a hit-and-run perp. "LEAVE THE BODY! OH MAN, MY DAD IS GOING TO KILL ME! DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM?" Shit is so hackneyed.

5. In this episode, the word "monster" is thrown around a bit. Was this Homeland's version of a Halloween episode? (Questions to consider: Why is Brody still hiding two murders after being given immunity? Is it possible that, like Walker before him, Aysa is still alive?)
Well, Aysa isn't alive ... Brody carried his body out of the rubble and had it shrouded. I know he "saw" Walker die too, but kid would have to be a pretty good actor to fake being dead in front of Brody for a couple of days. The monster analogy is interesting, because it's actually Brody and Carrie who are the archetypal "monster" figures: She's like an emotional vampire, and he's like Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Dead-Eyed Neck-Snapper.