Showtime’s Homeland #306, “Staying Positive”

Carry On

By Catherine Giordano

Have Carrie and Brody have been together since
they parted at the Canadian border?

“Carry”, is not only a homonym for Carrie, but an apt word for episode 306 of Showtime’s Homeland titled “Staying Positive” which aired on 11/03/13. So many meanings for the word “carry” and “carry on” are buzzing in my head after thinking about this episode and writing the review and recap.

At the beginning of the episode, Carrie taking a pregnancy test and it is positive. Is Carrie carrying Brody’s child? Not if she last saw him six months ago when she left him near the Canadian border. She’s not showing yet. It appears that she takes the test every single morning and she saves the sticks.  (This is the “does-Carrie-have-OCD- and-bipolar-disorder?” moment of the week.) Since she has a drawer full of sticks, it’s likely she has been pregnant for a month or more. Now, we have seen Carrie having some casual sex encounters so is she pregnant from a one-night stand or has she been seeing Brody?. I think that we will soon find out that Carrie and Brody have seen each other in the six months since the bombing of the CIA. If it was a stranger’s baby, she would have just had an abortion as soon as she knew she was pregnant.

In the military “carry on” means continue with what you were doing before being interrupted and that is what Carrie is doing. Javadi tries to give her a lie detector test to determine if she telling the truth about being willing to reveal secrets, but Carrie isn’t playing that game. She blackmails him into becoming her asset. Saul has information that would get Javadi killed if his government found out about it. Javadi arranges to meet Carrie later that day.

Saul and Peter Quinn are using drones to keep track of Javadi’s whereabouts. When Javadi passes the highway exit for his meet with Carrie, they are able to virtually follow him. He stops at a suburban house--the house of his ex-wife.

The back story is that Javardi was Saul’s asset 20 years ago. Things went bad and Saul had to flee the country. He arranged for four other assets to escape, but before that could happen, Javardi betrayed Saul and killed the assets to show his loyalty to the regime and to remove suspicion from himself. Saul gets Javadi’s wife and young son out of the country. Saul and Javardi are now bitter enemies.

Javardi gets to the house, shoots his daughter-in-law dead, kills his former wife with a broken bottle by repeatedly stabbing her in the neck. He has evidently carried a grudge all these years, hating his wife for leaving him. Now he has his revenge. Javardi has a grandson, about a year old. The child has witnessed everything. Javardi’s anger does not extend to his grandson. He cuddles and goo-goos him until Carrie and Quinn arrive and take him into custody.

Carrie is all hormonal and doesn’t want to leave the baby. Saul insists that she leave the child. There can be no trace that they were there. Carrie has to satisfy herself by picking the child up from the floor and placing him in the relative safety of his playpen.   

In the meantime, Dar Adal has a meeting with Senator Lockhart, the proposed new CIA director. Dar leads Lockhart to believe that he will be Lockhart’s trusted ally. But Dar is the master of black ops, and I think he and Saul are plotting the downfall of Lockhart.

Javardi is now in custody and the enmity carries on. The interrogation begins with Saul delivering a punch to Javardi’s face. I think things may get really unpleasant.

I can’t leave out Dana, much as I would like to. That girl is always is a prima donna of carrying on. Dana announces that she wants to change her last name—being a Brody nearly killed her. Her mother supports her in this, and is even flattered that Dana chooses her mother’s maiden name. No sooner is her name change official than a young woman arrives at the door. Dana is moving out and plans to live with this woman who she describes as a friend. 

It would be so nice if this meant we had seen the last of Dana, but I suspect that Dana is now going to bring more trouble on everyone. The Brody family has protection in their home--Dana on her own will be at risk.  Will Carrie have to go to her rescue? And this friend—is she a plant so that Dana can be used as leverage with Carrie or Brody.

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So Homeland fans: Carry On. Keep following the show.  

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