‘Homeland’ episode 2.6: ‘A Gettysburg Address’

As Carrie tracks Brody, Ned Martel will be tracking their every move in weekly recaps of Showtime’s Emmy Award-winning series “Homeland.” Check back each Monday morning to join the conversation on one of TV’s best nailbiters.

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Previous episodes

201: “The Smile”

202: “Beirut Is Back”

203: “State of Independence”

204: “New Car Smell”

205: “Q&A”

Was this the most boring episode of “Homeland” ever?

For a long, long time, yes, it was. Many minutes of tedium. (Please don’t subject me to more scenes with Roya!) Yes, the hospital scene was contrived. Yes, the stakeout was lame. Also, the pace was slooooow. It’s midseason and we are a little spoiled, and really asking a lot, aren’t we? But didn’t that last shoot-em-up give us a little thrill? OK, I have reconsidered. You know, the Tetons need that valley down below. Only from that plateau can we best observe their majesty.

What’s up with Max and Virgil, the surveillance teammates?

Nothing, really. They’re kind of like the Ernie and Bert of the show. I like them, though, and their foibles. They make espionage seem more error-prone, more friendly and more human. I think the writers have other priorities, and they’ll just remain as foils. I want them to be more like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but I always ask for too much.

Are water fountains effective sound-blocks for listening devices? Is that why, in real life, D.C.’s fountains are almost always sitting empty with some dead leaves where gushing water should be?

The water fountains in D.C. are not gushing because they are in D.C.

Why doesn’t Jessica demand those answers to her “50 million questions”?

She arguably has a right to know, and some leverage over Brody. But ignorance is bliss. Plausible deniability means electoral viability. Mama wants her Victorian house up on the hill at the Naval Observatory!

Does Mike the Marine sometimes sound like his voice is being dubbed by Brad Pitt?

Yes. And he is wearing a Matt Damon mask.

If Brody is on “a lot of painkillers,” as he said, is he gonna go very loopy very soon?

Let’s hope so! Saul is worried about Carrie being close to him and she told her reassured mentor “all I wanted to hear,” he said. Exactly! Brody is too shiny a penny for her not to pick up.

Is Carrie psyched that Brody admitted he lied to his wife about working with her?

She showed no outward signs. She has shown remarkable clarity of purpose and direction after her earlier highs and lows.

Shouldn’t stressful situations make her more agitated?

Well, she has been proven right on an epic scale; she has declared her true feelings for Sgt. Stranger Danger; she now has his cooperation (maybe even his trust) in her mission to foil Abu Nazir’s next plot. She’s having a pretty good yield of karmic beneficence. The world is spinning in her direction so let’s not wish for her gyroscope to go all wobbly. Uh oh. Too late. Seven casualties in Gettysburg! And it might be her fault. And look whose shoulder she’s crying into!

Would the hit-and-run victim’s daughter be so open with snoopy, suspicious Dana?

One: Millenials overshare. Two: They have trouble lying in person, mostly because they have so much practice doing so through electronic devices. The griefy girl wasn’t concentrating and Dana slipped past her detection.

Is Peter Quinn, Carrie’s CIA supervisor, really muerto already? What was in the wall that was worth killing for?

I cannot believe the writers would lop off one entire vertex of the Brody-Carrie-Peter love triangle, right when they had just hinted at its shape.

And that safe, the one that the evildoers took from the tailor’s joint in Gettysburg? Is that the key to the plot?

So we have to assume. My hunch -- and I have seen nothing past episode 6 -- is that Brody will get information that explains what’s up, but he’ll be in some position to save the country. But at just the wrong time, he’ll be discredited unjustly (well, he is a terrorist), and Carrie will struggle to vouch for him. That’s my betting line. Send me yours at marteln@washpost.com