diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonRDD.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonRDD.scala
index 6f5d3dda377de..ff5f7a0e0d3fc 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonRDD.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonRDD.scala
@@ -372,10 +372,8 @@ private[spark] object PythonRDD extends Logging {
   }
 
   def writeIteratorToStream[T](iter: Iterator[T], dataOut: DataOutputStream) {
-    // The right way to implement this would be to use TypeTags to get the full
-    // type of T.  Since I don't want to introduce breaking changes throughout the
-    // entire Spark API, I have to use this hacky approach:
-    def write(bytes: Array[Byte]) {
+
+    def writeBytes(bytes: Array[Byte]) {
       if (bytes == null) {
         dataOut.writeInt(SpecialLengths.NULL)
       } else {
@@ -384,7 +382,7 @@ private[spark] object PythonRDD extends Logging {
       }
     }
 
-    def writeS(str: String) {
+    def writeString(str: String) {
       if (str == null) {
         dataOut.writeInt(SpecialLengths.NULL)
       } else {
@@ -392,42 +390,45 @@ private[spark] object PythonRDD extends Logging {
       }
     }
 
+    // The right way to implement this would be to use TypeTags to get the full
+    // type of T.  Since I don't want to introduce breaking changes throughout the
+    // entire Spark API, I have to use this hacky approach:
     if (iter.hasNext) {
       val first = iter.next()
       val newIter = Seq(first).iterator ++ iter
       first match {
         case arr: Array[Byte] =>
-          newIter.asInstanceOf[Iterator[Array[Byte]]].foreach(write)
+          newIter.asInstanceOf[Iterator[Array[Byte]]].foreach(writeBytes)
         case string: String =>
-          newIter.asInstanceOf[Iterator[String]].foreach(writeS)
+          newIter.asInstanceOf[Iterator[String]].foreach(writeString)
         case stream: PortableDataStream =>
           newIter.asInstanceOf[Iterator[PortableDataStream]].foreach { stream =>
-            write(stream.toArray())
+            writeBytes(stream.toArray())
           }
         case (key: String, stream: PortableDataStream) =>
           newIter.asInstanceOf[Iterator[(String, PortableDataStream)]].foreach {
             case (key, stream) =>
-              writeS(key)
-              write(stream.toArray())
+              writeString(key)
+              writeBytes(stream.toArray())
           }
         case (key: String, value: String) =>
           newIter.asInstanceOf[Iterator[(String, String)]].foreach {
             case (key, value) =>
-              writeS(key)
-              writeS(value)
+              writeString(key)
+              writeString(value)
           }
         case (key: Array[Byte], value: Array[Byte]) =>
           newIter.asInstanceOf[Iterator[(Array[Byte], Array[Byte])]].foreach {
             case (key, value) =>
-              write(key)
-              write(value)
+              writeBytes(key)
+              writeBytes(value)
           }
         // key is null
-        case (null, v:Array[Byte]) =>
+        case (null, value: Array[Byte]) =>
           newIter.asInstanceOf[Iterator[(Array[Byte], Array[Byte])]].foreach {
             case (key, value) =>
-              write(key)
-              write(value)
+              writeBytes(key)
+              writeBytes(value)
           }
 
         case other =>
diff --git a/python/pyspark/serializers.py b/python/pyspark/serializers.py
index df95ce9622573..4c930d45ee251 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/serializers.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/serializers.py
@@ -487,7 +487,7 @@ def loads(self, stream):
         length = read_int(stream)
         if length == SpecialLengths.END_OF_DATA_SECTION:
             raise EOFError
-        if length == SpecialLengths.NULL:
+        elif length == SpecialLengths.NULL:
             return None
         s = stream.read(length)
         return s.decode("utf-8") if self.use_unicode else s