(27-10-2011 09:09 PM)Betty Wrote:  I've decided I'm going to ask Peter Firth and Nicola Walker if there was anything extra there at the beginning of season 10. I don't know how I'll do this--I don't live in the U.K. and I'm scared of flying, so I won't be standing at any theater doors like some of you lucky ones. I just know that it would make me feel better if either of one of them (or perhaps a writer) said "yes".

(27-10-2011 09:45 PM)Gillymac Wrote:  The only thing that you can take as gospel as having happened in the spooks universe is what you see on the screen in front of you and the words you hear spoken by the actors playing the characters.

That is how scripted drama works.

Good ones, like spooks, strike triggers in the minds of the viewer which in turn fuel your imagination, makes you give a damn and keeps you tuning in each week (which is the whole point - to hook you) - but here's the rub -what you feel, think, imagine, want or wish for those characters doesn't come into it I'm afraid, because ultimately simply projecting your own wishes onto characters, doesn't make them behave the way you want them to. Just because it's in your head, doesn't make it so.

(28-10-2011 06:31 AM)Tea Lady Wrote:  Going back to Ruth's...err...passing... I can see why she did step forward. I posted elsewhere that it was because Sasha had just lost his mother and perhaps both parents. Ruth knows what it is like for a child to lose a parent, in her own life and with Nico. I'm not surprised she pushed herself forward. I just would have expected Harry to have anticipated what Sasha was going to do. If Sasha didn't have a weapon, he certainty was going to use his fists.

(28-10-2011 01:24 PM)A Cousin Wrote:  I think there was some symbolic intent involved with the killing of Ruth that, for me, was successfully executed. Much like The Saga of Lucas in years past, The Saga of Harry and Ruth had kind of taken on a life of it's own. The creators intentionally placed Harry & Ruth in the centre of this series for a reason. Much earlier in this thread, someone (I forget who) mentioned that 10.6 put a stake through the heart of Spooks. By having Sasha stab Ruth and put an end to the relationship of Harry and Ruth, the Producer proclaimed "heart of the programme," they put an end to the programme itself. The pain of losing this programme for us is almost as much as the pain of losing Ruth for Harry. For me, that is what is meant by a definitive ending for Spooks.

(28-10-2011 03:18 PM)Gillymac Wrote:  Additionally, I don't interpret it as "sad". There is tragedy in Ruth's death most certainly, but in the scenes leading up to her death we see Ruth forgive Harry, thus enabling him to forgive himself regarding the Elena mess. We see her offer him a way out if he wants it. However there is an important caveat to her offer. She says; "leave the service - WITH ME". Implicit in this of course is that she wouldn't want him to leave without her. So he honours her wishes after her death. Importantly, he does so with a clear concience. With her final words, she absolves him of any guilt he feels towards her. Someone on twitter called her "Ruth the Truth"- how appropriate. She says; "Harry, we were never meant to have any of those things." And they both know that's the truth.

Harry avenges her, pays tribute to her (and her fallen colleagues), then does what she would want him to do and go back to work. Those final seconds, while the phone rings, the look of doubt in his eyes, replaced with the ever familiar steely determination as he snatches up the receiver - Masterly, imperious, playing by Peter Firth. I'm in no doubt that Harry comes through his grief a stronger, better Section Chief, and I sleep soundly in my bed knowing that he is in charge.

(28-10-2011 03:18 PM)Gillymac Wrote:  ---Reality Check Time. Please Don't Shoot Me--

From a practical point of view, consider for a moment what would have happened if H&R had got their happy ending or if Ruth had lived (both of which were entirely possible, if not my personal preferred course of action)? The people on the forums now asking for an alternative ending, would be bombarding Kudos with requests for "spin off!" "more!". Looking at this from a purely business perspective it is my opinion that Kudos wanted to (maybe had to - money looked short this series) 'end' spooks - for the meantime anyway (and certainly in this incarnation), because, lets face it, the door hasn't been closed entirely shut. It is entirely possible that it was worth alienating that minority of fans (the loss in DVD sales, by my reckoning, won't bankrupt them) to be rid of it, and they never would have been without this particular course of action. They aren't going to base decisions on the wishes of maybe 100 viewers out of five and a half million. The hard fact of the matter is that that's not how the business works.