Series 9 Episode 3 discussion

[Aria]

The only frustrating thing for me in this ep was that Azis had a noticeable limp yet he kept escaping!!!

[SPOOK91]

The limp was rather laughable. Surely Dimitri, Lucas, Beth and Viktor would be able to catch up with a limping man with a huge rucsack.

I am loving the interplay between Harry and HS. Towers is a right piece of work, however he is the home secretary after all. Loved the interrogation scenes with Harry and Ruth, PF and NW work brilliantly together and it's good to see not just their romantic interaction but also just how good they both are when they are working as part of the team.

[khandy]

Well i thought the kiss was lovely I won't use the term snog it's horrid.

I thought this was the best episode so far.


I guesed as I'm sure everybody did that Lucas was going to be the MI5 observer at the begining. Loved his outrage at what the Russians did to the terrorists.

I loved this episode it was fast and furious with a good plot and great dialogue. Ruth's character has reallly changed she is much harder in this series. At times I thought Harry would start to pout. Loved their sort of childish behaviour you know little digs at each other.

That Home Secretary needs to be careful not to Rub Harry up the wrong way look what happened to the last one.

Still very little of Dimitri he is very peripheral at the moment.

Beth was great again this week

Loved Harry and Ruth interrogating Dr Kirby glad they are being given more to do that just stare longingly at each other.

I loved Lucas in this episode he was very much the leader and boy did he play that well. Strong and decisive. Loved his comment about telling the newbie how it is.

Oh how I wish Ruth and Harry would get on with it

Loved Lucas calling Vaughen's bluff

Lucas is the MI5 stud so TPB think he must have a love interest. He was a little economical with the truth wasn't he eight years in Prison what about the rest and the five years before prison.

Lovely kiss much better than with SC

[BoHenley]

(04-10-2010 09:30 PM)muppet Wrote:  Humph.... Friends turned up and talked through half of the episode. Grrr. Will have to re-watch now....

Don't open the door next time, Muppet! (How inconsiderate of them)

Can't wait to see this episode (thank you in advance to our faithful Spooks "downloaders" in The Grid).

[molecatcher]

Great stuff! It just gets better and better. I thought this week's episode was written briiliantly and even Beth became just a little more believable as a Spook. The drowning scenes were difficult to watch, quite traumatic in fact but at least it made Viktor's death acceptable, in fact I'd have shot him myself after what he did.

The bickering scenes between Harry and Ruth are, I'm sure, building up to fireworks but when Harry asked in desperation "What have I done?" and Ruth fired back "Now is not the time for self analysis" I laughed out loud. There's the poor man cracking up and that's all the support she can offer the love of her life. Come on Ruth, time to thaw out!

Lucas finally standing up to Vaughen showed he's starting to feel more confident about Harry's reaction to whatever happened in the past but I do wonder at his credibility when he appears unable or unwilling to avoid yet another complicated love interest.

All in all the whole hour was gripping and oh so clever as it continued the theme of lies and trust.

[Silktie]

I greatly enjoyed this one as well. Sure, the plot was very unbelievable with the FSB on the Grid, but hey, it's not the most farfetched thing this show has done, so I'm just going to go with it. Loved Viktor as the bad guy, he was evil with a twinkle in his eye. I especially enjoyed him sitting on the bath rim smoking after he'd killed the daughter.

My favourite scenes in this episode is between Harry and the HS. These two play off each other really well. The HS seems to have found his feet in his position rather quickly, and now wants to order Harry around. I love how Harry and the team played them all, and Harry just giving the HS the merest hint of what really happened at the end. It seems that the HS figured it out to, and now realises that it wasn't the great cock-up he believed it to be.

Lucas and Vaughn: If Lucas can intimidate Vaughn that easily, he doesn't appear to be the great menace they made him out to be at the beginning, does he? In that scene Lucas almost came across as the bigger bad guy. Now I'm beginning to wonder whether Lucas didn't play a bigger part in the bad thing they did than I originally thought.

Harry and Ruth are clearly still sorting out their "just work" relationship. Poor Harry is really struggling with that one, isn't he? I do think it's good to show that he can't just suppress what happened like he always does, it's an indication that he's human after all and was hurt by what happened. Lovely final scene between them, I thought. I think Ruth clearly picked up on his double meaning there.

(05-10-2010 07:03 AM)Deb p Wrote:  Hi,
My first post !

Why is Ruth keeping Harry at arms length ? She obviously has feelings for him but seems to be protecting him somehow. Does Ruth have a dark secret that will come out in time and is she protecting Harry for when that time comes ? Anyone else have thoughts on this ?

We have a Harry/Ruth thread in the Characters section where we debate these things at length, drop in there and join the discussion!

[Skully]

Wow, interesting responses. I feel like I watched a completely different episode. I thought the plot was unbelievable. I'm usually willing to go with whatever fanciful story Spooks spins, but not this time. The FSB on the Grid? For real? Hello? Episode 7.8!!! I wasn't as gripped by this ep as the others. Favourite moment was Harry and Ruth by the river.

[AnnMarie]

(04-10-2010 09:36 PM)redlyn Wrote:  As for Lucas, well they're not going to dump all the secrets on us at this early stage in the series. And he can whisper 'Close your eyes' to me any time!

Ditto. He can whisper anything he wants to me...oohhh black form fitting jeans sighting...thud.

Very exciting episode...action packed...including the "snog" (what a cute British saying) at the end. I also liked that he called Vaughan's bluff. However, have we figured out why Vaughan's file is so highly classified and how he got Lucas' mobile number?

---

One last comment for the night...
I can understand Lucas' desire to be involved with someone on a close, loving, personal relationship. Sarah...no way! After 8 years of hell, shouldn't he want and need to be close to someone just at a basic human level? One of Maslow's lower level in the hierarchy of needs. Also, what type of emotional stress can he be experiencing when Harry keeps sending him back to Russia or with Russian every chance he gets?

---

[Adam Carter]

As great of an episode as this was (and boy was it great), I still have to wonder:

Three episodes in, and we still know absolutely nothing about Dimitri. No personality. No backstory. Nothing.

[lwhite53]

I'm with Skully on this one -- the idea of an FSB agent on the grid (even such a thing being ordered by a British HS) is highly improbable, imo. Also, who in hell lets a foreign intelligence agent run about on their patch with a weapon? C'mon now!! (And as a total aside, Viktor was wearing kneepads under his costume in the final roof scene -- could clearly see their outline when he knelt down. The costume folks needed to give the guy looser trouser legs, for pity sake.)

Speaking of costumes, Ruth was in black again. That makes three eps now. What's that about?

Really liked the scenes with Harry and the HS -- sets up a clear power struggle between the two. The HS was positively rude to H: "I'm not interested in your old-fashioned beliefs. Either do the job or get out of the way and let someone do it for you." And the HS going directly to Ruth is certain to spell trouble for the man -- Harry could easily "dispose" of him without leaving a trace. Just ask Blake!

The H and R scenes were quite something -- more interaction between them in this ep than I can ever remember before. Harry was really shirty with Ruth at the beginning of the ep -- the whole "doubting my judgment," "I know you want to tell me 'I told you so,'" "I don't need you to fight my battles for me," "In future I'd appreciate" your not going behind my back," and "We are working together, this is what it looks like" shows a man deeply emotionally off balance. He's like a child who didn't get the toy and he wants her to know she's to blame. Although H has been wrong-footed by Ruth before, he's never carried their differences into the workplace.

I really loved the scene between them where he says, "It appears I've allowed us to be played by Moscow right from the start" and she decides it was "A mistake of judgment, maybe, but not of decency. Sometimes you have to do what's necessary, Harry." And immediately thereafter, they go together to lie to Kirby and get the location of the paroxocybin. At that moment, they reach some kind of a detente. And H's "Sometimes you have to give a man a chance, Ruth. To show you who he really is" was a heartbreaker.

Thought Beth was terrific in this ep -- first when she opened Azis' rucksack on the tube station (very gutsy) and then when she murdered Viktor without blinking. This is one tough lady!

And then there's Lucas who swore to Maya that he was going to tell her everything. Well, he told her that part of "everything" that we already know -- he was in prison for eight years. He conveniently forgot to tell her that he had been married and also left out the five years prior to his being locked away in Russia. So much for the truth. And, of course, he jumps into a relationship with her -- this plot line is getting to be very predictable and seriously boring.

Loved Viktor's line about the FSB having a ghost account at Clardige's -- nice touch!

Vaughan's "Albany" file -- will that turn out to be this season's thread??