Episode 5.5 [Rewatch]

[Silktie]

Poor Ruth. Poor Harry. Ros sells out Ruth, and wonderfully evil Mace does the rest.

Watch and discuss.

[A Cousin]

This episode feels like a boulder rolling uncontrollably downhill with Harry and Ruth trying to outrun it. The boulder is veering one way and then another ready to smash Ruth or Harry depending on which direction it is veering. I love the pacing of it.

Zaf is precious. Adam is heroic. Roz is a bitch. Mace is slimy.

I really think that R&H don't actually completely realize (or at least fully acknowledge) the depth of their emotion for each other until the events of this episode. They are both taken off guard with what they themselves and the other is willing to do for the other. So by the time you get the the last scene on the dock, it's all the more heart wrenching. That is why she won't let him verbalize it, because the "something wonderful" has been fully defined for both of them but words would make it less.

I think my favorite line/bit is Ruth's line about playing Lady Macbeth. They can instill a bit of comedy into anything! Love seeing Ruth's brutal side.

[Tea Lady]

(12-09-2010 04:05 PM)A Cousin Wrote:  That is why she won't let him verbalize it, because the "something wonderful" has been fully defined for both of them but words would make it less.

Good comment A Cousin.

It's not until nearly half way through this episode, that Harry finally gets a handle on things and that's only because he is backed into a corner by Mace. It's unusual to see Harry so emotional on the Grid and also the rest of the team. Both Adam and Zaf can't bear the thought of Ruth suffering either.

I truly hate Ros here and it's watching this episode that makes me wonder why I ever liked her character. Quite why Harry doesnt smash Ros round the face, I don't know. She acts like Lady Muck throughout!

The way the lunch scene with Oliver is filmed, make it one of my favourites. Both actors were on top form.

The ending is so sad. You just feel that as a viewer, you have invested so much of yourself in these two, that you feel cheated. I remember watching it the first time and thinking, this is just for show, and they will bring Ruth back in an episode or two after they have cleared her name...

[Kazters]

thing is yes ros causes all of this, but she makes up for it in a way and i really think she spends the rest of every ep making it up to harry, especialy in s6

Spoiler: show

when she goes back to save him and ends up getting sort of killed herself

.

i love harry and ruth saying goodbye its just heartbreaking. Adam and Ruth have a very special relationship its very matey and even a bit like a brother and sister with the banter between them. this ep at times makes no sense to me, the evidence that she didnt do anything is there, but no one seems to want to see it.

i missed ruth when she wasnt there, she makes harry seem even better, he can bounce his theorys of her and she can make him take up leads that he wouldnt normaly do without her. that lacks when she isnt there. but everyone is no doubt how they feel about each other in this ep.

i especialy love Zaf and Ruth in this ep

[Silktie]

This episode is really good at ratcheting up the tension. You can just see the net being spun tighter and tighter around Ruth, and the options diminishing for Harry.

I bloody love the Harry/Mace scenes in this episode. Mace is such a wonderful bad guy, and his unscrupulous use of Ruth to get at Harry underlines how ruthless (ha!) he really is. What makes it more interesting, is that at the beginning of the episode Harry apparently still thinks he can persuade Mace to fight the good fight with him, not knowing that Mace was on the dark side from the beginning.

What also makes this episode interesting to me, is that we as an audience can see that if only one or two people made different decisions early on, the whole thing could have been avoided: if only Harry believed Ruth from the start that there was a drop, if only Jo didn't plant that tracker on Ruth and tell Ros about it, if only Ruth didn't go off to do her own investigation, if only Ros didn't try to get at Harry by shopping Ruth to Mace... The permutations are endless.

The Ruth/Harry stuff is wonderful, and truly touching. Harry is so gentle with her throughout this episode, even when he doesn't believe her about the drop. And the way he falls on his sword in an attempt to save her, is so sweet. Who would've though Harry Pearce had that in him? I love their goodbye too, it's not too melodramatic, and very understated, and yet the two actors manage to convey the absolute heartbreak of both these characters. Great stuff.

Ros, here, is probably at her most unlikeable for me. It's her attitude that irritates me more than the fact that she sells out Ruth. Her motivation is never to do the right thing, or because she truly believed Ruth was doing something wrong. She saw an opportunity to hurt Harry, to pay him back for the fact that he couldn't get her father's sentence reduced, and takes it. And when Adam confronts her on it, she continues to lie about why she did it. Then, even when she is forced to admit that Ruth is being set up, she continues with her snotty attitude towards Ruth, by refusing to apologise. And later, when Zaf refuses to tell her where Ruth is, she is snotty about that too. It's her complete unwillingness to accept responsibility for her actions that I loathe most of all.

I do love that Ruth gets a little shirty with her when Ros tells her she never apologises, with her "But if you did" response. It's the closest we've ever seen Ruth come to telling someone off.

I think RPJ did a great job with portraying Adam's PTSD in this episode, and you can tell throughout that he's never really at his best here. Would he have been able to save Ruth if he'd been on top form? Another for the 'if only' pile.

[Kazters]

you are very correct there especialy about adam, and that does leave you thinking if he had been on form would she have been ok!

As for Ros she never appologises it isnt in her nature but she does soften to ruth its evident when she gows to ruths house and they swap clothes.

Also there relationship is an odd one at the best of times even

Spoiler: show

ruth comes back in s8

[JHyde]

There's a lot to say about this episode and I'll save it for later, but it has one of the all time greatest scenes of the show in it, between Harry and Mace in the club (although the scene is broken up). A bit of Harry in the field thrown in for good measure, he just steamrolls right over Mace.

TMcI and PF are just so great in it and the whole episode, it was a wonderful last episode for Mace as well as for Ruth. It's not something that gets talked about - this being Mace's last episode - mostly because Ruth's leaving (rightly) takes precedence. But Mace was one of the best secondary characters on the show in its whole run, I feel, and Tim McInnerny is superb in every episode he's in. Because Mace is not clearly either a bad guy or a good guy, he was also one of the most interesting. The show was less for losing Mace.

[xxgaylexx]

i love how nobody even comes close to being a match to harry and his wise words and i really like the way that as cheesy as it is his and ruths love comes out on top in the end. obviously they cant be together at the end of the ep but harry doesnt let anyone come between them really. love him!

[Kirayuki]

I really, really love this episode. Makes me both very happy and a very sad at the same time. Definately still one of my all time favourites.

[Onion Terror]

Have to say that this is still one of my favourite episodes. At the time I was still fairly new to Spooks (I'd seen a bit of series 3 but missed all of S4 due to evening shifts at work), but I remember being gutted at Ruth's exit. For me this episode shows really well the whole teams solidarity (with the exception of Ros), particularly the scene where Ruth and Zaf are waiting for the boat and Zaf promises to give her a smile if he ever bumps into her again. You can tell that he and Adam respect Ruth even more than they did before for the courage she shows in giving up her old life for the greater good. As do we as viewers.
As much as he is completely self-interested and unpleasant, I think Oliver Mace was a terrific character-a great sparring partner for Harry. Would enjoy seeing him return at some point.