Series 9 Episode 2 discussion

[RedShoesGirl]

there were some fundamental flaws with episode 2 that made no sense. first we see MI5 agents in the hotel, talking on phones or earpieces about the basic operation. all of those details would have been gone over in a pre-op briefing. niggly little thing but that bothered me.

i am not fond of the beth character. but then i didn't like ros either. when harry told lucas he had trusted ros implicitly, he seems to have forgotten she betrayed MI-5 with yalta. plus when we first saw her, she was involved in some national coup! i never figured out why she was allowed on board and given access to so many secrets. so it seemed weird they wouldn't trust beth after one mistake. well, i wouldn't have trusted her either, but then i would have never trusted ros!

the whole maya thing, as i said before, just came out of nowhere. this great love, but we never heard of her? so that aspect of episode 2 was flawed. there were also moments of dialogue that were just plain bad writing. i noticed it this evening when i was rewatching the episode but forgot to write a note to myself.

in the mansion, lucas pulls a sim card from a cell phone and replaces it with another. didn't anyone think that maybe the wife would notice the photos were all gone?

in the hotel at the beginning, a guard is scanning beth for electronic devices. but beth gives him a very sensual look. i just thought "what???." i noticed that the first time i watched the episode.

so these are all little things, but they add up.

i watched all the episodes of spooks in a fairly short span of time and many of them after the death of adam carter — a real hero — just all run together.

i do like the continuing pathos of harry and ruth even in such brief moments like on the phone at night.

series 9 didn't seem very well coordinated and this episode was part of the problem.

[HarryPearceSpy]

(27-05-2011 05:16 AM)RedShoesGirl Wrote:  there were some fundamental flaws with episode 2 that made no sense. first we see MI5 agents in the hotel, talking on phones or earpieces about the basic operation. all of those details would have been gone over in a pre-op briefing. niggly little thing but that bothered me.

i am not fond of the beth character. but then i didn't like ros either. when harry told lucas he had trusted ros implicitly, he seems to have forgotten she betrayed MI-5 with yalta. plus when we first saw her, she was involved in some national coup! i never figured out why she was allowed on board and given access to so many secrets. so it seemed weird they wouldn't trust beth after one mistake. well, i wouldn't have trusted her either, but then i would have never trusted ros!

the whole maya thing, as i said before, just came out of nowhere. this great love, but we never heard of her? so that aspect of episode 2 was flawed. there were also moments of dialogue that were just plain bad writing. i noticed it this evening when i was rewatching the episode but forgot to write a note to myself.

in the mansion, lucas pulls a sim card from a cell phone and replaces it with another. didn't anyone think that maybe the wife would notice the photos were all gone?

in the hotel at the beginning, a guard is scanning beth for electronic devices. but beth gives him a very sensual look. i just thought "what???." i noticed that the first time i watched the episode.

so these are all little things, but they add up.

i watched all the episodes of spooks in a fairly short span of time and many of them after the death of adam carter — a real hero — just all run together.

i do like the continuing pathos of harry and ruth even in such brief moments like on the phone at night.

series 9 didn't seem very well coordinated and this episode was part of the problem.

RSG- thank you for your thoughts! very detailed. I didn't notice all of the details you mentioned, but you make some very good points. The issue with the mics should have been mentioned before...its strange that they didn't do that before going in. I was also surprised at Harry not trusting Beth since as you said Ros made mistakes (really big ones) too...Maybe Harry is tired of mistakes? Maybe he just doesn't want a repeat of them...That's just my guess.

Yeah the plot about Maya is a bit weird...Lucas never mentioned before (he only thought about Elisabetha- sp? before but not Maya). Unless they do some kind of a "Jason Bourne memory loss" story ( ) I don't really see a plausible explanation for why Maya wasn't brought up until now.

You're right- the wife could have noticed that some of the data (like pics) were gone...that would have caused her and her husband to raise eyebrows and have suspicion on Lucas.

Thanks again for sharing and insight! And no worries- I'm having trouble trying to remember stuff from previous series. As I mentioned before, I watched 1-8 in about a year or so, so its hard to remember specific details of each ep. I bet it must have been fun for you to watch all the series in a short period of time though . Spooks is awesome.

[Silktie]

(27-05-2011 05:16 AM)RedShoesGirl Wrote:  in the mansion, lucas pulls a sim card from a cell phone and replaces it with another. didn't anyone think that maybe the wife would notice the photos were all gone?

Lucas did not replace her SIM card with another. He took out hers, copied everything on it with some device, and then put it back into her phone. So nothing was missing.

[RedShoesGirl]

(29-05-2011 06:58 AM)Silktie Wrote:  

(27-05-2011 05:16 AM)RedShoesGirl Wrote:  in the mansion, lucas pulls a sim card from a cell phone and replaces it with another. didn't anyone think that maybe the wife would notice the photos were all gone?

Lucas did not replace her SIM card with another. He took out hers, copied everything on it with some device, and then put it back into her phone. So nothing was missing.

ah ha! so that was what that thing was with his watch. i thought he just took the card and put it in the thing.

[A Cousin]

9.2 with Mr AC for (his) first time.

Before it started his biggest question for me was, Do we find out anything more about who Lucas is? My answer was that we get another piece to the puzzle but it is revealed in drips and drabs. He had nothing to say about Maya. I think right now he is just gathering the clues.

I also told him that it was a bit of a developmental episode for Beth, in particular. When she saved Harry, he said, "Well I guess she has redeemed herself."

Generally he thought it was a beautifully executed episode from a filming aspect but that the flashing of the Lucas, Beth, and Chapman title text was a bit heavy handed.

He liked how the plot changes direction on you a few times without warning. Esp. how they tell the viewer exactly what is going on in the very beginning, only to turn it around a couple of time, e.g. Westhouse gets wind of his assassination and hires Chapman to assassinate the assassin.

Liked the guest actors: James Faulkner and Nigel Lindsay. I really, really like Nigel Lindsay in particular. I think he does a really good job of playing his cards close to his chest, only revealing things when it is time to reveal them, switching gears in a dime and moving forward with complete conviction to every moment.

James Faulkner's role is a bit more subtle, but Mr AC loved the exchange Harry has with him in the Foxhills dining room.

He had something to say about the scene when Chapman has the gun in Beth's face demanding answers about her past, he noticed that it looked like they forgot their lines and jumped each others lines. He said that, even though you know it's not real, having any kind of weapon in your face is still pretty scary and can throw you off. I love that moment, because the acting feels very organic. Beth is very off-kilter and Chapman is completely in control of the exchange.