Series 9 Episode 1 discussion

[Nia M]

(20-09-2010 09:33 PM)Sniper Wrote:  Poisoning the old HS.

I was watching Harry very carefully to see if he drank from his glass, which I'm sure he did. But I didn't see him lace the HS's glass when he poisoned him. I'll watch it again on iPlayer tomorrow, but did anyone else get a good look?

Did Harry actually drink any from his own glass? If not, then my guess would be he poisoned the whole bottle (and then cleverly sealed it back up )

I am so sad to see Ros go, but even that wasn't going to stop me from enjoying this episode. What a start to a new series

Four minutes in, and we have a H/R proposal. WHOA. Did not see that coming. Fantastic acting from the pair of them there though, and also their scene at the end of the episode.

Nicholas Blake. Now that’s something I most certainly would never have guessed. (Did like his jumper though ) Poor poor Harry for not only losing Ros, but also finding out that his friend (well, as close as Harry gets to be friends with a politician) is responsible for Ros’ death, and then having to kill him... (that part where he can’t bear to watch and covers his eyes, then lifts his hand to wipe his tears, and then the shot of him stepping past Blake’s body – fantastic scene)

Was rather reminded when Harry was saying the assassination had to take place in international waters of 3.4 or 5 where Danny and Zoe are tasked with assassinating the scientist on that ship, but thankfully it didn’t feel like a repetition of that episode.

Also, noticed this from the beginning and was so grateful – steadycam!!!! Rewatching S8 has reminded me just how bad it got then, so this is such a welcome relief!

I must admit I was getting very worried that Talwar would end up being

Series S9 Spoiler: show

Malcolm

. That’s the other spoiler I’ve read, so my mind was just connecting the dots (all wrongly, thankfully!) and putting two and two together to make 6000.

The new HS. Not sure we really needed it to be a coalition government (unless that’s part of a plot for a later episode which I don’t know about). Okay, it’s topical, but to me that felt too much of a blatant attempt to keep things up-to-date. I did like the hints about the expenses scandal though.

I quite like Beth. I didn’t think I would, what with her being basically Ros’ replacement and all, but as a character and a Spook I quite like her.

Dimitri (spelling?) also I quite like. Having not known about him until watching I was worried when he was going to Lucas’ cabin that Lucas had been busted and was in trouble, so that was a pretty neat reveal. Also, having Dimitri’s legend as Captain and therefore superior to Lucas’ legend (despite the fact that Lucas is the more senior officer – I’m assuming by the way he was acting that he is the new Section Chief) was clever too, operational-wise. Plus, ‘He’s SBS. They fight sharks for fun’ -

Didn't realise he was supposed to be Greek though - I thought he was Russian.

Aww, Tariq’s back!! I know there was a fair bit of uncertainty a while back that he wasn’t being mentioned in cast lists / interviews so to see him again was another nice surprise. His taste in work attire has definitely improved And his new haircut too – can’t place how it’s different, but it looks nice!

‘So the country will have to struggle on without pornography and minesweeper for a couple of hours. Do it.’ | ‘This is my ‘I want some good news’ face’
- Harry, you legend.

Such an awful situation for Harry to be put in, especially after having said he was resigning because he didn’t want to make these decisions any more (his resignation by the way – OMG totally unexpected! But good for the HS for saying he’d ‘let it percolate for a few days’). But I did love the conversation between Harry and Ruth about this: ‘These are the choices I didn’t want to have to make anymore.’ | ‘These are the choices we need you to make.’

Ruth’s final answer. My shippy heart so wanted her to say yes, but actually I like what she said. It’s not realistic I don’t think for them to just drop everything and live normal lives in the middle of the countryside somewhere (although why them being married and staying in the service wasn’t considered is beyond me). When she said something like ‘We're more together now than we have ever been’, her words did ring true. Because look at them – they might not be together together, but they most certainly are close to one another.

Also, just a note, but I thought NW looked absolutely gorgeous in this episode! And I like Ruth’s new haircut

Wait, ‘John’????? *jawdrop*

As for next week’s episode...

Series 9.2 Spoiler: show

‘Late night tête-à- têtes’ -

And Beth looked rather dead there. Hope not – I quite like her. Looks like a good episode though!!